Linking categories to data sources

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

When you link a data item that has categories to a variable, Causal will not breakdown the variable until you link a Causal category to the data source explicitly.

You can either do this:

• From a model: by clicking on the Categories button on a data-connected variable and adding/selecting a category to breakdown by. This will automatically create the category in Causal, and link it to the data source.

• From a data source: by first adding a data source that has categories. Then, on the data homepage of your Causal account, open the data source, and navigate to the Categories tab. This will open an interface where you can link to an existing Causal category, or link to a new Causal category.

Once a data source is linked to a category

• The category 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 Causal category as well. If you remove items in the data source, they will not be removed - they will just be unlocked in Causal.
  • You can also see a full history of your data <> category sync in the data sync history - see more here.
• Any category items coming from your data source are "linked". You can change the name of the category item in Causal, and the link will not be broken.