Understanding the sync engine: how BrickPulse stops you overselling
BrickPulse keeps one master copy of your inventory and treats BrickLink, BrickOwl, and eBay as copies of it. This article explains how the sync engine works, how often it runs, and exactly what happens when an item sells — so you know why the same brick is never sold twice.
The core idea: one source of truth
Your BrickPulse database is the master record of everything you own. Each connected marketplace holds a copy of the lots you choose to list there. For synced lots, you make changes in BrickPulse — not on BrickLink or eBay directly — and BrickPulse pushes them out.
Because there’s a single master, there’s a single answer to “how many of this do I have?” — and every channel is kept in agreement with that answer. That’s the whole idea behind one inventory, every marketplace, always in sync.
What happens when an item sells
- A buyer purchases a lot on any channel — say, BrickLink.
- On its next run, BrickPulse imports that order and decrements the master quantity for that lot.
- BrickPulse then pushes the new quantity to every other channel the lot is listed on (BrickOwl and eBay).
- The order appears on your Orders page, ready to pick, pack, and ship.
Because the master updates first and then propagates outward, the window where another channel still shows the old number is small — and a genuine conflict is surfaced to you rather than quietly becoming an oversell.
How often sync runs
- Every 10 minutes, automatically.
- On demand, whenever you click Run sync on the dashboard.
You can watch each run move through its stages — import orders, reconcile, push quantities, push prices — in the pipeline status on your dashboard.
Reading the sync health line
The animated sync pulse on your dashboard shows the health of your sync like a heartbeat:
- A steady, regular pulse means recent runs completed cleanly.
- A flat or broken line, or a red indicator, means a run failed or is delayed — open Sync history for the details.
When BrickPulse warns you about an oversell
Marketplaces don’t all update in the same instant, so once in a while two buyers can purchase the last of a lot on two channels within the same few minutes. BrickPulse is designed to raise a notice only on a genuine oversell risk — not on routine timing differences — so when a warning appears, it means something. When it does:
- Open the Reconcile page.
- Check the Drift and Missing tabs to see where quantities disagree.
- Follow the suggested action — for example, adjust the remaining quantity, or message the buyer to arrange a refund or a substitute.
The Reconcile page at a glance
- Unmatched — lots BrickPulse couldn’t confidently match to a channel listing (common right after you connect a new channel). Map them so they start syncing.
- Drift — lots whose channel quantity has diverged from the master. Reconcile to push the master value back out.
- Missing — lots expected on a channel but not found there.
Reviewing what happened: the audit log
Every sync run is recorded. Open the audit log (filterable by run) to see exactly what was imported, changed, and pushed — and to diagnose anything that went wrong. If a run fails, you’ll also get a notification, by in-app alert, email, or web push, depending on your preferences.
Good habits
- Make inventory changes in BrickPulse, not directly on a marketplace, so the master stays authoritative.
- After connecting a new channel, clear the Unmatched tab so all your lots sync.
- Keep notifications on for the sync-failure and oversell categories.