How syncing works

One way, from Bless to Salesforce

Bless sends. Salesforce receives. A change you make in Salesforce never changes Bless.

When a record changes in Bless, Bless sends all of its fields marked Always in What syncs. This writes over a change someone made to those fields in Salesforce. Fields marked On create and If blank are safe to change in Salesforce.

When records sync

When	What Bless does
A record is created or changed	Sends it about 5 seconds later.
Every 6 hours	Checks for records that never synced, or changed since they last synced, and sends them. Up to 500 of each kind each time.
Salesforce is busy or locked	Tries again, up to 5 times over about 6 minutes.
Salesforce’s daily API limit is reached	Waits an hour and tries again, up to 3 times. Then the 6-hourly check picks it up.
Salesforce refuses the record	Records a failure and does not try again until the record changes or the next 6-hourly check.

Last synced on the Integrations tab shows the last time a record went through.

When a record waits

Bless does not send a record until it is ready:

Record	Syncs when
Event	It is published. Drafts and archived events do not sync.
Session and registration type	Their event syncs. When you publish an event, they go too.
Registration	A guest is named in the seat.
Gift	It is active or completed, a payment went through, or a bank payment is pending.
Recurring payment	It is the second payment or later.
Event order	It is paid, its total is above $0, and it is not comped.
Anything for a contact who waits for a match	You choose the match.

Parents before children

Salesforce needs a record’s parent before the record. Bless sends the parent first, in the same step:

Record	Bless sends first
Contact	Its household (without NPSP)
Registration	The contact, then the event
Check-in	The contact, then the event
Session and registration type	The event
Gift	The contact and the campaign
Event order	The buyer, or the first guest

Finding a record Salesforce already has

Before Bless creates a record, it looks for one that is the same. If it finds one, it updates that record and keeps its ID.

Record	Bless looks for
Contact	The rules below
Household	Nothing. Bless creates it, or uses NPSP’s
Event, registration	Visios__External_ID__c = the Bless ID
Check-in	Visios__Check_In_Number__c = the Bless ID
Session, registration type	The same name on the same event
Gift, recurring payment, order	Visios__Transaction_ID__c = the Stripe payment ID
Campaign	The same name
Batch	Nothing. Bless always creates it

Contacts

Bless tries these in order, and stops at the first that finds one record:

1. The same Bless ID in Visios__Bless_ID__c.
2. The same first name and email.
3. The same first name and phone (mobile or home, with or without the 1 in front).
4. The same first name and date of birth.

If none of these find one, Bless looks for a weaker match: the same first and last name, or the same email alone. If it finds one, Bless does not guess. It holds the contact for you to choose. Bless also holds a contact when a Salesforce duplicate rule blocks it.

If nothing matches at all, Bless creates a new Contact.

What cancels, refunds and deletes do

Bless never deletes anything in Salesforce.

In Bless	In Salesforce
A registration is canceled	The Registration’s status changes to Cancelled.
A guest goes on the waitlist	The status changes to Waitlisted.
A guest is removed from a table seat	Their old Registration stays. The next guest gets a new one.
A check-in is undone	The Check-In stays.
An event is archived or unpublished	The Gathering stays as it was. Bless stops updating it.
A gift is canceled before any money was taken	The Opportunity’s stage changes to Closed Lost.
A gift is refunded	Nothing changes. The Opportunity stays Closed Won, with its amount.
An order is refunded, in full or in part	Nothing changes. The Opportunity stays Closed Won, with the full total.
A record is deleted in Bless	The Salesforce record stays.

Record refunds in Salesforce by hand if your reports need them.

If someone deletes or merges a record in Salesforce

When Bless next updates the record, Salesforce says it is gone. Bless forgets the old ID, looks for a match again, and links to it or creates a new record. You do not need to do anything.

Your existing records

When you first connect, Bless sends the records you already have, from the start, through the 6-hourly check. See Your existing records.