Types of Parts in Fishbowl

July 18, 2017
Part types help companies categorize their parts in Fishbowl, Fishbowl BlogWhen you create a new part in Fishbowl, you’ll find that there are a number of fields you must fill out in order to properly identify the part. These are the part’s number, description, UPC, unit of measure, and type. Most of these are pretty straightforward, but “Type” is a little ambiguous. What are the types that parts can be labeled as in Fishbowl? Let’s find out! Inventory – Physical items that are bought, sold, and stocked on shelves in a company’s warehouse(s). Service – Intangible actions that are bought and sold, but they can’t be stocked on shelves or otherwise held in specific locations. Labor – Actions that can’t be bought or sold, but that can be added to bills of materials and other areas during the manufacturing and reconciling processes. Overhead – Costs that can be added to the total expense of manufacturing parts. Non-Inventory – Items that can be bought and sold, but they’re not actually tracked in the inventory system. Internal Use – Physical items that are purchased for the purpose of facilitating a company’s operations, not to be stocked up or sold to customers. Capital Equipment – Big machinery, vehicles, technology, furniture, and other heavy-duty items that are purchased, but not sold or included in inventory. Shipping – The service of transporting products, which is able to be bought and sold, but it can’t, of course, by included in inventory. Be very careful when setting a part type because once it is done there is basically no way to change it. The only exception is that an administrator can convert a non-inventory item into an inventory item, but other than that the part type is set in stone. This is just a small part of the Fishbowl software, but it is definitely a helpful tool in making sense of your inventory. By tagging and labeling everything in these types, you can make sure you know what is what at a glance.