Summary

Your deadline is fast approaching, you just received the general ledger from your client, and you need to run your analysis ASAP. But the ledger's data is not in one of the ingestible formats. How do you get the data into a format that MindBridge can use?

When you submit a data formatting request, it is sent to our data team. Depending on the complexity of your request and other requests in front of yours in the queue, it can take between 1-4 business days to complete your request.

Learn how to request assistance with data formatting from MindBridge.

Configuration

Ensure the following steps have been completed.

1. Create an organization
2. Create an engagement
3. Create an analysis
4. Import all unformatted data files into the file manager

Submit a data formatting request

If your data needs to be formatted, you can grant Customer Support access to your engagement so they can dig into the issue. This option allows for a secure transfer of data and hands-on support.

1. Navigate to the Data Page within your engagement.
2. Open the MindBridge sidebar and expand the Support section.
3. Select Raise a ticket*.
4. A pop-up window appears.
5. Describe the issue you are facing or indicate what formatting needs to be done.
6. Check the box to grant the MindBridge team access to the engagement.
7. When you are satisfied, select Submit.

What to include in a data formatting request

When adding comments to your ticket, be sure to include the following:

• Indicate that you require data formatting support and help us decipher your general ledger file. If it is difficult for someone completely unfamiliar with your client to figure out,

  • Indicate which columns need to be mapped, especially required columns like account number, amount, date, transaction ID.

  • Indicate which columns are needed and which can be dropped, especially if the files are large. This will also help reduce the amount of time to run the analysis.

  • Try to get an export with an accurate header row. If your ERP system exports files without headers but provides a different file indicating which column is what, please include that file as well.
  • Select the correct ERP (or financial management system) in the engagement settings before submitting the ticket. Having the correct ERP information helps us quickly format your data and will also help us develop tools to format your future data more efficiently.

• If you tried importing the file and got an error, indicate this in the ticket and copy over the details of the error into the ticket.

• For general ledger formatting, specify what the account number should look like. For example which column contains the correct account number or specify any modifications that must be applied (for example, "extract the last 6 digits of the account number, remove dashes").
• Indicate if multiple files or Excel worksheets within a workbook need to be combined in addition to other formatting (i.e., the merge tool is not sufficient):
  • Before combining, each file must contain the same columns in the same order. Differences will dramatically slow down the process, as Customer Support would attempt to match up columns manually, often making best guesses.
  • If possible, please indicate which columns in one set of files should match up with those of the others. If you know which columns correspond with each other and need to be kept, share the mappings in the ticket.
  • If possible, send the files together, once you are reasonably sure they are the final version you want to use. Sending multiple revisions will slow down the process.
• If the client changed ERP systems in the middle of the year, it might be impossible to get data with uniform headers.

  • If possible, ask your client to export the data with uniform headers.

  • If not, consider running separate analyses on the general ledgers from the different ERPs to get more meaningful results, as well as save time.

Example comments

1. “I need GLFileA.csv which contains multiple sheets, combined into a single sheet and have imported as one complete general ledger file. Finally, I need my OpeningBalance.csv to be formatted so MindBridge can ingest it. Thank you very much!”
2. “I need GLFileA.csv combined with GLFileB.csv to have uploaded as one complete general ledger file. Please let me know where I should be importing the files to be combined and imported into the tool. Thank you very much!”

Once your data formatting support request has been submitted, you will see a notification confirming that you granted MindBridge access to the engagement. You will also receive an email notification.

The Customer Support team will reach out to arrange the data exchange process.

Anything else on your mind? Chat with us or submit a request for further assistance.