Fishbowl Reviews

Powerful, Affordable Inventory and Order Management Software

Comments: Stated simply, Fishbowl is the best in it's class, period! Easy to use, incredibly effective and affordable Inventory and Order Management Software.

Pros:

Fishbowl offers and unparalleled ease of use. Our whole team was trained and up and running in hours. You simply won't find another software package with the range of features and reliability at this price range. It easily bests other software packages costing 3 times what Fishbowl costs!

Cons:

Their call back support could be a little faster, but it's still likely better than most software companies.

A Comprehensive Inventory Management Tool

Comments: I have been using Fishbowl for several months now and I am very happy with the results. It's a comprehensive inventory management tool with a wide range of features and options. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use, and customer support is quick and helpful when needed. The pricing structure can be a bit complex, but overall, Fishbowl is an excellent choice for inventory management.

Pros:

Fishbowl is an incredibly comprehensive inventory management tool. It has a wide range of features and options that make it easy to keep track of all the items in your inventory. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use, and the customer support is top-notch. I highly recommend Fishbowl for anyone looking for a reliable inventory management solution.

Cons:

Fishbowl's pricing structure can be a bit confusing, and it can be hard to determine what the best option is for your particular situation. Additionally, the customer support could be improved, as there is sometimes a long wait time for help. Overall, though, Fishbowl is a great option for anyone looking for a reliable inventory management solution.

Terribly slow and no answers from customer service

Comments: Someone in leadership needs to call me at [sensitive content hidden] and provide solutions how our $9,000 a year fee is fair. Fix this, now !!

Pros:

We thought it was a long term solution, NOPE !

Cons:

Takes us 10 minutes to load a part inventory. Excruciatingly slow with zero answers from anyone at FB how to improve speed. They're only response is start over with a new database. Complete and utter disaster. We have used for several years and speed has steadily declined to now its almost impossible to use, is delaying ability to complete task.

A Great All Around Product For Inventory

Comments: Fishbowl has helped us save money by being able to control everything from inside and not having to hire multiple 3rd parties to make connections. Fishbowl continues to add and upgrade the software to what consumers ask for.

Pros:

Fishbowl software is easy to use. I like that you always have step by step instructions and some videos to help guide you. If you don't find what you are looking for, all it takes is an email, and support helps you as quickly as they can.

Cons:

The only negative issue I have while using Fishbowl software is with the reports. Even though they have multiple reports to choose from, I feel as some of them can be upgraded to include more than one product a t a time. Example, when searching for a product that was sold on a particular day, and you have more than one size of the same product, it would be nice to be able to select as many products as you want to look at versus one at a time.

Fishbowl Review

Comments: Based on our overall experience I would give Fishbowl a 6 out of 10, with their main issues being everything outside of the software. If you have patience then this is a good value, if not walk away quickly....

Pros:

I like the ease of use with the Sales Order Side of the product. When the software is set up correctly it is almost flawless, and really makes the ordering process go much smoother. The interface is easy to use and easy to train new employees on.

Cons:

The service and support are the worst I have ever dealt with. We paid dearly for the implementation of our data and if I say the words half ass that would hardly describe what they were able to accomplish. Getting someone to try and fix anything is nearly impossible, so we took it upon ourselves to correct all of their implementation mistakes. 3 months in and we still find implementation errors every day that we are correcting. When we attempt to use support their chat feature is useless, as the reps are answering multiple chats at once and it takes 5 minutes between comments for them to come back to you. If you call be prepared to sit on hold for at least an hour, and then they still wont be able to assist you most of the time.

Sales, Point of Sales, Inventory, & Manufacturing

Comments: It has been very positive from the beginning. Support has been great as well as my sales manager.

Pros:

Can be used in multiple locations via server. UPS integration. Accurate inventory control

Cons:

None to speak of. Every program will have it's pluses and minuses. Overall great value for the investment.

Lots of bugs.

