Understand the Data area

The Data area follows the journey from a delivery to analysis-ready information.

Follow the data journey#

1. Data sources shows where recurring data comes from and whether it is arriving.
2. Received files keeps files as they arrived, with previews, schemas, and processing history.
3. Import rules applies repeatable rules that turn matching files into structured rows, and lets you inspect what each import brought in.
4. Entity Hub keeps shared business records such as products, brands, retailers, and competitors consistent.
5. Warehouse shows the analytics-ready tables and measures available to Tasks.

Use the earlier stage when you are diagnosing a delivery problem. Use the later stage when you are checking whether a measure or entity is ready for analysis.

Inspect an import#

Open Import rules, choose an import rule, and expand an attempt under Import activity. Select View imported data to see its destination tables and the rows recorded for that attempt.

1. Select a table to browse, search, choose columns or download its matching rows as CSV.
2. Check Not imported for excluded records and their recorded reasons. Shared records such as products and customers appear separately from table rows.
3. Select a source-record number to see linked output. Original values are available only when Signal retained enough information to verify them.
4. Open Original file to preview or download the file used by that attempt. Large files may be available to download without a preview.

This view shows the values retained with that import. Later imports and matching changes may alter the current table, which you can open separately. Older imports may have incomplete history; the view explains what is unavailable.

Clear the review queue#

Needs review contains governed Entity Hub proposals, such as initial setup, agent-authored changes, and duplicates. Routine import matching runs automatically. Files needing classification or required details remain under Received files with Your input needed.

All members can open the item and understand what is waiting. Decisions that can change shared data require workspace administrator permission.

Do not approve a change only to clear the queue. Confirm the source, grain, field meanings, and expected row count first.

Inspect the Warehouse#

The Warehouse area explains what modelled data is available for analysis. Use it to check:

• Which tables and business measures exist.
• The fields and types in a table.
• When data was last refreshed.
• Whether a result is based on raw, cleaned, or modelled information.

If a Task cannot answer a question, compare its requested scope with the data actually available. A connected file is not necessarily analysis-ready until its import and modelled outputs have completed.

Ask better data questions#

When asking about data, include:

• The business measure, such as net sales, units, margin, distribution, or spend.
• The grain, such as day, week, store, SKU, retailer, or market.
• The period and required comparison.
• The expected source or provider.
• Whether the issue is missing delivery, failed processing, or an unexpected result.

See Connect data for uploads and sources, and Use Entity Hub for shared business records.