Red Herring, a global media company focused on innovations in technology and business decision makers and investors, selected Fishbowl Inventory as a 2012 Red Herring Global award winner. Narrowed from a list of 300 finalists selected from all over the world, the win for Fishbowl was based on the company’s financial health, annual growth in revenue, management quality, strategy execution, and more. The announcement was made at a special award dinner in Los Angeles on November 29, 2012.

Prior to the award announcements, leaders from the companies gave presentations on why they deserved to win. For Fishbowl Inventory, the presenter was CEO David K. Williams. In October, Williams was interviewed on the radio show “The Story” about how he had initially approached Fishbowl in 2004 as a business consultant that was asked to shut down the company before their product had launched, but finding a passionate team that was dedicated to its mission of creating inventory management software for companies of all sizes, decided to help develop and run it instead. His decision has led the company forward into great success based on the strength of its employees and robust software.

As experts on the Fishbowl Inventory system, the team at FishBooks Pro provides both consultations and custom software solutions to make sure that clients achieve optimal results with their Fishbowl software. With custom reports, e-commerce shopping cart integration, and more, FishBooks Pro helps to make Fishbowl a great fit for inventory management in companies big and small.

For more information, visit FishBooksPro.com and contact FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm.

So you’ve just finished your eCommerce site, and it’s newly up and running. Or maybe you’ve had your eCommerce site up for awhile, but it doesn’t attract much traffic. Now what? While online shopping is becoming increasingly popular, how does one compete with Amazon or the sponsored ads for stores in Google searches? Here are 5 ways to help your eCommerce site stand out and increase its search engine optimization (SEO).

Your site should be user-friendly, attractive, streamlined, and load quickly. No one enjoys waiting for a page to load, no matter how cool the interface or animation is. If too many steps are required before purchasing, your customer may leave without buying. Including interactive elements or gamification (earning points for site activity, leaving reviews, participating in groups or forums, etc.) can also help your site to feel less static.

Make your product descriptions unique. In 2011, Google released an update called Panda that helps to weed out “low-quality” or “thin” sites, so sites with higher quality appear sooner in search results. Using manufacturer description templates can end up making your site look like an affiliate and lower your search engine ranking. Try unique or user-generated content for each instead. If this is not in your budget, select to “noindex” your product pages and instead concentrate on producing content for your category pages. Blogging can also help to retain customers and attract links.

Use keywords at their necessary minimum. The era of keyword stuffing to help with your search engine ranking is over. It actually hurts more than helps because it dilutes what the page is about. If keywords abound, or there is excessive interlinking throughout your site, Google can tell that your site is aiming to improve ranking rather than serving its users. It is a far safer bet to concentrate on honing your content to be helpful and relevant.

Reach out to your customers through social media. By keeping and maintaining accounts on sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest, you can communicate with your customers like never before. Users can engage with your company by leaving feedback, asking questions, and sharing the content that you post, which helps to increase traffic and referrals to your site.

Go with the flow toward mobile purchases. While many online stores are not yet optimized for mobile device use, Forbes recently reported that more than 20 percent of online shopping is already happening on mobile devices, with the number of shopping sessions likely to increase by two to three times every year. Make your mobile eCommerce site convenient for mobile shoppers by making it easy to navigate, zoom in and out of images, and providing quick or one-click checkout.

For information on how to integrate your eCommerce site with Fishbowl Inventory and Quickbooks, visit FishBooksPro.com and contact FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm.

Typical Warehouse Workhorse

Zebra label printers are the warehouse workhorse. Clean, efficient, and spartan in design, they spit out roll after roll of labels without much fuss. Many of our customers have this type of label printer at their shipping stations already, so we would like to take a moment to provide a quick guide on how to best use Zebra label printers with Fishbowl Inventory. In this guide, we will be discussing only the Zebra TLP 2844, a very common printer that is provided by UPS and USPS to print shipping labels. This printer can use label stock from one inch to six inches wide and is thermal transfer/ribbonless, meaning that you only have to buy labels (and not ink) for printing.

Where To Buy

If you do not have a Zebra Label Printer, you can work with a FishBooks Pro representative who will help you to procure a new one. Otherwise, there are many affordable options on eBay for purchasing a previously used label printer.

Setup

Network

We recommend that when using a Zebra Label Printer with Fishbowl Inventory, you consider making it part of your network as well. Labels are great tools for identifying inventory after manufacturing and receipt. A network label printer can be accessible to the entire enterprise. Nearly any USB or parallel port network print server should work with the Zebra label printer. Check with your IT consultant on their preferred print server. We favor Netgear- and HP-based network print servers.

Standalone

You can also simply connect a Zebra printer directly via the provided USB port for full connectivity.

Drivers

It is best practice to download the latest print drivers for your Zebra printer via Zebra’s driver website.

We are using 2.6.67 (Build 3539)

Configuration

To best configure Fishbowl Inventory with a Zebra Label Printer, some additional settings will need to be entered into the driver setup to ensure it will run smoothly. Stock sizes and default driver settings will need to be configured.

To start, navigate to the Zebra Printer Driver Properties as below.

Under the “Stocks” tab, you will want to define the size of the labels you intend to use. In this example, I added a four-inch wide by six-inch long label (4″x6″). You can adjust additional options like the darkness of printing and print speed here. You may need to fiddle with the unprintable area depending on the quality/margin minimums; but generally, you will want to leave this at zero for left, right, top, and bottom. It is currently only recommended to use one stock size per printer entry within Fishbowl Inventory. You will need to install the printer twice to define two default settings.

In addition to the stock size above, for use within Fishbowl Inventory, we need to override the application settings. When an application prints, it can also define what kind of paper size to use, collation, etc. With Fishbowl, however, this information may be wrong, so we have to force the defaults. Make sure the “Always use drivers settings” box is checked and continue.

