Instead of Fishbowl
Stop renting Fishbowl. Own the system that runs your builds.
Enterprise DNA sets up your version around how your floor plans, builds and costs work, moves your Fishbowl parts, vendors and customers over, and keeps it running for you. No user count behind the price and no training certification before go-live.
Fishbowl publishes its prices in Australian dollars before GST: Advanced Manufacturing starts at A$549 a month and is confirmed by quote, and the inventory plans (A$345 to A$1,095 a month, billed annually) do not include manufacturing. An implementation package is required on top, with no published price.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What the Fishbowl invoice covers
Two product lines, a user count and a mandatory onboarding package
Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing starts at A$549 a month, which is A$6,588 a year before GST, and the final figure comes from a quote based on your users and deployment. The records underneath are ordinary ones: parts, bills of materials, work orders, vendors, customers and stock counts.
Manufacturing sits in a different product
The cloud inventory plans, Essentials, Growth and Scale, carry a warning on the pricing page that they do not include BOMs, work orders or MRP. To build anything you move up to Fishbowl Advanced.
A starting price, then a quote
Advanced Manufacturing is listed as a starting price, priced by users and deployment, and always confirmed by quote. You find out the real number in a sales conversation.
An implementation package you cannot skip
Every purchase requires one: an implementation specialist, data migration that does not include your history, a 6 to 8 week training certification and go-live support. No price is published for it.
Seats decide the tier
The inventory plans include 2, 5 or 10 users. Advanced scales from 2 users to more than 200, and each extra person in the office or on the floor moves the quote.
Reports and labels as extras
Custom reports, customisable forms and labels, demand forecasting and the B2B portal show up in the comparison as add-ons on some plans.
An accounting link to check
The Advanced Manufacturing plan lists QuickBooks Online, Desktop and Enterprise integration. Ask exactly how your accounting system would connect.
What you get instead
One system for parts, builds and margin, with manufacturing included from day one
Building
Work orders that tell you where they stand
Every open job shows the date the customer was promised, how far the cost has run against the price, and anything that has stopped moving.
- check Jobs past their promised date, and by how many days
- check Fixed-price builds flagged once cost passes 80% of the quote
- check Work that has had nothing booked or issued to it for a week
- check A printed job traveller for the floor, with your business name on it
Parts
Shortages caught before the build stops
The material each job needs is compared with what is on the shelf and what is on order, against the promise date.
- check What each job is short of, and which purchase order is meant to cover it
- check Parts below their reorder point, with the usual vendor next to them
- check Late purchase orders, and the jobs each one is holding up
- check A straight answer on which vendor's lead times keep costing you promise dates
Costing
Margin per build, not an estimate
Material issued, labour booked and outside work received, set against what the job invoiced, so you know which builds paid.
- check Work in progress on any day: cost in open jobs that no invoice covers yet
- check Finished jobs with nothing billed, listed until someone invoices them
- check Rates fixed onto each hour and each issue, so a price change never rewrites a running job
- check What each customer's work actually earned, to set the next quote properly
Ownership
Records you keep, whatever happens
Parts, vendors, customers and every job's history sit in a database your business controls and any tool can read.
- check Your Fishbowl part, vendor and customer lists brought over and checked on the way in
- check Quotes, invoices and cost reports printed with your logo
- check A new field, rule or report added by describing it in one sentence
- check Open source under the MIT licence, with no subscription to renew
Make it yours
Design your own Fishbowl replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Fishbowl. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your Fishbowl data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from Fishbowl
Moving off Fishbowl is mostly a data job: get your records out in a format Fishbowl allows, map them into the new system, check what came across cleanly, and run both side by side until you trust the numbers.
- 1
Export your records from Fishbowl
Go to File, Export and pull your parts, customers and other lists as CSV, TXT, XLS or XLSX, whatever your account allows. If any part numbers have leading zeros, export as Excel format rather than CSV, since CSV can strip them. Before you give Fishbowl notice, ask exactly what a full export of work orders and job history includes, since some of that may not come out at all.
