G2 Customer Reviews
What do you like best about Stok.ly – Inventory-Centric Cloud ERP?
“we have been a user for the last 4 years and we cannot think of life without it for our retail business. it makes listing to shopify and other marketplaces easy, keeps inventory accurate online and the POS is easy to use. accurate inventory across all sales channels is the big win for us.”
Trust your stock. Transfer with confidence. Control orders. Fulfill every day like clockwork.
Fishbowl vs Stok.ly AI inventory management: at a glance
- Why compared now: Buyers outgrowing Fishbowl’s add-on forecasting model are asking whether AI-native demand intelligence should sit inside their order management platform rather than bolted on separately.
- Where Stok.ly leads: Demand forecasting, stockout risk scoring, GMROII and margin analysis are pre-computed daily for every SKU and location, inside the platform, feeding directly into purchasing without a separate add-on or integration.
- Where Fishbowl leads: Fishbowl Advanced offers documented manufacturing, BOM-driven production and established replenishment workflows valued by production and logistics teams.
- Price position: Fishbowl’s published UK plans start from £150/month; forecasting is an add-on except on the Scale tier.
- Honest verdict: Fishbowl has genuine AI and forecasting options, but they are add-ons with daily data frequency; Stok.ly makes this intelligence a core, always-on part of purchasing decisions.
Order management and inventory ERP software for growing retail, wholesale and distribution businesses.
| Capability | Why it matters | Fishbowl | Stok.ly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where Fishbowl leads | ||||
| Manufacturing-to-sales order linkage | Prevents finished-goods from sitting unallocated after production completes | Native. Fishbowl Advanced documents manufacture orders and work orders with direct sales-demand linkage. Customers such as a production/logistics manager and a general manager report practical use in tracking components through to finished stock. Feature maturity is confirmed, not merely claimed. | Native. Stok.ly’s Sales-Order-Driven Purchase Order and Manufacturing Run Creation associates each sales order line directly with a new or existing manufacturing run, so fulfilment planning stays tied to the originating demand rather than relying on a separate planning pass. | Fishbowl documentation (Manufacture Order, Work Order), September 2026; Independent reviews (Capterra), September 2026 |
| Replenishment planning with automatic PO creation | Removes manual stock-inspection cycles and reduces purchasing admin per SKU | Native. Fishbowl documents min/max replenishment, Auto PO and Auto MO for finished goods. An independent reviewer describes moving from physically inspecting stock to minimum-level-driven automatic PO creation, reporting substantial effort savings. Forecasting is an add-on in Growth; included in Scale. | Native. Stok.ly’s Supplier-Based Replenishment Logic automates supplier ordering, and its Automated Reorder Point & Safety Stock Calculation derives a statistically grounded reorder trigger and safety buffer from real demand variability and lead time — no manual per-SKU calculation required. | Fishbowl documentation (Auto Purchasing), September 2026; Independent reviews (G2, Whitney S., 28 May 2024), September 2026 |
| Accounting integration (QuickBooks and Xero) | Keeps inventory transactions and financial records in sync without manual re-keying | Native. QuickBooks and Xero connectivity is documented. Independent Xero App Store reviewers report that the integration streamlined bookkeeping and eased transition from Xero’s own stock module. Note: UK/Global QuickBooks support is documented as limited; confirm the exact accounting product and country scope before purchase. | Native. Stok.ly’s Accounting Integration & Mapping covers Xero, QuickBooks (all versions including Enterprise self-hosted), Sage 50/200/Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, FreeAgent, iPlicit and Accounts IQ. Sales orders, purchase orders, invoices and credit notes push out; reconciled payment data pulls back to update order status and customer balances. | Fishbowl documentation (System Requirements), September 2026; Independent reviews (Xero App Store, Fengling Ye and Nella Adamo), September 2026 |
| Where Fishbowl’s delivery is disputed | ||||
| Promotions, Net Price Lists & Lowest-Price-Wins Engine | Ensures the correct trade or promotional price fires automatically, protecting margin and customer trust | Native. Fishbowl documents pricing rules adjustable by customer, group, quantity, date and cost-related criteria. However, automatic progression of a customer between tiers based on cumulative spend was not found in published documentation as at September 2026. Verify spend-driven tier advancement in a live demo. | Native. Stok.ly supports standard retail price, trade pricing bands, customer-specific net price lists and timed promotions with quantity breaks. A lowest-price-wins toggle, priority levels, and start/end dates ensure the right price fires on each transaction without manual overrides. | Fishbowl documentation (Pricing Rule), September 2026; Independent reviews (G2, multiple reviewers), September 2026 |
| Scheduled and automated fulfilment | ||||
| Scheduled Automated Fulfilment Rule Execution | Allows warehouse staff to arrive with picks already queued, eliminating manual morning processing | Fishbowl documents picking and packing workflows, and scheduled imports/exports exist, but a configurable scheduled rule engine that autonomously processes eligible orders into goods-out notes and pushes picks to handheld devices at set times was not established in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Scheduled Automated Fulfilment Rule Execution runs fulfilment and pick rules at configured times — for example 8 am before staff arrive — automatically processing eligible orders into goods-out notes and pushing picks to handheld devices. Warehouse staff arrive to a fully queued workload with no manual release step. | Fishbowl documentation (Picking, Schedule), September 2026 |
