Sample Data — Loading and Clearing

Sample Data — Loading and Clearing

Sample data lives at Admin → Sample Data and is open to Super Administrators. Load it with Create All Sample Data, a module’s Load standard set, the Sample Data Assistant, or an app’s own Demo data card. Remove it with Clear, a module’s Clear … data, or Start over. Only sample records are removed; real people and real data stay.

1. What it is

Sample Data fills a business with realistic demo records — people, departments, locations, holidays, and the records of each app — so you can show or test the product, and then removes them cleanly. Every sample record is marked as sample when it is created, which is how it is counted, kept out of inboxes, and removed later.

• Who can open it: a Super Administrator, on any business. On an internal QA business (one MangoApps has marked for internal testing), Administrators can open it too. An Administrator on any other business who opens it sees: “Sample data tools are only available to a Super Administrator. Ask a Super Administrator in your organization to load or remove sample data.”
• Employees and managers cannot open this page. Someone who manages an app’s settings (an administrator, or a person delegated to administer that app) can still load or remove that one app’s sample data from its Demo data card — see below. Otherwise, ask an administrator.
• Where it is: in the admin sidebar under Super Admin → Sample Data (on an internal QA business, an Administrator sees the section as Demo Data). A flask icon in the top bar (a magic-wand icon when the business looks empty) also opens it; hover it to see what it will do. Outside production it is always there for the people who can open the page; in production it shows only while the business holds sample data or looks empty.
• Demo Scenarios is a separate page in the same sidebar section, for preparing a scripted demo story. This article covers the Sample Data page.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Admin → Sample Data.
2. In Every run uses these settings, choose How much (Small, Medium, Large or XL) and, if you like, a Theme such as “regional hospital network”. Pin people or locations under Who it’s for if the data should be about them.
3. Click Create All Sample Data. The Sample Data Assistant opens with a plan: the standard set for every module.
4. Review the plan card and click Create it (or Change something).
5. The run works through the modules in the background. You can leave the page; you get a notification when it finishes, and an email if your account has an email address.

The first load on a business also builds the shared Foundation — sample people, departments, locations and holidays — if the business has none yet.

3. How it fits together

Foundation and modules

Foundation is what every module shares: the business profile, the sample organization (departments, locations, job titles), the sample users, and holidays. It appears as a band of four cards — Business, Organization, Sample users and Holidays — with a Ready or Not seeded yet badge. The Organization card shows each count as the total and how many of them are sample.

Modules group the apps. Each module card shows how many sample records it holds right now, or “No sample data yet”, and the apps it covers. The modules are Performance Management, Shifts & Schedules, Recruiting, Service Desk, HR Operations, Knowledge & Compliance, Employee Experience, Communications Hub, Workplace Operations, Advanced Operations, and Platform & AI. Use Find an app… to jump to the module that holds a given app.

Opening a module shows:

• What’s in … right now — every app in the module with its live count, a Load standard set button, and Open to go to the app. Apps whose data comes with the foundation show Foundation instead of a load button.
• Create … data with the Assistant — describe what you want, or pick one of the ideas.
• Other inputs — choices specific to the module, such as which review template to use.
• What … supports — which shared settings (pinned people, pinned locations, volume, theme, clearing) the module honours. Settings it does not support are ignored there.

The settings every run uses

• Who it’s for — pin people (+ User) or locations (+ Location). With nothing pinned, runs use the default sample group of people.
• How much — Small (a handful of records per app), Medium (enough to fill every list and chart, the default), Large (hundreds per app) or XL (thousands per app; runs take longer).
• Theme (optional) — used by apps that support theming, and by the sample organization.

These settings save as soon as you change them and last until you sign out: a new sign-in starts again from the organization’s theme, Medium, and no pinned people or locations.

The Sample Data Assistant

Click Open Assistant (or the Assistant button at the edge of the page). Describe what you want in plain words — one app, one module, or several apps that tell one story, such as “Shifts, Time Off and Performance for the same team”. The Assistant never creates or removes anything itself. It proposes a plan on a card that lists, app by app, what will be made or removed. Nothing happens until you click Create it, Remove it or Align it. Change something lets you adjust the plan first.

When several modules are planned together, they share the same people, one time window, and records that refer to each other. You can also ask the Assistant to make existing sample data consistent (“align it”) — nothing is deleted. While a plan runs, its card shows each step; Stop after this step stops it, and the steps already finished stay.

A themed sample organization

Yes, AI can build a demo organization for a theme. Set a Theme and click Build the organization in the Foundation band. The Assistant writes departments, locations, job titles and people for that theme and shows them on a plan card for you to confirm. If you change the theme later, Rewrite for the theme renames the organization in place: the same departments, locations and people get new names, so every app’s sample data on those people stays. Rewrite, with new names for people also gives people new names (pinned people keep theirs).

