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Fishbowl + QuickBooks: Track inventory and manage money all on the same platform

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Summary
How It Works
How To Use

Inventory tracking and data management are crucial for business efficiency and scalability. Fishbowl’s integration with Intuit’s suite of QuickBooks products, including QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, makes it possible to link your inventory and accounting, all in an integrated solution. Use Fishbowl to manage your day-to-day operations and projected business growth, without having to change your accounting practices and processes in QuickBooks.

The Fishbowl Difference

Fast, Easy Ramp Up: The Accounting Configuration Wizard walks you through the steps to successfully import and export your data between Fishbowl and QuickBooks during your initial implementation, all while maintaining GAAP compliance. With the guidance and expertise of a dedicated implementation specialist, Fishbowl will be go-live ready, including connection to your accounting platforms, in as little as 6 to 8 weeks.
Operational Efficiency: With Fishbowl as your primary platform for inventory or production management, you can eliminate the need for duplicate and manual data entry into multiple platforms. Fishbowl automatically shares inventory costs and asset values with your QuickBooks platform in real time, making errant entries a thing of the past.
Scalability: With business growth comes layers of complexity: more people, more parts, and more time required to manage it all. Whether you’re adding new locations or more team members, managing multiple warehouses, or increasing production volume, Fishbowl was designed to support you and your business as it grows, while also maintaining connectivity and data sharing with your accounting platform.
Trusted Partnership: As a longtime partner with Intuit and one of the first third-party vendors to be awarded Intuit’s Gold Developer designation, Fishbowl has access to key information that allows us to remain fully compatible with each new version of QuickBooks. Fishbowl is classified as an Elite QuickBooks Solutions Provider, and we continue to strengthen its manufacturing and warehouse management software to match QuickBooks’ commitment to excellence.

Core Functionality

Sales Order Management: Create unlimited estimates, sales orders, pick tickets, and other essential documents. Set up your order-fulfillment workflow to easily track backorders and multiple fulfillments for single sales orders. You can also configure automatic reorder point based on maximum and minimum inventory thresholds, as well as in-depth reports, and improved warehouse management and picking processes to make order management easier than ever.
Accounts Receivable and Payable: In your sales workflow, Fishbowl sends invoices to QuickBooks, allowing you to manage your accounts receivable from QuickBooks, including statements and customer account payments. Fishbowl handles order fulfillment, including sales orders, picking, packing, and shipping, purchase orders and receiving. It then updates QuickBooks with all the appropriate accounting adjustments, including manufacturing information and data on inventory assets, COGS, income, accounts receivable, tax and payment, and accounts payable. The transactional data captured from Fishbowl is so complete that it leaves no need for modification from the accountant.
Real-time Data: : Create customized, timely reports on everything from your customers and vendors to your parts and stock quantities. Automated data flows keep your accounting current without hours of manual entry or data transfers.
Compliance Ready: When industry regulations require diligence in inventory management to maintain compliance, we’ve got you covered. If ever you’re faced with a recall or audit, Fishbowl’s inventory traceability and reporting features give you visibility into where products are at any stage of your manufacturing, quality assurance, receiving, and picking and packing processes. With a single report, see which manufacturing orders made the product, which purchase orders and vendors were involved with the raw goods consumed in the manufacturing, and all customers who received the product. Then, reconcile your books as COGS or a loss, and they will automatically be recorded in QuickBooks.

To integrate Fishbowl Advanced with QuickBooks Desktop, install both of these solutions on the same computer. It’s possible to integrate them together if they are on different computers, but it is easiest if you install your QuickBooks file on your Fishbowl Server computer. Log into both of these solutions. Then follow these steps:

  1. Open Fishbowl’s Accounting Integration module and go to the Configure tab. Click the Connect to QuickBooks Desktop button.
  2. Fill out the required fields in the Accounting Integration Wizard. Be sure to map your accounts between Fishbowl and QuickBooks.
  3. Create a user in QuickBooks with full access. Fishbowl will make use of that user to export data to QuickBooks.
  4. Select your QuickBooks file. This is especially simple if you’ve already logged into QuickBooks before beginning this process.
  5. Specify which data to import from QuickBooks into Fishbowl.
  6. Turn off QuickBooks’ inventory and purchase order features. That way, Fishbowl will always handle these tasks and then send the appropriate information to QuickBooks Desktop.

Once you’re done, the integration will be up and running. You will be able to update the import and export settings, as well as other aspects of the QuickBooks integration in Fishbowl.

See how Fishbowl’s default account mapping interacts with QuickBooks’ suite of products.

Sales
Customers
Sales Orders
Purchasing
Purchase Orders
Bill
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Inventory Management
Parts
Quantity
Cycling
Sales
Customer
Invoice/Credit Memo
Purchasing
Vendor
Bill
Manufacturing
Journal Entries
Inventory Management
Inventory Values
Journal Entries

Fishbowl + QuickBooks: Track inventory and manage money all on the same platform FAQs

Why does Fishbowl integrate with QuickBooks?

Fishbowl offers the best inventory management software to small and medium-sized businesses, but it does not offer accounting features. Since most SMBs use QuickBooks to handle their bookkeeping, it’s a natural fit for Fishbowl to integrate with QuickBooks in order to join their inventory management and accounting solutions together. This keeps their inventory and financial records in sync.

