Fishbowl Inventory Management Solution

How Fishbowl Inventory Complements QuickBooks

Fishbowl Inventory is an inventory management solution that targets small to mid-sized companies needing a more robust feature set than what QuickBooks alone offers. Fishbowl stops many QuickBooks users from migrating to another accounting package when they reach the inventory or customer limitations of QuickBooks. When used with QuickBooks, Fishbowl takes over complete control of the inventory system including sales orders, purchase orders, and sales transactions while QuickBooks continues to do what it does best - handling the accounting behind the scenes.

Fishbowl does an impressive job in filling in the QuickBooks inventory gaps in order to offer its customers a robust end-to-end solution. All accounting data is exported from Fishbowl into QuickBooks as inventory changes are made. The following chart shows the additional features provided by Fishbowl Inventory for QuickBooks users:

Creating Customized Reports for Fishbowl Inventory

One challenge customers had in the past with Fishbowl was a relative lack of customizable, flexible reporting. Although it was possible to create custom reports using Crystal Reports or Access, it proved to be cumbersome for many users. Fishbowl recently introduced iReport, which allows users to create customized reports that can be memorized and saved to a file within Fishbowl Inventory. Also, Fishbowl now includes over twenty built-in reports that satisfy the most common requirements.

Bar-Coding Solutions

Fishbowl offers an add-on solution called SWIM, which stands for shop and warehouse information manager. While any wedge bar-code scanner can work with the POS system, SWIM provides real-time bar-coding scanning for receiving, picking, manufacturing or for inventory moves within the Fishbowl system.

SWIM runs on the Pocket PC platform so it can work with PDAs such as the Dell Axim X-50, or you can purchase a scanner such as the Symbol MC50 or 8846. This solution can work in real time using a wireless network or you can put it in batch mode when inventory is stored out of range of the wireless network such as when inventory is on a truck or in a separate warehouse.

Managing Purchasing Decisions within Fishbowl

Fishbowl offers many features to help purchasing agents know what, how much, and when to buy inventory. The Auto ROP Wizard calculates the reorder point and the order-up-to level for any part based on historical data. It even projects whether revenue for a particular item is increasing or decreasing over a period of time.

Fishbowl also has a robust feature set for creating POs. After you define a default vendor and reorder point for each item, Fishbowl groups items from each vendor and automatically creates purchase orders as necessary. Items that have reached their reorder points also show up on the reorder report. The user can then review the POs or issue them as needed. The latest version of Fishbowl also allows you to create purchase orders automatically from Sales Orders. This is great for companies who do not keep inventory on hand, or who manufacture as orders are received from customers.

There are several purchasing reports that provide information about outstanding orders, which parts are worth stocking in inventory and which parts aren't, and which parts are sold by which vendor with their associated prices. All these features streamline the work for purchasing agents and management.

Multifaceted Inventory Management

Quite often small businesses need a robust system with advanced features that allow them to carry and manage a variety of inventory items, in multiple locations. Sometimes inventory needs to be tracked and sold from multiple locations, both within the warehouse and at various other remote sites. Users need to see at a glance what is on hand, allocated, committed, or backordered and where it's located.

Fishbowl addresses these issues through use of a Client-Server architecture that allows multiple users to access a single database over a network, the Internet, or any broadband connection. The inventory database (the "Service") typically resides on the server and any number of clients may access it from any number of locations. This is a real advantage for those QuickBooks users who are frustrated over having to maintain separate inventories at separate locations.

Each part in Fishbowl can be tracked by lot number, serial number, revision level and/or expiration date. Additional part information includes a picture of the part, vendor purchase history, vendor part number, reorder levels for each part at each location, memos, etc. These will be of particular interest to QuickBooks users who, in the past, had to deal with elaborate and often difficult work-arounds for this level of inventory control.

And to make sure the inventory levels are always correct, Fishbowl offers an outstanding way to manage cycle counting. The program automatically assigns parts to an "A", "B" or "C" category based on the sales or consumption volume for that part. Bar coding may also be employed for receiving, selling or moving items from one location to another.

Another way fishbowl makes inventory management easier is by including a unit of measure conversion tool. A purchasing agent can purchase in one unit of measure and have it stored in another. This means that a tile distributor could purchase tile by the square yard or square meter and store it by the piece or per square foot.

Handling Sales through Fishbowl

Fishbowl includes two sales modules, one for Point of Sale (POS), and another for Sales Orders (SO). The POS is designed primarily for retail where a simple cash and carry system is needed. A simple Point of Sale bar code reader can be used in conjunction with this module.

The SO module is more detailed and allows the user a much greater degree of flexibility. Line items may be selected from a type-ahead menu, search function, PRODUCT TREE or QUICKLIST. The search function allows the user to search on part number, name, description, etc. The Product Tree is a hierarchical categorization designed to help a user identify a part number when they are unsure of the number, name or description. The Quicklist is an SO template that eliminates the need to re-enter the same information onto new orders that are similar to previous ones.

A flexible pricing module allows users to define discounts/markups across customer groups, product lines using the Product Tree, individual products or any combination of these three and can be applied over a specific time frame or indefinitely. One product can be listed in multiple groups, so multiple discounts or markups could be applied to any given product. You may base pricing discounts or markups on minimum ordered quantities, and these may be defined by a percentage or a dollar amount.

The sales module also allows you to create estimates before issuing sales. It also allows sales reps to see where inventory can be found, and whether or not it is on hand, allocated or issued for another SO. This means that if one store does not have an item in stock the sales rep can easily locate it.

An interesting and powerful feature in the Fishbowl SO module is the Configurator. It is an "on-the-fly" customizable Bill of Materials which allows the user to select optional or variable items from previously defined categories (these are defined in the parts' BOM module). Think of a computer store that sells a basic computer system. When the user sells the system, a popup appears within the SO giving a list of the monitors available with this system. The sales rep enters the customer's selection. Next they select the type of hard drive desired and then so forth. As selections are made, a temporary Bill of Materials is defined. Premium items beyond the standard setup result in additional costs. Upon completion of the SO, a work order is automatically created for the configured part.

Once the SO is completed, a pick list is generated. The user has the flexibility to pick from multiple locations, lot numbers, serial numbers, revision levels, etc. Once the picked items are committed to the SO they move to the shipping module for shipment. Fishbowl currently integrates with UPS Worldship.

Light Manufacturing\Kitting Using Fishbowl Inventory

Fishbowl includes a BOM and WO capability. The BOM is defined in the Parts module and has no limit on the number of parts, sub-assemblies, or types of parts included. Parts with a BOM can be defined to automatically create a work order (WO) within the WO module. The WO allows multiple BOM levels. However, it does not automatically explode out all those levels as some manufacturing software does. The WO includes a printable pick list of the required items, a BOM to which additional items may be added, and a date at which the WO needs to be completed. Fishbowl is a practical solution for companies that do light manufacturing or assembling of kits (kitting).

In summary, Fishbowl Inventory is an impressive solution for QuickBooks customers who need robust inventory in the retail businesses, as well as light manufacturing controls for small manufacturers or custom manufacturers. In addition, Fishbowl offers a terrific value proposition for professional advisors. For more information, contact Fishbowl at 800-774-7085. If you are interested in becoming a Pro Advisor, you may contact Kent Blackhurst directly at extension 113. For more information about Fishbowl, go to their web site at www.FishbowlInventory.com