User Reviews Overview
About Fishbowl
Fishbowl is a manufacturing and warehouse inventory management software for small and midsize businesses. The platform, which integrates with QuickBooks, Xero and other popular business solutions, enables businesses across a...
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- Industry: Mining & Metals
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
After using for 5 years, we are implementing the newest FB Software, seems great
We are still too early in the installation of the new FB so there is nothing to comment on yet
Pros
The manufacturing module lets us build parts and put in inventory, which is what we needed (and did not have) in the past
Cons
Price was a bit high but if it all works the way we have been promised, it will pay for itself. There has been alot of changes in the past 5 years from the old FB, so we are hoping it is all going to work and help us all to be more proficient.
- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Fishbowl Review
Overall, Fishbowl has been able to help answer questions. I think some of the reports that we have to pay for should be included and are necessary for most companies to view.
Pros
Inventory and parts/products are easy to access.
Cons
The accounting/integration process. Customer statements don’t accurately reflect their account status. Credits not included and can’t be applied per remittance.
Alternatives Considered
QuickBooks DesktopReasons for Choosing Fishbowl
For a more robust inventory system and reporting availabilitySwitched From
QuickBooks OnlineReasons for Switching to Fishbowl
Reporting seemed better. Inventory seemed easily tracked/historical movement.- Industry: Wholesale
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Less than Optimal
Excruciating, it took over a year to implement and almost two years in and only two months of actually using the product there are still an abundance of not well-fitting pieces to this overall puzzle. My company and I have had to make a ton of compromises to achieve what we were (in my opinion) sold on in reference to the capabilities of the program.
Pros
The support staff are very patient with me and my concerns.
Cons
The lack of customization and flexibility to fit the needs of customers.
Alternatives Considered
SAP Business OneReasons for Choosing Fishbowl
I accepted a new role with a different company that had already purchased FB license.Switched From
SAP Business ByDesignReasons for Switching to Fishbowl
I did not have any choice in the matter the contract was signed so to speak at the time of my hiring.Response from Fishbowl
Thank you for sharing these concerns. I'm sorry that your experience has been so difficult. I appreciate that you were able to reach out to our Support team for help, and I'm sorry they weren't able to guide you through all of them. You're kind to recognize their efforts to assist you as exemplary.
It's very hard when things aren't a perfect fit, and I thank you for your graciousness in providing constructive criticism.
You are a good man, and that really comes across in your words. I wish you nothing but the best, and I hope that things will turn around soon and we'll be able to help you find the right degree of customization if at all possible. We do have a new AI tool that may help you with generating custom reports. Perhaps you can ask your account manager about that.
Please know that your wise words have the power to propel positive change. You are wonderful.
Top Fishbowl Alternatives
- Industry: Utilities
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Ease of Usage
Excellent! Customer service is very responsive, and the overall program is solid!
Pros
Ease of usage and ability to be flexible with our operations. We run custom electrical panels and this allows us to use the Bill of Materials module as a base, and add/delete parts in the Manufacturing module for the customs.
Cons
Some reports are not readily available and have to find work-arounds. Like annual part usage to date. I can't seem to find or modify a report that will tell me how many of a certain part I have used that is filtered by dates.
Alternatives Considered
NetSuiteReasons for Choosing Fishbowl
It was not fulfilling our needs for inventory nor production, plus reports were very limited.Reasons for Switching to Fishbowl
Implementation time and cost were both too high.- Industry: Airlines/Aviation
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great inventory software for small business
Satisfied with regular support, problem solving assistance, report writing assistance
Pros
The ability to track by Serial numbers and shelf life
Cons
Everything has to have custom reports to get what you need
Reasons for Switching to Fishbowl
Price was key, but really this is sufficient for our size. Too many bells and whistles creates a people problem to support it.- Industry: Medical Devices
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Excited for Inventory Management
Looking forward to using Fishbowl, the tools that Fishbowl provides will reduce our tasks and allow us to do more work.
Pros
Having just begun using Fishbowl we are just getting started in appreciating all the functionality that it provides. A major factor is the ability to track lot numbers as well as serial numbers of our products. The implementation process was smooth and the training provided was excellent.
Cons
The addition of items to sales orders and purchase orders is different than previous experiences.
Alternatives Considered
NetSuiteReasons for Choosing Fishbowl
To meet a request of our accountants, Fishbowl integrates with QuickBooks Online which was essentialSwitched From
OdooReasons for Switching to Fishbowl
Fishbowl was more affordable and met our needs, where the other products had more features than we would use.Response from Fishbowl
Welcome, friend! We're excited to grow with you as your business expands. It's wonderful to hear that Fishbowl's tracking methods are coming in so handy for you, and hopefully you'll soon get used to the new process for adding items to sales orders and purchase orders. Our Support team is happy to help you in any way they can, as you've already seen through the implementation and training process. We're glad that it went smoothly for you.
It sure is nice to know that there are robust inventory management options that meet your specific requirements better and more affordably than an ERP. We're excited to keep meeting your needs as you grow. Thank you for your kind review!
