You can't feel how an accounting app works until it has data. Finocket's sample-data sandbox seeds a small sample consultancy (clients, projects, visits, payments and expenses from the last few weeks) so you can explore the screens with believable numbers before touching your real books. Some workspaces set up for a particular trade can get a sample of that trade instead. One tap seeds it, and one tap clears it, with one exception described below for the mandi sample.
How do I turn on sample data?
Three places offer it:
- Dashboard first-run card: when your books have zero clients and zero invoices, the "Get started" card offers "Try with sample data" alongside "Take a quick tour".
- The tour's Tally branch: if you picked the Tally-user branch on the tour, the final step offers sample data so you land on a populated Day Book.
- Settings → Account & privacy: "Add sample data" and "Clear sample data" buttons, so you can seed and clear on demand at any time.
Prefer not to sign up at all yet? The Try-it doorway pages open a no-signup sandbox so you can poke around first.
What gets seeded?
The consultancy sample adds:
- Three sample clients (an individual, a builder, a family), each with a Hyderabad address.
- One project per client, with two visits each, dated in the last few weeks.
- Two payments per client, by UPI and Bank Transfer.
- Five sample expenses across Travel, Food, Automobile and Health Care.
The dashboard figures and reports then have real-looking shapes, enough to judge each module honestly.
A sample in your own trade
Where trade samples are switched on, a workspace set up for a trade (for example a pharmacy, a hotel, a restaurant, a jeweller or a mandi) may see the dashboard button read Try with sample ... data in that trade's words, such as Try with sample mandi trading data. That sample uses the trade's own parties, items and bills in place of the consultancy. Three things to know:
- Only the business owner can add it, and only to an empty workspace. If you already have your own records, it says so and adds nothing.
- It is offered only from the dashboard card. The Add sample data button in Settings always adds the consultancy sample.
- When it is added, the message says what it held back and why, for example a part whose screens are switched off for your workspace.
- Only the owner's Clear sample data removes a trade sample.
The mandi and dairy sample
The mandi sample adds three buyers, three farmers, three dairy members, five commodities sold by the quintal, and seven sale invoices over three months with the receipts against them. When the mandi and dairy pack is switched on for your workspace, it also adds:
- One mandi day: three lots at the gate today, each weighed and sold to a buyer, and a draft patti for one farmer.
- One dairy fortnight: two sample cow-milk rate charts and 15 days of morning and evening collections from the three members.
- One cold-storage booking.
It sets no commission, hamali, market fee or advance, because those rates are for your CA to confirm, so the sample patti has no deductions. See Mandi and dairy screens for what each screen does.
The services sample
In an agency, consultancy or freelance workspace with the services pack switched on, the sample also adds a sample appointment type, a session pack plan with one pack sold, and a monthly retainer on the practice records screen. The retainer's billing is not started; start it yourself if you want an invoice drafted every month. The pack sale raises no invoice.
How do I find and remove sample rows later?
Sample parties, items, projects and expenses carry [SAMPLE] at the start of their name or description. That means:
- Search or filter for
[SAMPLE]on a list screen to see just the sample rows. - Tap Clear sample data (Settings → Account & privacy) and confirm Remove every [SAMPLE] row? to delete the sample.
Removal is keyed on the sample's own markers, not on when a row was entered, so your real entries are never at risk, even if you mixed real work in between.
Can I use sample data and real data together?
Yes, safely. Many people seed samples, learn the screens, add a few real clients, then clear the samples. Because removal keys on the sample markers, clearing removes only seeded rows and leaves your real books untouched. Just avoid starting your own entries with [SAMPLE].
Related: Get started with Finocket, Coming from Tally?.