Under the “Advanced” tab of the Printer Properties, you will want to set the new Printing Defaults. Click on the “Advanced” tab, then on “Printing Defaults…” as this is where you will need to set the stock size and the orientation. Select portrait or landscape as necessary. Click OK and Apply.

Printing

In Fishbowl

Within Fishbowl additional setup is required.  You must change some print settings in order for the above to work well.  Within the Fishbowl Inventory client you need to switch to “System Printing” this can be found in the “Program Options” under “Tools.”

This should be all you need to print successfully from Fishbowl Inventory. Ask your report writer to design a report using the size of stock you are intending to print with, and it should work the first time.

Outside Fishbowl

You can additionally print outside Fishbowl Inventory with Seagull Scientific’s BarTender. We recommend at least the Professional edition, because it can be connected to Fishbowl Inventory without requiring a separate Fishbowl seat-license. Contact us for purchase options for BarTender.

Additional Resources

Please see the link below for four label tests that you can try with your Label Printer for 4″x6″ stock format. The link contains a zip file with four reports that can be uploaded into Fishbowl Inventory. They also include JRXML files, so you can test with different stock sizes. The intent is to find which driver setting and design template will work for your particular label printer model/driver.

4×6 Label Tests

For information on using a label printer with Fishbowl Inventory and Quickbooks, visit FishBooksPro.com and contact FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm.

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If you ever wanted to send reports to Customers, Sales Staff, and Executives, now you can with the latest Fishbowl Inventory feature: Schedule a Report. New in 2013.4 version of Fishbowl Inventory is the ability to email a report using the Schedule module. We will explore setting up the new feature and what it looks like in an email.

Prerequisites

You will need to setup a company email address in the Company module. Instructions.

Setup

In the Schedule module, click on the new button in the upper left hand side of the Fishbowl Inventory client. A new type of Scheduled Task is available as “Report.” Select the report option and click on next.

New Feature! Schedule a Report

In the Schedule Settings step, you specify the name of your task, the description (for others to understand), the directory, file type, file name, the report to select, and email. You will always need a directory, and the directory path is relative to where the server is running, so you may need to run the client on the server to get the right path OR ask for one from your IT staff. The other settings can be chosen at your discretion. The Report selection, however, will require that all parameters of the report be optional. Reports with required parameters will not appear in the list.

Schedule Settings: Name, Description, Directory, File Type, File Name, Report, Email Report To, and Alert

After setting up the Schedule Settings, you can setup the Report Parameters. This is where the report shines: All of the Fishbowl report parameters work here. So Customer Groups, Product Tree, and Date Ranges are all functional. Even the relative date range settings are available with the report setting. So if you set the report date range to “This Week,” it will continue to use this week, not the dates it calculated the first time.

The next step would be to specify a Schedule Time. Frequencies available are: By Minute, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly. If you need a more complex schedule than this, you will need to setup multiple Scheduled Tasks.

Schedule Frequency

Completing the wizard with this screen concludes the setup.

Running the Scheduled Task

Once a Scheduled Task is defined, you can run it manually by selecting the task and clicking on the green triangle (run). Otherwise, it will run and queue up with other tasks at that time.

Results

If you have set up the email option, the email for the Scheduled Task will look like this:

Additional Thoughts

All custom reports will be able to utilize this new feature in Fishbowl Inventory, provided that they do not have required parameters.

If you need a consultation on using the Schedule a Report feature in Fishbowl Inventory, or for your other consulting needs for Fishbowl, please visit FishBooksPro.com and contact the team at FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm.

If you have QuickBooks and Fishbowl Inventory and care about your Balance Sheet, pay attention: FishBooks Pro is working on a solution to compare Fishbowl Inventory Valuation with the QuickBooks Balance Sheet.

Why Should I Care?

Accountants might never ask this question, but let me explain. You should care because clean Fishbowl Inventory Valuations and QuickBooks Balance Sheets indicate a healthy accounting/business process. Fishbowl Inventory is not an accounting system; it uses QuickBooks for that. However, that doesn’t mean that QuickBooks performs all the accounting functions.

Fishbowl Inventory does this to a large extent. It will post Manufacturing Adjustments from consuming raw goods and outsourced expenses,  Income and COGS records to your P&L, and also increases your Inventory Asset from your Purchases from Vendors. Fishbowl is in many ways the “detail” for the accounts in QuickBooks. A good measure between QuickBooks and Fishbowl Inventory is to check the Fishbowl Inventory Valuation against your Balance Sheet: The Inventory Asset account should match. If it does not, you have a problem.

Potential Symptoms

Inaccurate Reports If QuickBooks and Fishbowl do not match, how can you expect any Sales Margin report to be accurate? For example, unit costs could be inaccurate because accounting procedures are out of sync with QuickBooks and Fishbowl.

Theft If QuickBooks and Fishbowl do not match, how can you tell if an item sold to a customer was posted to QuickBooks accurately and without modification? If this happens, you could be a victim of theft.

Reports that Change One of the easiest ways a Controller can detect problems is running the same reports for the same period on different dates and watching for changes. If this happens, you may have a problem in procedure.

Solutions

FishBooks Pro is currently developing a solution to Reconciling QuickBooks and Fishbowl Inventory. Below are two sample reports that allow a business to check if its processes are healthy.

This report compares the QuickBooks Balance Sheet (specifically the Inventory Asset account) with the FishBooks FishSnap Inventory Valuation. Here, we can see that from 1/23/2013 to 2/6/2013, the Company was out of sync upwards of $48,000. What is worse is that we used the report’s What If Adjustment feature to simulate if QuickBooks matched Fishbowl, and that was a $244,000 adjustment! You can see that there are some serious problems. However, this report tells you that there is a problem, but does not detail what it is. The next report does just that.