| Sales-Order-Driven Purchase Order and Manufacturing Run Creation | Keeps purchasing and production tied to confirmed demand rather than forecasted averages | Fishbowl documents SO-to-PO creation workflows and sales/manufacturing linkage, but the specific ability to create a new PO, assign to an existing PO, or trigger a manufacturing run directly from an individual sales order line was not confirmed as a single, unified workflow in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly allows users to create a new purchase order, assign to an existing purchase order, or create a manufacturing run directly from a sales order line. The originating demand stays visible throughout, so fulfilment planning never drifts from the customer commitment that triggered it. | Fishbowl documentation (Sales Order, Purchase Order), September 2026 |
| Inventory control and replenishment | ||||
| Location-Specific Min/Max Replenishment Rules | Prevents over-stocking at stores while avoiding stockouts at depots with different demand profiles | Fishbowl documents min/max replenishment and location-group structures, but separate replenishment thresholds applied independently per location — central warehouse, store, and depot — were not confirmed as a native configuration in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Location-Specific Min/Max Replenishment Rules lets operators set different reorder thresholds per location, so a central warehouse, a retail store and a satellite depot each replenish according to their real demand rate rather than a single shared setting. | Fishbowl documentation (Location, Auto Purchasing), September 2026 |
| Automated Reorder Point & Safety Stock Calculation | Removes manual per-SKU calculations that buyers typically approximate or skip under time pressure | Fishbowl documents min/max settings and a Forecast add-on, but a calculation that derives statistically grounded safety stock and an exact reorder point from demand variability and supplier lead time — removing the need for a buyer to estimate these manually — was not established in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Automated Reorder Point & Safety Stock Calculation uses real demand variability and supplier lead time data to compute the precise inventory level at which a purchase order should be placed and the buffer required to cover variability — no buyer estimation required per SKU. | Fishbowl documentation (Forecast, Auto Purchasing), September 2026 |
| Supplier-Based Replenishment Logic | Reduces purchasing admin by generating supplier orders from stock position rather than manual review | Fishbowl’s Auto PO feature documents automatic ordering based on reorder levels, but supplier-specific logic that routes replenishment orders to the correct vendor based on vendor-part records and lead times as a distinct, configurable workflow was not independently confirmed in published sources at this level of specificity. | Native. Stok.ly’s Supplier-Based Replenishment Logic automates supplier ordering by generating purchase orders routed to the correct supplier based on current stock position and configured reorder rules, removing the need for a buyer to manually identify which supplier to contact for each depleted SKU. | Fishbowl documentation (Purchase Order, Auto Purchasing), September 2026 |
| Store Replenishment Engine | Keeps retail locations stocked from a central warehouse without manual transfer requests | Fishbowl documents transfer orders and replenishment-related workflows across locations, but a dedicated store replenishment engine that automatically calculates and triggers transfers from a central warehouse to individual stores was not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Store Replenishment Engine calculates what each store location needs based on current stock and configured rules, then generates the transfers required to move stock from the central warehouse — without a store manager having to raise a manual request. | Fishbowl documentation (Transfer Order), September 2026 |
| Warehouse operations | ||||
| Optimised Pick Path and Pick Sequence Control | Cuts wasted picker travel time and reduces pack-station congestion on high-volume days | Fishbowl documents location sorting and grouped picking, but configurable pick-sequence logic — ordering picks by heaviest item first, largest volume first, or furthest-from-pack-station to pack station — was not confirmed as a native, operator-configurable option in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Optimised Pick Path and Pick Sequence Control organises pick lists by heaviest item first, largest volume first, furthest from pack station to pack station, or alphanumeric order — operators choose the sequence that fits their warehouse layout and daily priorities. | Fishbowl documentation (Picking, Location), September 2026 |
| Stock App Quantity Adjustment Permission Control | Enforces scan discipline on handhelds, reducing receiving and picking quantity errors | Fishbowl Advanced Mobile documents mobile scanning for receiving, picking and stock counts, but a user-permission setting that specifically disables manual quantity adjustment buttons on the handheld — forcing staff to scan rather than key in numbers — was not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Stock App Quantity Adjustment Permission Control lets administrators disable the plus and minus quantity buttons on the Stock App handheld for specific user roles, forcing barcode scanning during receiving, picking and stock-counting workflows and eliminating the source of common keying errors. | Fishbowl documentation (Fishbowl Advanced Mobile), September 2026 |
| Channel and entity management | ||||
