Fishbowl
AI-centric inventory and manufacturing software built around QuickBooks and Xero for growing product businesses.
By Fishbowl · 4.0/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Small and midsize manufacturers running BOMs, work orders and MRP without a full ERP
- Wholesalers, distributors and ecommerce sellers holding and moving physical stock
- Teams already on QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop or Xero that need two-way inventory sync
- Lot-, batch- or serial-tracked operations in regulated categories such as food, beverage and chemicals
- Multi-warehouse, 3PL and EDI-driven fulfillment operations
Ideal size: 2–200 users people · Scale-up manufacturer, distributor or product seller outgrowing spreadsheets and accounting-only inventory
Not for
- Large enterprises seeking a single global ERP system of record
- Service-only or digital-goods businesses with no inventory to track
- Buyers wanting a free or self-serve tool with no implementation effort
- Companies needing deep custom platform engineering rather than packaged workflows
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
2–6 weeks (vendor-stated go-live)
~30 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$7,140/yr
Starts at $2,748 · Per user, billed annually. Cloud Inventory plans from $229/mo; Fishbowl Advanced platform quoted by users and deployment.
Implementation Friction
3/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Essentials includes 2 users; Growth 5; Scale 10; Advanced priced by users, teams from 2 to 200+
Add-on costs
- Demand forecasting/planning add-on on lower tiers
- B2B portal add-on
- Custom reports add-on
- Extra ecommerce/marketplace integrations (about $50/month)
- Mandatory implementation package, price quoted per deployment
Company & support
Who is behind Fishbowl, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- Not recorded
How you get support
- PhonePlan not stated
- EmailPlan not stated
- Live chatPlan not stated
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsNot listed
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Homepage states fast phone support plus live chat and email, with no outsourcing, but does not map channels to plans or publish an SLA.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Fishbowl sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Fishbowl
- Orderful
- Cin7
- Katana
- Upper Route Planner
- MRPeasy
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Fishbowl. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Fishbowl ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
Vendor describes an AI data assistant that answers inventory questions, agentic execution that auto-creates POs, MOs and WOs, AI forecasting/replenishment, and surfacing of anomalies such as shortages, capacity gaps and margin leaks. No source states which model is used, whether customers can supply their own key, or how AI actions are logged or exported.
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Not supported
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Industry verdicts
How Fishbowl speaks to each vertical it serves — same data, sector lens.
ManufacturingShip on time, quote faster, cut scrap.
Best for in Manufacturing
- Discrete and made-to-order manufacturers running BOMs, work orders and MRP
- Food, beverage and chemical producers needing lot, batch and expiry traceability
- Job shops and fabricators needing job, labor and landed costing
- SMB manufacturers on QuickBooks or Xero avoiding a full ERP rollout
Not for
- Large multi-plant enterprises consolidating on a global ERP
- Process manufacturers with heavy validation or GxP requirements
- Businesses with no bill-of-materials or production steps
Manufacturing is Fishbowl's core positioning, with BOMs, sub-assemblies, MRP, production scheduling, work orders, finite-capacity planning and lot/batch traceability, plus job, labor and landed costing. The vendor cites results such as 50% less scheduling time, 99% on-time delivery and faster order cycle times at fabrication and industrial customers. Fishbowl Advanced is quoted by users and deployment and is the platform most Fishbowl customers reportedly choose, so buyers should budget for a mandatory implementation package and a 6–8 week training certification.
Logistics & Field ServicesMove more, dispatch faster, idle less.
Best for in Logistics & Field Services
- Distributors and wholesalers managing inventory across multiple warehouses
- 3PL and EDI-driven fulfillment operations
- Operations that need barcode-driven receive, pick, pack and ship workflows
- Teams syncing fulfillment activity back to QuickBooks or Xero
Not for
- Freight forwarding or transport-only businesses with no owned stock
- Enterprise parcel networks needing a bespoke TMS build
- Very small operations that only need simple order entry
Fishbowl targets multi-warehouse, 3PL, EDI-driven distribution through its Advanced Warehouse platform, which adds complex fulfillment and transfer orders, tiered pricing rules, payment processing, advanced permissions and audit trails. It lists EDI partners such as SPS Commerce, TrueCommerce, eZCom and Infocon, along with major shipping carriers. Cloud Inventory plans include unlimited sub-locations, while the Advanced platform is quoted by users and deployment, so quoted pricing and a mandatory implementation package are the main planning considerations for logistics buyers.
