Month: February 2019

Fishbowl Inventory Reports

Fishbowl Inventory has a large selection of standard reports available (over 150 last time we counted).  These reports can help you understand what is happening in your company by showing you your Purchases and Sales, Inventory Asset Values, and Manufacturing activities, to name a few.  Here are some tips that can help you make the most out of your Fishbowl reports.

Fishbowl Inventory Reports

Using the “Modify Report” Filters

When you open a report, you will see an icon at the top-left of the report with the words “Modify Report” beneath it.  If you click the icon, a window will pop up that displays all of the available filters for that report.  Some of these filters can mean the difference in whether or not a report is useful to your company.

We recommend that you play around with the filters to see how they affect your reports.  If you find some filters that you would like to apply to the report every time you open it, set your desired filters and then click the little blue disk at the bottom-left of the “Modify Report” window.  Now, every time you run the report, it will automatically apply your saved filters.

Module Associations

The Reports Module holds all of the reports that are available in Fishbowl Inventory.  What if, however, you want to access a report from a different module?  For example, you want to see the Inventory Availability report in the Sales Order Module.  To make this happen, access the report in the Reports Module, and then click the “Details” tab at top of the report, and then scroll down the list until you find the desired Module.  Then, simply place a checkmark in the box next to the module, and from then on, you will be able to access the report within the associated module.

What if The Report I Need Doesn’t Exist in Fishbowl?

Fishbowl Inventory reports are written in a 3rd-party application called iReport.  In order to create a custom report, or modify an existing one, you will have to use iReport to do so.  Alternatively, you can have a professional report writer create the report for you.  There are a few report writers out there that have been creating reports for Fishbowl Inventory users for a long time (us included).  These reports can be customized to display almost any information you need.  This is the preferred route of many Fishbowl Inventory users, because it is faster, and easier, to have a report writer do the work for you.

Feel free to comment below if you have any feedback about this post.  And, as always, contact our offices if you have any questions about reports.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

If you’ve had trouble in the past with Fishbowl Go, or if you’re looking for a better alternative software to integrate your Fishbowl inventory services, your search is finally over. LilyPad for Fishbowl offers a wide variety of up-to-date, easy-to-use software add-ons to help make your Fishbowl experience the best possible. LilyPad also offers on-site trainings, consultations, and other premier Fishbowl services.

Get Started Today with LilyPad for Fishbowl!

Need to Control Your Inventory and be Metrc Compliant?

As the cannabis market continues to expand, companies will need a more robust inventory management solution to meet their increasingly complex requirements.  Wider distribution, product customization, and other changes will make the limitations of manual inventory systems clear.  Trying to record vital inventory information in Excel is impractical once you reach high volumes.

LilyPad Metrc Integration

Fishbowl Inventory and Metrc can help you track your daily activities, while also making sure that you are compliant with state regulations.  The LilyPad Metrc Integration keeps Metrc updated as you go through your daily activities in Fishbowl Inventory.

What is Metrc?

Metrc is a “seed-to-sale” Cannabis Tracking System (CTS) selected by state regulators to track and deliver data on their recreational and medical cannabis programs.  Metrc works with industry and regulatory stakeholders to enable the transparent tracking of cannabis.

What is Fishbowl Inventory?

Fishbowl Inventory is The #1 Manufacturing and Inventory Management Software for QuickBooks.  It is a powerful asset tracking solution for any size organization.  In Fishbowl, you will complete your daily purchases, sales, inventory control, and everything in-between.  Once you complete those transactions, the integration will push the pertinent information to Metrc.

Take a look at all of the features of Fishbowl Inventory and Metrc.

Contact us to get more information, or to order your own LilyPad Metrc integration.

QuickBooks Integration

Fishbowl Inventory has the ability to integrate with QuickBooks to give you the power of an accounting system paired with advanced inventory and manufacturing.

QuickBooks and Fishbowl Together

What Happens When I Start Using Fishbowl?

Most people that we work with are familiar with QuickBooks and have been using it for years as their accounting and inventory control software.  In time, though, those same people realize that they need more robust inventory control and/or manufacturing capabilities than what QuickBooks has to offer.  That’s where Fishbowl Inventory comes into play.

Fishbowl Inventory will become the daily order-entry system.  In other words, you will do your purchases, manufacturing (if applicable), inventory control, and sales through Fishbowl Inventory.  Then, as you complete your transactions, the financial information will transfer to QuickBooks where you will run your Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and all other financial aspects of your business.

What if I Don’t Use QuickBooks?

Fishbowl Inventory can be used as standalone software, but our advice for those who aren’t using QuickBooks: get QuickBooks.  The integration (which is built into Fishbowl already) will make your life much simpler and will help keep your financials in order.