| Channel-Specific Availability Rules | Prevents overselling on one channel by accidentally exposing stock ring-fenced for another | Fishbowl documents location groups and selected availability calculations in its WooCommerce integration, but per-channel stock-exposure rules that independently control how much of a location’s inventory is visible to each individual sales channel were not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Channel-Specific Availability Rules controls exactly how much stock is exposed per sales channel, so stock reserved for wholesale, a specific marketplace, or an OEM arrangement is never inadvertently offered on other channels. | Fishbowl documentation (WooCommerce, Location Group), September 2026 |
| Multi-Entity B2C Aggregation with Separate Accounting Integration | Lets wholesale and retail legal entities share inventory visibility while keeping accounts fully separated | Fishbowl documents QuickBooks and Xero connectivity, but operating multiple legal entities on a single Fishbowl instance with B2C channels (Shopify, Amazon, eBay) mapped to a separate entity and a separate accounting system for financial segregation was not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Multi-Entity B2C Aggregation with Separate Accounting Integration supports multiple legal entities on one instance, associating B2C channels with a distinct entity and a separate accounting system. Sales aggregate into that entity’s nominal accounts while wholesale flows to the primary entity — unified inventory, separated finances. | Fishbowl documentation (Accounting Integration), September 2026 |
| Products and kitting | ||||
| Composite / Kitted Product Availability Control | Ensures published kit availability reflects real component stock, not a static number | Fishbowl documents BOM-driven manufacture orders and kitting workflows, but continuous recalculation of how many finished bundles can be sold from current component stock as a real-time, channel-facing availability figure was not confirmed in published sources at this level of specificity. | Native. Stok.ly’s Composite / Kitted Product Availability Control supports composite and kitted products built from simple and manufactured items, then continuously recalculates how many finished bundles can be sold from current component stock — so availability shown to customers and channels is always derived from live inventory. | Fishbowl documentation (Manufacture Order, Work Order), September 2026 |
| Serial Number and Batch Number Capture and Search | Supports traceability requirements and enables rapid location of affected stock during recalls | Fishbowl documents lot and serial tracking across inventory movements, but the specific combination of capturing serial/batch numbers against sales orders, scanning during order processing, and searching across all sales orders to locate a number was not confirmed as a unified workflow in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Serial Number and Batch Number Capture and Search captures serial and batch numbers against sales orders, supports scanning during order processing, and allows search across all sales orders to locate a specific serial or batch number. The capability covers core traceability use cases; Stok.ly describes it as functional rather than specialist-grade. | Fishbowl documentation (Inventory), September 2026 |
| Returns and reverse logistics | ||||
| Reverse Inventory State Control | Keeps returned stock out of available inventory until it has been inspected and reclassified | Fishbowl documents RMA workflows including refund, replacement, repair and cross-shipping options, but a discrete control layer that manages the inventory state of returned stock through defined stages — quarantine, inspection, restock, write-off — was not confirmed as a named, configurable mechanism in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Reverse Inventory State Control manages returned stock states through the returns workflow, preventing returned units from re-entering available inventory before they have been inspected and assigned the correct stock status. | Fishbowl documentation (RMA), September 2026 |
| Return Reason Analytics | Identifies repeat return causes before they compound into margin or supplier problems | Fishbowl documents RMA processing and return types, but aggregated analytics that track and report on the causes behind returns — enabling buyers to identify patterns across SKUs, suppliers or channels — were not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Return Reason Analytics tracks the causes recorded against each return and surfaces patterns across SKUs, suppliers and channels, giving buyers the visibility to address repeat return drivers rather than processing each return in isolation. | Fishbowl documentation (RMA, Reports), September 2026 |
| Automated Return Label Deduction Button | Recovers return postage cost consistently across every return, protecting margin at volume | Fishbowl documents RMA workflows but a dedicated one-click button in the returns screen that automatically deducts a configured return label cost from the refund total — removing reliance on staff remembering to apply the deduction manually — was not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Automated Return Label Deduction Button provides a dedicated button in the returns workflow that deducts a preset amount — for example £3.25 for a Royal Mail label — from the refund total with a single click, ensuring consistent cost recovery without staff calculation or manual entry on every transaction. | Fishbowl documentation (RMA), September 2026 |
| Transfer Variance Handling | Prevents phantom stock gains or losses when quantities received differ from quantities sent | Fishbowl documents transfer orders with shipping and receiving stages, but a specific variance-handling mechanism that records, flags and resolves discrepancies between transferred and received quantities — rather than simply accepting the received count — was not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Transfer Variance Handling detects and records discrepancies between the quantity dispatched on a transfer and the quantity received, flagging the variance for resolution rather than silently adjusting stock to match the received count. | Fishbowl documentation (Transfer Order), September 2026 |
