Fishbowl Manufacturing: A QuickBooks-Integrated Solution for Small & Medium Businesses

I am going to attempt to explain Fishbowl Manufacturing is 500 words. Why? Just because it’s a fun challenge. Let’s begin.

Fishbowl Manufacturing is a QuickBooks-integrated software solution that gives small and midsize businesses access to numerous manufacturing and warehouse management features for an affordable price.

Fishbowl Manufacturing is the No. 1 manufacturing solution for QuickBooks users. It integrates seamlessly with the popular accounting software, allowing companies to track their inventory in multiple warehouses, create complex bills of materials and work orders, and do many other things outside the scope of QuickBooks’ limited features. It also integrates with Xero, an online accounting solution.

Fishbowl Manufacturing not only integrates with QuickBooks and Xero, but also with dozens of other solutions in a variety of categories, such as accounting, CRM, ecommerce, EDI, merchant services, shipping, mobile hardware, and operating systems. Magento, UPS, FedEx, USPS, SolidWorks, Dropbox, Amazon, Avalara, and PayTrace are just a few of the many business solutions that Fishbowl Manufacturing integrates with. And Fishbowl Manufacturing offers more than a dozen plugins that are built right into its interface. All you have to do is have an active account with a specific solution and then activate your corresponding module in Fishbowl Manufacturing.

Fishbowl Manufacturing’s modules give companies the following features:

• Production Stages: Create dynamic work orders and bills of materials with multiple production stages so that each step must be done in the correct order before moving on to the next one.
• Manufacturing Jobs: Perform assembly, disassembly, repair, custom and other manufacturing jobs both quickly and accurately. This allows you to build finished products and take other finished products apart, as well as swap out parts in them.
• Work Order Batches: Create work orders in batches or one at a time to speed up the manufacturing process on multiple orders.
• Bill of Materials Replication: Replicate any bill of materials for future jobs to save time and ensure their accuracy. This is a helpful tool if you have a certain bill of materials that you use frequently, and you want to have it readily available.
• Task Scheduling and Assignment: Schedule every task in the production process and assign each one to a specific worker. So you always know who is accountable for getting things done and when each task should be completed by.

Fishbowl Manufacturing is more than a manufacturing solution. It also contains all of the advanced warehouse management features that growing businesses need to stay in control of their inventory across multiple locations. Its inventory management features include:

• Checking inventory levels and making transfers between multiple locations.
• Monitoring sales trends by location so you know which products sell best at each one.
• Keeping track of vendor performance over time to ensure on-time deliveries and favorable payment terms.
• Setting up automatic reorder points on inventory items to avoid overstocks and shortages.
• Quicker picking, packing, and shipping via automatic pick tickets and integrations with shippers.
• Optimizing warehouse layout to maximize the use of storage space.
• Adding up all costs associated with products, including labor and carrying costs.
• Managing sales and purchases in unlimited currencies with multi-currency conversion.
• Turning price quotes into sales orders.

There we go. Five hundred words precisely. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So now that you’ve heard me describe Fishbowl Manufacturing in 500 words, you can sign up for an online demo of this software and have a Fishbowl expert paint a picture of how it all works. So that experience will be worth two of these blog posts.

Hm. Maybe I’m selling myself short.