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Troubleshoot issues

Fixing Tableau connection problems with Tallyfy Analytics

Tableau connects to Tallyfy Analytics data through Amazon Athena using JDBC. When that connection breaks, here’s how to diagnose and fix it.

Use the right credentials

Tallyfy provides two credential sets when Analytics is activated. Using the wrong one is the most common connection failure.

Credential typeUse forCommon problem
IAM Username/PasswordAWS web console access onlyCauses “security token invalid” errors in Tableau
Access Key/Secret KeyTableau and all BI tool connectionsMore reliable - use this one

Authentication errors

If you see “The security token included in the request is invalid”:

  1. Confirm you’re using the Access Key/Secret Key pair - not your IAM console login
  2. Check that your credentials haven’t been rotated or expired
  3. Verify the region setting matches your Athena endpoint (e.g., us-east-1)

Missing or broken data source

When Tableau can’t find a previously working data source:

  1. Open the Tableau workbook showing the disconnected data source

    Tableau troubleshooting steps configuration screen

  2. Select Show Details when prompted about the missing data source to see the specific error

    Tableau troubleshooting steps configuration screen

  3. Click Yes when asked if you want to reconnect

    Tableau troubleshooting steps configuration screen

  4. Select Edit Connection to update your settings

    Tableau troubleshooting steps configuration screen

  5. Re-enter your Access Key, Secret Access Key, S3 staging directory, and region

  6. A successful connection will refresh your dashboard with current data

Connection that can’t be edited

If Edit Connection is grayed out or unresponsive, remove and recreate the connection:

  1. Delete the existing data connection from your workbook
  2. Add a new connection to Amazon Athena
  3. Enter all connection parameters - Access Key, Secret Access Key, Athena endpoint, port 443, S3 staging directory, and region
  4. Select your database and reconnect to your data tables

Date fields showing wrong types

Tallyfy stores timestamps in Y-m-d H:i:s format. After reconnecting, date fields like due_by and completed_on sometimes lose their type mapping.

  1. Go to the Data Source tab and find your date fields
  2. Right-click each date field and select Change Data Type > Date & Time
  3. Verify that date-based filters and calculations work correctly

Sharing workbooks securely

When sharing Tableau workbooks that connect to Tallyfy Analytics:

  1. Use Tableau’s Extract feature to create a local snapshot of the data - this avoids sharing credentials
  2. For ongoing access, use Published Data Sources in Tableau Server/Online
  3. If sharing live connections, make sure recipients have their own Tallyfy Analytics credentials
  4. Never embed your Access Key or Secret Access Key in shared workbooks

Preventing connection issues

  • Keep Tableau Desktop and JDBC drivers up to date
  • Run Test Connection after driver updates or credential changes
  • Store your connection settings (endpoint, region, S3 staging directory) in a secure location
  • Create data extracts as backups for critical dashboards
  • Schedule regular extract refreshes in Tableau Server/Online

Still stuck? Contact Tallyfy Support with the exact error message and a screenshot - that speeds up troubleshooting.

Tableau > Connecting Tableau to analytics data

Tallyfy Analytics connects to Tableau Desktop through Amazon Athena in about 15 minutes by installing a JDBC driver and using Access Key credentials to query workflow data including process durations and task completion rates and form field answers for building visual dashboards.

Powerbi > Connect Power BI

Tallyfy Analytics lets you connect Power BI to your workflow data through Amazon Athena using an ODBC driver in about 15 minutes and then build interactive dashboards from per-process Parquet files and member tables while using Access Key authentication (not IAM credentials) pointed at the us-west-2 region.

Analytics > Tableau

Tableau plugs directly into Tallyfy Analytics through Amazon Athena so teams can build interactive dashboards and spot workflow bottlenecks and track SLA compliance and analyze form data without writing code or depending on IT.

Looker > Connecting Looker to analytics data

Looker connects to Tallyfy’s workflow analytics data through Amazon Athena in about 15-20 minutes by installing a JDBC driver (for self-hosted instances) and configuring an Athena connection with AWS Access Key credentials to query Parquet-formatted process and task data stored in S3 and then build LookML models and dashboards for tracking process durations and team performance and SLA compliance.
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