Balance Sheets not in sync

This report is the Purchase Order Reconciliation, which compares the Fishbowl Purchase Orders with the QuickBooks Bills and Item Receipts. Let’s say we could narrow down our deviating numbers to a specific day. We could begin looking at our Purchasing…Is there a problem there? This report will compare the Amount and the Date that Fishbowl has with data in QuickBooks, indicating if there is a problem with a difference column. In the example data below (we cannot use data from the above QB and FB report), we can see that PO #s 10, 11, and 12 have problems. Further inspection in QuickBooks reveals that adjustments to the unit cost of purchased items are inconsistent with Fishbowl.

The Accounting Staff was reconciling a Vendor Bill in QuickBooks, but never in Fishbowl Inventory!

Here, we find POs that were altered in QuickBooks

Opportunity

This is just a preview of what FishBooks Pro has been working on. We have additional reports for Reconciliation of Payments, Sales Orders, Manufacturing Adjustments, plus Best Practice analysis reports. Companies who have trouble reconciling QuickBooks and Fishbowl should contact us immediately for free consulting, as we would like to test these reports on as many cases as possible.

Over the last few years, the question of inventory landed cost—what it is and how it works in Fishbowl Inventory—has come up more and more frequently in the list of issues that clients come to us to resolve. This post draws from our answers to their questions, focusing on the purpose of using landed cost, its functionality in Fishbowl, and the subsequent accounting in QuickBooks.

What is landed cost?

Simply put, landed cost is the purchase cost of a part plus all the expenses of “landing” it into your warehouse. In effect, the expenses of shipping, duties, freight, import taxes, agent fees, etc., are subtracted (credited) from your cost of goods on your P&L statement and added (debited) to the inventory asset on your balance sheet. When you sell that part, this landed cost (not the purchased cost from the vendor) becomes the material cost of goods from which your profit margin is derived.

Why landed cost?

With transactional database software, we have the ability to calculate profit margins by item, as the costing of an individual item is tracked from receipt to shipment. This capability can enhance our view of sales greatly to see, for example, our most profitable item or our most profitable customer by item. The usefulness of this knowledge, however, is only as good as its accuracy, especially in the costing of the items sold. For businesses that import goods, these costs include not only what we paid for the item itself, but also what we paid to “land” the item into our warehouse. These getting-it-into-the-warehouse costs can add significantly to the purchase cost and vary greatly from part to part (depending on weight and volume) or from receipt to receipt (depending on method of shipping). The landed cost functionality of inventory software can distribute these expenses to specific items, giving us the true cost of the inventory sitting in our warehouse. This ability refines the usual practice of adding a freight percentage to our material cost of goods based on historical gross numbers.

Considerations of landed cost

Your accounting team should be aware that the journal entry for landed cost “moves” the expense from the cost of goods (P&L sheet) to the inventory asset (balance sheet), thereby increasing the asset value of the company (company is now worth more) while decreasing expenses (and is temporarily more profitable!).

The expense for the shipping cost of goods is not recognized until the items are sold.

Local freight is generally expensed upon receipt of the bill and not included in the landed cost, but this is a decision for accounting to make, which could be influenced by the proportional cost of the part and the freight.

Setting up for landed cost in Fishbowl Inventory

To set up for landed cost in Fishbowl, the first thing to do is make shipping part numbers. Let us suppose that we generally receive two bills for the cost of getting our parts to us, one from the freight forwarder and one from the customs broker. Create two shipping type part numbers, one for each cost. Check in the accounts tab that the expense account (freight COGS) and the accrual account (current liability) are mapped correctly.

After the receipt of a part, we will use these part numbers to reconcile the costs into the purchase cost of the part, which factor into the total landed cost.

Applying the landed cost

Receiving in Fishbowl is done in two processes: receive and reconcile. Receive is concerned with quantity (how many came in), while reconcile deals with costs (if the bill correct and what additional costs need to be added). Landed cost is applied in the latter transaction. Note that it is a good idea to have all the associated shipping costs reconciled at the same time or soon after the part is received into stock, when it is available to be picked and either consumed in a work order or shipped on a sales order. As mentioned above, adding landed costs to the purchase cost changes the cost of goods value of that part, a dollar amount that is included in the cost of a finished part or that is used to record the margins of a shipped sale. Trying to change these costs after the fact may cause problems. (This topic will be covered in a future post.)

In our example, the company ordered 10,000 parts to be shipped at 1,000 per month. The first 1,000 were received, and we need to apply the related shipping costs. To apply these costs, click the reconcile icon.

On the popup screen, check the line to reconcile and click next.

Click the Add Items icon on the next screen to see the part entry and cost screen. Here, we add the shipping items with the billed costs. Since these received part bills are not from the vendor, uncheck the Add item to Vendor bill box. Click OK. Add as many shipping costs as needed and click next.

The next step is to distribute the landed cost by part, calculating by the chosen parameter of the drop down menu. We will do it by cost per part. Each shipping cost will have its own screen, with its own cost to spread. Click through the costs and spread as wanted.

The resulting summary screen shows us what we have accomplished. The landed cost is now $10.40 (1000 parts/$400 = $.40 per part added to purchased cost). The 2 bills are represented separately with their respective costs.

Clicking the Finish button brings us back to the receiving screen, with the part now reconciled (blue check mark) and showing the two bills, all of which will export to QB.

Landed cost accounting in QuickBooks

When correctly mapped, the Fishbowl export to QuickBooks will give us the below journal entries.

On the first two lines, we can see that the cost of the parts and the freight are added (debited) to inventory. On the next six lines, the cost of the freight is zeroed out in the COGS freight account and added (credited) to the Shipping accrual account. The last line shows the purchased cost of the received part added (credited) to a vendor bill.  The cost of goods for the shipping will be recognized when the part is sold (at the cost of $10.40). The shipping accrual account will be zeroed out when the actual accounts payable bills for the shipping are entered in and spread to the accrual account (not to cost of goods).

