Reports | LilyPad for Fishbowl Blog

Fishbowl Inventory Reports

February 27, 2019

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!

Tips and Tricks of Fishbowl Inventory Reports (Part 2)

March 01, 2017

In our previous blog post, we discussed a few ways to make your reports easier to read, and more accessible. We continue along that path with a few more tips in this week’s post.

Dashboard Reports

Adding Reports to Your Dashboard

The Dashboard can be a helpful tool, especially to gauge the ebb and flow of your daily business activities. To help make your Dashboard complete, you can add any Fishbowl report, and then pull it up within a few moments. All of this can be done without having to go to the reports module to open the report.

Just remember that the more reports you add to the Dashboard, the longer it will take your Fishbowl Client to load. Another thing to be aware of is that the reports on your Dashboard will be displayed with whatever filters you have set on the report in the Report Module. For tips on saving multiple reports, but with different filters, see our last blog post, or give us a call.

Scheduling Reports For Export

Reports can be scheduled to export on a regular basis. These reports can be exported as excel files (including csv’s), as pdf’s, or as Rich Text Files, which can be helpful if you want to keep a record of your reports within a designated folder. At the same time, the reports can also be emailed to a designated recipient.

One of the known problems in Fishbowl Inventory is that some reports are not accurate if you are back-dating the report. For example, the “On Hand by Date” report shows you the inventory quantities from your chosen date, but it displays the asset values as of today.

Another example is the “Inventory Valuation Summary” report. This report cannot be back-dated, so if you did not save a copy of the report on a given date, that report is lost forever.

We suggest that you find the reports that most impact your business, and schedule them for automatic export on a daily basis.

creating reports for your specific needs can point the way

Default Reports

Fishbowl has set up their own reports as defaults in specific modules (e.g. the “Sales Order Report” in the Sales Order Module, or the “Pick Ticket” in the Picking Module). But, what if you want to print or email a different report from these modules, when prompted? This can be accomplished in the Reports Module by choosing which Default Reports you want to have assigned to each Module within Fishbowl.

Setting up Default Reports in specific modules can help you more easily get the reports you need, at the time you need them. The report that you have set up as the default report for each module will be the one that prints out when you click the “Print” icon in the module, or when you are prompted to print a report after completing a step while processing orders.

Other Settings (Module Options)

In the Module Options of the Report Module, you will find some other handy options that you might not already know about. Some of these options include:

Displaying the “Modify Report” dialog box upon opening a report
Setting a Default Date Range
Setting a Default Location Group
Setting a Default Salesperson
Choosing how many decimal places to show on your reports
How the date displays on your reports

These options can be helpful for getting the most out of your reports.

Let us know if you have any questions about Fishbowl reports and Fishbowl Inventory Custom Reports. As always, we are happy to help!

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

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Tips and Tricks of Fishbowl Inventory Reports (Part 1)

February 22, 2017

There are over 150 built-in reports in Fishbowl Inventory. However, not all of those reports are helpful in their default settings or configurations. In this two-part series, we will discuss some changes you can make to the reports, and some settings that can help make your life a little easier.

(if you need a little primer, check out our video on reports)

Reports

Use the “Modify Report” Feature

When you first view a report, the default filters for that report will be used. For many, the standard filters are not sufficient. So, to change the report filters, just click the “Modify Report” button at the top-left of the report. This will open a window that allows you to change date ranges, statuses, details, displayed fields, etc. Changing some of these simple filters can help change a useless report into a valuable tool.

After you have changed your filters, don’t forget to click the “Save Filters as Default Filters” icon (the one that looks like a little disk and is located at the bottom-left of the “Modify Reports” window). Then, your filters will be applied every time you open the report.

While in the “Modify Report” window, don’t forget to check out the “Printer” tab, which allows you to choose which printer your report will be sent to when printed. You can choose a specific printer for each of your Location Groups that you have set up in Fishbowl.

Finding Your Favorite Reports

In the Reports Module, you can add your most-used reports to your “Favorites” folder. This not only helps you to find your reports quickly and easily, but you can also save specific filters to these reports.

To add a report to your “Favorites” folder, right-click on it in the search pane of the Reports Module, and click “Add to Favorites”. In addition to setting your favorite reports, you can also copy your reports, rename them, and have multiple versions of the same report, but with different filters set on each one.

