Sandbox Sync is available as an add-on for Expert tier customers. Contact your Account Manager to learn more.

A space to build and test

Sandbox sync allows you to replicate the look and feel of your Greenhouse Recruiting production environment so your teams can test email and offer templates, integrations, development, and more — all without disturbing real data or your recruiting teams.

  • Sync offer and email templates, custom options, permission policies, and more from your production to your sandbox environment on a schedule that you control.
  • Create unlimited sandbox user accounts, with login access retained after each sandbox sync.
  • Dig into development with Harvest API keys, job board settings, and Dev Center configurations that are retained after each sandbox sync.

Set up a sync schedule

A sync schedule determines when the data in your production environment is copied to your sandbox environment. Your sync schedule also includes a data cleanup step that removes old test data from your sandbox environment. 

To update your sync schedule, log into your production environment and open the Sandbox page under the Configure tab. (Configure > Sandbox)

Note: To configure sandbox sync, you need to be a Site Admin in your production environment with the user-specific permission to manage sandbox configurations.

Find your organization's sandbox and click the Edit  icon beside your sandbox. If you have multiple sandboxes, each sandbox environment is listed.

The sandbox page shows two sandbox environments named Eucalyptus - Sandbox with the Edit icon highlighted beside the first sandbox

Turn on sandbox sync and set up your sync schedule. When you're finished, click Save.

Sandbox sync settings are shown with a sync set to occur every 2 weeks on Fridays

Tip: Sandbox sync will occur at 11:59 pm ET on the schedule you choose. To avoid interfering with your team's work, consider syncing on a weekend or off-day.

Synced data

Sandbox sync will sync settings from your production to your sandbox environment but retain important sandbox configurations like user accounts.

The following settings will be synced to your sandbox environment:

Organization Next requisition ID, auto-merge, offices and departments, and your referral program settings
Offer templates Offer templates
Job templates Template jobs
Org-wide email templates Organization-wide email templates and organization-wide social templates
Email settings Organization email settings
Custom options Custom options, including custom agency questions, application fields, candidate fields, job fields, opening fields, offer fields, user fields, referral questions, rejection questions, candidate tags, close reasons, interviewer tags, referrer fields, rejection reasons, custom sources, and new job setup flow
Inclusion tools Inclusion tools, including sourcing, application review, interviewing, candidate roundup, company initiative for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and custom demographic question sets
Permission policies Permission policies, automated permission rules
Company goals Company goals
Privacy and compliance Privacy and compliance settings, including GDPR, CCPA, and pay transparency settings
Candidate packets Candidate packets
Job boards & post Application limits, job post custom application questions & rules
Candidate survey Configurable candidate surveys
AI Tools AI tools

The following settings won't be included in the data cleanup to make testing easier over time:

Retained data

The following settings will be retained in your sandbox environment:

  • Users
  • User settings
  • Job board settings
  • Dev Center
  • Single sign-on (SSO) setup
  • Verified email domains

Check sync progress

The timestamp for the last sync is always available in your production environment on the Sandbox page.

An example sandbox named Eucalyptus sandbox 1 is shown with a last sync date of October 23, 2023

Hovering over the badge in your sandbox will also display the last time the data was updated.

Hovering over the marigold sandbox badge's question icon shows a last sync time of July 12, 2023

Generate candidates for testing

After sandbox sync has finished a sync you can build test jobs to help match the sort of testing needed by your organization. However, you speed up the process by automatically creating fake candidates for those jobs under the Sandbox page in your production account. (Configure > Sandbox)

Note: You can only generate candidates on open jobs, and not on jobs with a draft or closed status.

 

The sandbox configure page shows two sandbox environments named Eucalyptus 1 and Eucalyptus 2 with the Generate candidates button highlighted under Eucalyptus sandbox 1

Tip: Generate candidates after sandbox sync is complete. Otherwise, the fake candidates will be deleted by the sync process. You'll need to generate new candidates after each sync.

Each candidate is generated with fake details to help fill out their profile, including:

  • First and last name
  • Personal email address
  • Home address
  • Randomized EEOC responses
  • "Test Data" candidate tag

Additionally, a portion of these candidates are generated with the following mock details:

  • Company
  • Title
  • Blog website address
  • Social media address
  • Resumes (for candidates who are placed in the Application Review stage)

Approximately 50% of generated candidates are moved to a random stage, and 30% are rejected after generation so you can test different workflows and scenarios.

Note: Because the details are random, in some cases, duplicate candidates may be generated.