Fishbowl

Avantages

Able to use remotely to check inventory.

Inconvénients

Would like to see search for part numbers improved. Currently if your looking for a vendor number in the system you would have to look it up under the supplier # column it was entered. Would like a search bar that scans the entire data base and pulls up relevant information based on your search.

Avantages

The program is intuitive and extremely in depth. We a food manufacturer (coffee roaster) and we invoice through Fishbowl. We are not yet using the mobile app, so I can't talk about that. Unlike our accounting system (brand Q), one module smoothly integrates with the next. It is easy to administer and our users just get it. It is the standard by which other database systems should be measured. The integration with Quickbooks is painless. Fully automated and has never, never failed. I have not had one single

Inconvénients

Their chat support isn't the most knowledgeable. They do have the option of custom fields, but there isn't the option to make some fields visible/invisible. The server occasionally locks up, however, all you need to do is restart. No fuss.

Avantages

From an administrator standpoint it is very easy to implement and maintain. From a end user standpoint it is very easy to train new Fishbowl users, all modules are designed with the end users ease of use in mind. Technical Support personnel are very knowledgeable and usually isolate and fix and issues quickly.

Inconvénients

I wish the reporting side of Fishbowl was more robust, Home Care Industries is a manufacturer they rely heavily on making sure raw materials are on hand or on order to meet customer orders. Having a true MPS or MRP as part of Fishbowl with be a great enhancement.

Avantages

The support team is always ready to dive into your database file and find the root cause of issues in your environment.
Serialization and product tracking is very functional and allows us to obtain important history on each item sold
Reports have high customization options and with a little SQL programming knowledge you can virtually get any information you are looking for out of the database.

Inconvénients

Growing pains in the earlier years of Fishbowl was a little difficult but many of these have gone away after they switched from Firebird to MySQL platform.
It is a little expensive.

Avantages

Comprehensive from orders through production and shipping

Inconvénients

Software customization seems to take a while

Avantages

If you do simple wholesale, this is fine if you don't need their support.

Inconvénients

1) Constantly crashing and supports wants money for bunch of error codes when doing export to Quickbook
2) Tons of data always didn't get exported and FB is no where for help
3) Can't pull accurate report on inventory valuation summary, excel export is garbage and hard to sort, can't sort valuation summary by date, and all reporting feature are just bad
4) They will ask for a lot of money when their software constantly crashes and hard to reach anyone to help
5) Very difficult to use for manufacturing such as selecting bill of material and etc.

Avantages

I like that we can track all orders placed and fulffilled and how items received and what we have in stock.

Inconvénients

Don't like that old orders that were place the previous year but received in the new year and when QuickBooks is locked for the previous year Fishbowl will have an error and it will stop everything else from pushing through because of that one error which is a huge flaw in my opinion. IT stops everything.

Avantages

Although we requested a relatively minor modification to the resident Pick Ticket report, we were extremely pleased as to the quality and speed at which the modified report was provided to us by the Fishbowl Reports team.

Specifically, we had requested our applicable lot numbers of each of our respective products be visible on the new report, and it indeed operates just as advertised and is a big time-saver for our team.

Inconvénients

We had absolutely no issues with the design, installation or testing of our custom report.

Avantages

Fishbowl is a simple but robust solution and meets our requirements from order entry and order fulfillment at our Headquarters and manufacturing facilities. It integrates with Salesforce via a API and is continually improving. The Fishbowl Plug-in team specifically Jacobi Sardoni is great to work with as they focus on the problem, help you resolve it and educate you on the way. Over all very professional in their efforts. Thank you!

Inconvénients

From a sales perspective, the Salesforce API was initially limited but has gone through some major revisions to become a more robust API we can trust. Their are still some features that need to be improved relative to fulfillment.

Avantages

Fishbowl offers and unparalleled ease of use. Our whole team was trained and up and running in hours. You simply won't find another software package with the range of features and reliability at this price range. It easily bests other software packages costing 3 times what Fishbowl costs!

Inconvénients

Their call back support could be a little faster, but it's still likely better than most software companies.

Avantages

Super practical, everything is where I think it should and named what you'd think it should be name. I hate when a program tries to create their own unique way to do things, just because they came up with some stupid acronym they think that improves their program. It doesn't it just makes it harder to learn, fishbowl has accurate names that make super easy to pick up and use.

Inconvénients

The history "tabs" close to the top don't look like tabs, someone could easily over look them.

Avantages

Inventory Tracking is the biggest thing. Easy of use with Sales Order and Purchase Orders. It sends my accounting info to Quickbooks automatically at the end of the day.

Inconvénients

Set up was a little time consuming. It took some effort to get everything in properly and just adapting to the new software functionality.

Avantages

One of the team members was my point of contact for our recent issue. We started upgrade at close of business and ran into issue late in the night. The upgrade process had been test driven successfully on the new target servers prior but something in the tag data at the moment of upgrade caused a failure. We opened for business the next AM dead in the water. They were excellent in his handling of the issue and giving it the attention we needed as our business was on hold due to the issue. The DB Tech that worked on the problem was also on point in the solving of the issue.