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great Company
Great use for us. Sometimes issues come up that can be easily resolved.
Pros
Great for a small manufacturing company.
Cons
Not as robust for a large manufacture less options
- Industry: Wholesale
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Good product
Good so far. We enjoy the customer support.
Pros
Compatibility with Quickbooks and ability to do both Inventory and accounting.
Cons
Weird connection between Parts and Product. Doesn't always correlate. Very confusing.
Response from Fishbowl
That's wonderful to hear that Fishbowl is working great for you thanks in large part to its QuickBooks integration. I'm sorry that parts and products aren't always correlating in your system. I hope that you'll be able to reach out to our Support team for help whenever an issue like that arises. They are definitely amazing at their jobs, and I'm glad that you've enjoyed working with them. You are awesome.
- Industry: Food Production
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Boxstorm to Fishbowl
I've only been using it for a week, and so far so good.
Pros
The switch from BoxStorm to Fishbowl has been fairly seamless.
Cons
So far, the inventory valuation report is not able to filter by "tags" and the location.
The emailing PO option does not have a savable "standard" message.
Response from Fishbowl
I will send your concern about that limitation in the Inventory Valuation report to the developers at Fishbowl immediately so that they can work on adding that functionality. Thank you for letting us know that that's something you need. And I'll also inform them that it would be good to have a savable standard message when emailing POs. Perhaps this could help you set up a default PO email message: https://help.fishbowlinventory.com/advanced/s/article/Settings#Email_tab
You are great. Thank you for sharing your review and helping us make Fishbowl a better product to meet your needs.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Fishbowl Review
Overall, the system is a great tool. It does take some time to get used to navigating and understanding how to successfully fulfill each step in the operation cycle. After spending a month in the system, I am confident navigating and working in it. The system could use a new skin.
Pros
Flexibility of the platform to account for many different obstacles that can occur in operations.
Cons
Navigating through the different boards in the program. There are no Tool Tips available to help the user understand what each button's function is. Also, after a user sets the what their screen preference is, the screen will default back so the next time the user goes into a specific board, they need to readjust the frame.
- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Fishbowl is a workhorse
Again, Fishbowl does the job. User friendly and detailed. Lot's of options and ability to add different tools as needed, plugins. Customer service has stayed above bar throughout.
Pros
Fishbowl is great inventory management software. We have very large BOMs where we need to be able to track A to Z, inventory to the production line and this does the job. It is as good as you use it and then some. Easy for people to go in and track down information according to their needs, duties and positions. Helpful reports for tracking. Vendor information and history. Customer job tracking. Costing. Great customer service.
Cons
Closing jobs. Once a job or sales is closed, it's pretty much closed. Once it transfers to QB, forget it! It's nice to have the option to be able to go back a little, but Disassembling is not fun. Would like some form of CRM, integration?
Alternatives Considered
First Rate VantageReasons for Switching to Fishbowl
To be honest, at the starting stage, price was very good and doable.- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Review for a Remolding Company
Pros
ease of use and fantastic customer support
Cons
better accounting visability prior to uploads and more options for FIFO, little bit touchy and tough to troubleshoot some problems without support but overall very efficient and worth the money
- Industry: Wholesale
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Flooring Distributor using Fishbowl
From the start they have been upfront and honest and having played around with giving me a very high price at first and then lowering it down by 50% like other companies that I dealt with. It’s nice to have the upfront and honest conversations without failing like I’m getting a sales pitch from, a company that just wants to make the sale. Fish bowls, seals representatives. Their internal staff have been very professional from start and throughout the process so far.
Pros
All of the pertinent information that my staff can utilize to help them be better at helping our customers.
Cons
Setting up all of the information. Although they have spreadsheets that you can fill out, it still takes a little time to gather all the information to insert it into the system like any other company.
Reasons for Switching to Fishbowl
We chose fishbowl because we felt it had everything we needed, and everything was explained to us efficiently. We also had multiple Q&A’s done with fishbowl representatives that were professional and never felt like they were just trying to sell us quickly. Also, we felt very pleased with their pricing structure.- Industry: Airlines/Aviation
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Review after 7 years
Overall has been good, as long as willing to spend significant time learning thier system without any help
Pros
Migration to SQL database allowing integration with other systems.
Cons
After selling to a larger company, support is almost non existant, if your small thet dont seem to care. Have tried to book many support sessions and never any availability unless you want to wait 2+ months. Good luck getting them on the phone, the chat works and will waste an entire day trying to explain any issues
- Industry: Machinery
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
With the amount of time I've spent trying to get it to work, I might actually have been able...
My experience has been pretty garbage, overall, to be completely honest. As a system, it works okay. Many, many aspects, such as the import/export function, are some of the worst examples of programming/knowledge I have seen in decades.
Pros
It does 85% of what it should. Its functions are organized very well, looking past its archaic functions.
