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⇱ Analyze Sage Intacct Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

Analyze Sage Intacct Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to create an OData API on top of Sage Intacct data and visualize Sage Intacct data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. CData Connect AI creates a pure, cloud-to-cloud connection to Sage Intacct and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Analytics Cloud) for Sage Intacct. By pairing SAP Analytics Cloud with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI as you would any other OData service and get instant, consolidated access to all of your data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to Sage Intacct from SAP Analytics Cloud (through CData Connect AI) to create a model and build a simple dashboard.

About Sage Intacct Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Sage Intact. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Access Sage Intacct without worrying about API updates or changes.
  • Access custom objects and fields in Sage Intacct with no extra configuration steps involved.
  • Write data back to Sage Intacct using embedded Web Services credentials with Basic authentication.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to perform functional operations like approving or declining vendors, inserting engagements, and creating or deleting custom objects or fields.

Users frequently integrate Sage Intact with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses.

To learn about how other customers are using CData's Sage Intacct solutions, check out our blog: Drivers in Focus: Accounting Connectivity.


Getting Started


Connect to Sage Intacct from SAP Analytics Cloud

To work with live Sage Intacct data in SAP Analytics Cloud, we need to connect to Sage Intacct from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Sage Intacct data.

Connect to Sage Intacct from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Sage Intacct" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Sage Intacct.

    To connect using the Login method, the following connection properties are required: User, Password, CompanyId, SenderId and SenderPassword.

    User, Password, and CompanyId are the credentials for the account you wish to connect to.

    SenderId and SenderPassword are the Web Services credentials assigned to you by Sage Intacct.

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Sage Intacct Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure Sage Intacct Endpoints for SAP Analytics Cloud

After connecting to Sage Intacct, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

  1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
    👁 Adding a new Workspace.
  2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
  3. Select the Sage Intacct connection (e.g. SageIntacct1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
  5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Sage Intacct data from SAP Analytics Cloud.

Create a Model of Sage Intacct Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the connection to Sage Intacct configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for Sage Intacct data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

  1. Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
  2. Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
  3. Choose an existing connection to your Connect AI OData or Create a new one:
    • Set Connection Name
    • Set Data Service URL to the Base URL for your OData API: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
    • Set Authentication Type to Basic Authentication
    • Set User Name to the Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
    👁 Creating a new OData Services Connection
  4. Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
  5. Name the Execute, select an OData endpoint (like Customer) and click Next 👁 Choosing a Connect AI OData endpoint to query
  6. Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create 👁 Selecting fields (columns) from the OData endpoint
  7. At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
  8. Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model 👁 Finalizing the model
  9. Name your model and click OK

Build a Dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the model created, you are ready to create a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud based on Sage Intacct data.

  1. From the menu, click Create -> Story
  2. Click on SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
  3. Choose a layout and click Apply
  4. From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart) 👁 Inserting a visualization
  5. Select a model to visualize
  6. Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
  7. Save the store 👁 Saving the Story

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Sage Intacct data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Sage Intacct (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Sage Intacct data in SAP Analytics Cloud.