Inconvénients

Only cure for bugs is full upgrade. Given that we have many custom reports it does not make it an easy option. Would like to also see support for iReport as it is bundled with your product but discontinued on it's own. Lastly, would like to see a solution that would create true "Admin" level accounts. We have in house admins that get all rights but cannot affect "Company" (and other misc) settings without using the factory "Admin" account.

Avantages

Integration with our accounting software. Able to save documents to the drive for later recall. Multiple users in the system without slow down. Get ship quotes while staying in the sales order. Able to email customer estimates from sales order.

Inconvénients

Updates sometimes cause issues with the software and need to be addressed by customer service. Customer service is only open 8-6 mountain time. Our third party forms are easily broken when major updates are needed. This slows our processes down.

Avantages

Intuitive software that is easy to use all over our woodshop.

Inconvénients

Some of the reports are not thorough, and the way data is tied to reports could be more customizable.

Avantages

Logical progression of activity and inventory movement. System is reliable and like anything else if it is used properly, you can rely on the results for inventory verification, PO status and exporting to QuickBooks.

Inconvénients

the reports feature needs work to better assimilate data as I find the need to get outside help to write reports that I like to see but is nice to see that it assimilates in the system

Avantages

Easy to use inventory management software. The layout is easy to grasp and teach other. It has multiple levels for tracking inventory, such as lot numbers.

Inconvénients

Small learning curve creating manufacture order / BOM

Avantages

Integration with our manufacturing process was easy. Purchases, Receiving, Bill of materials and Work Orders fulfilled our needs.

Inconvénients

Reports provided are too basic, no help documentation to create your own reports. If you need a detailed or custom reports you have to purchase them apart.

Avantages

Calendar is nice and the custom boxes for sales, picking, ect....

Inconvénients

Reports need to be improved. They do not add up total sales figures on gross sales by salesperson, you have to grab a calculator. Statements, orders, backorders all need to be by salesperson. No way to run 30/60/90 day accounting report

Avantages

Fishbowl is easy to use and affordable. Outstanding customer support.

Inconvénients

There really isn't anything I don't like about Fishbowl. It's been a great software for our company.

Avantages

Very easy to use and train new employees

Inconvénients

The ability to modify orders easily. Often times you have to undo an entire order to fix something. Very time consuming

Avantages

Ease of use. Seem to make updates from requested ideas.

Inconvénients

They don't currently have an online version, only through hosted.

Avantages

It is very easy to use and get started and running...great interface to Quickbooks! We have been able to easily use the FB for our production environment and use it way beyond just for inventory!

Inconvénients

The reporting...the inability to create ad hoc reports without knowing SQL. Reports are very difficult to customize without help from a FB. It is also limited on the scheduling in a manufacturing environment.

Avantages

Ease of use and ability to control all aspects of our products, from manufacturing to packaging to shipping out.

Inconvénients

It can be overwhelming with all the options when beginning use, but support is super helpful and there are tons of tools to help you learn.

Avantages

Mining the data for sales reports, helps with forecasting. Fishbowl is a big time saver for creating Sales Orders and shipping pack lists

Inconvénients

I don't like that most of the sales reports rely on when the sales orders are shipped versus when they ordered

Avantages

Inventory management and quick order entry.

Inconvénients

The client kept hanging up and we'd have to restart. This last update, this has been addressed! So good.

Avantages

We very much enjoy the manufacturing module that has been added. This has added tremendous value to the Fishbowl Software

Inconvénients

Fishbowl lacks upgrades to the system and customization. Also the custom reports needed per company are rather expensive. We should be able to create our own reports and save them.

Avantages

Integrations with QuickBooks can be incredibly useful for companies already based in QuickBooks. It makes training for accounting much easier. From a manufacturing perspective, FishBowl is a fairly powerful tool that can track inventory and assist in production planning.

Inconvénients

Since we are a manufacturing company that sells to distributors, one of our core 'ERP' requirements is storing quotes to distributors/customers for parts/products. If FishBowl had some sort of CRM, it would make the software more robust.

Avantages

Fishbowl was easy to integrate for our business.

Inconvénients

I feel that, at least one, of the reports should have already been part of the system and not something we had to purchase.

Avantages

It's user friendly and and its ability to grow with the company.

Inconvénients

The inability to track types of changes made automaticlly.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi passer à Fishbowl

Avantages

Fishbowl software allows my company to always be in the know of our inventory position.
It is EASY to learn and easy to use.
This week I am adding 7 more users and having All my "on-the-road" salesmen use FISHBOWL directly. For Sales processing, for Inventory stocking orders, for Creating customers etc... Its that easy to use!!
A big shout out to my EASTERN Support team for the great support through CHAT, and to Jordan Boyce as he currently has been really taking care of my issues for my immediate upgrading of my use with Fishbowl. Adding FISHBOWL HOSTING to my affiliation with FB to secure that my Mobile Salesmen are using a STABLE environment!

Inconvénients

Some REPORTS are not in the nicest format, nor have the best "filters" to navigate.
As well Little features [like spell check in email body templates] are missing, but Fishbowl does often upgrade their platform with new releases which often has these fixes.

