Workday Studio / BIRT PDF Issue: Invoice file size too large when workers attach receipt images
Hi everyone,
I’m troubleshooting an issue with invoice PDFs generated through a Workday Studio integration, and I’m looking for ideas or best practices.
We have a scenario where workers attach receipts to expense reports, especially photos of receipts. When those receipts are included in the generated invoice PDF, the final file size becomes too large to send by email or upload to a customer portal.
The invoice itself is expected to be a single complete PDF, but in some cases the file ends up around 25–30 MB. Email delivery fails due to size limits, and the customer portal also has a file size limit. Manually compressing or splitting the PDF is not a good long-term solution because the customer needs the complete invoice in one file.
A few things I’ve noticed:
- The issue seems tied mainly to image-based receipt attachments.
- Printing/regenerating the PDF sometimes only includes the first few pages of attachments.
- The integration appears to collect invoice/attachment content, generate a PDF, and then send or store it.
- I’m trying to determine whether the best fix should happen in Workday, BIRT, Studio, or somewhere in the PDF-generation/attachment-handling step.
Has anyone dealt with this before?
Possible options I’m considering:
- Compressing image attachments before they are embedded into the final PDF.
- Reducing image resolution/DPI for receipt images.
- Compressing the final generated PDF before sending/uploading.
- Changing the integration logic so attachments are handled separately or linked instead of fully embedded.
- Updating the BIRT/Studio process to optimize the PDF output.
I’d appreciate any guidance on where this is usually handled in a Workday Studio/BIRT setup, and whether there is a recommended way to compress or optimize receipt images before they inflate the final PDF size.
Thanks in advance.