Fishbowl Inventory has the capability to send invoices and purchase orders to customers and vendors.  Keep in mind, though, that it doesn’t keep track of which invoices and purchase orders have been sent out.  Nor does it give you any kind of accounts payable or accounts receivable totals.  On top of that, your accountant will be much happier if the information is in QuickBooks, come tax time.

Feel free to comment below with your experiences.  Or, contact our offices with any questions you have.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

If you’ve had trouble in the past with Fishbowl Go, or if you’re looking for a better alternative software to integrate your Fishbowl inventory services, your search is finally over. LilyPad for Fishbowl offers a wide variety of up-to-date, easy-to-use software add-ons to help make your Fishbowl experience the best possible. LilyPad also offers on-site training, consultations, and other premier Fishbowl services.

Get Started Today with LilyPad for Fishbowl!

Fishbowl Inventory Custom Fields

Fishbowl Inventory gives you the option to add custom fields to almost every module within the software.  These custom fields can be searched when you do an “Advanced Search”, which can be done in most of the modules.  They can also be used in a variety of ways to help you track certain information on your customers, parts, orders, etc.  And the custom fields can even be added to Fishbowl Inventory reports.  Remember, though, that the reports will have to be customized to pull the information from the custom fields.

Fishbowl Inventory Custom Fields

 

What Types of Custom Fields Can I Create?

There are nine types of custom fields that can be set up within the modules.  Here’s a list:

  • Text (A field that will hold small amounts of information)
  • Date (Numeric only)
  • Money (Numeric only)
  • Quantity (Numeric only)
  • Count (Numeric only)
  • Checkbox (A checkbox that denotes yes/no, true/false situations)
  • List (A drop-down list that is pre-populated for use within the assigned module)
  • Radio Button Group (Choose between two or more options.  An option must be chosen for each instance.  It cannot be left blank.)
  • Long Text (A field where you can type large amounts of data.)

How Can Custom Fields be Used?

Let’s say you have multiple product types, and you want to keep track of which types of products are returned most often.  To do so, you can easily set up a List-type custom field for the Product Module and create a list of all of your product types.  Then you can customize a report that will pull the information you’re looking for.  Remember, though, that you will need to assign the product type to each of the products that you want to track by this metric.

Or, if you need to track your sales by region, you can create a custom field for the Sales Order Module where you can enter the region on each sales order.  Then, get a custom report that will pull the information into an easy-to-read format, and you will have valuable information that can help you grow your business even more.

Those are just a couple of examples for using custom fields in Fishbowl Inventory.  There are many ways to leverage custom fields to benefit your company.

Feel free to leave a comment below, or contact our offices if you have any specific questions about using custom fields in your Fishbowl Inventory database.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

If you’ve had trouble in the past with Fishbowl Go, or if you’re looking for a better alternative software to integrate your Fishbowl inventory services, your search is finally over. LilyPad for Fishbowl offers a wide variety of up-to-date, easy-to-use software add-ons to help make your Fishbowl experience the best possible. LilyPad also offers on-site trainings, consultations, and other premier Fishbowl services.

Get Started Today with LilyPad for Fishbowl!

Fishbowl Inventory Module Options

While Fishbowl Inventory is not a custom program, there are many settings you can change to make it more “custom” to your business and the processes within your company.  Once all of your information has been uploaded into your Fishbowl Inventory database, it might be wise for you to peruse the Module Options that are found throughout the software.  Some of them can mean the difference between spending hours of extra work versus having those things automated for you.

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Where are the Module Options?

As you access each module, you will be able to open the Module Options for that module.  To find them, open the “Tools” menu, and then click “Module Options”.  Remember that when you move to a different module in Fishbowl Inventory, the options will change to match the module that is currently open.

A large concentration of the Module Options can be found in the Accounting Module, the Sales Order Module, and the Picking Module.  While these are important, don’t forget that almost all of the modules in Fishbowl Inventory have at least one Module Option.

We recommend that you go through each module to figure out which options work best for you.

Don’t forget the Program Options

Another little-known fact is that Fishbowl Inventory also has some Program Options.  These can be accessed from any module in Fishbowl by clicking the “Tools” menu, and selecting “Program Options”.  While the Program Options are mostly cosmetic, there is a handy Email tab where you can enter your email information that will then be used whenever you send an email.  This includes the ability to create custom personalized emails for Sales Order confirmations, Purchase Orders, and Shipping confirmations.

For a full list of Module Options, visit the Fishbowl Inventory wiki page.

As always, feel free to contact our offices if you have any questions.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

If you’ve had trouble in the past with Fishbowl Go, or if you’re looking for a better alternative software to integrate your Fishbowl inventory services, your search is finally over. LilyPad for Fishbowl offers a wide variety of up-to-date, easy-to-use software add-ons to help make your Fishbowl experience the best possible. LilyPad also offers on-site trainings, consultations, and other premier Fishbowl services.

Get Started Today with LilyPad for Fishbowl!