Which specific versions of QuickBooks does Fishbowl integrate with?

QuickBooks Desktop versions officially supported by Fishbowl:

  • QuickBooks Pro 2021-2024
  • QuickBooks Premier 2021-2024
  • QuickBooks Enterprise 2021-2024
  • QuickBooks Canada 2021-2024
  • QuickBooks Australia/Reckon Accounts
  • QuickBooks UK
  • QuickBooks Multi-Currency

QuickBooks Online versions officially supported by Fishbowl:

  • QuickBooks Online Plus
  • QuickBooks Online Advanced

How does Fishbowl’s QuickBooks integration work?

Fishbowl’s QuickBooks integration works on a scheduled basis. That means that changes in Fishbowl are not reflected in QuickBooks instantaneously. They must be imported and exported between the two solutions according to the schedule you set. You can map different accounts in Fishbowl to ones in QuickBooks to ensure they are recorded properly. This account mapping is part of the initial integration process.

What does Fishbowl’s QuickBooks integration do?

With a QuickBooks integration, Fishbowl handles all of the inventory management and order fulfillment. Thus, any open sales orders or purchase orders in QuickBooks will need to be closed before integrating with Fishbowl or deleted and manually added in Fishbowl. There is no way to automatically transfer sales orders and purchase orders directly between Fishbowl and QuickBooks.

However, when Fishbowl becomes the source of truth for inventory and orders, it will send the financial data from those transactions to QuickBooks for safe storage in the appropriate accounts.

Does Fishbowl integrate with other accounting software besides QuickBooks?

Yes. Fishbowl not only integrates with QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, but it also integrates with Xero, a cloud-based accounting solution, and Reckon, which is Intuit’s QuickBooks version for Australia and New Zealand.

How do I set up Fishbowl’s QuickBooks integration?

For QuickBooks Desktop, it’s advisable to install the Fishbowl Server on the same computer you store your QuickBooks file on. It’s a good idea to at least be on the same operating system. It’s possible to connect to QuickBooks Desktop from a Mac or Linux Fishbowl installation, but there are extra steps to follow.

To integrate with QuickBooks, go to the Accounting Integration module in Fishbowl Advanced. Click the Configure tab and select the appropriate QuickBooks version, whether QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. The Accounting Integration Wizard will pop up once you select the version you want to integrate with. Follow the steps in this wizard to complete the QuickBooks integration. You will need your QuickBooks login credentials and other information to proceed.

What should I look for in inventory management software that integrates with QuickBooks?

When choosing inventory software to integrate with QuickBooks, the most important thing to look for is an accounting-first integration—software designed from the ground up to keep inventory activity and financial records in sync, not just loosely connected.

Here are the five key capabilities to evaluate:

  • Bidirectional data sync: Inventory transactions in your operations software should automatically update the right QuickBooks accounts—COGS, inventory asset values, accounts payable, and accounts receivable—without manual exports or re-entry.
  • Account mapping: The software should let you map operational accounts to the correct QuickBooks chart of accounts, keeping your books clean and GAAP-compliant from day one.
  • Support for your QuickBooks version: Confirm the software explicitly supports your version, whether QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier, Enterprise) or QuickBooks Online (Plus, Advanced).
  • Inventory features QuickBooks lacks natively: Look for barcode scanning, multi-location tracking, purchase order management, lot and serial number traceability, and reorder automation—capabilities that go well beyond what QuickBooks handles on its own.
  • Proven Intuit partnership: Software with an established Intuit relationship, like Fishbowl’s Elite QuickBooks Solutions Provider status, is more likely to stay compatible as QuickBooks releases new versions.

Fishbowl is purpose-built around these criteria, making it a natural fit for businesses that want to extend QuickBooks rather than replace it.

Is Fishbowl a good accounting and inventory solution for QuickBooks users?

Yes, and this is exactly what Fishbowl is designed to be. Rather than forcing you to choose between a standalone inventory tool and a full ERP, Fishbowl pairs with QuickBooks to give you both: operational inventory control and reliable accounting accuracy, working together in one connected system.

Fishbowl owns the operational side, while QuickBooks remains your financial system of record. On the operational side, Fishbowl handles:

  • Purchasing and receiving
  • Inventory tracking
  • Order fulfillment
  • Manufacturing
  • Warehouse management

Every transaction processed in Fishbowl automatically pushes the right financial data into the right QuickBooks accounts—including COGS, inventory asset values, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and tax. The result is cleaner books, faster month-end close, and a team that spends less time reconciling data and more time running the business.

For QuickBooks users who have outgrown basic inventory tracking but aren’t ready for the complexity or cost of a full ERP, Fishbowl is built to fill that gap.

Can Fishbowl serve as a warehouse management system for QuickBooks users?

Yes. Fishbowl includes a full warehouse management layer designed to work alongside QuickBooks, not separately from it. For businesses managing one or more warehouse locations, Fishbowl handles the operational workflows that QuickBooks doesn’t—receiving, bin and location management, barcode scanning, pick-and-pack workflows, shipping, and cycle counting—while automatically keeping your QuickBooks inventory values and financial records up to date.

Integrates With

Fishbowl Inventory
Fishbowl Advanced

Details

Publisher
Intuit
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