SpreadSync

Small retailers often trust spreadsheets more than replacement systems, but a bidirectional sheet spanning commerce, marketplaces, accounting, and retailer EDI can create conflicting sources of truth and irreversible errors. The supplied research confirms spreadsheet and EDI interfaces plus a low-cost inventory-only competitor, but not every proposed commerce and accounting write path.

SpreadSync must define authority per field and workflow. A user edits a governed table; the add-on validates type, units, identifiers, required context, channel rules, and current source version; then shows the exact proposed writes. Approval creates idempotent provider requests. Acknowledgment and readback update separate sync-state columns without overwriting the user's source value silently. Conflicts stop rather than choosing a winner.

Cell-level lint can detect versioned deterministic rules, not guarantee retailer, tax, accounting, product-safety, labeling, customs, or regulatory compliance. Financial postings and consequential channel changes require separate controls and qualified ownership. The first pilot should use one narrow inventory workflow before claiming a real-time multi-channel backbone.

Operations leaders at small retail and direct-to-consumer brands that already manage products or inventory in spreadsheets and need controlled write-through to selected channels.