Retail & CommerceSell everywhere, stock nothing twice.
Best for in Retail & Commerce
- Retail and ecommerce sellers that hold and ship their own inventory
- Multichannel merchants on Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Walmart
- Retail operations wanting reorder points and AI-guided replenishment
- Product businesses needing clean COGS and landed cost in QuickBooks or Xero
Not for
- Pure services or digital-goods sellers with no stock
- Restaurants and food-service outlets needing a POS-first stack
- Single-store retailers looking for a free entry-level tool
Fishbowl serves product sellers that make, move and sell physical goods, with multichannel ecommerce and marketplace integrations, barcode scanning, reorder points, multichannel selling and sales-tax automation on the Growth plan. Inventory Essentials starts at $229 per month billed annually for 2 users, with Growth at $429 and Scale at $729. The vendor cites a customer catalog growing from 3,000 to 5,500 items and a 120% sales increase from faster fulfillment plus AI insights. Demand forecasting on lower tiers is an add-on.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Fishbowl is AI-centric inventory, manufacturing and warehouse software for small and midsize product businesses, with two-way QuickBooks and Xero sync. Cloud Inventory plans start at $229/mo and Fishbowl Advanced at $595–$675/mo, billed annually per user. Vendor-stated go-live is 2–6 weeks with an in-house implementation team, and an implementation package is required. Vendor-cited AI includes an AI data assistant, agentic PO/MO/WO execution, demand forecasting and anomaly detection.
Frequently asked questions
How long does Fishbowl take to implement?
The vendor states customers go live in 2 to 6 weeks, with in-house implementation specialists rather than third-party consultants. Onboarding covers implementation planning, data migration excluding history, integration testing, dedicated go-live support and a 6–8 week training certification. An implementation package is required as part of the purchase, and pricing is confirmed by quote.
What does Fishbowl cost?
Cloud Inventory plans are $229/mo (Essentials, 2 users), $429/mo (Growth, 5 users) and $729/mo (Scale, 10 users), all billed annually. The Fishbowl Advanced manufacturing and warehouse platform is quoted by users and deployment, starting at $595/mo for Advanced Warehouse and $675/mo for Advanced Manufacturing, for teams from 2 to 200+ users.
Which accounting and CRM systems does Fishbowl integrate with?
Fishbowl syncs natively with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Canada, QuickBooks Payments and Xero, and lists CRM integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot and Zoho. It also publishes integrations for ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce and BigCommerce, shipping carriers, EDI providers and mobile barcode hardware.
Can Fishbowl handle manufacturing and multi-warehouse operations?
Yes. Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing covers BOMs, sub-assemblies and configurations, MRP, production scheduling, work orders, made-to-order builds and job, labor and landed costing. Advanced Warehouse adds multi-warehouse, 3PL and distribution workflows, transfer orders, EDI and advanced permissions. Cloud plans include unlimited sub-locations.
How secure and compliant is Fishbowl?
The vendor's security page states Fishbowl Inventory is SOC 2 Type II certified with ISO and PCI compliance, adheres to GDPR and CCPA practices, encrypts data in transit with TLS 1.2+ and at rest with AES-256, requires MFA for API integrations, runs twice-yearly penetration tests and maintains U.S. data centers with live replication and disaster recovery.
Do we need to replace QuickBooks to use Fishbowl?
No. Fishbowl is positioned as inventory and manufacturing software that sits alongside QuickBooks or Xero, keeping financial records in the accounting system while inventory, production and fulfillment run in Fishbowl. The vendor states production and inventory movements sync automatically and that the integration eliminates double entry and supports clean COGS and faster closes.