Your First Week on Slate

Sandbox, the Home checklist, the sidebar, the tour and the help button. What to do on each day of your first week, and where each thing lives in the partner dashboard.

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8 min read

Published On

Oct 26, 2026

Read: 8 minutes

Last updated: November 10, 2026

In this guide

Start in sandbox. It is a separate dashboard with separate keys, and nothing in it touches your live account
Home lists the setup steps in order. It shows in sandbox only
The sidebar has the same few places in both modes
The tour, the help button and the Team page are one click from anywhere

Two Dashboards: Sandbox First, Live Later

Slate gives you two separate partner dashboards. Sandbox is for building. Live is for real customers and real money. They have their own data and their own API keys, so a mistake in sandbox cannot reach your live account.

You can tell which one you are in. Sandbox shows a banner: "You're testing in a sandbox. Changes you make here don't affect your live account." Sign up at partners-sandbox.tryslatehq.com. The form, called "Create your account", asks for your email, first and last name, company name and company domain.

To move between modes, open the user menu at the bottom left of the sidebar and choose "Switch to Live Mode" or "Switch to Sandbox Mode". The live option stays disabled until your account has production access. That is normal in week one. What to Expect When You're Onboarding With Slate covers the rest of the path.

Build with sandbox keys, ship with live keys. Keep the two sets of keys in different places from day one. The most common early mistake is a sandbox key in a live configuration, or the other way round.

The Home Checklist, in Order

Home is the first page you see in sandbox. It is titled "Get started with Slate" and says: "Embed pre-approved capital inside your product in a few steps." In live mode the dashboard opens on Customers instead. You can hide the checklist with the "Hide checklist" toggle in the page header and bring it back with "View checklist".

Choose your products. Capital is lump-sum financing. Credit is a draw-based credit line. Early Pay is getting invoices paid early.
Create an API key. You create it in place and use "Copy key". The full key is shown once.
Create a customer. One of your own customers, created through the API.
Attach financial data. The data Slate uses to size an offer for that customer.
See your pre-approval. Enter the customer's external ID and choose "Fetch pre-approval".
Embed the capital experience. Put Slate's components in your product.
Submit your first application. This step completes by itself when you do.
Set up customer emails. Choose "Send as Slate", "Send from your domain" or "Handle it yourself".
Know your support model. Slate backs you within 24 business hours.
Go live. The Master Services Agreement, business verification (KYB) and a request for production access.

Below the checklist, "Explore more" offers three extras: "Add a webhook", "Brand the experience" and "Read the docs". Treat them as stretch goals.

The Sidebar: Seven Places That Cover Almost Everything

The org name sits at the top and is not clickable. After that, in order:

Sidebar item	What it is for
Home	The getting-started checklist. Sandbox only
Customers	Your customers, their offers and their history. Import, export and send an application link
Intelligence	Opportunities Slate detected in your customers' data, each with the amount and the signals behind it
Insights	How your embedded capital program is performing: repayment, conversion funnel and program health
Programs	Capital, Credit and Early Wage Access, each shown only if your account runs that program
Products	Application Flow, Capital Experience, Capital Banner and the other screens your customers see
Emails	The emails Slate sends your customers, who sends them and what went out
Developers	API keys and Webhooks

Under Programs, Capital holds Offers, Applications and Financing. If your account runs a credit line program, Credit appears too. The dashboard has no control for choosing programs, so if one is missing, ask your Slate contact.

Every list page works the same way: a search box, a status filter and paging. Click a row to open a side sheet with the detail. Most pages also have an "Export CSV" button and an "API reference" button that opens snippets in cURL, Node.js and Python.

Take the Tour, Then Keep Help Handy

The dashboard has a narrated walkthrough. Open the user menu and choose "How to use Slate". It highlights the main pages in turn and says what each is for. It takes a few minutes and is the fastest way to build a map in your head.

For questions there are two places. The round "?" button above Emails and Developers offers "Search for help", "Docs", "Contact us" and "Slate status". The button at the top right opens a "Need help?" panel with "Documentation", "API status", "Partners SDK", "Contact support" and "Install with an agent". Contact support promises a response within 24 business hours. Write the page you were on and what you expected to see, and you save a round trip.

Customers, Applications and Your Team

Customers is where most of your days will go. The top panel says how many of your customers Slate can size an offer for. If none are sized yet, it says "Send us their data and we will size your base", with an "Add customer data" button and a link to import a CSV. The "Import" menu has "Customers" and "Financial data", so you can start with spreadsheets and no code.

Click a customer to open a drawer with five tabs: Financing, Applications, Details, Activity and Actions. From an open offer, "Send link" creates an application link that is valid for one week. Applications, under Capital, shows what customers submit once they apply. The "Pending action" filter narrows to those waiting on bank verification, contract signature, identity verification, a counter offer or a bank reconnection.

To add a colleague, open the user menu, choose "Team", then "Add Member". Every invited person has the same access, and there is no role picker. For read-only API access, create a Read only key under Developers.

A First-Week Plan

Day one. Sign up for sandbox and take the tour before you touch anything.
Day two. Choose your products on the Home checklist and create an API key. Hand it to your engineer, who creates a few test customers.
Day three. Import a small CSV of fictional customers from Customers, Import, Customers. Read the Status column to see which ones Slate cannot size yet.
Day four. Attach financial data to two of them and fetch a pre-approval. Open Products, then Capital Banner, and set the brand colour.
Day five. Add the finance lead under Team and write down which Home steps are still open.

Your week will look different. The order is the point: look around first, then create data, then brand, then invite people. Nothing here needs you to be live.

Common Questions

Can I break anything in sandbox?

No. Sandbox is a separate dashboard with its own data and keys, and the banner reminds you that changes there do not affect your live account.

Why is Home missing?

Home shows in sandbox only. In live mode the dashboard opens on Customers.

Why is the live switch greyed out?

"Switch to Live Mode" stays disabled until your account has production access. You request it from the Go live step on Home.

Why do I not see Credit or Early Wage Access in the sidebar?

Programs appear only when your account runs them, and the dashboard has no control for that. Write to support if you expected one.

Can I give a teammate read-only access?

Not in the dashboard. Every invited team member has the same access. For read-only API access, create a Read only key under Developers.