How Data Import Works
Overview
Once you connect your TikTok Shop, Dashboardly automatically begins importing your data. This process pulls in your products, orders, financial statements, refunds, and more so that your dashboards, profit and loss reports, and all other analytics pages are populated with accurate numbers.
You do not need to do anything manually -- imports happen in the background. You can keep using Dashboardly while the import is running; pages populate progressively as each data type becomes available.
What Gets Imported
Dashboardly imports the following data types from TikTok Shop:
| Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Products | Your full product catalog including SKUs, pricing, and images |
| Product Inventory | Stock levels across all warehouses (FBS and FBT) |
| Orders | Complete order history with customer data and order status |
| Order Line Items | Individual items within each order |
| Financial Statements | Payment statements with revenue breakdowns |
| Statement Transactions | Order-level financial details (fees, taxes, discounts) |
| Refunds & Returns | All refunded and returned orders with amounts and reasons |
| Warehouse Data | FBT warehouse information and inbound shipments |
Import Stages
The import runs through a multi-stage pipeline. You'll see progress for each stage in real time:
- Products Catalog -- fetches all your products and SKUs
- Product Details & Images -- downloads extended product information
- Product Inventory -- syncs current stock levels per warehouse
- Orders -- downloads your complete order history
- Financial Statements -- fetches payment settlement data
- Statement Transactions -- imports order-level financial breakdowns
- Refunds & Returns -- imports all return and refund records
- Warehouses & FBT -- syncs warehouse and fulfillment data (if applicable)
- Analytics & Metrics -- computes business metrics from all imported data
Synthetic Products for Auction Orders
If you sell through TikTok's Countdown Bidding (auctions), Dashboardly automatically creates product records for these temporary listings. Products are grouped by name -- if you sell the same item through multiple Countdown Bidding sessions, it appears as one product in your analytics. No action is needed on your part.
How Long Does the First Import Take?
Import time depends on your shop size:
| Shop Size | Estimated Time |
|---|---|
| Small (under 100 orders) | 5 -- 15 minutes |
| Medium (100 -- 10K orders) | 30 minutes -- 2 hours |
| Large (10K -- 250K orders) | 2 -- 8 hours |
| Very large (250K+ orders) | 8+ hours |
During import, you'll see a progress modal with:
- An overall progress bar
- Status for each import stage (pending, in progress, completed)
- Estimated time remaining
- Items processed vs. total
You can close the modal and continue using Dashboardly -- the import runs in the background.
Import Reliability
Dashboardly is built to handle imports of any size reliably:
- Long-running imports. For large shops, imports can take several hours. Dashboardly keeps your API session active for the duration so imports complete without authorization errors. If a token genuinely expires, reconnect the shop in Settings → Shops and the import will resume.
- Automatic retries for marketing data. If a temporary network error occurs while importing your TikTok Ads data, the import retries automatically. You do not need to do anything.
Automatic Data Sync (After the Initial Import)
After the initial import, Dashboardly keeps your data fresh automatically:
- Scheduled sync runs twice daily, at 02:00 and 14:00 UTC
- Each scheduled sync looks back at the last 3 days of data to catch any updates TikTok has emitted since the previous run
- Webhooks from TikTok provide real-time updates for new orders, product changes, and returns
You don't need to do anything -- your data stays current automatically.
Important Notes
Financial Statement Delay
TikTok financial statements take at least 48 hours to become available after an order is placed. If you see orders without financial data, this is normal -- statements appear on the next sync after TikTok generates them.
Data Completeness
Fee and tax breakdowns for your orders are recovered automatically when TikTok data arrives late or was initially incomplete. This means your Profit & Loss calculations become complete sooner, without you needing to trigger a manual sync.
Data Accuracy
Dashboardly imports data exactly as provided by TikTok's API. If you notice discrepancies, see My Numbers Don't Match TikTok and Understanding Your Data Quality.
Triggering a Manual Import
If you need to refresh your data immediately:
- Go to Settings → Import History
- Click Run Import
- The import processes all data types and shows progress
This uses the same pipeline as the automatic sync. It does not delete existing data -- it updates and adds to it.
Tips
- Do not disconnect and reconnect your shop to "fix" data issues. A manual sync is the correct approach.
- Check Settings → Import History if your numbers seem outdated. You can see the last sync status and trigger a manual sync if needed.
- Large shops may see partial data on the Dashboard while the import is still running. Wait for the import to complete before evaluating your numbers.
Common Issues
Import stuck at a stage
Occasionally, an import can stall due to temporary TikTok API rate limits. Dashboardly automatically retries with increasing delays. If an import shows no progress for over ~2 hours, contact support.
Import completed but data looks incomplete
Check whether TikTok Seller Center shows data for the same date range. Some metrics (like financial statements) are only available after TikTok finalizes them, which takes at least 48 hours but can be longer for some orders.
"Import failed" error
This usually means TikTok's API returned an error. Common causes:
- Your authorization token expired (reconnect the shop in Settings → Shops)
- TikTok's servers were temporarily unavailable (the import will automatically retry)
- Your shop was suspended or restricted on TikTok's side
If the problem persists after reconnecting, contact support.