Data Catalog

What Is a Data Catalog?

A Data Catalog is a comprehensive inventory of all the data in your organization. Go Fig’s Data Catalog automatically documents your connected data sources, tables, fields, and metrics—making it easy to find and understand the data you need.

Think of it as a searchable library for your data:

• What data exists across all your systems
• What each field means in business terms
• Where data comes from (lineage)
• How data is used in reports and workflows
• Who owns and maintains each data source

Why Do You Need a Data Catalog?

Common Data Discovery Problems

“Where is that data?” Finance needs customer lifetime value, but nobody knows which system is the source of truth.

“What does this field mean?” A column called “amt_adj_net” exists in the database, but what does it actually represent?

“Can I trust this data?” Is this data current? Complete? Accurate? Who’s responsible for it?

“How was this metric calculated?” The dashboard shows “Gross Margin” but the definition isn’t documented anywhere.

How the Data Catalog Solves This

Go Fig’s Data Catalog provides:

• Search: Find data by business term, not technical name
• Documentation: Plain-English descriptions of every field
• Lineage: See where data comes from and how it flows
• Quality indicators: Know if data is fresh, complete, and validated
• Ownership: Clear accountability for data accuracy

Data Catalog Features

Automatic Discovery

When you connect a new data source to Go Fig, the Data Catalog automatically:

• Inventories all tables and fields
• Profiles data types and distributions
• Identifies relationships between tables
• Suggests business-friendly names
• Flags potential data quality issues

AI-Powered Documentation

Celeste helps document your data:

• Generates descriptions based on field names and sample values
• Suggests business definitions based on context
• Identifies similar fields across sources
• Flags undocumented or ambiguous data

Search and Discovery

Find data using natural language:

“Where is customer revenue stored?” “What fields contain shipping information?” “Show me all date fields in the orders table”

Data Lineage

Visualize how data flows through your organization:

• Source systems → Go Fig → Semantic Layer → Reports
• See transformations applied at each step
• Understand impact of upstream changes
• Debug data issues by tracing back to source

Data Quality Scores

Each field and table shows quality indicators:

• Freshness: When was data last updated?
• Completeness: What percentage of values are populated?
• Validity: Do values conform to expected formats?
• Consistency: Are values consistent across related fields?

Using the Data Catalog

For Business Users

Search for the data you need in plain English. The catalog shows:

• What the data means
• Where to find it (which reports, dashboards)
• Who to contact with questions
• How fresh and reliable the data is

For Finance Teams

• Discover available metrics for analysis
• Understand calculation methodologies
• Verify data sources for audit purposes
• Request new metrics or data elements

For Data Governance

• Assign data owners and stewards
• Define data quality standards
• Track compliance with policies
• Manage access permissions

Data Catalog vs. Spreadsheet Documentation

Aspect	Spreadsheet Docs	Go Fig Data Catalog
Completeness	Often incomplete	Auto-discovered
Accuracy	Quickly outdated	Always current
Search	Manual lookup	Natural language
Lineage	Not tracked	Automatic
Quality metrics	Manual checks	Real-time scores
Maintenance	High effort	Self-maintaining

Getting Started

The Data Catalog automatically builds as you connect data sources to Go Fig. Within hours of connecting a new source, it’s fully inventoried and ready for discovery.

Our implementation team helps add business context—reviewing auto-generated documentation and enriching it with your organization’s terminology and definitions.