Your organisation's sandbox

A sandbox is a copy of your organisation's configuration with none of its people or records. It has its own address and shows a SANDBOX banner on every screen, so you can rehearse a round, train staff or test an integration without touching anything real. It sends no email: messages are kept in its Email logs as Captured — not sent.

You need the Can access Organisation settings permission. The sandbox is on the Sandbox tab of Settings > Profile and terms.

Create a sandbox

1. Go to Settings > Profile and terms and select the Sandbox tab.
2. Select Create sandbox.

The sandbox is made at once and filled with a copy of your settings, terminology, brand, registration types, forms, rounds (as drafts), email templates, reminders and Admin Groups. No applications, applicants, assessments, decisions, payments, files or audit entries are copied. The tab lists each step as it finishes and shows Ready when the copy is done; you can leave the page while it runs.

An organisation has one sandbox at a time. If one already exists you see This Organisation already has a sandbox. Open it, refresh it or delete it instead.

Open the sandbox

Select Open sandbox. The sandbox opens in the same browser tab, on its own address. The first time you open it you are given a membership of the sandbox with the same roles and Admin Groups you hold in your live organisation. Other Administrators with the same permission open it the same way; nobody can be invited into a sandbox.

To test as an applicant, sign up on the sandbox's address. A sandbox holds at most 20 people and takes files of up to 50 MB.

Refresh from live

Refreshing deletes everything in the sandbox — test applications, test applicants and every change made there — and puts a fresh copy of your live configuration in its place on the same address.

1. Select Refresh from live.
2. Type your organisation's name exactly as it is written, capitals and spaces included.
3. Select Refresh from live. The button is unavailable until the name matches.

If the copy stops before it finishes, the tab shows Not finished with the reason. Select Refresh from live to start it again, or delete the sandbox.

Delete the sandbox

1. Select Delete sandbox.
2. Select Delete sandbox again to confirm.

The sandbox closes at once and nobody can sign in to it. Everything in it is deleted within 24 hours. Your live organisation is not changed, and you can create a new sandbox afterwards.

Unused sandboxes are deleted

A sandbox nobody opens for 90 days is deleted. The tab shows the date under Deleted if not used by. Fourteen days before, every Administrator who can manage the sandbox is emailed, and the tab says when it will be deleted. Opening the sandbox before then starts the 90 days again.