Frequently Asked Questions

Rapid BI Catalog is an enterprise governance platform purpose-built for Tableau environments. It connects directly to your Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud to deliver instant impact analysis, visual data lineage, and automated documentation — reducing thousands of hours of manual work to seconds.

Unlike generic data catalog tools that take months to implement, Rapid BI Catalog is focused specifically on BI governance and can be deployed in days.

Rapid BI Catalog is built for enterprise data teams, BI developers, data governance professionals, and IT leaders responsible for Tableau environments. Typical users include:

• Data Governance Leaders who need audit-ready documentation and compliance reporting
• BI Developers & Analysts who need to understand impact before making changes
• Data Engineers who need to trace lineage from source to dashboard
• IT Directors & CIOs who need visibility into their BI environment

Rapid BI Catalog supports both Tableau Server (on-premise) and Tableau Cloud (Salesforce-hosted). Both environments are included in every pricing tier at no extra cost. You can also upload local Tableau files directly for processing.

Based on industry benchmarks, teams using Rapid BI Catalog save an estimated 5,500+ hours annually — approximately 5,000 hours on impact analysis and 500 hours on documentation. That's the equivalent capacity to build 137+ new dashboards each year with the time freed up.

Visit our ROI Calculator on the homepage to see projected savings for your specific environment.

RapidDox is our desktop application designed for individual BI developers. It processes one Tableau or Power BI file at a time, generating detailed documentation for individual workbooks.

Rapid BI Catalog is our enterprise platform. It connects directly to your Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud for batch processing across your entire environment. It provides visual data lineage, impact analysis, and automated documentation at scale — capabilities that aren't possible with file-by-file processing.

If you're an individual developer documenting files one at a time, RapidDox is the right tool. If you're managing a Tableau environment and need governance, lineage, and impact analysis across hundreds or thousands of workbooks, Rapid BI Catalog is built for you.

Impact analysis shows you exactly which dashboard objects will be affected when an upstream data source, table, or column changes. Rapid BI Catalog traces the full dependency chain across your Tableau environment, identifying affected objects including:

• Calculated Fields
• Groups
• Sets
• Hierarchies
• Parameters
• Bins
• Filters (data source, dashboard, and worksheet level)
• Worksheets and Visualizations
• Dashboards and Stories
• Data Sources and Connections

Instead of manually tracing dependencies across hundreds of workbooks, Rapid BI Catalog maps the entire dependency chain in seconds. This means you can answer questions like "If I rename this database column, which calculated fields, filters, and dashboards will break?" before making any changes — preventing downtime and broken reports.

Rapid BI Catalog provides multiple levels of lineage depending on your tier:

• Workbook-level lineage (all tiers) — See how workbooks connect to data sources and to each other
• Object-level lineage (Professional & Enterprise) — Trace lineage down to individual workbook objects including data source tables and fields, calculated fields, parameters, sets, groups, hierarchies, bins, and filters
• Cross-workbook dependency mapping (Professional & Enterprise) — Understand shared data sources and how changes in one workbook can cascade to others

Rapid BI Catalog generates comprehensive documentation covering workbook metadata, dashboard details, worksheet field inventories, data source configurations, calculated fields with full formulas, parameters, filters, table relationships, and more — with 40+ customizable sections.

You can include, exclude, and reorder any section to match your organization's documentation standards. Documentation can be exported in Word, Excel, PDF, HTML, and CSV formats.

Yes. The Professional and Enterprise tiers include automated scheduled documentation. You can configure documentation to regenerate on a schedule (daily, weekly, or custom intervals) — ensuring your documentation is always current without any manual intervention.

The Enterprise tier also supports bulk processing of your entire Tableau environment in a single run.

The metadata insights dashboard gives you a bird's-eye view of your Tableau environment. You can view and download metadata for all your dashboards, workbooks, and data sources — including ownership, usage patterns, data source details, and more. It's available on all tiers and helps identify unused assets and optimization opportunities.

We're actively developing several new capabilities:

• SharePoint publishing — Publish documentation directly to SharePoint (Professional & Enterprise)
• Confluence publishing — Publish documentation directly to Confluence (Professional & Enterprise)
• Embedded documentation viewer — View documentation directly in the Rapid BI Catalog UI (Enterprise)
• REST API access — Integrate impact analysis into your CI/CD pipelines and workflows (Enterprise)
• ITSM integration — Connect with Jira and ServiceNow for change management (Enterprise)

Contact us for the latest roadmap updates.