Comments: Fishbowl needs to take data integrity more seriously. We are currently having to double-check everything manually and are being told by Fishbowl that our issues may or may not make it to the dev team's list to work on a month from now.

Pros:

The concept of Fishbowl is great. We needed software that would help us pick and ship more efficiently and get us away from a paper-based system. We also needed it to plug in to QBO. I also like that we got access to a well-trained implementation specialist.

Cons:

Now that we are actually using Fishbowl, we're running into critical errors that force us to do things manually. This means we are less efficient and slower than before we used it. I've invested a lot of time and money into transitioning into new software and feel like I cannot trust them with our data.We were also not warned about additional costs (like costs per user and hosting fees) until after we had committed.

Good Value and performance

Comments: Fishbowl has been key to our organization. This is where we maintain all inventory and create sales and purchase orders.

Pros:

Controlling inventory and sales management

Cons:

Creating customized reports can be cumbersome

Fishbowl

Pros:

Ease of use. Seem to make updates from requested ideas.

Cons:

They don't currently have an online version, only through hosted.

Overall my experience with Fishbowl has been positive, it has evolved a lot since we started in 2013

Pros:

From an administrator standpoint it is very easy to implement and maintain. From a end user standpoint it is very easy to train new Fishbowl users, all modules are designed with the end users ease of use in mind. Technical Support personnel are very knowledgeable and usually isolate and fix and issues quickly.

Cons:

I wish the reporting side of Fishbowl was more robust, Home Care Industries is a manufacturer they rely heavily on making sure raw materials are on hand or on order to meet customer orders. Having a true MPS or MRP as part of Fishbowl with be a great enhancement.

FB has abled our business to grow from a home based co. to a 10,000ft fully functioning warehouse

Comments: Being able to operate above and beyond to what we used to. We can now compete with our competitors

Pros:

I absolutely love that FB is easy to use and easy to teach. It has all the features that our company uses daily. Examples include customer pricing rules, customer "numbers" or customer sku's, Auto PO function, The import/export feature has been a God-send when we need to import products to our website or send information to our customers. The substitute feature is very helpful too. We also really love how we can create custom fields within every module. I really love how the FB team remembers our company when we call and goes above and beyond when we have a hiccup or questions. We can thank FB for some of our company's success. W/o being able to correctly track inventory and use it for daily operations, we wouldn't be operating at the level we are today.

Cons:

There aren't things that I like "the least" but there are things I wish FB offered/had that would help our type of business/company. This includes: 1) Since we are a product distributor, we provide a lot of our customers w/ "quotes." FB has the ability to create an "estimate" but no way to store it or look back at it for reference. Pricing rules are essentially only created in our line of operation when a customer begins buying a product. So, we have to create "quotes" on excel sheets and save them on our network folder. So it would be easier if it was all w/in FB. Or if there was a different section from pricing rules that you could make a pricing rule? If that makes sense 2) Wish we could customize reports that are staples of FB w/o paying high dollar. For ex. the packing slip should have a signature line or at least the option to include it. Or there should be options on layouts or what columns to include. Also, we've gotten feedback from customers on how they wish the item # and description where split into different columns. 3) If FB alerted a user if a sales order has been in the system for "x" amount of time. Like a dormant SO in FB 4) Be able to sort the packing slip. Ex. by Item #, customer #, item description, etc. 5) Had a UNSPSC code field. We've found that this is going to be an important code for future web sales.

Quality Software for Small to Mid-Size Businesses

Comments: We have been using Fishbowl Inventory since 2011 and while it has been quite an eventful journey we have seen definite improvements over the years in stability and ease of use.

Pros:

QuickBooks integration is probably the feature I appreciate the most about Fishbowl. Any small to mid sized business that is outgrowing QuickBooks inventory management features but doesn't want to pay the price of an all-inclusive ERP program targeted for larger corporations should consider Fishbowl Inventory. The ability to track inventory by location, assign multiple vendors to one item, create intuitive bill of materials items that are as simple or complex as you wish, add multitudes of pricing rules for your products and customers, assign reorder points and order up to levels for your parts to quickly reorder items that are low, Fishbowl plugins that connect to a wide range of third party programs, I could go on for a long time about what there is to like about this program. Their support has definitely improved over the years as well, with a response to a support ticket usually within the hour.

