Category: Fishbowl Inventory Implementation

Find out more about Fishbowl Inventory Implementation with our LilyPad for Fishbowl Blog!

How Fishbowl Helps With Manufacturing Inventory Management

Are you a Fishbowl Inventory user looking for a better way to manage your manufacturing inventory? If this best describes you, then you’ve come to the right place. With Lilypad, you’ll have much better enhancement options that will help you achieve true inventory control.

There’s no doubt that having more control over your inventory will help make your job easier. Today, we’ll talk about ways on how Fishbowl helps you better manage your inventory.

Fishbowl Allows You To Integrate With Quickbooks To Help Streamline Your Daily Functions

While Quickbooks is a great accounting option for small and midsize businesses, it doesn’t give a growing business all the tools it needs. With Fishbowl Manufacturing, you’ll be able to streamline your daily functions that include advanced inventory control and tracking. On top of this, your daily functions such as picking, receiving, shipping, and order entry are handled on Fishbowl Inventory.

This version of Fishbowl is split into modules that let you split your functions among people or departments. Each module interacts with another to help keep the company on track, improving accuracy and communication amongst groups.

For manufacturing, you can split each step up the production process into manageable bits that can be handled your way. You can even separate your raw goods asset value from your finished goods asset value. That way, you’ll be able to know how your money will be spent.

Fishbowl Is Easy To Use And Helps Reduce Human Errors

Fishbowl Inventory is easy to use and its user interface is easy to handle. You’ll also have the option to control the user interface so that you can make navigation even more user-friendly. This will allow you to meet your needs better. On top of that, the stages of manufacturing are easily handled and can be better seen by anyone with access.

Fishbowl Manufacturing also gives you the option to plugin with other programs like shipping, e-commerce, Fishbowl Go, time management, or Lilypad Mobile Warehouse. This will allow you to pass information automatically and improve efficiency all across the company. On top of that, it will help reduce human error.

Fishbowl Gives You The Power To Better Manage Multiple Locations

With Quickbooks, you have the capability to manage a single site. With that said, Quickbooks won’t be able to go beyond that. When you add Fishbowl Manufacturing to the mix, you’ll be able to manage more than one location.

When it comes to part tracking at more than one site, you’ll get more than you’ll ever need with Fishbowl. This makes a big difference when you compare that with just Quickbooks, where you’re more limited in that regard. With these options, you’ll help ensure that your business demands are met as your business grows.

Fishbowl Allows For More Shipping Capacities

As for shipping capacities with Quickbooks, you’re pretty limited when it comes to that. You also might not get every feature out of UPS Ready Shipping when you only go with Quickbooks.

When you go with Fishbowl, you’ll have every feature of UPS Ready already integrated to help meet your shipping needs. On top of that, you’ll also have the drop shipping option. There’s no doubt that Fishbowl will help better meet your needs than you would with Quickbooks or any other option.

Fishbowl Gives You More Options When Dealing With Work Or Manufacture Orders

When you’re dealing with work or manufacture orders, you’ll have more choices when you go with Fishbowl. Quickbooks is great when you’re dealing with assembly but not when dealing with other types of orders.

Fishbowl will help you handle that and then some. Disassembly and custom orders are also options that are supported when you go with Fishbowl. This will help you better meet your growing business demands.

Fishbowl Gives You The Option To Set Up Custom Tracking For Parts

Fishbowl Inventory also lets you set up custom tracking for parts. With just Quickbooks, you’ll only have Lot and Serial Numbers as your two tracking options.  Quickbooks with Fishbowl Manufacturing offer you that and more when getting to choose what tracking types you’re dealing with.

Here are the eight other options you’ll have with Quickbooks with Fishbowl.

  • Revision Number
  • Expiration Date
  • Text
  • Date
  • Money
  • Quantity
  • Count
  • Checkbox

After you’ve entered the Name and Abbreviation and picked the type, you can then activate that tracking for each part you want to track.

How Custom Tracking Works

Once you’ve brought new inventory into your Fishbowl Inventory database, you’ll need to assign tracking details. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to see the details. After that, you’ll also need to choose certain tracking details when you pick inventory for Manufacture Orders. Basically, the tracking details follow the part from its life cycle start until it leaves the system.

With all that said, tracking your parts will require more effort on your part, so be prepared for that. As always, feel free to contact our office if you have any questions about this.

Enhance Your Options And Meet Your Business Needs With Fishbowl Inventory

Our Lilypad products are made to help complement and improve the use of Fishbowl Inventory Software. It goes a long way in helping make the software even better than it already is.

With high-quality options like these, you’ll rest easy knowing that Lilypad will have solutions ready for you. Contact us today and let’s get to work for you.

