Get Started With Data Foundation
This walkthrough takes you from a new project to a loaded, checked model that reports, metrics and AI assistants read, and then hands it over. It follows the eight items on the Setup checklist of the project’s Foundation tab, plus one step to name things the way your business does. Each step links to the part of Data Foundation: The Common Finance Model that covers it in full.
Before You Start
Section titled “Before You Start”- You need to be able to create projects, and for a shared project, to be its Architect.
- Have the credentials for each ERP you want to connect. If you don’t hold them, the Foundation tab writes an access request for your ERP administrator. See Connect Your ERP.
- Decide which template fits. Enterprise Profitability builds the profit and loss and margin bridges. Cost to Serve adds the cost of serving each customer. Operational Transfer Pricing tests each entity’s profit against your policy ranges. All three read the same Common Finance Model. See Build on the Model With a Template.
Which Systems Can Feed the Model
Section titled “Which Systems Can Feed the Model”Data Foundation reads from every system below directly through its PlaidCloud connection, and you can combine several systems, and several instances of each, in one project. Each page below is for the administrator who grants the access, and matches the access request the Foundation tab writes. The Data Foundation Coverage Matrix shows which datasets each system supplies directly.
Walk Through the Setup Checklist
Section titled “Walk Through the Setup Checklist”-
Create the project. In Analyze, open Projects and click New Project. Under Start from, choose a template. To try the model before you connect anything, tick Start with sample data: the project runs a first Load straight away and the Foundation tab shows a complete example. To reuse a model you or a colleague saved, choose From a template file…. See Save as My Template.
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Connect your data. On the Foundation tab, pick an existing connection or create one, click Test connection, tick the entities to load, set Months of history and click Connect. To bring in another system or another instance, repeat this and tick Add this as another source instead of replacing the current one. Add a file for data outside your ERPs. See Connect Your ERP and Sources.
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Load your data. Click Load. It conforms every source into the model, translates it into your reporting currency and checks it. What to do next lists what needs your attention, most important first. See Load Your Data.
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Answer the questions the load raises. Where sources use the same code for different things, Codes waiting for your answer asks whether they mean the same. Where two sources cover the same months, Choose which source counts from when. Click Apply changes to rebuild without pulling from the ERPs again. Instead of answering one by one, you can ask the assistant to propose answers. See Map Codes Across Sources and Resolve Open Questions With Ask.
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Check that totals tie out. The Readiness grid shows one row per entity, period and check. A figure you doubt can be opened with Explain this number, which splits it into what the ledger holds, what was allocated in and out, and what was eliminated in the group. See Readiness Checks and Explain a Number.
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Review your hierarchies. Click Open hierarchies, check the Entity, Account and Department hierarchies, then tick I have reviewed them. See Hierarchies.
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Name things the way your business does. Under Business names, give categories, P&L lines, metrics and columns the names your business uses. Reports, metrics and the assistant show them. See Business Names. If the model’s cost spreading doesn’t match how you work, change it in Actions > Allocations…. See Allocation Rules.
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Keep it current. Once a load succeeds, click Refresh nightly. Optionally set up a Board Pack, which writes an Excel workbook and a PDF of the profit and loss dashboard to a folder you choose, on demand or on a schedule you give its workflow.
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Share, document and hand over. Share the project with your team, click Download evidence pack for a record of what was loaded and how it ties out, and, if you set the project up for a client, make their owner an Architect and then remove yourself. See Hand the Project Over.
What You Have at the End
Section titled “What You Have at the End”- A Common Finance Model with one chart of accounts, one set of entities and one reporting currency, and a management group profit and loss with intercompany eliminated.
- A model, metrics and an analysis path your team and the assistant can ask questions of.
- A nightly refresh that also makes your board pack, if you set one up.
- An evidence pack and a project your client’s owner administers.