Cons:

One inherent weakness with Fishbowl is the QuickBooks export connection. Fishbowl has made tremendous improvements in this area since we first started using it, but there are still multiple times that we need to restart the connection before running an export. To be fair, this may be as much QuickBooks' problem as Fishbowl's. The software also tends to be buggy after new releases. Again, they have improved lightyears over what they were 8 years ago, but still be prepared to have some weird things happen occasionally when a software update is released. Also, Fishbowl only has rudimentary accounting functions and leaves the majority of accounting related tasks to QuickBooks. This can create accounting headaches and even nightmares if the wrong QuickBooks accounts are assigned to items in Fishbowl. I do miss the QuickBooks ability to map transactions directly to expense accounts. In Fishbowl, you must create an item and then map it to the correct QuickBooks expense account, which again asks for accountant's nightmares.

Can be a great product but will depend on your personnel

Pros:

I'm an Advanced QuickBooks Pro Advisor and I specialize in Inventory set up and management. I haven't found any program with as many capabilities at such a low cost range as Fishbowl. Netsuite can handle what Fishbowl does but can easily go into the hundreds of thousands to setup and get started and I found the process very complex. Fishbowl on the other hand, can import from QuickBooks and have you set up and running in just a few minutes, though I stress that this should be used as test only. To accurately use Fishbowl it can take months to setup and learn properly. This largely depends on your current experience with technology, accounting practices and inventory knowledge.

Cons:

The support isn't stable. Depending on your time zone, you'll get a different team. Some zones, depending on the day and time, will pick up your call immediately and be very knowledgeable and helpful. Others will take a day to get back to you and you'll get someone who's only been there a few months but will confidently tell you something as fact and you might find our later they don't actually know what they're talking about. However, the online wiki is very detailed so if you're someone who can figure out things on your own, this will be a huge help. Basically, I've found that most people who complain about Fishbowl are really complaining about inventory, which is hugely complex. But if you're a detail oriented company with personnel who don't cut corners, Fishbowl can be an excellent fit for you. Just don't expect it to be easy!

Fishbowl Inventory & Manufacturing: Not great for custom manufacturers...

Comments: Inventory management is a breeze, great for warehousing and manufacturing bigger build products, the modules, and UI is well thought out, and very logical, they did a great job with it. They have great eCommerce integrations they added on for magento and amazon which makes it more powerful. The fact that you buy the product up front (with a year of support that can be renewed) makes it seem like you are saving money by owning the software, but you'll need to upgrade every year until the software does what you want it.

Pros:

It's great if you are manufacturing the same thing over and over, so you need 500 or 1000 widgets made the same way. It's a pretty powerful tool for warehousing and inventory. It costs for just the warehousing, plus users and add-ons. They'll give you a discount if you ask them, but you almost should just go with a saas program you'll get quicker updates. fishbowl you can save lots of money down the road if you don't buy there support package. They have a pretty good product development team, but it takes them at least a year it seems like to roll out any useful new features you talk to them about.

Cons:

Very challenging to set up, learning curve is huge in my opinion. The BOM stages work for the most part, but you'll spend a lot of time in a sandbox database seeing if what you want works (if your doing multi stage builds) If your doing 1 to 100 of anything, and what your making varies order to order, I'd recommend some other software like ordoo, shopvox, or corbridge. They are alot quicker to set up on the

Very tough start, but once up and running, seems much more friendly.

Pros:

Search function is amazing! Really like Fishbowl for the most part. Ordering, inventory tracking, automatic updating, etc.