The next article in this series will focus on how Fishbowl Inventory handles the accounting of inventory costs in the three available costing methods, and how landed costs affect this.

For more information on inventory costing in Fishbowl Inventory and Quickbooks, please visit FishBooksPro.com and contact FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm.

FishBooks Pro is proud to announce the general availability of FishNet to all of our customers. FishNet is our new service platform designed to provide the best product, services, and support available from FishBooks Pro to companies with Fishbowl Inventory. Simply put, once you get FishNet, you get everything we offer: Reports, Integration, Custom Software, and Database Support.

What is FishNet?

FishNet is a web-hosted service built by FishBooks Pro.  It provides a service platform to bridge FishBooks Pro with Fishbowl Inventory installations.

Why FishNet?

The FishNet idea was borne in 2009 out of the frustration that delivering reports to Fishbowl Inventory was cumbersome and difficult. Early versions were created as a Windows service to  synchronize folders between a client’s computer and FishBooks Pro.  After its initial development, Fishbowl Inventory changed how reports were delivered, so the original code to synchronize was no longer valid. The project was shelved until 2012, when it was picked up again by our development staff.  After a year of development, FishNet was ready for private testing. Starting in February of 2013, we began asking customers to use FishNet as part of our report development process.

What FishNet Does Now

FishNet currently enables our expert Report Writing staff to deliver reports straight to your Fishbowl Inventory system.

How FishNet Works

FishNet has two components, a server and a client application.

• The Server
  • Manages Communication
  • Queues of Messages
  • Report Repository
  • Delivery Notifications

• The Client
  • Connects to FishNet server
  • Processes pending messages
  • Waits for new messages

The report writers interact with the server component of FishNet, upload reports, sign up new customers for FishNet, and perform other administrative tasks.  The Client is installed wherever the Fishbowl Inventory server is located as a Fishbowl Scheduled Task. It is a very lightweight application that only activates when there is a new message.

Seeing It in Action

FishNet is best known for its live report delivery.  However, the “magical” part of it is how does not interfere with using Fishbowl Inventory at all: It works completely in the background.

Live Report Delivery

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Future Plans for FishNet

Today, FishNet can currently only deliver reports. We plan to enable delivery of our successful line of shopping cart integration software called FishMart and other software solutions like FishSnap, and also enable live database troubleshooting via EasyTunnel.  In addition, we are currently experimenting with premise-to-cloud connectivity to convert the Fishbowl Inventory API to a publicly accessible REST API for mobile devices.

Getting FishNet

Currently, FishNet is only being offered to FishBooks Pro customers with an active report development project. We provide easy-to-use installation software that eliminates guesswork about installations. However, just in case an environment is tricky, we do provide live support to answer any questions customers may have. For more information on FishNet, or for your other consulting needs for Fishbowl, please visit FishBooksPro.com and contact the team at FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm.

Over the last two years, I’ve learned a lot from our customers. I wanted to take a moment to share some of those thoughts with you:

1. Listening to our clients has been key to our success. All of our custom tools, such as FishMart, FishSnap, and FishNet, along with our ReadyReports, have been developed because we heard our clients asking for help. The more our clients need, the more we grow. Problem solving is what we do!
2. Every company is unique. We understand that Fishbowl also needs to reflect this uniqueness. Fortunately, Fishbowl Inventory is incredibly flexible. By using custom fields, our clients have been able transform Fishbowl into a tailored program that fits their needs.
3. Fishbowl is an amazing tool, but it is often underutilized! One thing I’ve noticed is that many of our clients only use a portion of Fishbowl’s capabilities because they’re unaware of all the features in the modules. But hey, that’s what training is for! It is always great to learn about our clients and their processes in order to see how else they can use the program in order to take full advantage of its capabilities.
4. Our customers are just awesome. Their enthusiasm and high standards for Fishbowl keep us motivated. Every day, they bring new challenges to the plate, and that’s what we like most!

So, to our current and future customers, thank you for trusting us with your needs and turning to us when you need creative Fishbowl Inventory solutions.

—Gina Shafer

Gina Shafer is a report writer at FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm. For information, visit FishBooksPro.com and contact FishBooks Pro.

Recently, a customer of ours asked the following question:

Is it really true that I need to update QuickBooks with sales tax rates? I thought Fishbowl handled that and just did the required Journal Entry.

The answer is YES. You must keep QuickBooks and Fishbowl in sync with Sales Tax Rates, and here is why: QuickBooks calculates Sales Tax at the time of Invoice/Sales Receipt creation; it does not accept amounts from 3rd party applications like Fishbowl Inventory. It will always use QuickBooks rates.

This is clearly evident when manually adjusting the QuickBooks Sales Tax Item rate, then posting a new Invoice from Fishbowl. Let’s say Fishbowl has a California Tax Rate of 8.75%, but in QuickBooks it is 10.75%. Once you export, the resultant Invoice/Sales Receipt will have a higher or lower Sales Tax amount. Some customers have complained that Fishbowl is not posting the right Sales Tax, and therefore when our customers pay by check, the amounts do not match the Invoice. A simple example:

This happens to Sales Tax applied at the Document Level, and when it is added as a Sales Tax line.

Preventing Reconciliation Issues

This poses a particular problem to businesses: how to keep the two systems in sync. In QuickBooks 2013, there is no functionality to mass edit or update sales tax items. You will need to use the Export to Excel/CSV feature and compare the information with Fishbowl Inventory via the CSV Import Export module.  At FishBooks Pro, we’ve also discovered that if you edit the Sales Tax Item rate, it will not retroactively edit previously posted Invoices/Sales Receipts.

