Diligent Platform Overview

Overview

Diligent is a financial and transactional data management and reporting platform that brings together data from different sources into a structured model called a cube. 

Cubes allow you to: 

• Work directly in Excel through the Diligent add-in

• Feed data into Power BI dashboards for advanced reporting

Users can work with cubes directly in Excel using the Diligent add-in or connect them to Power BI dashboards for more advanced reporting.

Diligent is especially helpful for:

• Consolidating data across deals, portfolio companies, ERPs, or business units

• Standardizing reporting through consistent scenarios (Actuals, TTM, YTD)

• Reducing manual work in Excel by automating refreshes and keeping formatting intact

• Enabling analysis at multiple levels — from raw transaction data to consolidated financials

With this foundation, Diligent allows teams to move quickly from data ingestion to analysis, ensuring reporting is accurate, repeatable, and scalable.

Switching Between Projects

Projects are the top-level containers for your work in Diligent. Depending on your use case, a project might represent a deal, portfolio company, or business unit.

When entering Diligent:

• The system automatically selects a project for you based on your most recent activity

• You can confirm the active project at the top-left of the screen

• To switch projects, select Choose another project and pin the one you want to work on

• If you don’t see a project you expect, contact your Blue Ops project working group for access

From the project selector view, you can:

• See a list of all projects you have access to

• Check each project’s status (Active or Inactive)

• Review details such as last edited date and created date

• Create a new project with the + New Project button

Project Management

The Project Management section is where you make project-level changes. It includes two main tabs:

Scenarios

Scenarios represent the different financial or operational views within a project — for example, Actuals, YTD, or TTM (Trailing Twelve Months).

• Actuals are automatically created based on the calendar you chose when setting up the project (e.g., Calendar vs. Fiscal year) and the data loaded into cubes.

• You can create as many custom scenarios as needed, such as a current-year TTM and a prior-year TTM for comparison.

• Scenarios created in this section automatically become available across all cubes within the project after a refresh.

• Common use cases include creating a YTD view (e.g., through September 2025) and prior-year TTM to enable side-by-side comparisons

Members

The Members tab is available if you have permissions to manage users. Here, administrators can:

• Add or remove project members

• Assign roles to control who can view or edit project settings and cubes

• Adjust permissions so admins can manage projects, users, and cubes, while members can access them without structural editing rights

Cube Management

The Cube Management section is where the bulk of work in Diligent happens. This is where you create new cubes or update existing ones. Cubes can power Excel analysis through the Diligent add-in and also feed into Power BI dashboards.

Each cube is a structured data model that powers your reporting. Cubes:

• Organize and standardize raw data from files or ERPs

• Support mappings, consolidations, and calculations

• Feed outputs to Excel and Power BI

The Cube Management homepage provides a visual card view of all cubes in your project. Each cube card shows:

• Files – The source files or tables driving the cube

• Mapping – Whether tables and accounts are correctly assigned

• Calculations – Any configured calculated fields or measures

• Configuration – Key setup items such as primary date, primary revenue field, and numeric field designations

Status indicators on cube cards help you understand cube readiness:

• ✅ Check marks – The step is complete

• 👍 Yellow thumbs up – The step is optional; the cube can still be used without it

• ❗ Red exclamation marks – The step needs attention before features will work properly

You can also:

• Filter cubes by type:

  • Base cubes – Raw data sets, usually tied directly to uploaded files

  • Consolidated cubes – Combine multiple base cubes into a higher-level reporting view

  • All – Displays every cube in the project

• See cube health at a glance (complete vs. incomplete configuration)

• Create a new cube with the + Create New Cube button

Within each cube, you’ll find detailed tabs to refine your setup:

• Source – Load or replace files, delete periods of data, or download a sample extract for review

• Mapping – Clean, group, and categorize fields (e.g., fixing inconsistent customer names, grouping SKUs into product categories)

• Configuration – Set data types, define the primary date, and designate the revenue column to ensure accurate counts and calculations

• Calculations – Add arithmetic-based measures such as gross profit, gross margin %, or average ticket size. For advanced logic, Blue Ops can provide additional support

Always remember: after making any change in Cube Management, you must process cube data so the updates flow into Excel.

Support

The Support tab gives you direct access to resources and help when you need it. From here you can:

• Submit a Request – Send an issue or question directly to our support staff. A ticket is created and tracked until resolved.

• Resource Center and Help Center – Browse how-to articles, troubleshooting guides, release notes, and training resources without leaving Diligent.

This ensures you can get quick answers or escalate issues without breaking your workflow.

Wrapping Up

Diligent is organized around three main layers:

• Projects – The highest-level container, often representing a deal, portfolio company, ERP, or business unit.

• Project Management – Where you define scenarios (Actuals, YTD, TTM) and manage who has access.

• Cube Management – Where you create, configure, and maintain data cubes that power reporting in Excel and Power BI.

• Support – Where you can get help, submit a request, and access the Resource Center and Help Center.

Related and Next Up

• Before this: What is Diligent?
• Next article: Logging in and Accessing Diligent
• Also helpful: Creating a New Project

The Diligent homepage gives you a direct path from top-level project setup down to detailed cube configuration. By understanding where to find and manage Projects, Scenarios, Members, and Cubes, you’ll be ready to dive deeper into loading data, configuring mappings, and building reports.