Magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetotail is thought to create bursty bulk flows (BBFs), short-lived plasma bulk velocity enhancements in the magnetotail’s central plasma sheet (CPS) region. Closely related to BBFs are dipolarization fronts (DFs), sudden increases in Bz, the magnetic field component aligned with Earth’s magnetic dipole axis. Both phenomena affect energy distribution and flux transport in the magnetotail.   We demonstrate novel methods of identifying BBFs and DFs in 3D global magnetospheric simulations and present results for multiple case studies. We search for BBFs and DFs in a simulation conducted using the 3D global magnetospheric hybrid-Vlasov code Vlasiator. DFs are identified using a magnetic field time derivative threshold, whereas BBF are defined based on a velocity threshold. Tailward DFs (anti-dipolarization fronts) are found at magnetic islands, while earthward DFs are mostly seen in finger-like structures of high earthward bulk velocity alongside BBFs. We show that detections of fast flows meeting the BBF criteria in virtual spacecraft time series also originate due to moving reconnection locations and movement of the current sheet within the CPS region, while the reconnection outflow stays roughly constant. The results show that rapid Bz variations in the simulation have multiple sources, and similar satellite measurements of BBFs can arise from different physical phenomena. Our findings may help with interpreting satellite observations in the magnetotail.