Rapid BI Catalog offers three tiers based on the number of published workbooks in your Tableau environment:

• Starter — Up to 250 published workbooks at $10,000/year
• Professional — Up to 1,000 published workbooks (request a quote)
• Enterprise — Unlimited published workbooks (request a quote)

Visit our Pricing page for a full feature comparison across tiers.

Yes. Every tier includes a 15-day free trial with no credit card required. You get full access to all features in your selected tier so you can evaluate the product with your actual Tableau environment before committing.

All plans are billed annually. We offer flexible payment options to accommodate different organizational requirements:

• Credit card — Pay online via major credit cards
• Bank transfer / ACH — Direct bank transfers for organizations that prefer electronic payments
• Wire transfer — Available for domestic and international payments
• Purchase order (PO) — We accept purchase orders for enterprise and government buyers
• NET 30 terms — Available for qualifying organizations

Contact us to discuss the payment option that works best for your organization.

A published workbook is any workbook that has been published to your Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud environment. This matches Tableau's own terminology — you can check your current count directly in your Tableau Server admin panel. It's a clear, unambiguous metric with no room for interpretation.

Rapid BI Catalog includes three user roles:

• Admin — Manages settings, users, and server connections
• Power User — Full access to all features including triggering processing and configuring output
• Read Only — Can view lineage, impact analysis, and metadata; download documentation; but cannot trigger processing

The number of users per role varies by tier — see our Pricing page for details. Enterprise customers can also create custom roles tailored to their organizational needs, giving full flexibility over who can access, process, and manage content.

Government agencies: We offer tailored pricing with procurement-friendly contract terms, on-premise deployment, and compliance reporting. Request a quote for details.

Nonprofit organizations: Verified 501(c)(3) nonprofits receive a 50% discount on any pricing tier.

Consulting firms: We offer partner licensing for firms delivering governance services to their clients. Request a quote to learn more.

Rapid BI Catalog supports on-premise and private cloud deployment across all tiers. The application is installed within your own infrastructure, ensuring your metadata and documentation never leave your network. This is ideal for regulated industries including finance, healthcare, and government.

No. Because Rapid BI Catalog deploys within your infrastructure, your Tableau metadata stays entirely within your network. The application connects to your Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud using your existing credentials and processes everything locally. No data is sent to external servers.

Rapid BI Catalog uses a relational database to store extracted metadata and configuration. Supported databases depend on your tier:

• Starter — SQL Server
• Professional & Enterprise — SQL Server, MySQL, or PostgreSQL

You provide the database; Rapid BI Catalog creates and manages the required schema automatically.

All tiers include local user authorization with role-based access (Admin, Power User, Read Only). The Enterprise tier adds SSO / SAML integration for single sign-on with your identity provider, plus granular role-based access control for fine-tuned permissions.

Audit logs are included with every tier, tracking who ran what analysis and when.

If your server and database are ready, Rapid BI Catalog can be installed, configured, and fully operational in less than a day. Unlike enterprise data catalog platforms that require 6+ months of implementation and professional services, our focused approach means you connect to your Tableau environment and start generating insights almost immediately.

Click "Start Free Trial" on our website or visit our Contact page. No credit card is required. You'll get full access to your selected tier for 15 days to evaluate the product with your actual Tableau environment.

To get started, you'll need:

• A Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud environment with published workbooks
• Tableau Server admin or site admin credentials for the initial connection
• A supported database for metadata storage (SQL Server, MySQL, or PostgreSQL depending on tier)
• A server or virtual machine to host the Rapid BI Catalog application

Yes. All tiers support uploading local Tableau files directly for processing and documentation generation. This is useful for testing, for workbooks not yet published, or for environments where server connectivity isn't immediately available.

All tiers include email support to help with setup and configuration. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding with hands-on assistance from our team to ensure a smooth deployment and rapid time-to-value.

• Starter — Email support
• Professional — Priority email support with faster response times
• Enterprise — Dedicated onboarding, SLA-backed support with guaranteed response times, and a dedicated customer success contact

Visit our Contact page for questions about features, deployment, or partnerships. For pricing inquiries, use our Request a Quote form and we'll get back to you within one business day.

Yes. Comprehensive product documentation covering installation, configuration, features, and best practices is available upon request. Contact us for access. Enterprise customers also receive custom documentation tailored to their deployment.

Absolutely. We offer a full product demonstration video that walks through all major capabilities including impact analysis, lineage visualization, and automated documentation. Visit our homepage to access the demo, or contact us for a personalized walkthrough of your specific use case.