Practice company — learn on sample data

The practice company is a separate company filled with a sample business — customers, suppliers, products, stock, sales, purchases and payments already in place. Use it to learn, to follow the lessons and videos, and to train your staff without touching your real books. Nothing you do there moves into your own company, and nothing from your company moves into it.

Retail, wholesale and service businesses practise on Brightline Mobile & Electronics, a phone and electronics distributor with a shop and a repair desk. Hotels practise on Lagoonside Hotel.

Before you start

• You need a cloud workspace (a free trial or a paid subscription). The practice company is not offered on a company's own server.
• Anyone who can sign in to your company can open the practice company. Only the Administrator, or someone with the Organization settings right, can reset it.

Steps

Open the practice company

1. Click your name at the top right, then Open practice company. (You can also use the Open practice company button on Getting started or in the Help Center.)
2. The very first time, the practice company is prepared for you. This takes about a minute; a window shows what is happening. Keep it open.
3. The practice company opens in the same window and you are signed in as yourself.

Know where you are

• Every screen of the practice company has a violet banner that says PRACTICE COMPANY — sample data, not your books, and a violet frame round the window. If you do not see the banner, you are in your real company.

Go back to your company

1. Click Back to my company in the violet banner (or in the menu under your name).
2. Your own company opens again.

Reset the practice company

1. In your own company, go to Getting started → More about it, or open the page Practice company (/setup/practice-company).
2. Click Reset practice company, then Yes, reset it.
3. Wait for The practice company is back to its sample data. Everything anyone did in the practice company is removed. Your own company is not touched.

Tips

• Sign in directly. The practice company has its own address — your company's address with -practice added (for example acme-practice). You can sign in there with your usual user name and password.
• Train your staff here. Everyone in your company can open it with their own sign-in, and in the practice company everyone can use every screen, so staff can try things they cannot do in your real company.
• The dates are current. When the practice company is prepared, its sample transactions are moved up to the present, so "this month" and ageing reports show something useful.
• Follow a lesson, then do it for real. Try a task in the practice company, then go back to your company and do it with your own data.

Common problems

• "Open practice company" is missing from the menu → the practice company is only offered in cloud workspaces, and only once the sample data is available on your server. The Practice company page says why.
• "Your workspace is paused" → the practice company is available while your trial or subscription is active. Renew to use it again.
• A payment, payment-gateway or subscription action says "This is the practice company" → real payments, payment-gateway set-up, backups and subscription changes are switched off in the practice company on purpose. Do them in your own company.
• No email or text message arrived → the practice company never sends emails or text messages (receipts, statements, reminders, the Daily Report), so sample customers are never contacted. The screen still behaves as if it sent them.
• "This link has expired" → the sign-in link from Open practice company works once and only for two minutes. Go back to your company and open it again, or sign in at the practice company's address with your usual password.
• "The practice company is being reset" → someone started a reset. Wait a minute and try again.
• My password does not work in the practice company → your sign-in is copied from your company each time you use Open practice company. Open it from your company once and your current password works there again.
• Reset is greyed out or missing → only the Administrator, or someone with the Organization settings right, can reset the practice company.