Lilypad Connect for BigCommerce

Lilypad Connect is an integration platform that keeps your BigCommerce store in sync with your back-office systems — Fishbowl, Fishbowl Online, Katana, and other ERP/inventory tools. Once installed, your BigCommerce orders flow into your ERP automatically, your ERP inventory levels are pushed back to your storefront, and fulfillment data (tracking numbers, shipment status) is mirrored across both systems with no manual export.

This guide walks through everything from install to ongoing operation. If you get stuck at any point, see the Support section.

1. What Lilypad Connect does

Lilypad Connect runs three core syncs between BigCommerce and your ERP:

You decide which syncs to enable, how often each one runs, and how data maps between the two systems.

2. Before you install

You'll need:

• A BigCommerce store with admin access (you must be able to install apps from the App Marketplace).
• A supported ERP / inventory system ready to connect. Lilypad Connect currently supports:
  • Fishbowl (on-prem REST API)
  • Fishbowl Online
  • Katana
  • Cin7 / Extensiv (additional drivers — see your listing)
• For Fishbowl on-prem: the ERP server must be reachable from the public internet (a static IP or hostname, with the REST port open through your firewall). Lilypad Connect cannot connect to a Fishbowl instance that's only accessible inside your office network.
• ERP credentials: a user account with read/write access to orders, inventory, and shipments. We recommend a dedicated service account named something like LilypadConnect-API so you can audit activity.

3. Installing the app

1. From the BigCommerce App Marketplace, click Get this app on the Lilypad Connect listing.
2. BigCommerce asks you to confirm the requested permissions:
   • Read & write Orders
   • Read & write Products and Inventory
   • Read & write Shipping & Fulfillments
   • Read Store Information (currency, locations, store name)
3. Click Confirm. BigCommerce redirects you to Lilypad Connect and completes the OAuth handshake. You'll land on the Dashboard.

The install itself is the only OAuth step. From here on, all setup happens inside Lilypad Connect.

Tip: If you don't see the redirect after clicking Confirm, your browser may have blocked the popup. Check your browser's address bar for a popup notification, allow lilypadconnect.com, and click the install button again.

Adding teammates

Lilypad Connect supports multiple admins per store. Any user that the store owner has granted "Lilypad Connect" access to in BigCommerce's User Management can open the app from the BigCommerce admin.

To give a teammate access, the store owner needs to do two things:

1. In BigCommerce admin → Settings → Users, edit the teammate's user record and grant them access to the Lilypad Connect app.
2. In Lilypad Connect, invite that same person as a member of your Lilypad organization. Use the email address that matches their BigCommerce user account.

Both steps are required. BigCommerce decides who can launch the app from the store admin; Lilypad Connect decides what they can see and do once they're inside. Either side alone is not enough.

When a store owner later revokes a user's access in BigCommerce User Management, BigCommerce notifies Lilypad Connect immediately and that user can no longer open the app from the store admin.

4. Connecting your ERP

Lilypad Connect treats BigCommerce as one side of a pipe and your ERP as the other. You need to add a connection to your ERP before any syncs will run.

1. From the left nav, click Connections.

2. Click Add connection and pick your ERP (Fishbowl, Fishbowl Online, Katana, etc.).

3. Fill in the credentials for that ERP. For Fishbowl on-prem the fields are:

   Field	What to enter
   Host	The public IP or hostname of your Fishbowl server (e.g. 47.22.28.34).
   Port	The Fishbowl REST API port (default 2900).
   Username	The Fishbowl user the integration should run as.
   Password	That user's password.

   Other ERPs use API keys or OAuth flows — the form will adapt.

4. Click Test connection. A green check confirms Lilypad Connect can reach your ERP and authenticate. If you see a red error, see the Troubleshooting section.

5. Save. The connection now appears in the Connections list and is ready to be paired with your BigCommerce integration.

5. Configuring sync modules

With both sides connected, go to Integrations in the left nav. Your BigCommerce store appears as an integration card. Click it to open the configuration drawer, where you'll enable and configure each sync module.

5.1 Orders sync (BigCommerce → ERP)

Push BigCommerce orders into your ERP as soon as they reach a status you care about.

Settings:

• Order statuses to import — pick one or more of Pending, Processing, Completed, Refunded. Most merchants choose Processing (paid orders ready to ship). Default: Pending.
• Date lookback (days) — how far back the sync should look on each run. Default: 7 days. Increase only if you're catching up after an outage; a higher value means each run does more work.

5.2 Inventory sync (ERP → BigCommerce)

Push live stock levels from your ERP to BigCommerce.

Settings:

• Location mappings — for each ERP warehouse / location group, pick the BigCommerce location it maps to. Inventory in mapped locations is pushed; inventory in unmapped locations is ignored. This is required for the sync to run.

5.3 Shipments sync (ERP → BigCommerce)

When you ship from your ERP, Lilypad Connect creates a corresponding fulfillment on the BigCommerce order with the same tracking number and carrier.

No additional settings — the sync runs against orders that already exist on both sides (i.e. orders previously imported by the Orders sync).

6. Scheduling automated syncs

By default the modules don't run on their own — you need to give each one a schedule (or trigger them manually from the Dashboard).

1. Go to Schedules in the left nav.
2. Click Add schedule and pick:
   • The integration (BigCommerce)
   • The module (Orders sync, Inventory sync, or Shipments sync)
   • The cadence (e.g. Every 5 minutes, Every hour, or a custom cron expression like */15 * * * *)
3. Save. The schedule is now active and the next run time appears on the card.

Recommended starting cadences:

You can pause or delete a schedule at any time without losing its history.

7. Monitoring & troubleshooting

Lilypad Connect ships with two pages dedicated to keeping you informed.

7.1 Reports

Reports in the left nav shows every sync run — past and current — with status, item counts, and per-run details.

• Click a row to open the run details panel. You'll see the items table with every record processed, its status (Imported, Re-imported, Failed), and the message returned by the ERP for failures.
• If a run failed before producing any items, the empty state shows the reason inline and links you to the Health page for more context.

7.2 Health

Health in the left nav surfaces the overall state of your integrations: queue depth, recent error rates per integration, and a list of any active incidents. Check this first whenever something looks off.

7.3 Common error messages

7.4 What to do when a sync fails

1. Open Reports, find the failed run, click into it.
2. Read the message. If it's a connection-level error, jump to Health to confirm the connection state.
3. If the run failed on a specific item (e.g. "Product X has no SKU"), fix that item in your ERP or BigCommerce and re-run the sync manually from the Dashboard.
4. If you're still stuck, contact Support with the run ID from the Reports page.

8. Uninstalling

To remove Lilypad Connect:

1. From the BigCommerce admin, go to Apps → My Apps.
2. Find Lilypad Connect and click Uninstall.
3. BigCommerce revokes the OAuth tokens and Lilypad Connect stops receiving webhooks. Any pending syncs are cancelled.

Your historical sync data and run records remain in Lilypad Connect for audit purposes for 90 days. If you'd like that data removed sooner, email support (below).

Support

• Email: support@lilypadapplications.com
• Hours: Monday – Friday, 9am – 6pm Eastern
• Response time: Same business day for outages; within 1 business day for everything else.

When emailing about a failed sync, please include the Run ID from the Reports page and a brief description of what you expected to happen. That's enough for us to dig in immediately.