Cons:

1) Can't look at a part and see how many times it was ordered easily. Have to go in and out of the purchase orders. Would like to look at a part, see how often it was ordered and from whom, how many were ordered and how much we paid in a simple list form. Right now I only see the PO/Vendor without any of the important details like quantity ordered and cost. 2) I also think the Revision for an item should follow the part. It does not. There is a revision field that shows up on the purchase order, but doesn't print anywhere AND is not the same field from the Part Detail screen. In a manufacturing environment the revision for any given part should follow the part around the database, including onto purchase orders so the vendor knows what to fabricate. Right now I have to manually enter the revision on the vendor screen. The revision from the Part Detail screen should automatically populate on the Vendor screen for said part so that when the item is ordered, it appears on the purchase order . 3) I find the documentation sometimes lacking detail. 4) I'd also like to be able to create custom reports myself and without turning back the hands of time and forcing Java to use an old revision (required for iReport). A report creation function in Fishbowl would be awesome! Even my archaic old Parts & Vendors software allowed me to do create custom reports.

STOP HERE!! Be careful!

Comments: Im warning any business here. PLEASE STOP HERE and listen to this. I’ll put the list of things that I experienced with fishbowl, after that make your decision. 1) The experience with the salesperson was very tough. The guy was very inpatient and didn’t answer my questions.
I was exhausted from work and the search for inventory software and decided eventually to go with them even though I had the red flag in here already. 2) when I started to set up my account (and of course before that too) I was explaining about the way my business operating and the fact that I’m only a service company who doesn’t charge my client taxes (like many home service companies in California) but paying the taxes to the distributor as am the last materials purchaser, but they didn’t really listen to me.
After realized that when RECEIVING I can’t add sales tax I was asking fro solution.
It was few days before the end of my 30 days refund. 3) Here everything started, I told Fishbowl that the software will not work for me and from this moment they ignored my messages, my calls, my email. As soon as something happen guys you won’t hear from them. Tip:
- DON’T use them
- you have other alternatives like Inflow & Finale which are way better and cheaper.
If YES:
- ask for at least 120 days for refund. make sure you read the contract many times and ask for changes before you and them are signing for it.
It will take you a while to set up the software.
120 DAYS MUST.

Pros:

The app is looking ok and easy to use, actually the only good thing I found and it took me a while to think about something.

Cons:

- Software looks from the 90’s - CUSTOMER SERVICE IS DANGEROUS to this country. We all need to make sure companies like that are not existing in AMERICA. - software is really hard to use - not enough barcode sizes - the set up guys are very unprofessional and doesn’t think out of the box - the software is very square and can’t be customized AT ALL. - TOO EXPENSIVE - they really don’t care about their clients. But really. You can’t even imagine.

Not Recommended - Please Read

Comments: During the planning stage, we identified a key shortcoming in Fishbowl's capabilities, for which we devised a work-around. That was a sign of things to come, as Fishbowl's limitations have since forced us to develop cumbersome operational procedures in order to avoid abandoning our investment in the software. The alternative would have been, and still is, to invest in costly custom development. You may read and hear that Fishbowl can do things. The best response to such a claim is "Show me exactly how it's done."

Pros:

About Me: 10+ years of programming, web development, database design, jack-of-all-trades IT. Fishbowl Use: 7 months total, including full implementation and continuing support, now delving into internal custom development Before you even try Fishbowl's software, make VERY detailed flowcharts of your existing and ideal processes. Then, locate and read every single page of their forums. Then, read every page of their Wiki. I'm serious; it isn't that long, and the internet doesn't contain much information about Fishbowl, for reasons unknown. As you read, compare the available options VERY carefully to your list of requirements. If none of those pages tells you that you CAN do a certain thing in Fishbowl, then you CANNOT do it. Fishbowl's marketing mentions what it can do in no uncertain terms.