Why Use A Fishbowl Inventory Consultant To Get Started?

Fishbowl Inventory is a phenomenal software, but users can run into obstacles that prevent it from running smoothly and accurately. That’s where a Fishbowl inventory consultant can assist. Consultants help businesses remove stumbling blocks and navigate through issues or conflicts, thereby enhancing the software experience. In this article, you’ll discover ways that a Fishbowl Inventory consultant can help your company do more.

1. Integration and Implementation

Organizations need inventory solutions that work for the given situation. Therefore, Fishbowl Inventory must seamlessly work with your point of sale, QuickBooks set up, merchant services, and any other necessary aspect across all store locations.

 

Additionally, butchered software implementation can cost thousands or millions in damages. Working with a Fishbowl Inventory consultant mitigates risks and can help you get the most from your investment. Consultants help ensure everything is working accordingly to prevent downtimes and other costly errors.

2. Database Setup and Design

With Fishbowl Inventory, the database is separate from the software you use at the workstation. Plus, getting everything set up and ready to support your business is no small task. A consultant can help set up and design your database so problems don’t arise during daily use.

 

The professional can ensure all your customers, items, vendors, and other essential information are correctly registered in the database. That includes pulling data from QuickBooks if it was your previous inventory management system. Also, a capable Fishbowl Inventory consultant can design your database in a way that better streamlines processes and prevents errors.

3. Staff Training

An expert consultant can simplify and expedite the learning of the Fishbowl Inventory software. The person can train you and your employees on the system, so costly debacles are avoided. For example, an untrained employee can easily break your database by accident, causing time-consuming and money-draining problems.

 

Furthermore, your consultant can customize the service to fit business goals and accommodate employee needs. Most consultants offer on-site training.

4. ‘Reorder level’ and ‘Order Up to Level’

No one wants to tie up cash flow because of improper stock levels. An expert can help determine, including set your Reorder Point and Order Up to Level. The former refers to the minimum quantity to reach before item reorders are required. The latter refers to the maximum number of products you can have on hand.

 

Quantity will vary from one product to the next based on demand. Ideally, historical data should be utilized to determine the appropriate numbers, something a Fishbowl Inventory consultant can help do.

5. Fishbowl Inventory Reports

There are more than 100 standard reports available in the Fishbowl Inventory software. Some of which include inventory asset values, sales and purchases, manufacturing activities, and other reports. Understanding each one can provide informative insights into your company’s operations, and a consultant can teach you everything.

 

Sometimes, you may need to create a custom report, something a Fishbowl Inventory consultant can get done. Consultants offer experience and support, allowing you to derive better meaning from data.

6. Barcode System Implementation

Mistakes can happen even with a streamlined order entry process. For example, picking specific items from a warehouse with many similar products can lead to errors. That’s why a barcode system is vital. A good barcoding system can eliminate or reduce mistakes like the one described earlier.

 

Your Fishbowl Inventory consultant can help you set up a barcode system that works for your business. For example, LilyPad Mobile Warehouse is a Fishbowl third-party integration that lets you scan barcodes when performing warehouse functions and during the picking process. The system also notifies users whenever the wrong item is scanned and redirects to the correct item.

 

7. Multi-language Support

Fishbowl only comes in English, which means warehouses with employees that speak different languages may find it challenging to use. However, with the right integration, Fishbowl Inventory can support multiple languages. You can talk with the consultant about your business and its operations to find a great fit.

 

Everyone must understand the inventory software to decrease costly mistakes. Multi-language support is one of the best ways to get everyone up to speed.

8. Customer Portal Setup

A consultant can help your business provide consumers with more accessibility via a customer portal. When your products are accessible, customers can place orders that go directly to your database. That makes things more convenient for customers, and the business will run more efficiently with few order related errors.

 

For instance, it’s not uncommon for employees to mistype orders that end up costing the company lots of money and making customers unhappy.

Make Inventory Management Easier

Any company-wide software implementation is a challenging endeavor. Thankfully, most of the headaches involved can be eliminated with a capable Fishbowl Inventory consultant on your side. You shouldn’t go it alone. A consultant can help with everything your business requires during the transition and beyond.

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!

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 Order of Imports

Creating a Spreadsheet on a LaptopIf you are using import files to create a new database in Fishbowl Inventory, you might be overwhelmed by the number of import files and you might not know where to begin.  We’ve listed the suggested order of imports below, with some tips, to help you get started on the right foot.