In our soon to be announced Fishbowl Inventory and QuickBooks Reconciliation package, we will be able to live check the Fishbowl Inventory and QuickBooks Sales Tax Rates, and then compare the two. This allows a Controller or Accountant to quickly pinpoint issues and resolve them immediately. More information on our new product will be available soon.

—Israel Lopez

Israel Lopez is the lead report designer and writer/database expert at FishBooks Pro, a Fishbowl Inventory consulting and software solutions firm. To learn more, visit FishBooksPro.com and contact FishBooks Pro.

The Question

I have a question regarding accounts receivable, when a customer makes a payment it comes over to QB immediately and shows a negative amount in A/R and will stay that way until the customer’s order is fulfilled at which time they will offset. I don’t know if we’re the only ones in this boat, but we have a lot of pending orders and our accounts receivable shows to be tremendously negative making it very hard to ascertain how much is actually owed to us by our customers. From what I understand income received prior to the completion of work should be recorded as unearned revenue, why is that not the case with Fishbowl?

The Issue

How customer prepayments (deposits) are treated on your QuickBooks balance sheet will have an impact on the integrity of your financials and may also have tax consequences at the end of the year, especially if your company reports on the cash basis. My recommendation is to post prepayments to the Other Current Liability account, until the service or goods are delivered. This will eliminate the understatement of Accounts Receivable (AR) and Unearned Income (UI). If payments are made in Fishbowl, the process of posting prepayments correctly in QuickBooks needs to start here.

Preparation

1. In QuickBooks create an Other Current Liability account in the Chart of Accounts (COA) called Customer Deposits (or some such name).

2. In the Fishbowl Accounting Module, reimport the accounts so that the new Liability Account will be there for mapping.

3. In Fishbowl, create a new service type part with the accompanying product called Deposit (or some such name). In the Part Accounts tab, map both the Expense and Cost of Gods Sold (COGS) accounts to the same service QuickBooks account. In the Product Details tab, map the Income Account to the new Liability Account.

You are now ready to correctly handle prepayments in QuickBooks all from within Fishbowl.

Process Flow

An example of how this works is: Let’s say a customer orders #500 chain rings to be shipped mid next month , your terms are prepay before shipment. The process flow would look like this:

Conclusion

Using this fairly easy method of handling prepayments (deposits) in Fishbowl will resolve the problem of understated AR on your balance sheet with the added benefit of correctly stating unearned revenue.

Over the last few years, FishBooks Pro has successfully deployed many e-Commerce integrations. During that time we have seen a number of incidents that have left companies stranded with non-functioning integrations, skyrocketing costs, or both. Here is some insight we’d like to share with those of you who either currently have an integration or are considering one for the first time.

No two integrations are the same

The first and most important point to make is that no two integrations are the same. Although “connecting”  Fishbowl Inventory to your online shopping cart might seem like a straightforward task, your expectations for this connection may differ greatly from any other company.  At a high level, you want your orders to come in to Fishbowl from your website; you want shipping information to get back to your customers and possibly to get your product information from Fishbowl to your online store. These are features that almost any Fishbowl Partner can provide to you, but what about the details of how your particular company uses these features?

• Would you like your orders to come in under a single web customer, or would you like them to come in under individual customers?
• Would you like payments to be applied in Fishbowl?
• When pushing inventory values to your site, would you like to show “quantity available for sale” or “quantity available for pick”?

These are just a few of the questions the FishBooks Pro support team will ask you when configuring your integration, as well as ensuring you understand the impact of these decisions all the way through to your QuickBooks accounting. A FishMart Integration with a support contract doesn’t just get your company what you “need” right now, it gives you a reliable partner to ensure your business keeps running the way you want, both today and in the future.

Technology Changes

We all know that technology is constantly changing. Many things could affect the connection between Fishbowl Inventory and your online shopping cart, from new features to the possibility of software bugs. Once your company comes to rely on a shopping cart integration, it can be extremely frustrating when something breaks. Like having a key employee call in sick, it can slow or even stop your entire production. Without the proper integration support, you may be stranded or stuck with expensive fees to get you back online. Stop worrying about whether the next Fishbowl upgrade will break your integration or if your eCommerce provider is going to upgrade their systems without you knowing. Even beyond large-scale changes outside of your control, you might also experience unexpected problems like these internally. What if your IT team migrates servers and your integration breaks? Make sure you have someone who can help you get through these technical changes and rest assured knowing that a FishBooks Pro support contract covers all of them.

Companies Change

As a business owner, you are constantly looking for ways to run your business more profitably and efficiently. Whether you are looking to optimize your production or broaden your market, having a partner to help keep everything running is invaluable. When you decide that today is the day you’re going to hand out promo codes to get more traffic to your site, make sure you have a support team that is able to explain to your accountant how those discounts are going to be posted into QuickBooks. It’s small things like this that make the support team at FishBooks Pro unlike anyone else in the industry.

Why FishBooks Pro?

FishBooks Pro provides one year of free support with every FishMart integration. After the first year, your company will have the opportunity to renew the support contract or opt for hourly support. FishBooks Pro is also one of the only companies on the market to provide proactive support. When something goes wrong with your integration, not only are you notified, but our support team is also notified with the information necessary to begin troubleshooting your issue quickly. As a part of the Fishbowl Developer Network, FishBooks Pro has direct access to the Fishbowl support team, as well as early access to all Fishbowl releases. This allows us to test our integrations and notify Fishbowl of any bugs before the next version hits the market. When you’re ready to integrate your Fishbowl Inventory with your online shopping cart, please check out our website or give us a call.

