Fishbowl Inventory Perfect Answer for Quality Pet Products

PRLog (Press Release) - Dec. 27, 2012 - Fishbowl Inventory has been the most frequently requested inventory solution for QuickBooks users for more than a decade.  As small-to-medium companies grow and face increasing competition, the flexible cost-effective combination of QuickBooks and Fishbowl grows alongside SMBs regardless of the industry sector.  These smaller firms need the same kind of inventory management large organizations enjoy at a more affordable price.  Fishbowl Inventory (www.fishbowlinventory.com) is the most requested inventory management solution for seamless integration with QuickBooks, and is a popular standalone solution for organizations or enterprises looking to track assets. For users of QuickBooks it provides the same advanced features, flexibility, and mobile management control larger organizations require.

With Fishbowl Inventory, Quality Pet Products, saved sixteen operational hours per day, received certification, and replaced multiple apps with Fishbowl Inventory.  The wholesale distributor of pet foods to veterinary clinics and retail pet stores for a six state region prides themselves on their efficient warehouse processes, overnight delivery, and high-quality service.   Quality Pet Products had a fourfold business challenge: cut operations time and expense, develop processes and procedures to become AIB certified (American Institute of Baking), streamline multiple warehouse/inventory software packages, and create a Web-based order entry system.

The firm wanted to do all this in a way that allowed them to stay on the Intuit QuickBooks accounting solution.  Following the implementation of Fishbowl Inventory, Quality Pet Products was able to achieve its goals and immediately saved the equivalent of 16 man-hours per day.  Tim Balsimo, president and CEO, is a twenty year veteran in the pet business. Based in Woodbury, Minnesota, his fifteen employee company service more than four hundred retail pet stores and veterinarian clinics. When customers place their orders before 10:00 am, Quality Pet Products promises delivery within 24 hours to its customers in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska.  Quality Pet Products stocks about 500 SKUs in its warehouse and has about 400 picking locations.

Specifically he needed software that would streamline his warehouse processes and keep track of bin or picking locations, create bills of lading, calculate weight, and handle date codes, serial numbers and other inventory management items. Balsimo noted, “Intuit couldn’t provide us with the ability to take care of these items.  With the third-party software we were able to deal with weight on every order and sort it by our picking application and bill of lading, but what was missing was something to handle serial numbers and lot numbers.”

Balsimo needed to make his warehouse AIB certified. A top manufacturing partner required him to have the certification. Certification means his warehouse can handle food products for humans and animals.  “AIB certification is a safety standard and to achieve the certification, we must have a process to track every single item that is edible in and out of the warehouse by lot number or bar code. We have to match the quality requirements of our manufacturer,” Balsimo suggested.

Quality Pet Products had the additional challenge of setting up a Web site that could take its wholesale customer orders and drop them directly into his inventory management system. The ability to place orders online would help him greatly reduce the time and expense of multiple entry systems.  


Fishbowl
www.fishbowlinventory.com
Mary Michelle Scott, President
mary.scott@fishbowlinventory.com
801.882.3192