With Wdata, you can connect data from various sources and slice-and-dice it as necessary for analysis and reporting in the Workiva platform. To track and present profit or loss for a given period, you can connect data about your general ledger accounts to create a statement of earnings or earnings report.
Step 1. Export data from your sources
Before you can get your data into Wdata, you have to first get it out of your systems of record. One of the easiest ways is to simply export it as comma-separated values (CSV) files. For a statement of earnings, you'll likely need two different files:
- A trial balance of general ledger accounts, including the accounting period, entity ID, account number, and period change of each.
- An account mapping, including the names, numbers, and groups of your financial accounts.
Tip: Rather than export from your system of record, you can also build chains to automatically pull data directly from solutions into a table.
Step 2. Add the data to tables
To get the data into Wdata, create a table based on each CSV file. To create a table, click Create, and select Table, upload the CSV, and set up its columns' names, IDs, and data types.
- For the trial balance, select a Table Type of Fact, since its data will continue to grow based on future activity.
- For the account mapping, select a Table Type of Dimension, since it contains relational data.
Step 3. Query on the data
To slice-and-dice the data and analyze the transactions across your account mappings, create a query using the tables as sources.
- On the Fields tab, choose which columns from the tables to include in the query results. For example, for a statement of earnings:
- From the trial balance, include the accounting period, year, quarter, entity ID, and period change columns.
- From the account mapping, include the account name and group columns.
- To set the time period to analyze each time you run the query, create two filters based on the accounting period column on the Filters tab, and create a parameter for each one's value—one for Start date, the other End date.
- To combine the data from the two tables, on the Relationships tab, move the account number column from each table and join the tables to include all data from the trial balance and only the account number from the mapping.
Step 4. Connect the query to a spreadsheet
To propagate the data throughout the Workiva platform, in Spreadsheets, open the sheet to connect to the query, and connect the query from the Wdata Connections right panel. After you connect the query to a sheet, you can link its data to documents and presentations, such as the statement of earnings. To update this data with the latest results, refresh the query from the spreadsheet's Wdata Connections right panel.