FishMart IntegrationsContact Us

Fishbowl Inventory has a great feature where you can save your report parameters. This means that the next time you run your report it will have all of your favorite settings automatically selected. Unfortunately, we found a small bug in Fishbowl 2013.5 today that can be quite frustrating if you don’t understand the issue. Although we aren’t exactly sure what versions are affected by the bug, we do know that it was broken in version 2013.5 and resolved in 2014. The problem is specifically with date range parameters not saving. In the picture above we have a date range and multiple checkboxes, if you click the green save button all of the checkbox settings will be saved for the next report run where as the date range parameter will not. This can be extremely frustrating when you are trying to create a scheduler to email the report out daily. If this is happening to you it may be time to upgrade your Fishbowl.

If your company has recently upgraded to Fishbowl 2015.0, it is possible that some of your custom reports may need updating. The Fishbowl team has made some drastic changes to the 2015 database layer by switching to Hibernate. Although Hibernate is great news for Fishbowl performance, there were some modifications that had to be made to the Fishbowl database to accommodate its ORM structure. More specifically, the way that Pick, Pack and Shipment objects relate to Sales, Purchase and Transfer Orders had to be changed.

In preparation for the release of Fishbowl 2015.0, Fishbowl updated the stock reports that referenced Picking, Packing, Shipping and Receiving, as well as all associated labels. The database changes will also affect any custom reports touching the Pick, Pack, or Ship module, making them incompatible with Fishbowl 2015.0.

If you have not yet upgraded to 2015.0, FishBooks Pro has developed a tool to identify which, if any, custom reports will need to be updated prior to moving to 2015.0. Contact us to receive this free service.

If the upgrade has already affected your custom reports, contact our Reports Team for assistance.

iReport is unable to populate (0).

When running an incompatible report in Fishbowl 2015.0 you will likely get the following error: “iReport is unable to populate (0).”. This is due to fields that were removed from the Fishbowl database. This means that your custom report will need updating. If you need assistance updating a report or have any questions about the database changes please feel free to Contact Us at FishBooks Pro.

Full Error Message

Error:

50710702

=====================================================

Message:

iReport is unable to populate (0).

=====================================================

Fix:

=====================================================

Stack:

com.fbi.util.exception.ExceptionMainFree: net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JRException: Error preparing statement for executing the report query :

SELECT ship.id AS ShipID, ship.orderid AS OrderID, ship.ordertypeid AS OrderType

FROM ship

WHERE ship.id = ?

at com.evnt.eve.modules.logic.extra.LogicReport.getJasperPrint(LogicReport.java:295)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.ReportModule.getJasperPrint(ReportModule.java:168)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.EVEModule.handleEvent(EVEModule.java:188)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.handleEvent(MessageHandler.java:156)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.run(MessageHandler.java:115)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JRException: Error preparing statement for executing the report query :

SELECT ship.id AS ShipID, ship.orderid AS OrderID, ship.ordertypeid AS OrderType

FROM ship

WHERE ship.id = ?

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query.JRJdbcQueryExecuter.createStatement(JRJdbcQueryExecuter.java:377)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query.JRJdbcQueryExecuter.createDatasource(JRJdbcQueryExecuter.java:196)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFillDataset.createQueryDatasource(JRFillDataset.java:1087)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFillDataset.initDatasource(JRFillDataset.java:668)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.setParameters(JRBaseFiller.java:1258)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.fill(JRBaseFiller.java:877)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.fill(JRBaseFiller.java:822)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.fill(JRFiller.java:61)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fill(JasperFillManager.java:446)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fillReport(JasperFillManager.java:849)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.logic.extra.LogicReport.getJasperPrint(LogicReport.java:292)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.ReportModule.getJasperPrint(ReportModule.java:168)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.EVEModule.handleEvent(EVEModule.java:188)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.handleEvent(MessageHandler.java:156)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.run(MessageHandler.java:115)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBSQLException: GDS Exception. 335544569. Dynamic SQL Error

SQL error code = -206

Column unknown

SHIP.ORDERID

At line 1, column 32

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractPreparedStatement.<init>(AbstractPreparedStatement.java:138)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBPreparedStatement.<init>(FBPreparedStatement.java:45)

at sun.reflect.GeneratedConstructorAccessor52.newInstance(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBStatementFactory.createPreparedStatement(FBStatementFactory.java:89)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:1187)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:942)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:896)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:324)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query.JRJdbcQueryExecuter.createStatement(JRJdbcQueryExecuter.java:267)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query.JRJdbcQueryExecuter.createDatasource(JRJdbcQueryExecuter.java:196)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFillDataset.createQueryDatasource(JRFillDataset.java:1087)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFillDataset.initDatasource(JRFillDataset.java:668)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.setParameters(JRBaseFiller.java:1258)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.fill(JRBaseFiller.java:877)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.fill(JRBaseFiller.java:822)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.fill(JRFiller.java:61)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fill(JasperFillManager.java:446)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fillReport(JasperFillManager.java:849)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.logic.extra.LogicReport.getJasperPrint(LogicReport.java:292)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.ReportModule.getJasperPrint(ReportModule.java:168)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.EVEModule.handleEvent(EVEModule.java:188)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.handleEvent(MessageHandler.java:156)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.run(MessageHandler.java:115)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

org.firebirdsql.gds.GDSException: Dynamic SQL Error

SQL error code = -206

Column unknown

SHIP.ORDERID

At line 1, column 32

at org.firebirdsql.gds.impl.wire.AbstractJavaGDSImpl.readStatusVector(AbstractJavaGDSImpl.java:2092)

at org.firebirdsql.gds.impl.wire.AbstractJavaGDSImpl.receiveResponse(AbstractJavaGDSImpl.java:2042)

at org.firebirdsql.gds.impl.wire.AbstractJavaGDSImpl.iscDsqlPrepare(AbstractJavaGDSImpl.java:1465)

at org.firebirdsql.gds.impl.GDSHelper.prepareStatement(GDSHelper.java:190)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractStatement.prepareFixedStatement(AbstractStatement.java:1441)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractPreparedStatement.prepareFixedStatement(AbstractPreparedStatement.java:1285)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractPreparedStatement.<init>(AbstractPreparedStatement.java:135)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBPreparedStatement.<init>(FBPreparedStatement.java:45)