Make Your Reports More Accessible

Not everyone wants to go to the Reports Module to open their reports. Luckily, you have the option of assigning your reports to your chosen modules. For example, if you want to see the “Purchase History” report in the Sales Order Module, you can assign it to the Sales Order Module, and then you will be able to find the report in the “Reports” drop-down menu within the module.

To make reports available within the modules, you will go to the Reports Module and open the report you want to assign to a module. Once open, click on the “Details” tab at the top of the report. In the Details Tab, you will see a list of all of the modules in Fishbowl. Simply check the boxes next to the module(s) you want to associate the report with, and then click the “Save” icon at the top-left of the screen.

custom reports can tell a complete inventory story

Get a Custom Report (or a modification)

If you can’t get the information you need from the default Fishbowl reports, you can build the reports yourself, if you have some programming knowledge. Or, you can call on us to write the report for you. We have built many reports over the years that have helped save time and money for our clients. After all, Fishbowl Inventory is just a tool that relates information, and the better your reports are, the more informed you will be.

If you create your own report, it will need to be installed on your Fishbowl Server. To install the reports, you will paste the files into the correct directory, and then use the “Upload” button in the Reports Module to load the report into your Fishbowl Database. Once you have installed the reports, make sure you assign them to the correct modules in Fishbowl.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our story on Fishbowl Inventory Reports.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

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Making Manufacturing Easy in Fishbowl Inventory

January 25, 2017

Some of you may be familiar with the manufacturing processes in Fishbowl Inventory, but here are some tips that might help streamline your everyday manufacturing activities.

(did you know we also train on the full Fishbowl suite?)

You Can Modify Your Work Orders

One thing that is certain in your daily production activities, is that things do not always turn out how we plan them. How can you make changes to Manufacture Orders that you have already created in Fishbowl?

Did you know you can split your Work Orders into more manageable chunks? When you are starting a Work Order, you have the option to start a lower quantity than the original quantity on the Work Order. For example: if you have a Work Order for a quantity of 50, when you start the Work Order, you can change the starting quantity to 25, and the Work Order will then be split into two separate Work Orders on the same Manufacture Order. This makes it pretty smooth for separating your production over multiple days.
You can substitute parts and quantities on a Work Order. If you need to change a Raw Good, or even a Finished Good, on any of your Work Orders, you can visit the “Materials” tab on an unissued Manufacture Order, or the “WO Details” tab on an issued Manufacture Order. In either of these tabs, you can switch your parts, or quantities, if the situation requires.
Once your Raw Goods have been picked, you cannot make changes to the parts or quantities, unless the pick is voided. Once you have voided the pick, you can make your needed changes.

There Are More Ways Than One to Finish a Work Order

The long way to complete a Work Order is by clicking the “Start” button, then going to the picking module to complete the pick, and then returning to the Manufacture Order to “Finish” the Work Order. You don’t have to take all of these steps, if you don’t have changes to make on the order. Instead, you can do one of the following:

You can skip straight to the “Finish” step in the Manufacture Order module. This will combine the “Start”, “Pick”, and “Finish” steps into one quick and easy wizard.
You can click the “Quick Fulfill” icon at the upper-left-hand side of the screen to finish all Work Orders within a Manufacture Order.

Taking these steps will help streamline your manufacturing, especially if you have a lot of Work Orders to process each day.

worker orders put priorities to the work at hand

What if You Make a Mistake?

Even the most advanced Fishbowl Inventory users can make mistakes when it comes to manufacturing. So, what do you do when you have completed a Work Order, and find out that it was done incorrectly? You might be tempted to make inventory adjustments to get your inventory back to where it should be. However, the best practice is to do a “Disassemble” Work Order.

Here’s how you disassemble your Work Orders:

Create a new Manufacture Order.
Click the green plus sign at the right side of the screen. This will open the “Add Bill of Materials” screen.
Choose “Disassemble” from the list.
Use the drop-down list, or the magnifying glass, to choose which Work Order you are going to disassemble.
In the next screen, type the quantity of that item that you are going to disassemble.
Finish the wizard, adding any other pertinent information.
Repeat steps 2 through 6 to add more disassemble Work Orders to the Manufacture Order, if needed.

Once you have added all of the disassemble Work Orders to your Manufacture Order, issue the Manufacture Order and then process the Work Orders as usual. Completing these disassemble Work Orders will remove the Finished Goods, and will place the Raw Goods, back into your inventory. Don’t forget to create your replacement Work Orders!

