Explore with the sample company
The sample company is a ready-made organisation filled with realistic products, customers, invoices, payments and reports. It is the fastest way to see how Sales Scribe fits together before you commit your own data — and everything in it is safe to change.
Before you begin
- You need to be signed in.
- The sample company sits alongside your real organisation and does not count against your plan's organisation limit.
Create the sample company
You can create it from either place:
- During onboarding — on the Get Started wizard, select Explore with sample data.
- From the dashboard — if a sample company already exists, use the organisation switcher in the top bar to move into it.
Sales Scribe switches you into the sample company straight away and builds its year and a half of trading in the background. That takes about half a minute: until it is ready, the sample company shows Your sample company is being prepared, and the page opens it by itself as soon as it is done.
If the sample company cannot be prepared, the banner says so and why. Delete it from the banner and create it again — nothing in your own organisations is affected.
What you will find
The sample company is a small wholesaler of drinks, groceries and household goods, part-way through its financial year. Every date is set relative to the day you create it, so it is always current.
- An opening position. The business moved to Sales Scribe at the start of its previous financial year, bringing over its bank balance, its stock, and the invoices and bills still outstanding from its old system. Some have since been paid; one customer invoice and one supplier bill are still open.
- Last financial year, finished. A full year of trading, signed off and locked — just as your accountant would leave it.
- This financial year, in progress. About six months of trading to today.
- Invoices in every state — Paid, Partially Paid, Overdue and Draft — with overdue invoices in every band of the Aged Receivables report.
- A customer in Spain invoiced in euros, credit notes (including goods returned to stock), and a payment received on account that has not yet been applied.
- Bills from suppliers, paid and unpaid, and the quarterly warehouse rent.
- Stocked products, so every sale carries its cost of sales.
- VAT returns, filed and paid. The VAT its old system filed for the quarter before the move, and it had not yet paid, came across on VAT control and was paid to HMRC here when due. Every quarter since is prepared from the ledger and finalised under Banking → VAT Returns, then paid on HMRC's due date. Quarters with a large stock delivery reclaim more than they charge, and HMRC repays those. The latest quarter is finalised and not yet due, so it is still owed.
- Live Reports and ledger postings you can click through. Every check the reports offer — the trial balance, the control-account reconciliation, the aged listings — agrees.
Note: A business finalises each VAT return a few weeks after the quarter ends. The sample company was made in one go, so all its returns were finalised on the day you created it, and each return's transfer to VAT control carries that date. Its payments to HMRC carry their due dates. In a report dated before the day you created the sample, the VAT for the filed quarters is therefore still on the output and input VAT accounts, and the payments sit on VAT control. The net VAT is right on every date. From the day you created it, everything is on VAT control, as it is for a business that files as it goes. See VAT returns.
Because it is a normal organisation, you can create, edit, issue, pay and void documents to see what happens to the figures and reports. Anything dated in last financial year is refused, because that year is locked: that is the posting lock working as it will in your own books. See Lock your books and Finalise your year end.
The dashboard banner
While you are working inside the sample company, a blue banner appears at the top of the Dashboard:
You're exploring the sample company. Everything here is safe to change — play with invoices, payments, and reports freely.
This is your reminder that you are not in your real books.
Switch back to your own organisation
Use the organisation switcher in the top bar to move between the sample company and your real organisation at any time. See Switch between organisations.
Delete it when you are done
When you no longer need it, remove the sample company and all of its data:
- Switch into the sample company so its Dashboard is showing.
- In the sample-company banner, select Delete sample company.
- Confirm when prompted.
Note: Deleting the sample company removes only its sample data. Your own organisations are not affected.