Ontology
Knowledge is where your workspace keeps what the business means. Its tabs are Sources, Ontology, Metrics, Glossary, Review and Evals. Everyone can read Sources, Ontology and Glossary; Metrics and Evals are for workspace admins, and Review for analysts and admins.
Ontology is a picture of the business objects your data holds, such as accounts, opportunities or invoices. Answer setup builds it from your connected sources; the data owner settles what the data cannot. Every member can read it, and nobody edits it here: admins make decisions on Metrics.
What you see
The summary line counts the business objects and the systems they are in, how many are held in more than one system, the links between them and the definitions on them.
Switch between two views:
- List groups business objects into Held in more than one system (setup matched the records across systems by a shared id, and one system answers about them) and Held in one system. Each card shows its Systems, how well Records match across them, how its numbers Reads as (for example a snapshot table, or values that do not simply add up), the System of record and its Definitions. Use the filter to find one by name, table or definition.
- Map draws every business object and the ones its records link to, colored by system. Below the map, the links are also listed as a table.
A lock with Each person sees only their own rows marks a table with row-level access: each person's answers count only the rows they may see, so their totals can be smaller than a colleague's.
System of record reads Not decided yet until an owner chooses which system answers; until then, each answer says which system it used.
A business object's page
Select a business object to open its page (Back to Ontology returns to the list). It has these sections:
| Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Where the records live | Each system and table that holds the records, the record count and the record id. Copies that answers never use are listed separately. |
| How records match across systems | Setup looked up a sample of one system's ids in the other. Records whose ids are found are the same records. |
| Which system answers | The system answers use when more than one holds the records. Admins see Change it on Metrics or Decide on Metrics. |
| Related business objects | Links setup proved from matching values, declared keys, Salesforce lookups and your team's queries. |
| Hierarchy | Records that point at a parent record of the same kind. |
| Dates and time | Whether the table is a snapshot, keeps past values, and whether the fiscal year differs from the calendar year. |
| Definitions | How each business measure on these records is calculated, how it adds up, and whether the data owner reviewed it. Admins see Open in Metrics. |
| Value lists | Business groups of a field's stored values, such as which job titles count as executives. |
Each definition carries a trust label, the same one answers show. See Ask.