As usual, feel free to call or email us if you have any questions about Fishbowl Inventory, or if you would like to find out more about our custom integrations and add-ons.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

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Don’t Let the Winds of Change Blow You Away

January 20, 2017

Company logo for Fishbowl Inventory Software

(UPDATE 2023: Fishbowl continues to grow and improve, and we have grown with them. Contact us to find the right solution to the most current Fishbowl release.)

Changes to Fishbowl Inventory

As we mentioned in our last Blog Post, Fishbowl Inventory is getting a major overhaul to its database. These changes could make for some very large waves when it comes to integrated apps and custom reports. Plus, there will be some new features that you might need help navigating.

Anchor Yourself to our Support

We want to provide you with the best customer service available in the industry. So far, we think we’re doing a great job! Therefore, to help you overcome the wind and the waves that are sure to come about with the Fishbowl changes, we offer a yearly support contract for all of the custom integrations we create for you.

Details:

We want to give you ample time to make sure your custom integrations are serving you well. So, we give you a 90-day window for you to see your integrations in action before we ask that you sign up for the support that will be needed when those pesky winds blow.
We want to make sure you have an active support contract in place after those 90 days so we can assist with the issues to come. Your support contract becomes your anchor to make sure that if you are blown about in the tempests, your downtime is minimal, and your boat doesn’t get swamped.
Help us reduce delays by keeping your support contract active. It’s not fun to try to navigate the waters of paperwork while your boat is sinking! The first lines of safety will be thrown to those who have an active support contract. Please plan ahead!
While support contracts do not cover changes to the integrations that are caused by major Fishbowl upgrades, customers who have active support contracts, and who purchase the code upgrades, will be given first priority.

Calm Waters

These are all great reasons to have your anchor in place before you set sail. With everything in place, we will quickly guide you back to safe waters, where you no longer need worry about distant storms. And don’t worry: LilyPad Vortex and LilyPad Mobile Warehouse will be ready to help along the way.

What Does the Next Release of Fishbowl Inventory Mean For You?

January 13, 2017

Company logo for Fishbowl Inventory Software

(UPDATE 2023: Fishbowl continues to grow and improve, and we have grown with them. Contact us to find the right solution to the most current Fishbowl release.)

In February, Fishbowl Inventory is planning their first release of 2017, and we bet you’re wondering what to expect. Is it going to be a simple update to fix bugs, a complete makeover of the software, or something in between? Let’s see what Fishbowl has to say!

The BIG News: They’re Changing Their Database Management System!

Fishbowl is changing from the Firebird database manager to a MySQL database manager. What does this mean for all of us? MySQL is supposed to be faster, meaning that you will have less waiting time while processing your orders. MySQL is also more stable. Hopefully, this means that there will be fewer reasons to call the Fishbowl Support Team (not that we don’t love talking to support).

Don’t Forget the Other Feature Updates

Among the various fixes and updates, you should see the following in the new release:

Export to/import from XLS and XLSX files. What does that mean? It means that you can use regular excel files to change information in, add information to, or remove information from, Fishbowl. The only option we used to have is to use .csv files, which can still be manipulated in excel, but are sometimes a little finicky.
Adding a markup to your shipping rates. This will help all of you who are using Carton-Based Shipping, and are sick of manually increasing the shipping prices on the sales order after they have been added from the shipping module. It looks like this is going to be a percentage-based markup. We’re all interested to see how it works.
There is now a button in the Bill of Materials Module that will allow you to access the multi-level bill of materials report. While this report is not new, and accessibility to the report from the Bill of Materials Module is not a novel concept, it might be more fun to click the button, rather than opening the drop-down “Reports” menu.

We Can Fix It

Some Things to Remember When Updating, and How we Can Help:

Your custom reports may not work any more. Don’t worry, we can fix them!
Your integrations may break (check with your supplier to see if your integration is compatible). We can fix these, as well!
The world may end! Well, maybe not, but we suggest you don’t update to the newest version of Fishbowl for at least 3 to 4 weeks after the release. We know…it’s tempting to hit the upgrade button as soon as it becomes available. Don’t give in! We need to give enough time for them to figure out all of the bugs.
Once you’re ready to pull the trigger, it sounds like the update may take a while…so, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to complete the update before beginning work for the day.

Remember, we are here to help with anything related to Fishbowl. Let us know if you have any questions about all of the upcoming changes to Fishbowl.

LilyPad for Fishbowl – Premier Fishbowl Consultant and Marketplace Solution

Get Started Today with LilyPad for Fishbowl!