at sun.reflect.GeneratedConstructorAccessor52.newInstance(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBStatementFactory.createPreparedStatement(FBStatementFactory.java:89)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:1187)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:942)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:896)

at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.AbstractConnection.prepareStatement(AbstractConnection.java:324)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query.JRJdbcQueryExecuter.createStatement(JRJdbcQueryExecuter.java:267)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query.JRJdbcQueryExecuter.createDatasource(JRJdbcQueryExecuter.java:196)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFillDataset.createQueryDatasource(JRFillDataset.java:1087)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFillDataset.initDatasource(JRFillDataset.java:668)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.setParameters(JRBaseFiller.java:1258)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.fill(JRBaseFiller.java:877)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.fill(JRBaseFiller.java:822)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.fill(JRFiller.java:61)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fill(JasperFillManager.java:446)

at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fillReport(JasperFillManager.java:849)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.logic.extra.LogicReport.getJasperPrint(LogicReport.java:292)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.ReportModule.getJasperPrint(ReportModule.java:168)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

at com.evnt.eve.modules.EVEModule.handleEvent(EVEModule.java:188)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.handleEvent(MessageHandler.java:156)

at com.evnt.eve.MessageHandler.run(MessageHandler.java:115)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

=====================================================

SQL:

Your roadmap to a successful upgrade

Fishbowl 2015.0 is a highly anticipated upgrade, which promises speed, efficiency, and added functionality. To take advantage of these benefits, however, there are a few crucial steps your company must take. The Fishbowl 2015.0 upgrade includes changes that affect the way plugins, applications, and reports will communicate with the database. This means that any Fishbowl add-ons that your company uses, such as custom reports and integrations, may not function in Fishbowl 2015.0.

FishBooks Pro has taken preemptive measures to update our products and services, ensuring compliance with Fishbowl 2015.0. We have developed a tool to check the compatibility of our customers’ custom reports, and have released a new version of FishNet to deliver our plugins, reports, and packages.

Over the next few weeks, FishBooks Pro will be posting helpful articles to our blog to assist you during the transition to Fishbowl 2015.0. Check back often for new posts, and feel free to contact us for more information.

Click on the links below for more information about the 2015 upgrade process:

Fishbowl 2015.0 is coming. Are your reports ready?

Fishbowl 2015.0 | Updating FishNet 

Fishbowl 2015.0 | Custom Report Compatibility Check

Fishbowl 2015.0 | FishMart Integrations  

Fishbowl 2015.0 | Will my reports run faster? 

Custom reports can be an integral part of your business processes.  You and your team rely on knowing key pieces of information to keep everything moving smoothly.  When preparing for a substantial upgrade, such as the one coming with Fishbowl 2015.0, you’ll want to take a look at your reports and see how they will be affected by the changes.

Fishbowl 2015.0 includes important modifications to the way the reports communicate with the database.  Based on information that was sent to the Fishbowl Partner Network, the structure of the Picking, Packing, Shipping and Receiving tables will be changing with the 2015.0 update.  More specifically, there is a new way that these tables will store the ID number for the order.  Where your reports previously looked at one column for all possible order IDs (for Sales, Purchase, Work and Transfer Orders), each type of order will now have moved to its own column.  Think of it as having driving directions to the wrong address!

The stock reports that come with Fishbowl will all be updated with the software upgrade.  Your custom reports, however, will need to be updated separately.  FishBooks Pro has built a unique tool that can quickly identify which, if any, of your custom reports will be affected by the 2015.0 release.  This service is free of charge for all customers running FishNet, our proprietary reports delivery software that many Fishbowl users are already running.  For an invitation to download FishNet, and to request a Fishbowl 2015.0 Custom Reports Compatibility Check, contact us by email at reports@fishbookspro.com, or by phone at 562-394-0058.

FishBooks Pro recommends that our customers be proactive in preparing for the Fishbowl 2015.0 release.  As soon as you know that your company will be upgrading, contact us to order your custom report updates.  We can have the report updates completed prior to your upgrade, ensuring that your company doesn’t experience any downtime.

For over two years, FishBooks Pro has utilized FishNet to deliver custom reports to our customers without the hassle of manual report installation. This year, we have also expanded FishNet’s capabilities to include delivery of integrations and plugins, such as FishMart and our Fishbowl for Salesforce Application. With the upgrades coming in Fishbowl 2015.0, your custom reports and applications may require updates as well (as explained in this blog post). In order to re-deliver your updated reports and applications, you will need to install the newest version of FishNet. The latest version has been modified for compatibility with all Fishbowl versions, from 2013.1 to  2015.0.

Even if you do not have custom reports that require immediate updates, any future report work (modifications, troubleshooting, or re-delivery) will require the newest version of FishNet.

Because this version of FishNet is compatible with all supported Fishbowl versions (2013.1-2015.0), re-installing FishNet is an easy step your company can take today to get ready for the 2015.o release!

Contact us today to update FishNet, or read on for more FAQ’s about the FishNet plugin.

What Is FishNet?

FishNet is a free plugin, created and provided by FishBooks Pro, best known for custom report delivery. It provides FishBooks Pro with the capability of delivering custom reports and applications for our customers directly into their Fishbowl Inventory Reports Module, and notifies customers via email when reports are uploaded and ready to use.
FishNet saves our customers the time and effort that is involved in manually uploading custom reports into Fishbowl Inventory, while reducing report installation errors and the remote support that is needed to resolve them.
FishNet now seamlessly delivers other FishBooks Pro products, all of which enhance the value and importance of Fishbowl Inventory, including FishSnap (our historical inventory valuation tool) and FishMart (our shopping cart integration software).