Avantages

The product was very easy to use and learn. The modules are sensible and easy to navigate. It is easy to import existing location and inventory data into the system. You can be up and running in about 1 hour.

Inconvénients

You have to pay for custom reports to be created. I also did not enjoy the data being housed in an onsite server. Also Fishbowl Go (the mobile version of the software) was not rolled out well at all and had a multitude of bugs. Customer service was not helpful or attentive.

Avantages

This software has the tools necessary to manage and maintain inventory.

Inconvénients

Training required due to the non-intuitiveness of the software

Avantages

Feature I like the most are more on the Inventory Features like transfer order, inventory monitoring and the likes.

Inconvénients

You need high level of scripting skills to customize the forms and reports.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi passer à Fishbowl

Avantages

We can easily enter and track every orders. All PO, SO, and inventory numbers are related, easy to organized.

Inconvénients

Don't have muti language. Such as Chinese, Spanish..

Avantages

Easy to use, all explanations are well on the website.

Inconvénients

It is a program used by many companies, so it is difficult to execute our own unique report.t

Avantages

Very easy to use, integrated with company processes smoothly.

Inconvénients

Would be nice if it was compatible with more programs. I.E. Logicbroker

Avantages

Seeing everything live anytime you want is what makes this software great. Many integrations with other softwares available, most important being QuickBooks! The visibility on the details is fantastic and the reporting module has most of what we need.

Inconvénients

The system has all the basics, but not very flexible depending on the specific needs of a given company.

Avantages

Cycle Counting Functionality, Lot Traceability, Can track customer specific fields like Country of Origin, Carton Quantity, any specific as needed. The activity report is very detailed to track parts and what user touched them last. We import and are able to easily hold the product in our inventory for dollar value but as 'in-transit' (not sellable or pickable) once it sails until it actually hits the door. Inventory dollars between FB and Quickbooks are very accurate.

Inconvénients

Does not have an EASY way to handle 'outside processing'; It can be done with transfer orders, but it is a bit time consuming.
Currently, the Activity Report is losing user ids.

Avantages

For a wholesale / retail business, this is a feature packed program that handles most day to day operations and is accurate. Being PC / Server based, you don't have lag time or glitches. It's a good solid program. Integration with QBO is seamless... one button updates or create a schedule. Unlike other software companies, the service package is affordable, and the support staff is top notch.

Inconvénients

This program is great for start up and smaller businesses, but the downside is the upfront initial cost. After using Fishbowl Inventory, you will find that the benefits outweight the cost.

Avantages

The software in itself is very easy to use, and provides a value when fulfilling orders and doing auto purchase orders.

Inconvénients

Some reports are lacking in substance, and some features are not easy to figure out.

Avantages

Inventory management in our warehouse is a critical function.

Inconvénients

Not able to correct data from the database directly.

Avantages

It integrates nicely with QuickBooks and handles all the complex inventory valuation/counts outside of QuickBooks. It's really a great addition if you have a lot of inventory and are using QuickBooks.

Inconvénients

It's a little pricey, but most inventory softwares are. Also, if you're using it, make sure you're using that latest version. They updated a couple years ago and I've seen clients struggle because the client wanted to save money and not upgrade.

Avantages

Best part of Fishbowl is their reporting. Being able to analyze past purchasing and sales reports to better forecast inventory movement is crucial and Fishbowl nails it. I also like that they have a direct import and export function to link with our eCommerce site.

Inconvénients

The menu and navigation can seem a bit convoluted, but I'm convinced this is the case with any software boasting so much functionality.

Avantages

Works with QuickBooks, the accounting software that we use.

Inconvénients

Unknown, FishBowl works well for my uses.

Avantages

1. Features is competing with other more expensive product
2. Easy to use
3. Only need to pay once (but beware of the support scam!!!)

Inconvénients

The support is total scam!
They will ask you to subscribe support contract or something, if you want to ask anything to them. Even if the problem is actually their mistake! I used to be able to import/export csv from/to fishbowl before, now i can’t anymore since i update the software. I contact the support regarding this problem and they ask me to buy support contract otherwise they will not answer my question ticket! I mean come on it’s a basic function of the product and clearly it’s because the bug of new version. And they’ll ask us to pay to solve their mistake ??? Duh! I’m totally migrating my database to Other product definitely!

Avantages

We would like to use the program for lot tracking

Inconvénients

We have tried to get Fishbowl Go mobile scanning and tracking working properly. The program frequently locks up requiring a restart. Fishbowl support is just a round robin of support analysts with nobody taking ownership for our isssues

Avantages

The way it controls the inventory. Very ease to use and manage.

Inconvénients

There isn't much I don't like anymore now that I have used all features over the years.

Avantages

This product is very easy to use. Our main goal was a front end order entry program with inventory management. For a manufacturing company to pull inventory in many different units of measure are a huge benefit to our company with tracking inventory consumption.

Inconvénients

I think my only issue is having to update any custom reports every time there is a new update so your report is compatible with the version you are updating to.

Avantages

It does most we need but wish there was no RDP version

Inconvénients

Go app has some real issues. Search is ineffective. Stability issues