Fishbowl Inventory export to Quickbooks not working

Time to explore replacing your Fishbowl.

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community, hgp123. I appreciate you taking some troubleshooting steps to resolve the Fishbowl Inventory issue. This isn't also the kind of feeling that I'd wish you to have. I'll make sure you're directed to the appropriate support to help you with this and can get back on track.

Since the issue continues to occur, I recommend contacting the Fishbowl Support Team. They can pull up your account and provide you the detailed information about how their process works. Also, investigate the cause of the issue since the imported data in QuickBooks Desktop depends on what your 3rd party app shares with us and how they're posted.

Lastly, I'm also sharing this article that you can utilize for your future reference: Set up Advanced Inventory. This link can guide you through the steps on how to track your inventory from different sites or locations.

You’re always welcome to post in the Community whenever you have other concerns about inventory or questions with your QBDT software. It’s always my pleasure to help you out. Take care and stay safe.

Per my original post, I have already contacted Fishbowl support. I have even had Fishbowl support and Quickbooks support on the phone at the same time and talking to each other regarding this issue. There was no resolution. All of their suggestions have not been successful in resolving my issue. 

As of a couple days ago, Fishbowl support now says that this issue is a known issue with Quickbooks and that Quickbooks will need to issue a fix. Is there a specific person at Quickbooks I can contact to confirm that is true?

Hello hgp123,

Thank you for sharing that information. What I recommend is contacting support so they can escalate this situation. Here's  how to connect with us:

1. Go to the Help menu, then click Quickbooks Desktop Help or press the F1 key.
2. Hit the Contact Us button, as seen in the display.
3. Enter a brief description of the problem.
4. Select Continue.
5. Choose which method you would like to connect. The options will be chat or our call-back feature.

Let me know how the conversation goes and if there is anything else I can help you with. I'll be around. Take care and be safe.

One of my clients has the same issues with QB 2021. Its gotten even worse in recent months as now it won't work at all unless they actually leave the QB database logged in the QB server. It claims it cannot connect to the QB database unless its left open on the server, even though the export is being done on the bookkeepers computer in which she is logged into QB and FB. The server hosts both Fishbowl and the QB database.

Up until a few months ago the exports would work without having to be signed into QB on the server but we still were getting the intermittent export problems you are experiencing. Not sure if all of this is a a QB issue or a FB issue and nobody on either end seems to be able to resolve it

Hi there, amn0270. 

I know how it can be frustrating to be held up like this when the Fishbowl Inventory export to QuickBooks isn't working.

With this, I suggest you contact our Technical Support team for further assistance. They can pull up your account within a secure environment, and investigate this matter for you. 

See this article for the steps: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support. I also suggest you take note of their operating hours, so you know when they're available. 

In case you need more ideas to organize your QuickBooks account, please see this link as your future reference: Help article.

Come back to me if you have an additional concern. I’ll be more than happy to assist you.

I'm also a Fishbowl User - having trouble lately with QB crashing providing an unrecoverable error message during the Accounting integration. Called QB support they claim they've never heard of Fishbowl. Called Fishbowl they say it's an Intuit problem. 

Are you have similar issues? QB tells me to open the desktop version as an Admin - when I do that Fishbowl cannot connect. I get a message saying the company file is already open and another license is required for the second user. If you open it in standard mode Fishbowl will connect. Although as I mentioned above it crashes periodically.  

Hi Quickbooks

Is there any solution to this issue?

We have the same issue.

When fishbowl tries to send the data to Quickbooks, it crashes the quickbooks app randomly, it's not happening all the time, just randomly. I have contacted the fishbowl support, they asked me to contact quickbooks.

Our fishbowl verison is 23.9.20230914

Our Quickbooks is desktop version 21.0

Please help, thank you so much.

Hello there, Maki1234.

