Linking Dimensions From Data Sources

Last updated on 2025-03-03

Overview

Often, you will import data broken down into dimensions — for example, employee data from your Payroll/HRIS system, or department expenses in Accounting/ERP systems.

When you link a data item that has dimensions to a variable, xP&A will not breakdown the variable until you link an xP&A dimension to the dimension in the data source explicitly.

You can link a dimension either from a model or from a data source.

Once a dimension of a data source is linked to a dimension in xP&A:

  • The dimension items will be kept in sync automatically whenever you refresh your data source:
    • If you add new items in the data source, they will be added to the xP&A dimension as well.
    • If you remove items in the data source, they will not be removed - they will just be unlinked in xP&A.
    • You can also see a full history of your data/dimension syncronization in the data sync history.
  • Any dimension items coming from your data source are "linked". You can change the name of the dimension item in xP&A, and the link will not be broken.
  • A linked dimension item is displayed with the  icon:
Shows an example of linked dimensions that which is signalized by a hamburger icon Symbol for linked dimensions

This article contains the following sections:

Linking Dimensions From a Model

To link a dimension to a data source from a model:

  1. Navigate to the variable in your model for which you want to link the dimensions to the data source. The variable must be linked to integrated data.
  2. Click the Dimensions button.
  3. Select the dimension you want to link.
    This will automatically create the dimension in xP&A, and link it to the data source connected to this variable.
Shows the configuration field to link dimensions of a variable to a data source when clicking on the 'Dimensions' button of a variable Linking a dimension to a data source from a model
Linking Dimensions from a Data Source

To link a dimension of a data source to a dimension in xP&A from a data source:

  1. Open the Data workspace and click on the data source for which you want to link the dimensions. 
  2. Open the Dimensions tab.
  3. Assign the dimensions of the data source to the dimensions in xP&A. You can switch the dimensions by opening the dropdown menu of the respective dimension field.
Shows the configuration field to link categories of a data source to categories in xP&A when opening the 'Categories' tab of a data source. Linking a category to a category in xP&A from a data source