Cons:

It is telling that one of Fishbowl's developers, Israel Lopez, co-founded a company called FishBooksPro, which provides support and custom programming services for Fishbowl and QuickBooks. Fishbowl allows you to take payment via credit card, interfacing with QuickBooks Merchant Services, but there is no way to associate a payment with an order. This example of a nearly-complete feature set is representative of the shortcomings that you will encounter when using Fishbowl. Our Fishbowl server software began freezing several times each day, after upgrading from v11.7 to 12.2. "Reinstall" was FB tech support's first response. How do you suppose upper management in my company will receive that 'solution'? My next step will be to find out how to clear Java caches manually (outside of Control Panel), which I'll try before reinstalling.

Fishbowl Inventory. Thank you Support

Comments: When I purchased Fishbowl there were many issues and I was very frustrated. After several attempts I met one of the CSR and can I say what a breath of fresh air he was and is. It is nice to meet someone who has your concerns on his mind when he approaches you and the way he handles matters is the way any company owner appreciates. He has been above the call of duty every time he handles my concerns. I must say my hand goes out to him and would shake his hand any time he is the room and give a smile and acknowledge him with the same respect he gives to me as a business owner running a company smoother thanks to his help and encouragement. As a business owner we are challenged every day and with the daily grind you feel at times lost and alone. After meeting him and having a person in your corner with you striving to ensure you have little challenges is beyond a relief it is a dream instead of a nightmare. Thanks for being part of LEW and making me feel like I have support instead of pressure!

Pros:

Inventory Tracking is the biggest thing. Easy of use with Sales Order and Purchase Orders. It sends my accounting info to Quickbooks automatically at the end of the day.

Cons:

Set up was a little time consuming. It took some effort to get everything in properly and just adapting to the new software functionality.

The updates are killing me

Pros:

The customer support is great. It's just hard to get a hold of them when you need to speak to a live person on the phone. The people who work there are the nicest and most helpful when you do get to talk to them and they do resolve the day to day issues that pop up. ie, inventory getting stuck in committed status is a pretty quick fix, but then again, should it really happen in the first place?. Bigger problems take more time to fix, but they seem to keep working on it until its resolved. The people they have providing training are excellent. The wikis are pretty easy to access and are pretty good

Cons:

This year the updates seem to break something that's had been working. Then it takes hours with customer support to fix and get going again. The phone support team could use more staff because it does take hours to get a call back. The reports are difficult to customize, you have to know programming. There is no simple report writer function or a reports that can be customized. If you have to pick inventory from two locations for one sales order, it will create two invoices. There is no way around that in Fishbowl. The calendar is pretty basic, could use enhancements. The inventory export CSV file does not use FIFO, but average costing. So if you use FIFO or any other method other than average costing, you have to use a different report instead of getting the data in CSV format. The shipping module is frustrating and the way it is set up does not allow us to use carton count efficiently, so we have to change the packing list after it's printed. If you want Fishbowl to count the cartons for you, you have to add each carton manually. And if you do that, it will not total or summarize the number of cartons you have, it will list each one individually. So you could have a packing list that could be several pages long. The UPS integration used to be great and then UPS updated, Fishbowl did not support the updated software and we had to change to UPS Worldship. Definitely a step backwards because the old integration worked beautifully. Now it's more manual and cumbersome.

The Way Software Should Work

Comments: If you are a small business manufacturer, this is the system for you. Don't even question the price. It is 1/10 the price of "enterprise" systems with all the features you need. If it sounds like I'm a fan-boy, I am. I love it when software works the way it should.

Pros:

The program is intuitive and extremely in depth. We a food manufacturer (coffee roaster) and we invoice through Fishbowl. We are not yet using the mobile app, so I can't talk about that. Unlike our accounting system (brand Q), one module smoothly integrates with the next. It is easy to administer and our users just get it. It is the standard by which other database systems should be measured. The integration with Quickbooks is painless. Fully automated and has never, never failed. I have not had one single

Cons:

Their chat support isn't the most knowledgeable. They do have the option of custom fields, but there isn't the option to make some fields visible/invisible. The server occasionally locks up, however, all you need to do is restart. No fuss.

Essentially no support unless you complain to your sales rep

Comments: If you are going to charge this much for a product it should look like it was made in this century, it should have all of the modern data interchange features expected from a modern application, and support should be fantastic. We have started looking at alternatives and will NOT be renewing.