The Unrecoverable Error message occurs because of various factors, such as data damage, network issues, or problems with the software itself. You can see this when you:

• Open or close a file
• Save a copy (backup or portable copy)
• Select any menu option, button, or link in QuickBooks
• Update QuickBooks (program or payroll updates)
• Run file utilities (verify, rebuild, or condense)

Before doing some troubleshooting steps, let's update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release. It ensures that you can take advantage of all the updates and utilize the full functionality of the software. Aside from that, secure a backup copy of your company file to avoid data loss.

After that, open QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). The program will re-open the windows you left open when you close your company file, which may lead to an unrecoverable error on startup. To avoid this, follow the steps below.

1. Open QuickBooks Desktop.
2. In No Company Open, select your company file. 
3. Press and hold ALT on your keyboard and then tap Open. Don’t let go of ALT until the file opens.
4. If QuickBooks asks you to sign in, release ALT and enter your password. Press and hold ALT again and select OK.

If the issue persists, proceed to Solution 2 for the fix in this article: Troubleshoot Unrecoverable Error.

Additionally, you can check this page to help set up advanced inventory in QuickBooks. It'll help track inventory stored at different sites or locations.

Let me know if you have other questions about sending data to QuickBooks. I'm always here to help. Take care. 

@Maki1234 

Run the Verify/Rebuild Data utility. Did you encounter any error message?

This is nearly identical to the issue we're having. (I'm the OP) If I clear that QB error message then the export would usually work after that. My typical MO is to just kill any qbw.exe task running in Task Manager. Two years after creating this post, the issue is still ongoing.

I did do a complete reinstall of Fishbowl on the server and that helped with some related problems we were having but the export is still breaking every couple days or so and I have to kill qbw.exe again.

This is nearly identical to the issue we're having. (I'm the OP) If I clear that QB error message then the export would usually work after that. My typical MO is to just kill any qbw.exe task running in Task Manager. Two years after creating this post, the issue is still ongoing.

I did do a complete reinstall of Fishbowl on the server and that helped with some related problems we were having but the export is still breaking every couple days or so and I have to kill qbw.exe again.

Hello there, @hgp123.

I understand how critical it is to ensure the accuracy of the fishbowl inventory export in QuickBooks Desktop. I'm here to help you resolve this matter with ease and efficiency. 

That said it's always best to have an expert from our Customer Care Team to assist you with this process. They can assign a representative to investigate and check on your end and guide you through every step of the way. To get help with your QuickBooks Desktop software, follow these steps:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Click on Help, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
3. Select Contact Us and provide a brief description of your issue, then select Continue.
4. Sign in to your Intuit account click on Continue and then select Continue with my account.
   • If you don't have an account, make sure to Create a new account.
5. Check your email for a single-use code. Enter this code and select Continue.
   • If you have multiple accounts, select the one you want to use and click on Continue.
6. Choose to chat with us or request a callback.

Phone support may be limited due to volume.

To make sure you get prioritized on your concern. Please check out our support hours and contact us at a time convenient: Support hours and types.

I've also included a couple of detailed resources about working with Inventory in QuickBooks Desktop:

• Set up Advanced Inventory in QuickBooks Desktop
• Multiple Inventory Sites.

Rest assured that we are committed to providing you with the best possible assistance and support for inventory export to QuickBooks Desktop. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us for any help you may need.

Yup continued to be an issue for years for my client. Nothing QB support of FB support offered ever fixed the issue. What I ended up doing for the bookkeeper is create a batch file that she can run whenever she has the issue. The batch script basically kills the QBW process over on the QB server. I just put a shortcut to the batch file on her workstation desktop and just coubleclicks it and it closes the QBW process on the server. It fixes the problem in most instances and saves me the headache of having to do it for her and also saves her the headache of having to wait for me to be available to do it.

That's actually the exact solution I tried to do but I couldn't quite get the permissions figured out. How did you set up the credentials for the batch file? I got stuck because I didn't want to give the user any extra permissions to run the script nor did I want to leave credentials in plain text within the script. I recall there was some way to save the credentials in Windows but couldn't get the script to run with that. 

Mind sharing your method?