Suggested Order of Imports

Here’s a list, taken directly from the FishbowlInventory wiki page that gives a list of the order of imports:

  1. Units of Measure
  2. Unit of Measure Conversions
  3. Location Groups/Locations
  4. User/User Rights
  5. Payment Terms
  6. Carriers
  7. Custom Fields
  8. Vendors*
  9. Tax Rates
  10. Customers*
  11. Customer Group Relations
  12. Part Product And Vendor Pricing*
  13. Kit Items
  14. Default Locations
  15. Add Inventory*
  16. Bill of Materials*
  17. Product Tree Categories
  18. Product Tree
  19. Pricing Rules
  20. Sales Orders*
  21. Purchase Orders*

* This is essential data needed to utilize Fishbowl’s features.

The list above will help you set up a robust database that will unlock most of the features in Fishbowl.  However, what if you just want to do the basics?

The Bare Essentials

If you are in a rush to get started with Fishbowl Inventory, you can upload your Vendors, Customers, Parts, and Products.  That’s it.  You can add all of the other stuff later to make the database more robust.  This comes with a caveat, though.  For example, if your Vendors or Customers have special payment terms, you will need to bring in those payment terms before uploading your Customers or Vendors.

The same thing goes with your Parts and Products list (see this blog post for more information about the difference between Parts and Products).  If your Parts or Products use Units of Measure that don’t exist in the default list, you will need to add those Units of Measure first.

Here is a modified list that shows the basic information that you need to have in Fishbowl before being able to use the system:

  1. Units of Measure
  2. Unit of Measure Conversions
  3. Location Groups/Locations
  4. User/User Rights
  5. Payment Terms
  6. Carriers
  7. Custom Fields
  8. Vendors*
  9. Tax Rates
  10. Customers*
  11. Customer Group Relations
  12. Part Product And Vendor Pricing* (You can also use the individual Part and Product imports, if this one is too big to chew)
  13. Kit Items
  14. Default Locations
  15. Add Inventory*
  16. Bill of Materials*
  17. Product Tree Categories
  18. Product Tree
  19. Pricing Rules
  20. Sales Orders*
  21. Purchase Orders*

Additional Imports

These imports, that aren’t covered in the list provided on the Fishbowl Inventory wiki page, can also be helpful:

  1. Associated Pricing
  2. Country And State
  3. Currency
  4. Customer Parts
  5. Discounts
  6. Product Pricing
  7. QuickBooks Class
  8. Reorder Levels
  9. Vendor Cost Rules
  10. Vendor Parts

Please leave a comment if you have questions or experience using import files that could help others who are beginning their journey.

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 Imports

Importing information into Fishbowl Inventory can be tricky, but it can also be the fastest way to build a new database or update existing information en masse.  Find some helpful tips below about Fishbowl Inventory imports.

Keyboard

Create an entry in Fishbowl Inventory, and then export the file

Fishbowl Inventory has the option to export a blank file to use as a template when preparing your information for importing.  While this is a great option, it may be a little daunting trying to figure out what information goes into each column.  For that reason, we recommend that you create an entry (e.g. Part Number, Customer, Vendor, Pricing Rule, etc.) in Fishbowl first, and then export the related file.  Like magic, your file will have the information already filled in below the headers, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

Of course, if you still have questions, you can refer to the instructions for the related import file.  These can be found in the import wizard, after you have chosen the type of import from the list, and have advanced to the next screen.

Watch out for re-formatting

One of the difficulties of using Microsoft Excel for importing large amounts of data into Fishbowl is the fact that Excel likes to re-format certain numbers or lines of text.

Here are some examples:

  1. If you are working with UPC numbers, you will need to be very careful that Excel does not put them into scientific notation format (which it will do, by default).  If you type “123456789123” into a cell, Excel will change it to be “1.23457E+11”.  If left in that format, the UPC code will transfer into Fishbowl as the 1.23457E+11, rather than the actual UPC code.
  2. Zip codes that start with “0” (zero).  Excel likes to remove those leading zeros.  And it’s not just zip codes.  Really, any number that starts with zero can be included in this example.
  3. Text and number strings that resemble dates or months.  Something like “01OCT” will be reformatted to be “1-Oct”.

How do you fix these auto-corrections?  You will want to change the format of the cells to “Text”.  To do so, right-click on the cell, column, or row that you want to change to text, and then choose “Format Cells” from the list.  In the next screen, you will choose “Text” from the list and then click “OK”.  Now you can type your information into Excel without having to worry that it will be reformatted, and therefore imported incorrectly into Fishbowl.

 

Watch for misalignment

Be aware that if you delete a cell, you will need to delete the entire row.  Otherwise, your data can become misaligned.  One of the worst things that can happen is to delete a part number from a list of 10,000 part numbers, while the rest of the row is not deleted with the part number.  When that happens, your part numbers will shift up a cell, while their descriptions, Units of Measure, Tracking Fields, etc. stay behind.  If you then import the file, your parts list will have the incorrect information associated.

