Construction & Trades

A single platform tracks inventory and processes from jobsites to fleets

Trade and service-based companies face unique challenges around managing multiple jobsites, fleets of vehicles, partial-and off-site builds, incoming and outgoing inventory, compliance, and deadlines—and they all directly impact the bottom line. Make managing inventory the easiest part of your day.

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customers

A single platform tracks, traces, and manages everything across locations

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Multi-location Management

Manage inventory and equipment across jobsites and warehouses

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Time Tracking

Track time spent on jobs to better project and plan for resource requirements

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SKU & Product Complexity

Add and manage product SKUs across locations and on trucks

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Supply Chain Management

Control costs, reduce waste, and ensure a consistent flow of materials and equipment

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Regulatory Compliance

Control costs, reduce waste, and ensure a consistent flow of materials and equipment

warehouse worker with reflective safety vest scanning inventory on shelves
Infographic

The impact of technology for construction and trades companies

Demand in construction is tightly tied to the economy, often leading to volatility and unpredictability that can cost companies time and money. Read how technology is paving the way for better-managed supply chains, communication, and time management.

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs from construction
and trade companies

Does Fishbowl support batch and lot tracking for items on fleet trucks?

Yes! Fishbowl allows you to track your inventory and finished goods by whatever labeling you prefer and from anywhere in the field. Choose from Fishbowl’s pre-loaded library of tracking options: lot number, expiration date, received date, revision number, units of measure, country of origin, and more, or you can also create your own. Asset tracking features monitor the status, location, and availability of tools and equipment. This level of connectedness and visibility across your inventory makes it easy for field-service technicians, jobsite crews, and warehouse staff to quickly assess whether inventory needs to move to a location urgently.

Can Fishbowl manage expiration dates and prevent waste?

Fishbowl’s inventory and manufacturing capabilities allow you to track everything from individual parts to complete manufacturing builds, from work orders to purchase orders, and the landed costs for each item you keep in inventory. With Fishbowl Time, you can track the exact amount of time spent on jobs, allowing you to estimate labor requirements and associated costs. Accurate tracking for materials, equipment, and labor enables you to appropriately estimate the true cost associated with each project or jobsite.

Can Fishbowl help manage my supply chain?

Absolutely! Fishbowl enables strategic coordination of all parties and processes, including suppliers and contractors, to ensure timely and cost-effective sourcing, delivery, and utilization of materials, labor and equipment needed for job completion. With the help of Fishbowl’s library of reports, you can evaluate and manage vendor relationships. Critical reports include:

  • Lot History Report
  • Sales and Purchase Summary Report
  • Vendor History Report
  • Vendor Part List
  • Part Vendor List
  • Vendor Backorder Report
  • Vendor Fulfillment History Report
  • Part Costs Over Time Report
  • Vendor Performance Report
  • Receiving History Report

How does Fishbowl manage products that have strict tracking or labeling requirements? 

Fishbowl’s lot and serial number tracking allow you to trace products through every step of the supply chain. In the event of a delay, your team can quickly identify and trace products from start to finish. Once you receive new inventory, you can also customize your product labels to be able to track the details most important to your operations, regulatory bodies, and to your customers. Key reports available in Fishbowl give you an even deeper dive into your processes and supply chain. These reports include:

  • Sales and Order Summary Report
  • Part History Report
  • Lot History Report
  • Customer History Report
  • Inventory Turnover Report
  • On-hand Inventory Report
  • Purchase History Report
  • Lead Time Report
  • Reorder Point Report

How does Fishbowl manage domestic and international suppliers?

Supplier and vendor management is time-consuming when it comes to forecasting, planning, and purchasing. Fishbowl simplifies those processes by giving you the ability to forecast and plan based on lead times and other criteria, so you get what you need, when you need it–no matter where your vendors are. Additionally, we take the guess work out of purchasing by automatically converting the supplier prices to your home currency.

What features does Fishbowl have to help manage human resources and labor-management functions?

With Fishbowl’s workforce management features, you can track and manage recruiting, training, scheduling, and retention of skill labor and professionals, while ensuring compliance with safety and employment regulations. User management and access rights controls let you customize which employees have access to various parts of Fishbowl. Document and file storage features allow you to keep critical documentation and files stored in the platform, eliminating the need to work in separate programs to find information on updated certifications, documents, and contracts. Time and attendance tracking features help manage labor usage and requirements by job or jobsite, giving greater cost control and improving costing estimations for future jobs.

Can Fishbowl help me stay on top of regulatory certifications and renewals?

Yes! With Fishbowls calendar feature, you can schedule actions and reminders that help you stay on top of certification renewals. You can also create custom workflows around certifications and renewals, as well as leverage Fishbowl Advanced reports to gain insights and track information related to compliance (schedule reports to be generated and exported in several different formats for ongoing tracking and documentation). Additionally, you can store all of your documentation on certification and compliance with Fishbowl File Storage.

Can I limit what certain roles can do/access inside of Fishbowl?

Yes! Grant varying degrees of access to different people, or roles, throughout your organization. Each role can be assigned specific permissions that define what actions the individual can perform–ensuring only those who you specify can view, edit, or delete certain information. With Fishbowl, everyone is clear on their roles and has access to exactly the information they need to do their job.

What features does Fishbowl Advanced provide for forecasting and demand planning?

Fishbowl allows you to set inventory max./min. thresholds that then trigger actions, like ordering more stock. Then, using Fishbowl’s reports, you can analyze inventory trends throughout your organization over time to identify patterns and better predict demand (customize and save your reports so you have the views you need when you need them. Talk to us about creating custom reports!). These reports arm you with impactful inventory data that allows you to make strategic purchasing decisions.

lan for fluctuations in demand, or delays in your supply chain, with calendar views of all your scheduled workflows–color-code and curate your calendar, easily drag and drop work orders into the work week, and assign actions to certain people, so everyone is clear on what they need to do and when.

How easy is it to modify or create new warehouse and jobsite workflows?

We will train you and your team on how to create new, or modify existing, workflows as part of your implementation, training, and certification. Keep those learnings fresh with on-demand training through Brainstorm. If you need certain changes, or just want to leverage Fishbowl expertise, our team of experts is here to help craft/modify your workflows as needed! No matter how you work, Fishbowl’s got your back.

Testimonials

Really impressed

Trevor
Developer, Retail Industry

We were really impressed with the how complete this software was. Others claimed to be similar but fell short in many key areas.

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Request a construction
and trades demo today.

Trusted by customers in hundreds of industries
DotsPretzels
Fusion
Wellscroft
PTI
Leather
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Highest User Adoption Mid-Market
Fishbowl leading the mid-market with unparalleled user adoption in inventory control
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GetApp: Distribution
Fishbowl's solution transforms complex distribution workflows
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G2Crowd: Spring 2023 Leader
Fishbowl Inventory is a leader in Warehouse and Manufacturing software on G2
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SoftwareAdvice: Front Runner 2023
Fishbowl is a front runner across multiple manufacturing and warehousing software categories
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GetApp:
Fishbowl's awarded 'best features and functionality' from reviewers.
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Capterra: 2023 Shortlist
Capterra recognized Fishbowl for its robust feature set
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Capterra: Warehouse Management
Ranked Fishbowl as a top performer in warehouse management