Pros:

Decent product. The interface is a little dated, and some standard thing you would expect in functionality are missing or difficult to use. But, overall, it is a decent product if your goal is to have an inventory and order management system that integrates with Quickbooks.

Cons:

You will get no support unless you complain. We just updated our license, paid for a year of support. Still waiting 48 hours later for a call back from support. This is normal. When you do get the support you will most likely start with the lowest level support and have to either speak to the real support people through an intermediary or have to wait another day or two for the next level of support to call you back. Repeat that process until you finally get to someone who knows what they are talking about. Support this expensive should be fantastic. Instead, I am not certain what they could do to make this any worse.

Super satisfied with the Support I receive - Yeah Eastern Team!

Pros:

Fishbowl software allows my company to always be in the know of our inventory position. It is EASY to learn and easy to use. This week I am adding 7 more users and having All my "on-the-road" salesmen use FISHBOWL directly. For Sales processing, for Inventory stocking orders, for Creating customers etc... Its that easy to use!! A big shout out to my EASTERN Support team for the great support through CHAT, and to Jordan Boyce as he currently has been really taking care of my issues for my immediate upgrading of my use with Fishbowl. Adding FISHBOWL HOSTING to my affiliation with FB to secure that my Mobile Salesmen are using a STABLE environment!

Cons:

Some REPORTS are not in the nicest format, nor have the best "filters" to navigate. As well Little features [like spell check in email body templates] are missing, but Fishbowl does often upgrade their platform with new releases which often has these fixes.

Unstable, unreliable and inefficient

Comments: Very poor overall experience. We were sold on a promise that one year later, has yet to be delivered, and has caused a lot of damage to the company. Would not recommend this software

Pros:

Part and product searchability is excellent for companies with lots of sku's POS functionality is OK, but not super.

Cons:

Instability: Crashes several times a week - usually have to have a call with support at least once a week Poor accounting integration - QB integration is not as seamless as advertised. Very inefficient: Simple tasks take a long time. all the needed information on a part/product is stored in three separate tabs. For example: you cannot find, List price, cost price, and current inventory in one place. Quirky errors all over the place - discounts disappearing, invoice dollar amounts changing after being posted to QB. Issued orders randomly deleted from the system required items don't show up in the Auto-PO reports Reporting functionality is exceptionally rigid and often unhelpful lack of drill-down information huge wait times for technical support Mistakes cannot be corrected after posted to FB

Great Customer Service to help navigate the software

Pros:

Fishbowl has been a good fit for our company so far. Learning a new software is almost like learning a new language, so it does take time to get to know all the features and understand how this software was designed to "think". This is where Customer Service comes in... and this is where Fishbowl shines. They have GREAT people on staff that are always willing to make the time to give you the training or the help you need. On rare occasions, they don't have an answer right away and will have to get back to me, but they always get back to me with an answer to my questions. We also had a problem with a glitch in the software, and after letting our Fishbowl rep know, it was fixed with the next upgrade. Woo! Hoo! Our main purpose is getting Fishbowl was to have the ability to track lot numbers, and Fishbowl has given us that ability. We like that we are able to track multiple delivery dates on a single PO as well. We've not been able to do that in the past. My biggest brag on Fishbowl though is their outstanding Customer Service. They don't sell their product then leave you on your own to figure it all out. They've been with us every step of the way and have taught us much.

Cons:

The most difficult part of Fishbowl has been using the Reports. We haven't quite figured out how to utilize them to pull the information we need. But I believe this is because the needs of our particular business aren't the needs of most companies. We also have the option to have custom reports made for those particular needs. Some of the formatted reports do not include grand totals.

Fishbowl Review

Comments: Fishbowl is very good for all businesses that are inventory heavy.

Pros:

Feature I like the most are more on the Inventory Features like transfer order, inventory monitoring and the likes.

Cons:

You need high level of scripting skills to customize the forms and reports.