How does it work, and is it secure?

FishNet is a Java based plugin for Fishbowl Inventory that is accessed through the Scheduler module, and takes up very little space on your server.  In fact, it is five times smaller than a single picture stored on a cell phone! Under the default installation settings, FishNet will launch on the next 5min mark post-installation (or can be run manually via the Scheduler module). When FishNet launches, it will start a thread that connects up to FishBooks Pro’s realtime message queue server to await a beacon that notifies it when data is ready to be received. This beacon is unique for each client, and is the only message that will be accepted by the FishNet plugin. When this beacon is received, the FishNet client will reach out to the FishNet REST API to check for new commands awaiting execution specific to it’s unique key. These commands are retrieved, executed, and posted back their success/failure to the FishNet REST API to record/notify FishBooks Pro of their outcome. The REST API is authenticated and the FishNet web application uses two-factor authentication for all FishBooks Pro personnel to ensure that only we can queue commands for the FishNet client.

How do I get FishNet?

FishNet requires a one-time installation on your Fishbowl server. Simply contact FishBooks Pro to request an email with simple installation instructions and a unique Company Key.

If you have already installed FishNet, but are preparing for Fishbowl 2015.0, the installer will automatically update the existing files with the latest version.

The Fishbowl 2015.0 upgrade has been a long time coming. Last Friday, an email went out to the Fishbowl Partner Network announcing a tentative target release date of October 23rd. Fishbowl stated that they are planning on a staggered roll out, so we cannot say when it will be available to the entire customer community. Whether you intend to upgrade immediately or at a later date, there are several factors your company should consider before upgrading.

What is different about the new version?

The new 2015.0 will contain the typical version enhancements and bug fixes as seen in previous Fishbowl releases. The changes that will be most visible to you are largely cosmetic, including updated icons. However, the way that Fishbowl will communicate with your database has undergone a substantial overhaul. These changes should help improve performance, but also require alterations to the way your data is stored.

How will this affect your business?

As mentioned above, Fishbowl 2015.0 changes the way that some information is stored in Fishbowl. This will affect how certain reports obtain information from the database, making them incompatible with Fishbowl 2015.0. While Fishbowl has re-written the affected stock reports, many custom reports will need to be updated manually.

How can FishBooks Pro help you avoid complications with this upgrade?

To help you plan ahead, we have also built a unique tool that can quickly identify which, if any, of your custom reports will be affected by the 2015.0 release. Simply call 562.394.0058 or email reports@fishbookspro.com and request a Custom Reports 2015.0 Compatibility Check. You will be emailed a list of custom reports that will need to be upgraded, as well as instructions on how to move forward. The Fishbowl 2015.0 Custom Reports Compatibility Check is free of charge for all customers running FishNet and your results will be emailed to you within 1 business day.

FishNet is our free, proprietary report delivery software that many Fishbowl users are already running. If you are not yet using FishNet, email us at reports@fishbookspro.com and we will send you installation instructions at no charge.  Click here for more information about FishNet.

All customers on our Hosted Server Services will have their reports upgraded free of charge. FishBook Pro’s Hosted Server Services is the premier platform on which to run your Fishbowl server in the cloud. Contact Us for more information and a free trial.

Contact FishBooks Pro

To get access to FishNet and to request a Fishbowl 2015.0 Custom Reports Compatibility Check, contact our team at reports@fishbookspro.com or by phone at 562-394-0058, Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm PST.

Fishbowl Inventory’s upgrade is coming soon, promising speed, efficiency, and added functionality. To accomplish this, they made many changes to the way information is stored in the database. These changes will affect how certain reports, integrations, and applications obtain the information they require, inadvertently making them incompatible with Fishbowl 2015.0. Thus, before you upgrade, there are a few crucial steps your company must take to ensure that your custom reports*, applications, and integrations will function in Fishbowl 2015.0.

Due to these substantial database changes, your FishMart Integration must be updated for compatibility with Fishbowl 2015.0.

For companies with an active support contract, this update will be provided free of charge. Companies with an expired or inactive contract will be subject to a minimum charge of $350 to update the FishMart integration. Companies without a current support contract will also have the option to purchase 1 year of unlimited priority support and maintenance for $600, which will include the 2015.0 integration update.
If you are unsure of your company’s support contract status, please contact us.

Please contact us to schedule your FishMart update at least 7 days prior to upgrading. This will ensure adequate time to schedule your update and avoid unnecessary downtime for your company.

Please call us at 562-394-0058 or email info@fishbookspro.com to schedule your FishMart update

*Click here for more information about updating your custom reports

Fishbowl 2015 is in the final stages of beta releases, and is slated to be ready for general distribution this Thursday, November 6th. Fishbooks Pro has been actively testing it and informing our customers of what to expect, so that they may proactively prepare for its adoption.

This new upgrade promises increased speed in many areas of the software with the introduction of database cacheing. We have found this to be true in repetitive tasks such as clicking through modules and searching for orders, due to the selective cacheing of the software’s updated framework. However, we have heard expectations amongst Fishbowl users that their reports will run faster in Fishbowl 2015.0. This is definitely not the case since there have been no improvements to the reporting engine. This means that your reports, both stock and custom, will run at the same speed you experienced in Fishbowl 2013-2014.

Preparing your reports

Although the changes to the Fishbowl software won’t impact the speed of your reports, 2015.0 does affect the the communication between Fishbowl and your database, meaning your custom reports still need to be checked for 2015 compatibility. Please email reports@fishbookspro.com to request a free Fishbowl 2015.0 Custom Reports Compatibility Check.

Preparing your eCommerce integrations

If your Fishbowl software uses a third-party integration, you should check with your integration partner before you upgrade to prevent any compatibility issues. Any company using a FishMart Integration should schedule an appointment with our team to update their integration prior to upgrading to Fishbowl 2015.0.