What Tableau Data Sources are available to me?

For more details regarding the data sources' contents, usage, and update schedules, click here.

• Active Student contains personal and academic data for any student enrolled or eligible to enroll as of today's date. It reports current, next, and second-upcoming term data, such as enrollment appointment times and assigned advisor(s).

• Class Schedule contains data pertinent to the term-by-term class schedules, such as day/time, location, instructor, prerequisites, class credit, seat reserve, textbook, and fee information. In addition to generating a class schedule report, it can produce course listings, room usage reports, final exam details, lists of classes for the school by instructor, etc.
• Class Enrollment and Grades contains information to review students' class enrollment information, academic information, performance indicators, assigned advisors, and class instructors for students enrolled in a selected term.
• Graduation contains students' awarded degree information, as well as demographic and graduation GPA data. This data source contains the most recent census data for degrees. The Graduation source supports reporting on graduation rates, average time to graduate, GPA average and median for conferred degrees, graduation population demographics, etc.
• Retention and Graduation provides information on the academic persistence of students enrolled on the fall term census date of September 28. It can be used to track retention and graduation rates for different populations, including numbers by campus, school and various demographic metrics and Pell Eligibility.
• Student Enrollment contains personal, academic, advisor, and tuition data for any student enrolled for the specific term within a snapshot. It could be used to trend in-state and out-of-state student enrollment and tuition dollars over the years, broken down by demographics and academic information.
• Student Enrollment and Tuition Forecasts contains student enrollment, tuition, and credits, as well as budgets (forecasts). The data is budgeted for school, career level, load, residency, and tuition attributes.

For more details regarding the data sources' contents, usage, and update schedules, click here.

• HR Analytics contains data pertinent to your roster of employees, including demographic and employment details. This is the data source used in the HR Analytics enterprise dashboard.

For more details regarding the data sources' contents and usage, click here.

• GL Transactions + Encumbrance contains GL transaction-level detail, including encumbrances from PantherExpress purchase orders and the PBCS forecasting applications (Operating Funds Forecasting and Grants Forecasting). Data is updated nightly from transactions posted to the general ledger and imported from PantherExpress and PBCS.
  • This data source should be used when transaction details are required and/or transaction totals by a range of months are needed. It cannot be used for monthly budget balances as Budgets are posted in PRISM to specific periods. For operating accounts, the budgets typically follow the Fiscal Year. The initial budget is loaded to July in October and BMRs can happen throughout the year. For Sponsored projects, the budget initial budget is loaded when the project is activated and BMRs can happen throughout. This source can be used to find budget transactions but should not be used for budget balances.
  • Encumbrances are always rolled forward and will be shown in the current GL period. A separate data source is in development to provide detailed encumbrance information.
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

• GL Monthly + Encumbrance contains the monthly snapshots of aggregate general ledger information, including encumbrances from PantherExpress purchase orders and the PBCS forecasting applications (Operating Funds Forecasting and Grants Forecasting). The PantherExpress and PBCS encumbrance snapshots began in December 2024. Data is updated nightly from transactions posted to the general ledger however the final month total is not complete until the month-end close process as completed. The month-end closes is typically finalized in PRISM on the 4th business day of the new month. Additional information on the PRISM month-end close can be found on the Controllers Office site.
  • This data source should be used to find account and budget balances at the end of each GL period. Fiscal Year to Date (FYTD) and Project Year to Date (PYTD) represent separate aggregate measures and should not be summed together. Fiscal Year to Date (FYTD) tracks all relevant financial activity from the beginning of the fiscal year up to the current date. Project Year to Date (PYTD) aggregates financial activity from the start of the project to the current date (which could span multiple fiscal years). Since each is already a cumulative total based on different time frames and scopes, adding them would result in double-counting or misrepresenting the financial data.
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

• GL Labor Transactions contains the detailed labor distribution transaction information from payroll records. Labor distribution is posted within PRISM as part of the GL month-end close process and thus information is only available after the month-end close process has completed. The month-end closes is typically finalized in PRISM on the 4th business day of the new month. Additional information on the PRISM month-end close can be found on the Controllers Office site.
  • When using this data source, keep in mind that payroll activity can be posted to GL during the month and will appear in the compensation subcodes (5xxx). The example is adjustments and hourly employees. However, fringe benefits are not calculated until the month-end close, as well as the employee detail as noted above. Additionally, adjustments and regular pay are two distinct fields, and both should be reviewed when assessing account activity.
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

• Labor SPAR Period contains detailed SPAR information for employees on the monthly payroll (those whose distributions are processed via a SPAR record). SPAR distribution percentages can be changed in PRISM after the period has closed until the SPAR period has been certified.
  • There are three SPAR periods per calendar year, each are four months long: JAN-APR, MAY-AUG, SEP-DEC.
  • The new SPAR period is generated after the prior period is closed. The closing process can take several days and thus the new SPAR period is not typically available for the first six business days of the new period. Employees will have a period without an active SPAR. These periods are the first days in January, May and September. Projected distribution information is also included when the forecasting applications have been used to create employee encumbrances.
  • Data from the PBCS applications (Grants Forecasting and Operating Funds Forecasting) is imported daily.
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

• Labor TEAM Hourly contains detailed current TEAM task information for hourly employees (employees on a bi-weekly payroll). Account distribution percentages and rates are maintained in the Pitt Worx TEAM form. 
  • An hourly employee can be assigned more than one task.  A task is typically their primary job in which they log hours worked on a weekly time card.  When hours are logged and approved for the task, the labor distribution process will charge the active distribution percentage and hourly rate for the task. 
  • Once labor is charged, changes for paid hours must be processed through a journal entry. 
  • The task's effective dates and percentages can be changed at any time. Unlike SPAR, labor distribution adjustments are not automatically created and thus, historical information is not available as it may not reflect the actual labor distribution charges to the task/rate/account.
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

• Labor PBCS Detail contains detailed employee compensation encumbrances from the enterprise forecasting applications: Operating Funds Forecasting and Grants Forecasting.  The applications are built on the Oracle EPM platform, formerly PBCS (Planning Budgeting and Cloud Solution). These applications allow designated financial users to centrally manage budgets, track expenses, and provide compensation and non-compensation forecasting for all entities.
  • PRISM and Pitt Worx data is loaded daily to allow ongoing budget maintenance. For more information, please visit PBCS Service KB
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

• Purchase Order Detail contains detailed purchase order information for POs created as of April 2019 in PantherExpress. The information includes invoice transactions matched to the PO and calculated encumbrances from open purchase orders. Encumbrances are calculated as (Quantity Ordered - Quantity Billed - Quantity Canceled) * Unit Price. For more information on managing PantherExpress PO encumbrances, please visit Managing PO Changes and Encumbrances.

  • Data from PantherExpress is imported daily into PRISM from the previous day’s activity based on the vendor setup. Transactions are then processed in PRISM and set to the University data warehouse. Thus, it will take two business days for information to be available.
  • See the GL Data Dictionary for specific field information and guidance.

Several sample workbooks have been created and are available for users to review.  As we received feedback, additional samples may be added to assist users in ad hoc reporting. The samples are located in the *Financial folder here.  The data source can also be found in the *Financial folder here.

Additional enterprise financial data sources are planned for FY26.

Custom Data Sources - When using Tableau Desktop, users have the option to connect to their own data sources, such as an Excel file or an Access database.  Information from Tableau on supported connectors can be found here.  Users may also connect to their own database. Additional information can be found here.