What do I need to do to set this up?

Very little. Encompass enables the Enable RealTime Snowflake Sync setting for your system once the add-on is purchased. There is no downtime, no re-seed, and no change to how you use Encompass — the same tables and columns you query today simply update sooner. If you also want to query the warehouse directly from your own Snowflake account, install the Snowflake Share application from the App Library and enter your Snowflake Account Locator. Encompass provisions the share automatically and emails you the SQL to run in a Snowflake worksheet to attach it (creating a warehouse, then creating a database from the share).

Which changes are not synchronized in real time?

These continue on the normal scheduled frequency rather than streaming:

Does the scheduled sync stop running once real-time is enabled?

No, and that is intentional. The scheduled sync keeps running underneath as a reconciliation pass: it compares each table's most recent change against the last successful sync, so anything the real-time path missed is picked up on the next run. Real-time is a fast path layered on top of the scheduled sync, not a replacement for it. This is what keeps the warehouse correct even if an individual streamed update fails.

What happens if a real-time update fails?

Each update is retried up to five times with an increasing delay between attempts. If it still fails, Encompass Support is notified automatically and the change is corrected by the next scheduled reconciliation pass. Under an unusually heavy burst of changes, updates queue rather than fail; if the queue stays saturated the oldest updates fall back to the scheduled sync, again with a notification to Support.

Is the real-time data identical to the operational database?

With one exception. Very large free-text values — long notes, comments, and stored documents' text bodies — are shortened in the real-time update, and the full value lands on the next scheduled sync of that table. Everything else is written in full. Reporting on these very large text columns should use the scheduled sync rather than expecting real-time completeness.

Are updates guaranteed to arrive in order?

Within a single table, yes — changes to the same record are applied in the order they happened. Across different tables, updates are processed independently, so a report joining two tables during a burst of activity may briefly see one table a moment ahead of the other. Both settle within seconds.

Is the cost one-time or recurring?

Recurring. It is an ongoing addition to your Encompass subscription, quoted as a percentage of your current total subscription fees, so it scales with the size of your system. Contact your account manager for a quote.

Are there other costs beyond the Encompass add-on?

If you query the Data Warehouse from your own Snowflake account through a share, you are responsible for your own Snowflake compute and storage charges for that account. Encompass does not bill or control those. Real-time sync does not change your Snowflake costs — it changes when data arrives, not how much you query. It also removes most of the need for the Manual Data Warehouse Sync action, which carries a per-second processing fee, so many systems see that usage drop to nearly zero.