What loading turns on

Loading an app’s data from this page licenses and turns on that app and, for apps employees use, publishes it to every employee if it was not open to them yet. The module page tells you which apps that applies to before you click.

Sample data stays out of inboxes

An email about a sample record is not sent, and no bell notification is created about one, even when a sample record names a real person.

One run at a time

Sample-data runs happen one at a time per business; new requests wait their turn (“Waiting its turn…”). A load or removal for an app that already has one running is refused until it finishes.

4. Running it

Load data for every module

Click Create All Sample Data, check the plan card, and click Create it.

Load one module or one app

Open the module card. For one app, click Load standard set on its row. It starts with no plan to confirm, and the count updates as the data is written. For something specific — dates, people, amounts — describe it in Create … data with the Assistant and confirm the plan.

Load or remove one app from its own settings page

Many apps have a Demo data card on their settings page with Load Sample Data and Remove Sample Data. It loads the same standard set (with the theme your sample organization was built for), shows whether sample data is loaded and how many records, and shows progress while a load or removal runs. Anyone who can open that app’s settings can use it. Points to know:

• The first load also adds the shared sample employees and organization if the business has none. Removing the app’s data leaves those in place.
• When an Administrator loads, the app is licensed and turned on. It never publishes an app you have kept admin-only — the card says so when that applies.
• When an app shares its sample data with other apps, the confirmation names them; loading or removing affects all of them.
• If an app’s sample records are part of the shared company data, Remove explains that only a Super Administrator can clear them.

Loading again usually adds little or nothing for people who already have data in that app; the result tells you. To start an app fresh, remove its data first.

Remove sample data

• Some or all modules: click Clear beside the record count at the top of the page. Tick the modules (Select all or None) and click Clear selected. This removes the modules’ sample records; the sample people and organization stay. Shift Feedback, which comes with the shift data, has its own Clear link in the same dialog when it holds data.
• One module: open it and click Clear … data. The Assistant shows what will be removed; click Remove it. If people are pinned, the clear removes only their sample data in the apps that support it; when it would remove everyone’s, the button reads Clear … data for everyone.
• Everything — start over: click Start over in the Foundation band (it sits in the band’s ⋮ menu as Start over instead when your theme has changed), or ask the Assistant to start over — the only way when the band shows no Start over (there is no sample organization yet, for example after a run for pinned people only). It removes every module’s sample data first, then the sample users, departments (with their job titles), locations and holidays. Pinned people and sites stay. Rebuild afterwards with a theme and Build the organization.
• Parts of the foundation: the Organization card offers Remove sample departments and Remove sample locations; the Sample users card offers Remove old users (sample users who are not pinned, and their records).
• Remove seeded foundation (in the Foundation band’s ⋮ menu, when available) removes the sample employees, organization and shift records that sample-data loads recorded creating. Anything that existed before the first recorded load is not touched.

Will clearing delete real records?

No. Only records created as sample data are removed — real users, real data and your templates stay. If a real record still uses a sample item — for example, a real time entry logged against a sample project — that sample item is kept, and the result says what was kept and why. Records that belong to a sample person are removed with that person. When a clear finishes with leftovers, the page lists each app and what remains; where an app gives a reason, those records were kept on purpose, usually because another app’s records still point at them — clear that app first rather than retrying.

Keep the demo current

Sample dates are fixed when the data is loaded, so “today” and “this week” views thin out over time. The page shows how old the sample dates are. Refresh dates moves every sample date forward in whole weeks, so weekdays stay put; real records are never touched. Keep current automatically (Turn on / Turn off) does this for you.

Check what a demo will show

Demo readiness → Check now opens every app’s main screens as a sample manager and a sample employee and reports which ones show nothing, as a score, a list of screens to look at, and any apps that repeat the same text across many records.

5. Settings

Setting	Where	Default	What it changes
Access	Role	Super Administrator on every business; also Administrator on an internal QA business	Who can open Admin → Sample Data and see its sidebar item and top-bar button
Who it’s for	Every run uses these settings	Nothing pinned (default sample group)	Which people and locations new sample data is about
How much	Every run uses these settings	Medium	How many records each app gets (Small, Medium, Large, XL)
Theme	Every run uses these settings	The theme the sample organization was built for, if any	How apps that support theming, and the sample organization, are named and written
Other inputs	A module’s page	Auto	Module-specific choices, such as which template to use
Keep current automatically	Sample dates strip	Off	Whether sample dates are moved forward for you

The Demo data card on an app’s settings page loads the standard set at Medium; a few apps (such as Contracts) let you set some counts on the card first.

6. More help

• Admin → Demo Scenarios — prepare a scripted demo story with its own data.
• Background tasks (the ⋮ menu at the top of the Sample Data page) — every run’s progress and result.
• Ask AI — answers questions about sample data from this article.