Tag: Internal Use

Find the answers to all your Fishbowl Inventory and Internal Use questions with the LilyPad for Fishbowl Blog!

Fishbowl Products–Selling Your Parts in Fishbowl

This is the second post about how to differentiate between Fishbowl Parts and Products…and some details about each.  In this post, we will discover how a Product is used, and maybe you’ll even find out some things that you didn’t know about your own products.

creating a single product from many "parts"
creating a single product from many “parts”

 

What is a Product?

In Fishbowl, a Product is anything that you sell…so, if you put it on a Sales Order, it is considered a Product.  Period.  Yes, even samples are considered Products.

What Are the Different Types of Products, and What Can You do With Them?

Although there are many types of Parts in Fishbowl (as discussed in our last blog post), you can only associate products with the following types of parts: Inventory, Service, Non-Inventory, and Shipping.  This makes sense, if you think about it.  You wouldn’t be selling Overhead, Internal Use parts, or Labor (at least, not directly).

get your parts in order and find better order to your inventory
get your parts in order and find better order to your inventory

 

Part and Product Association

As we mentioned in our last blog post, you can associate multiple Products with one Part.  This is important in many industries when you want to use the same inventory, but sell it to your customers with different names, or in different Unit Of Measure quantities.  For example, let’s say that you sell Part A to Customer 1 as Product X, but to Customer 2, you sell that same Part as Product Y.  You want to pull from the same pool of inventory, but you want your customers to see different things when they purchase your products.  That is why you can associate multiple Products with one Part.  Are you confused yet?

Another great thing to know about Products is the Kitting feature.  A Kit is really just a group of Products that are sold together as a package deal.  This is different than manufacturing, because you do not build a Kit and stock it on your shelves.  In this case, the Kit is placed on a Sales Order, and each of the Products would be picked individually from your shelves after the order has been entered.  If you are interested in creating Kits, you can do so in the Product Module (just use the little black arrow next to “New”).

We hope this information has helped clear up some of the confusion about Parts vs. Products in Fishbowl.  As always, you are welcome to let us know if you need more explanation on this topic.

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 Parts vs. Products

In this series, we will explore the differences between a part and a product in Fishbowl Inventory.  If you are new to Fishbowl, sometimes this can be a confusing concept, especially if you are coming from QuickBooks, which only uses “Items”.  In this post, let’s talk about how Fishbowl treats Parts.

Computer Parts
parts bring everything together

What is a Part?

In Fishbowl, Parts are anything that can be purchased, consumed, transferred, picked, manufactured, cycled, scrapped, etc.  In other words, a Part is what you use in your everyday business.  The only thing you cannot do with a Part, in Fishbowl, is sell it.  Selling is reserved for your Products.  We will talk more about products in our next post.

What Are the Different Types of Parts, and What Can You Do With Them?

  • Inventory.  Inventory-type parts are the most common for most businesses…for obvious reasons.  Inventory-type parts can be purchased, received, tracked (e.g. serial numbers, lot numbers, and expiration dates), consumed during manufacturing, created from manufacturing activities, and inventoried.
  • Non-Inventory, Service, Internal Use, Capital Equipment, and Shipping.  All of these part types can be purchased, received, consumed during manufacturing, and created from manufacturing activities (though this may not be wise, from an accounting standpoint).  These parts cannot be tracked by Serial Number, Lot Number, Expiration Date, etc.  They also cannot be inventoried.
  • Labor and Overhead.  The only use for Labor- and Overhead-type parts is in the Manufacturing module.  These parts cannot be purchased, nor can they be received.  However, they can be consumed or created during the manufacturing process.
understand the old and new
bring inventory software into your production process to get all the parts right

Part and Product Association

One last thing to remember about Fishbowl Parts:

You can have multiple Products associated with one Part, but you cannot have multiple Parts associated with one Product.  Just let that sink in for a minute.

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!