- 2
Load the file with a test run first
The import will offer a way to check your file without loading anything real. Do that first and read what it says. Only once that check looks right should you run the real load. This is the step where a mismatch would otherwise land wrong data in a live system, so the test run is not optional.
- 3
Check what the import flagged or skipped
Fishbowl names its columns its own way, so the first load rarely lines up perfectly. Some things, like certifications, service dates or the cost sitting in open jobs, deliberately do not import automatically, because the old system saying a record exists is not proof it is correct. Walk the floor once with the paperwork in front of you and enter what checks out.
- 4
Run both systems side by side
Keep Fishbowl running for a short period while the new system carries live work, and compare the two. Check that stock levels, open jobs and job costs agree. This is your chance to catch a mapping problem or a missing record while you can still confirm the answer against Fishbowl, before there is no fallback left to check against.
- 5
Turn off Fishbowl
Once the numbers have held up across that side by side period and your team is comfortable working from the new system alone, cancel the Fishbowl subscription. Keep your exported files somewhere safe even after cutover, in case a question about old history comes up later.
Where the real effort goes
The real work is not moving the files, it is deciding how your own fields and rules should look in the new system, and how much history you actually need to bring rather than just archive. Heat numbers, service dates and open job costs need a physical check, not just an import. When Enterprise DNA installs and runs this for you, this mapping and verification work is what they do.
Not ready for a call?
Get your Fishbowl switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Fishbowl, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your Fishbowl switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardPick your route
Run the free version, or let Enterprise DNA set up and run yours
Open source
Do it yourself
Free
- 1 Get the free version from GitHub
- 2 Load the sample workshop and open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Ask what is late, short or unbilled today
- 4 Map your Fishbowl CSV exports across when you are ready
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA set it up and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We move your Fishbowl parts, vendors, customers and open jobs across and check them against the originals
- check Your bills of materials, reorder points and costing rules set up to match your floor
- check Barcode scanning, a floor screen or a link to Xero or MYOB added if you want them
- check Run for you inside Omni, our managed Command Center, alongside the rest of the business
Questions
Instead of Fishbowl, answered
We only resell stock on a Fishbowl inventory plan. Is this for us? expand_more
Probably not first. This system is built for businesses that make or assemble what they sell: bills of materials, work orders and job costing. If you only buy and resell finished goods, the parts you would need, like online store links, are ones Enterprise DNA would build, and we will tell you on the call whether that is worth doing.
How do we get our records out of Fishbowl? expand_more
Fishbowl's help pages show parts, customers and other lists exporting from the File menu as CSV, TXT, XLS or XLSX files. Use Excel format for part numbers with leading zeros, since opening a CSV in Excel can strip them. Ask Fishbowl what a full export of work orders and history includes before you give notice.
Will a Fishbowl export load straight in? expand_more
Not without matching. The free version's import expects a different layout, and Fishbowl names its columns its own way. Mapping them is part of what Enterprise DNA does when we build your version, always tested on a copy first so nothing goes missing.
Our warehouse team scans barcodes in Fishbowl. What happens to that? expand_more
The free version has no scanner: stock issues and hours go in as one line each. If scanning matters on your floor, Enterprise DNA builds it into your version on the same database, so the habit carries over.
Do we still need weeks of training before go-live? expand_more
No certification course. People ask their questions in plain English, like which jobs are late or what is short this week. Enterprise DNA walks your team through it during setup, and a test run on a copy of your data comes before anything goes live.
Own the system your builds run on
Thirty minutes with Sam. We go through your Fishbowl quote, the implementation package and the seats you are paying for, how your floor actually plans, builds and costs work, and what your own version would look like. If it fits, we build it. If not, the free version is yours to run.
Job Shop for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for Fishbowl?
Get your version built