If all else fails, remove the line

One of the most frustrating aspects of importing information into Fishbowl Inventory is when you receive error messages after waiting for 10-15 minutes for the file to complete importing.  If you correct the error on the specified line, and then import again, only to get an error message on the same line again, it is time to remove that line and try importing again.

If you are getting error messages at least a 3rd of the way down the import file, we recommend that you create a separate import file of the lines above the error message, and import that piece.  Remember to remove those lines from the original import file so that you’re not trying to import the same information multiple times.  This will help cut down on the wait time and will help you narrow down the issues.

As always, feel free to contact our offices with any questions you have about Fishbowl Inventory imports, or anything else Fishbowl Inventory-related.

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!

Setting up a New Fishbowl Inventory Database

Setting up a new database in Fishbowl Inventory can be a big task.  In our last post, we discussed the options available to you when setting up a Fishbowl database.  For some of you brave souls out there, one of the options was to do the setup on your own.  Our hope is that this post will help you with the database portion of your Fishbowl Inventory implementation.

Database Creation

Create a New Database

When Fishbowl is first installed on your server computer, an example database is included with the installation.  You will need to create a new database into which you will begin setting up your information.  Visit Fishbowl Inventory’s wiki page for step-by-step instructions on creating a new database.

Input Your Data

Once you have created your database, you need to then add data to your database.  This comes in the form of Customers, Vendors, Parts, Products, Bills of Materials, Inventory, etc.  This must be done in an orderly fashion, which we will explain in next week’s post.  For now, be aware that this is the most time-consuming, and probably the most difficult, portion of your Fishbowl Inventory Implementation.

Set up Your Integrations

Fishbowl Inventory can be a stand-alone software.  However, there are many other pieces of software that can be integrated with Fishbowl Inventory to make your life easier.  Some examples include QuickBooks (which is the most common integration, and the reason Fishbowl is such a popular inventory solution for QuickBooks users), UPS Worldship, FedEx Shipstation, LilyPad products, etc.  Some of these integrations come in the form of standard Fishbowl Inventory plugins.  Others, such as custom shopping cart integrations, take longer to program, and will require installation by the developers.  In either case, these integrations can impact your business in a way that will improve your efficiency and accuracy.

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 Implementation: Go At It Alone? Or Get Help?

Collaboration
Implementing new software into your company can be challenging, to say the least.  Fishbowl Inventory implementation is no different.  Whether you are dealing with long lists of part numbers, or you’re trying to convince the warehouse team that the new system will work better than the old, you’re in for a challenge.  Here are some tips to help you navigate the rough waters of implementation.

  1. Use all of your resources.  You don’t have to do this alone.  There are people around who can help you.  This includes the excellent trainers in the Fishbowl Inventory support team, expert consultants who have implemented Fishbowl Inventory for many years, and even your co-workers.
  2. Make sure you understand the data manipulation.  Here are a few ways to enter information into your new Fishbowl database:

    Type it in Manually
    In other words, you can go straight into the user interface of Fishbowl Inventory, and type in every part number, every customer, and every vendor.  As you can surmise, this method can be tedious and time-consuming.

    Pull the Information From QuickBooks
    If your previous inventory management software was QuickBooks, you can   The advantage to this method is that it is incredibly fast to set up a Fishbowl database this way.  The disadvantage is that if your QuickBooks data is not accurate, neither will the information that comes into Fishbowl be accurate.Use .csv Import Files
    Fishbowl Inventory has the capability of bringing in large amounts of information through a .csv import.  This includes your parts, products, customers, vendors, bills of materials, etc.  Once you have mastered the art of using import files, the setup of your Fishbowl Inventory database can be completed quickly.  Or, better yet, find someone else who has mastered using import files and let them handle it for you.
  3. Stay the course.  Setting up a new database can be a daunting task, at best.  There are many things that need to be taken into consideration, and there are many moving pieces.  When at all possible, Fishbowl Inventory Consulting with an expert can save you a lot of time and headache.
  4. Don’t be afraid to start over.  There may be a time when you have to realize that the only way to move forward is to start over again.  Don’t despair!  You have already overcome much of the learning curve, and a fresh beginning may be just what you need to finalize your database.  Try to keep up your momentum and push through to the end.

If all else fails, remember that there are experts out there who can set up your database, train your employees, and make sure your company is on track for the transition to Fishbowl Inventory.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

If you’ve had trouble in the past with Fishbowl, 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!