Small point: if you do your work offline in between builds (scheduled or otherwise) there is no need to worry about hits. Hits are added to the data/hits/ directory and then merged into links.db when you run a build. Same with ratings.

A more likely issue to watch out for, in my opinion, is link submissions. If you receive one while working on the database offline, you will need to be careful to adjust the ID# of the submitted link to one not taken by your offline work.

Dan