Job shops and custom manufacturers need software that turns a quote into a bill of materials, tracks parts and labor against that specific job, and tells you what is still open before you promise a ship date. Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing does that work, and Fishbowl is the platform underneath it.
Here is the part every job shop owner already knows: no two jobs are quite the same. A customer sends a print, you build a materials list from memory or from the last similar job, and you guess at labor hours because the real number will not show up until the job is done and someone adds up the timesheets by hand. Meanwhile the shelf says you have enough of a shared component, but three other open jobs are drawing from the same bin and nobody wrote that down.
That gap shows up as delayed orders when a part everyone assumed was on hand turns out to be spoken for by another job. It shows up as wasted labor when the shop supervisor spends Friday afternoon rebuilding a spreadsheet instead of running the floor. And it shows up as unnecessary inventory when the safety answer to all of that uncertainty is to buy extra of everything, tying up cash on materials that sit in a rack for six months.
Most software shows you the problem and leaves you the work. Fishbowl gets the work done. You still make the call.
Fishbowl is the platform. Fishbowl Inventory, Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing, Fishbowl Advanced Warehouse, and Juno are purpose-built parts of Fishbowl, matched to how the business runs. A job shop quoting custom work with shared components across active jobs is squarely in Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing territory, not the finished-goods inventory line.
What a job shop actually needs from inventory and production software
A generic spreadsheet or an accounting system pressed into service can hold a parts list. Neither was built to run live work in process, competing demand for the same components, and a job cost that has to reconcile against a quote after the fact. A job shop needs four things working together, not four separate tools someone re-keys between.
First, a bill of materials that can be built or adjusted per job, because custom work rarely fits a static template. Second, a work order that draws against real stock on hand, not a number that was accurate last Tuesday. Third, material requirements planning that looks across every open job pulling from a shared component and tells purchasing what to buy and when, instead of leaving that math to whoever remembers to check. Fourth, job and labor costing that compares what a job actually consumed in parts and hours against what it was quoted, so the next quote for similar work is closer to real.
A spreadsheet can store a bill of materials. It was not built to track live work orders, component dependencies across jobs, lot traceability, or a production schedule that shifts every time a rush order gets dropped in. QuickBooks and Xero were built to keep the books, and many do that job well. Neither was built to run a shop floor. Fishbowl runs inventory, production, and the warehouse. QuickBooks or Xero keeps the books.
Which Fishbowl product fits a job shop or custom manufacturer
If you buy finished goods and resell them, Fishbowl Inventory handles receiving, stocking, picking, transfers, and fulfillment. Add Fishbowl Channels when those products sell through Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, or other channels. If you manufacture the product and need BOMs, work orders, MRP, production scheduling, or job and labor costing, use Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing, with Channels added if you also sell online. If you do not manufacture but need deeper warehouse workflows such as 3PL management or EDI-driven fulfillment, use Fishbowl Advanced Warehouse. Multiple storefronts or owned locations alone do not automatically mean you need Advanced.
A job shop building custom or made-to-order parts sits with Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing. That is where the bill of materials, work order, MRP, scheduling, and job costing live together, so a quote turns into a real plan instead of a guess written on the back of a print.
What the AI on the shop floor actually does
Data-focused AI on Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing tells you what is happening, what is coming, and what needs your attention. It is not a chatbot bolted onto a screen full of grids, and it does not freelance. It is built on 25 years of operational know-how, reading live Fishbowl data, and it flags the shared component running short across three open jobs before that shortage becomes a missed ship date, or the job that is tracking over its quoted labor hours while there is still time to do something about it.
This is a different experience than Juno, the AI operations specialist built into Fishbowl Inventory. Juno prepares purchase orders, sales orders, transfers, receipts, and adjustments for approval on the cloud finished-goods line. Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing does not have Juno. What it has is data-focused AI aimed at the questions a shop floor actually asks: what is short, what is coming due, and where a job needs a look before it slips.
Proof from shops that made the switch
Hodo Foods cut stockouts by 35 percent running Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing with data-focused AI behind purchasing and demand visibility. Koken USA cut backorders by 10 percent the same way. Cascadia Motion lowered inventory costs by 18 percent, also on Advanced with data-focused AI driving forecasting and procurement. None of those numbers came from a spreadsheet getting faster. They came from a shop no longer buying blind against demand it could not see clearly. Read the full case studies at fishbowlinventory.com/casestudies.
What it takes to get running, and what it costs to judge
We do not publish plan prices here, because pricing is a conversation with Finance and it should be. What you can judge before that conversation is the software cost against what it replaces, the setup time, whether add-ons pile up unpredictably, the labor hours it takes off the floor, and what happens to inventory carrying cost once purchasing stops guessing. Training is expert-led and typically runs 6 to 8 weeks. Support is in-house, US experts for US customers and APAC for APAC, over phone, email, and chat. There is no AI agent answering your support ticket, and there will not be.
Fishbowl has run alongside QuickBooks and Xero for 25 years and supports more than 6,000 businesses today. Visit fishbowlinventory.com to see how the pieces fit a shop that builds custom work, not just one that resells a catalog.
Fishbowl does the work. You make the call.
See a live shop floor run through Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing. Get a demo at fishbowlinventory.com/demo.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Fishbowl Inventory and Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing for a job shop?
Fishbowl Inventory handles receiving, stocking, picking, transfers, and fulfillment for finished goods you buy and resell. A job shop that builds custom or made-to-order parts needs Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing, which adds bills of materials, work orders, MRP, production scheduling, and job and labor costing.
Does a job shop need a bill of materials for a one-off job?
Yes, even a single custom job benefits from a bill of materials, because it turns a quote into a real materials list and a work order Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing can track against stock on hand, open purchase orders, and shared components across other active jobs.
Can Fishbowl track job costing across labor and materials?
Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing tracks job and labor costing alongside the bill of materials and work order, so a shop can compare what a job was quoted against what it actually consumed in parts and hours once it closes.
What if my job shop also sells finished parts online?
Add Fishbowl Channels, the channel-integrations layer, on top of Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing. It works with Fishbowl Inventory, Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing, or Fishbowl Advanced Warehouse, and Advanced customers add ecommerce channels in Fishbowl rather than also purchasing Fishbowl Inventory.