# How Sigma works

Learn what you can do with Sigma.

Sigma 中的可用数据是只读的。查询不能修改现有数据或创建新交易。

[Sigma](https://dashboard.stripe.com/sigma/queries) provides an interactive SQL environment in the Stripe Dashboard for querying your transactional data. Use Sigma to create custom financial reports for accounting and reconciliation, build reports from pre-configured templates, and track key metrics. All data is read-only and includes information about payments, subscriptions, customers, payouts, and so on.

## Try Sigma for free in sandboxes 

Sigma is free to use in [sandboxes](https://docs.stripe.com/sandboxes.md), with no usage limits. You can run unlimited queries against your test data at no cost. Activities in sandboxes don’t count toward your charge-based entitlement and don’t incur any fees. Use sandboxes to explore Sigma’s capabilities before committing to a paid plan.

## Create a custom report 

Reports give you the data required for your accounting and reconciliation workflows. To create a report, query the assistant or write your own report with SQL. The reports you generate can differ from those you generate in the Stripe Dashboard in the following ways:

- **数据可用性：**对于财务报告，您可以通过选择**本月至今**或打开日期选择器日历来查找可用数据的最近日期。在 Sigma 中，`data_load_time` 参数提供数据可用期间的时间戳。

- \**时区：**Stripe 管理平台中的财务报告默认按当地时区筛选报告，但您可以切换为使用 UTC 时区。Sigma 按 UTC 时区筛选模板。

- \**日期范围：**为 Stripe 管理平台财务报告选择的日期范围，例如 1 月 13 日至 1 月 14 日，会筛选从 1 月 13 日 00:00:00 到 1 月 14 日 23:59:59 的报告。为 Sigma 模板选择的 1 月 13 日至 1 月 14 日的日期范围筛选会筛选从 1 月 13 日 00:00:00 到 1 月 13 日 23:59:59 的报告。

- \**货币：**Stripe 管理平台中的财务报告始终以单一货币筛选数据。默认情况下，Sigma 报告模板返回所有货币。您可以向 Sigma 查询中添加一个 `WHERE` 子句，将结果限制为单一货币。

- \**元数据：**财务报告允许您包含元数据。Sigma 模板不包含元数据。您可以按照 `Metadata to column` 模板将元数据添加到您的报告中。

Reports follow the same availability rules as the Stripe Dashboard. Payout Reconciliation reports are only available for users with the **Automatic payouts** setting enabled, and Connect variants of reports are only available for users on [Stripe Connect](https://docs.stripe.com/connect.md).

### Report templates 

You can also create a report using a [template](https://docs.stripe.com/data/write-queries.md#templates). By default, these reports run on the last completed month that all data is available for. To change the dates, make a copy of the template and edit the report date intervals. Use the listed templates to generate their related reports and their connected variants:

| Report group                                  | Sigma template name                          | API report type                           |
| --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| **Balance report**                            | Itemized balance change from activity report | `balance_change_from_activity.itemized.3` |
| Itemized payouts                              | `payouts.itemized.3`                         |
| **Payout reconciliation report**              | Detailed payout reconciliation               | `payout_reconciliation.itemized.5`        |
| Itemized ending balance reconciliation report | `ending_balance_reconciliation.itemized.4`   |

## Create and manage metrics 

Create metrics from your Sigma reports and organize them in [metric groups](https://dashboard.stripe.com/custom-metrics) to monitor your most important metrics daily. Edit the [Sigma chart](https://docs.stripe.com/data/write-queries.md#view-download-query-results) on your metric to customize the metric preview. Metric groups that don’t have a chart enabled display the number of rows in the report.
![演示 Sigma 自定义报告组](https://b.stripecdn.com/docs-statics-srv/assets/custom-reports.537d49b1fa1765a58d7237cf251d4a01.png)

您在所有指标组中最多可以添加总共 20 个 Sigma 报告。只有指标组的作者可以编辑或删除该指标组。删除指标组不会影响该组中的报告。

## Unsubscribing from Sigma 

如果您当前有有效的 Sigma 订阅并且想要取消它，请前往您的 [Sigma 设置](https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/sigma)并点击**取消 Stripe Sigma 订阅**。您可以继续使用 Sigma，直到计费周期结束，此时订阅会结束。

## See also

- [Query transaction data](https://docs.stripe.com/data/query-transactions.md)
- [Query Billing data](https://docs.stripe.com/data/query-billing-data.md)
- [Query connected account data](https://docs.stripe.com/data/query-connect-data.md)
- [Query all fees data](https://docs.stripe.com/data/query-all-fees-data.md)