The Report Performance Log provides insights into report execution bottlenecks. A high "Top Level Filter Time" indicates that the report is spending significant time applying filters to the primary business object of the data source. The most efficient way to filter data in Workday is by using the built-in prompts on the data source itself. These prompts are applied at the database level, reducing the volume of data that the report engine must process before applying any top-level filters. By converting a top-level filter to an equivalent built-in data source prompt, you are filtering the data at the earliest and most performant stage, which directly reduces the Top Level Filter Time.

A. Use subfilters instead of filters: Subfilters are applied after the primary data set is retrieved and filtered. This would not reduce the Top Level Filter Time and could worsen overall performance.

C. Use a different data source: While this might be a solution in some cases, it is a drastic measure and not the direct, recommended action for optimizing an existing filter's performance.

D. Use calculated fields instead of filters: Using calculated fields within filters generally decreases performance, as the calculation must be evaluated for each instance, which is less efficient than filtering on an indexed, direct field.

1. Workday Community Documentation; Report Writer Reference Guide: The guide emphasizes performance best practices

stating that data source prompts are the most efficient filtering mechanism. It explains that prompts are applied at the data retrieval stage

minimizing the data set that the report's processing engine needs to handle. (Reference: Report Writer Guide

Section: "Optimizing Report Performance"

Subsection: "Use Prompts Instead of Filters").

2. Workday Community Documentation; Reporting Performance and Optimization: This documentation details the order of operations in report execution. It clarifies that data source prompts are resolved first

followed by top-level filters

and then subfilters. To address a high "Top Level Filter Time

" the recommendation is to shift the filtering logic "up" in the execution order

which means moving from a filter to a prompt. (Reference: Reporting Performance and Optimization

Section: "Understanding the Report Performance Log").