Faria Support & Services
🖥️ Demo & Sandbox Accounts
A safe space to explore, train and test, without touching your live school data.
What is a sandbox account?
A demo or sandbox is a working Faria account (ManageBac+, Atlas, OpenApply or SchoolsBuddy) that sits completely separate from your live school account. It looks and behaves like the real thing, but nothing you do in it affects your real school data.
Faria offers two kinds of account, and it is worth knowing which one fits your needs before requesting.
Demo vs Custom Sandbox?
We recommend starting with our public demo accounts.
Access is free, available right away and built for exactly the kind of exploring, training and testing most schools need. Only move on to a private custom sandbox if you have a specific requirement the demo account cannot meet, such as your own data or a longer workflow review.
| Public shared demo account | Private custom sandbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Open to all schools, general shared login | Paid service, or included with Premium support |
| Data | Pre-loaded dummy data that resets or is cleaned at certain intervals | Can be populated with some data on request |
| New features | First place new features are released, with exemplar data to help you understand the feature | Follows your product's normal release schedule, no data populated |
| Functionality | Extended demo-only features: switch between user perspectives, hotlinks straight to specific screens for live demo navigation, safe to "break" things | Functions exactly like your real school domain |
| Restrictions | No real data, no API links, no bulk import and similar higher-risk features are disabled | No settings or data can be copied back to your real account. It is a testing playground only |
| Best suited to | Quick exploring, training sessions, parent and student demos, trying new modules | Longer, personalised training where you do not want any impact on your real account, or testing new workflows and procedures before implementing them in your live account |
🌐 Access shared demo accounts
Use the links below to open each product's public demo account.
Need login details? Request your demo account credentials through your School Experience Manager, or reach out to the relevant support desk.
🔧 Private Custom Sandbox
Why schools use a sandbox
| Use case | How a sandbox helps |
|---|---|
| Staff training | Let new or existing staff practise real workflows without risk of breaking live records. |
| Parent and student sessions | Run information sessions where attendees can click around freely. |
| Trying new modules | Explore features or modules you have not yet subscribed to. |
| Planning a launch | Trial run a rollout or change in process before it goes live with real users. |
| Testing workflows | Check how a new process, form or setting will behave before applying it live. |
How to request one
A private custom sandbox is available as a paid Custom Sandbox Service, or included on request with a FariaSupport Premium Plan.
When you get in touch, outline your requirement, for example testing integrations, internal staff training or experimenting with different school workflows, and we will work with you to build the relevant account.
Custom builds typically take two to four weeks, depending on scope.
✅ Best practices
Getting started
| Do | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Use made-up names, emails and details for any test students, parents or staff. | Copying in real student, parent or staff records or contact details. |
| Agree who on your team owns the sandbox and keeps it tidy. | Leaving it open to anyone with no one responsible for upkeep. |
| Set a rough end date or review point when you request it. | Treating it as a permanent second system. |
While you are using it
| Do | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Keep the sandbox for training, testing and demos only. | Using it to store or manage anything you rely on day to day. |
| Reset or clear test data regularly, especially after a training session. | Letting test data build up untouched for months. |
| Keep the sandbox and your live account clearly separate in how staff refer to them. | Letting staff get confused about which system they are working in. |
⚠️ A word of caution. A sandbox is not connected to your live account and is not kept in sync with it. Real integrations (payment providers, communication tools, single sign-on) should never be permanently linked to a sandbox. Records created in a sandbox, such as a parent linked to a child, exist only there and will not match your live data. Treat anything built in a sandbox as disposable.
Closing out or switching to live
| Do | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Ask Faria Support to archive or clear the sandbox once it has served its purpose. | Assuming it clears itself, or leaving it live with no plan for it. |
| Double check with your team that no one is still relying on sandbox data. | Switching to the live account while staff still have the sandbox open in another tab. |
| Raise a request early if you want a fresh sandbox for a future project. | Reusing an old, cluttered sandbox for a new purpose without a reset. |
🎓 Need help?
Contact your School Experience Manager, or reach out to Faria Support through the Service Hub to request, reset or discuss a sandbox account.