Cons
Bugs, bugs, bugs. But most of all - Never getting resolution to deep technical issues. Surface-level issues of data entry are clearly support's bread and butter, but anything beyond that is guided out to a pasture to die of old age instead of being addressed.
Alternatives Considered
NetSuiteReasons for Switching to Fishbowl
I did not choose; I was not involved in identifying/purchasing our ERP.- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Positive experience
Positive and we are happy with the connection between quickbooks and fishbowl. Allowed us to integrate a better warehouse management while keeping our accounting with quickbooks.
Pros
Inventory management and ease of usez it also integrates with Quickbooks accounting.
Cons
Reporting, hard to find the reports you want
- Industry: Warehousing
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Monthly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
NOT 3PL / Warehouse inventory system
Trash. Regret making the decision and wasting our time and $20,000.
Pros
nothing. after 6 months we still could not even use the system
Cons
TRASH System and Crooks.
They do not stand behind the system if it doesn't work. Watch out for the agreement, states in there "NO REFUNDS" and they do not accept fault of their system.
Too cumbersome and not user friendly. Way too many steps for daily data entry. Need custom reporting for any traceability for inventory and that is extra or takes a long time to complete.
Alternatives Considered
Excalibur WMSReasons for Choosing Fishbowl
Needed an upgraded PC system with online backup.Reasons for Switching to Fishbowl
was originally sold something that was not and could not be delivered and they did not stand behind a failed system. TRASH and Crooks. Watch out for the their agreement, states in there; "NO Refunds and they are not at fault" Should have just gone with Camelot from the start. Very easy and knowledgeable system and IS 3PL / Warehouse Capable.- Industry: Machinery
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Inventory module good, but other modules cumbersome to use
The inventory side is good, but the manufacturing side and the RMAs for repairs are cumbersome.
Pros
Inventory system is intuitive. Ability to assign access right to users.
Cons
Manufacturing module is cumbersome
Sometimes product updates disable features that were available before, such as a couple of years ago, we could be looking at a part and hit the "To Inventory" button and be able to adjust quantities. Now only those who are able to create parts have the "To Inventory" button available. I want almost everyone to be able to adjust inventory levels, but next to no one able to create parts. The "To Inventory" button should have its own permission access right.
- Industry: Mining & Metals
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Fishbowl is a great program if you need help with your inventory
I've truly enjoyed working the system and have gone into multiple companies to program their inventory systems.
Pros
I found it easy to understand and program
Cons
I found in the beginning, years ago when I started working with the customer support teams, I was able to figure out the answer and programming before the support worker and I taught them something. We were all learning together.
- Industry: Sports
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Over price and careless account manager
I will not use your company again in future.
Pros
System service people very good!!
Account manager SUCKS!!! When I told him your price increased 48% I wanna know what makes so much different of your service for this big rip-off. He said I confirm the price and signed the contract not like I didn't know!! I answered : if I did notice price different between $3000 to $4500 after 3 years I will be a very pissed off customer. You can't treat your customer like shit just because we didn't notice! He said : the contract signed......
Cons
Price increased like crazy!!! 48%. I am with Fish bowl more than 10 years, after this rip-off price increased I will not be their customer every again.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Do not use this software.
Awful company with awful business practices. Do not use.
Pros
It only crashes every few days, which is an improvement over its previous versions.
Cons
They spontaneously change the terms of your contract mid term. Truly unbelievably awful business practices.
- Industry: Farming
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Gamechanger
Great I'm excited to see how it develops within the next year.
Pros
I love how it can do so many things. There are so many different settings and options to accommodate your experience..
Cons
I do feel like training will never stop because there is so much to learn.
- Industry: Leisure, Travel & Tourism
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Flexible and Full Featured
It has been good, and is getting better all the time. Telephone support and dedicated Account Reps are excellent.
Pros
It can support several inventory costing methods, multiple currencies, integrations with the most popular sales channels, and has the best mobile app for Zebra scanners that I've seen -- and I have compared all of the major players in the space. The initial cost for Fishbowl is low, and grows as you grow and can afford it, through per-seat licences.
Cons
Some of the user interface design could be more intuitive (such as through the use of proper tab and body structure, or placing controls in close proximity to the data being controlled). Email-based support borders on useless.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great Service
Amazing. Anytime I don't know something or there is an issue support is very knowledgeable.
Pros
Love their customer service! It's nice knowing if we ever have an issue they are on hand to help deal with it and get us back up and running as quickly as possible.
Cons
Nothing! The program is great and so it their customer support
- Industry: Wholesale
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
A Great Product with Great Support
So far the overall experience has been excellent. It was a big jump for us moving up to a complete system like Fishbowl but it has gone smoothly and we are getting better with each step.
Pros
My first impression was with the support and implementation team and they did an excellent job. After that the ease of use to get our data in and all the tools to keep our business running smoothly has been better than expected.
Cons
My only drawback so far is the interface is a bit crowded and it took me a bit to find (remember where) all the buttons were and which icon did what. I'm sure the more I use Fishbowl the less this will be an issue.
