# Your first week > A practical plan for a trial, from your first data to your first scheduled report, with a decision about your edition before the credit runs out. A trial runs for 7 days, has every feature, and comes with A$10 of free credit that compute, storage, AI and sync runs draw down. That is enough to connect something real and see sanda work on it, so the plan below keeps the scope small: one source, one question worth answering, one report your team will read. You do not have to follow it day by day. It shows the order that works, and what to check at each point. ## Before you start - **Pick the question.** Start with the pack you assemble by hand every month. It is the one most worth automating, and it tells you which tables you need. - **Pick one source.** A single accounting package or database is plenty. Have its credentials ready. If it sits behind a firewall, [allow sanda's sync address](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/connections/allowlist) first, or the first sync will fail. - **Choose who signs up.** The person who signs up becomes the workspace owner, which is the role that can close the workspace and hand it over. ## Day 1: warehouse and first data 1. Sign up and sign in. The [quickstart](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/get-started/quickstart) covers both. 2. Provision your warehouse from **Data · Warehouse**. 3. Connect your source from **Data · Connections**, or load a CSV if that is quicker. Choose only the streams you need. Every stream starts on a full refresh, which reads the whole table each run. Leave small tables on it, and switch large ones to incremental. See [sync modes](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/connections/sync-modes). 4. Run the first sync with **Sync now**, and let it finish. ## Day 2: check what landed, then learn 1. Open the connection's **Timeline** tab to confirm the run succeeded, and **Explorer** to look at the tables in `raw`. 2. Go to **Intelligence · Semantic fluid** and press **Ask cherry to learn**. 3. Review the suggestions. Accept the ones that look right, correct any that are close, and reject the rest. Then use the arrange button on the map, or **tidy the map** in cherry's reply, to lay the tables out by how they join. The learn pass is AI work, so it draws on your credit. It is worth doing once your data has landed, rather than repeatedly while you are still loading it. ## Days 3 and 4: ask, test and build 1. **Ask three questions whose answers you already know**, such as last month's sales. Compare cherry's numbers with the ones you trust, and open the query behind each answer. 2. **Fix the definitions where they differ.** Add an alias for a column your team names differently, define your own `net revenue` as a metric, or add a filter such as `approved invoices`. Ask again and check the number moves. See [metrics](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/semantic-fluid/metrics). 3. **Build your first report.** From **Activate · Reports**, press **Build one with cherry**, name it after the pack you chose on day one, and say what it is for. Then open the report and adjust the blocks. See [build a report with cherry](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/reports/build-with-cherry). The daily AI limit (A$5 by default) caps how much AI a day can use. If you reach it, AI waits until the day resets, and everything else keeps working. ## Days 5 and 6: automate and share 1. **Schedule the data.** On the connection's **Settings** tab, choose how often it syncs. Runs fall on a 15 minute grid. See [schedules](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/connections/schedules). 2. **Schedule the report.** Go to **Activate · Reports**, press **Report schedules** and then **Schedule a report**, and send it to yourself first. Once it looks right, add your colleagues. See [report delivery](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/reports/delivery). 3. **Check the timeline.** **Monitor · Pipeline** shows the syncs and deliveries you have set up, and when each runs. 4. **Bring in your team.** In **Settings · Team**, press **Invite someone**. Give a colleague who should only look the read-only role, or the reader role if they only need the reports portal. See [members and roles](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/workspace/members-and-roles). 5. **Try one more way in.** Publish the report to the [reports portal](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/reports/portal), connect Claude over [MCP](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/mcp), or open your data in Excel with the feed under **Settings · Integrations**. If you have a table full of text, such as notes or descriptions, a workspace owner can switch on sanda search and index it. See [search](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/search). ## Before the trial ends 1. **Read the credit meter.** Press the trial pill in the top bar to open **Settings · Plan & budget**. It shows how much credit is left and what it went on: compute, storage, AI and sync runs. 2. **Choose an edition.** The same page compares Basic, Standard and Enterprise. Press **Ask to move to** the one you want, and sanda's team makes the change. Nothing renews into a paid plan on its own. See [editions](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/billing/editions). 3. **Set your own limits.** In **Budget & alerts**, set a monthly budget and a daily AI limit, so a busy month cannot surprise you. See [budgets and limits](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/billing/budgets-and-limits). When the trial ends, or sooner if the credit runs out first, the workspace freezes and everything in it is kept. Queries, reports, AI, syncs and scheduled runs wait until you move to an edition, and then carry on where they stopped. See [the trial](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/billing/trial). :::note Stuck at any point? **System · Support** reaches sanda's team, and faults and billing questions are free on every edition. See [getting help](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/help). ::: ## Related pages :::links - [Set up with cherry](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/get-started/setup-with-cherry): The checklist that tracks the first five steps for you. - [Troubleshooting](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/help/troubleshooting): Fixes for the problems a trial most often meets. - [Console tour](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/get-started/console-tour): Find your way around. :::