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Data Accuracy & Cleanup

Verify, maintain, and fix your data to keep Synplex alerts and recommendations reliable.

Overview​

Synplex's alerts, grades, and reorder suggestions are only as accurate as the data they are based on. Wrong stock levels produce wrong Running Low alerts. Duplicate products split stock counts across entries. Stale syncs mean Synplex is working from yesterday's numbers.

This page covers the most common data problems, how to spot them, and how to fix them.

Common problems​

Duplicate products​

What it looks like: The same physical product appears as two or more separate entries in the Inventory Report — usually with slight name variations, different capitalisation, or a missing SKU on one entry.

Why it happens: Manual entry errors, products imported more than once, or small formatting differences between systems (for example, Nike Shoes vs NIKE SHOES vs Nike Shoes (no SKU)).

Effect: Stock is split across the duplicates. Each entry shows a partial count, so both may appear as Running Low even when combined stock is healthy. Reorder suggestions are inflated.

How to fix:

  • For a small number of duplicates, identify the authoritative entry, consolidate the stock count onto it, and delete the duplicate
  • For many duplicates, contact support@synplex.dev — the team can run a bulk merge

Fix duplicates as soon as you find them. The longer they exist, the more they distort historical data.

Incorrect stock levels​

What it looks like: Synplex shows a different stock count than Shopify or your physical warehouse count.

Why it happens: A Shopify inventory adjustment that did not sync through, a sync delay, damaged goods removed from the warehouse but not updated in Shopify, or a manual count error.

How to spot it: Pick five to ten products at random, check their Synplex count against Shopify and against a physical count if possible. Discrepancies across multiple products suggest a sync issue. A single discrepancy is more likely a data entry error.

How to fix:

  • If one or two products are wrong, correct the stock level in Shopify and allow the next sync to pull the updated value through
  • If many products are affected, trigger a full re-sync from the Shopify connection settings or contact support@synplex.dev
  • When data conflicts between systems, treat the physical warehouse count as the source of truth, then correct Shopify to match, and let Synplex sync from Shopify

Mismatched supplier mapping​

What it looks like: A product shows the wrong supplier in Synplex, which means it is also using the wrong lead time for reorder calculations.

Why it happens: Wrong supplier selected during product setup, a supplier change that was not updated in Synplex, or an import that mapped suppliers incorrectly.

How to spot it: Spot-check ten to twenty products, verify the supplier shown matches who you actually order from, and compare the lead time shown against your actual experience with that supplier.

How to fix: Open the product detail page, update the supplier field to the correct supplier, verify the lead time updates accordingly, and save. For bulk corrections contact support@synplex.dev.

Sync delays or failures​

What it looks like: Synplex is showing stock levels or order data that is older than expected — Shopify was updated an hour ago but Synplex still shows the previous value.

Why it happens: A temporary API outage, rate limiting, expired credentials, or a connection issue between Shopify and Synplex.

How to spot it: Update a product in Shopify, wait 15 minutes, and check whether Synplex reflects the change. If it does not, the sync is delayed or broken.

How to fix:

  • Wait a few minutes — normal syncs complete within 5–15 minutes; brief delays are common
  • If the sync is more than 30 minutes behind, check the Shopify connection status in your integration settings
  • If you see errors or the connection appears broken, contact support@synplex.dev with details of which products are affected and how long the delay has been ongoing

Bad historical data​

What it looks like: Sales trends, daily averages, or forecasts look implausible — a product that sells 5 units a day is showing a 50-unit daily average, or a product that has been selling well shows near-zero historical sales.

Why it happens: Test data that was not cleaned up before go-live, a bulk import with incorrect dates, an inventory adjustment that was recorded as a sale, or a data migration from a previous system that brought across corrupt records.

How to spot it: Cross-check the daily average shown in Synplex against your own knowledge of the product. If the number is clearly wrong, pull sales history for that product and look for a spike or gap that does not correspond to any real event.

How to fix:

  • Shorten the Daily average days window in Settings to exclude the period containing bad data — if the corruption is older than 30 days, using a 30-day window will exclude it
  • For isolated records, contact support@synplex.dev with the affected products and the approximate date range of the bad data

Weekly spot check​

A five-minute weekly check catches most problems before they affect decisions:

  1. Pick five products at random from the Inventory Report
  2. Compare their stock levels against Shopify
  3. Verify their supplier and lead time look correct
  4. Check that their Running Low or Overstocked status matches your expectation
  5. If anything looks off, investigate before the week's reorder decisions are made

This does not need to be exhaustive. Catching one bad data point a week and fixing it promptly is more effective than a monthly audit that fixes ten problems at once.

Monthly audit​

Once a month, do a broader sweep:

  • Search for products with duplicate or near-duplicate names and resolve any you find
  • Review products flagged as Dead Stock — verify they are genuinely not selling, not a data error
  • Check the last sync timestamp in your integration settings and confirm syncs are completing successfully
  • Spot-check supplier mappings for any products where the supplier recently changed

Things to keep in mind​

Synplex syncs from Shopify, not the other way around. If stock levels are wrong in Synplex, the fix almost always starts in Shopify. Correct the data in Shopify first, then let the sync bring the updated values across.

Changing settings does not fix bad data. Adjusting your Running Low threshold to stop a false alert is a workaround, not a fix. If an alert looks wrong, investigate whether the underlying stock level or supplier data is correct before changing any thresholds.

Historical data problems compound over time. A bad import from six months ago affects every daily average and trend calculated since then. Fix historical data issues promptly rather than working around them.

Getting help​

If you encounter a data problem you cannot resolve — a broken sync, a bulk duplicate issue, or corrupted historical data — email support@synplex.dev with:

  • Which products are affected
  • What the data shows versus what you expect
  • Approximately when the problem started
  • Any screenshots that illustrate the discrepancy

The more detail you provide, the faster the issue can be diagnosed and resolved.