| Point of sale and extensibility | ||||
| Integrated ePOS for Retail and Trade | Eliminates the stock sync lag that causes overselling when walk-in and online orders compete for the same inventory | Add-on or integration required. Fishbowl Checkout is a documented desktop POS application with scanner and payment functionality. It is separate from the Shopify POS Import function documented in the Shopify integration. Full coverage of offline activity, payment reconciliation and B2B trade-account features was not confirmed for Fishbowl Checkout in published sources — verify scope against your requirements. | Native. Stok.ly’s Integrated ePOS for Retail and Trade runs on Android, Windows and iOS with real-time inventory sync. It handles B2C walk-in and B2B trade customers with automated pricing, credit limits and account balances. Each transaction pushes straight into the back office as a sales order ready for pick, pack, dispatch or delivery. | Fishbowl documentation (Fishbowl Checkout, Shopify), September 2026 |
| Third-Party App Store & Developer Portal | Lets businesses commission and receive custom features without waiting in the vendor’s development queue | Fishbowl documents a REST API and an SPS integration, enabling custom development, but an open app store with accredited third-party agencies and a developer portal where customers pay developers directly and receive functionality without joining Fishbowl’s own roadmap queue was not confirmed in published sources. | Native. Stok.ly’s Third-Party App Store & Developer Portal lets customers commission custom features from accredited agencies or any developer. Customers pay the developer directly and receive the functionality immediately, without waiting in Stok.ly’s development queue — so business-specific requirements do not depend on vendor prioritisation. | Fishbowl documentation (REST API, SPS), September 2026 |
Why inventory management teams move from Fishbowl to Stok.ly
Fishbowl is a credible, capable platform that works well for a substantial number of businesses — Capterra’s 1,131-review dataset classifies 84% of responses as positive, and customers in manufacturing, warehouse and distribution roles report genuine operational value. The triggers below come from a specific subset: operators who reached out because something in their current setup had stopped working for them. They are not a representative sample of Fishbowl’s full customer base, and they should be read as signals about fit, not verdicts about the product.
Fishbowl’s AI Insights runs on a daily data cycle — not at the moment of the decision
Fishbowl’s AI Insights is documented as a ConverSight-powered integration, and its default data-analysis frequency is daily. For businesses that need stockout risk, margin analysis and reorder decisions to reflect what happened this morning — a cancelled order, a late receipt, a spike in demand — a daily cycle means the analysis can be stale by the time a buyer opens it. The structural issue is that Fishbowl queries its AI layer on a refresh schedule rather than pre-computing the answer for the moment of the decision. Stok.ly’s daily snapshot pre-computes the full commercial layer — gross margin at fulfilment, GMROII over 30, 60 and 90 days, demand variability, a trend-adjusted forecast, and a 0–1 stockout risk score — so the answer exists at the point it is needed, not hours after.
Reporting flexibility: documented capability, but customers struggle to get the output they need
Fishbowl Advanced documents more than 180 built-in reports and a BI reporting editor. The recurring tension in independent reviews is not whether reports exist, but whether a specific operational output is obtainable without significant effort. Andrew B., a general manager reviewing the product on Capterra on 14 April 2026, names better custom reporting as a clear gap in his use of the platform. Krista, reviewing on Capterra on 20 April 2026, describes an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a production-list report she needed. When reporting requires workarounds or support intervention for outputs that should be routine, the analytical layer stops functioning as a management tool. Stok.ly holds the commercial and inventory position — valuation, margin, demand statistics, days of cover — in a pre-computed daily snapshot, so the numbers a buyer or manager needs are structured and accessible without bespoke report-building.
Integration reliability and the cost of corrections after go-live
Fishbowl’s QuickBooks and Xero integrations are genuinely documented and work well in a number of implementations. The September 2026 release notes (version 26.9) record fixes for accounting exports stopping after a particular failed order and for post-shipment cost-reconciliation entries being dated incorrectly for QuickBooks Online and Xero — confirming that these defects existed and have since been patched. Separately, a verified food-production reviewer on G2 in March 2025 describes serious implementation and QuickBooks-interface problems. Grant B., reviewing on G2 on 9 December 2025, notes difficulty correcting erroneous data once it has entered the system. When an integration fails in production and corrections are constrained by transaction state, the remediation burden falls on the operator. Stok.ly’s accounting connectors — covering Sage, Xero, QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics — are maintained by Stok.ly and configured rather than developed, which means integration faults are Stok.ly’s problem to resolve, not the operator’s.
The gap between Fishbowl’s forecasting add-on and a fully embedded replenishment decision
Fishbowl documents a Forecast add-on included at Scale tier and available as a paid addition at Growth. Replenishment logic based on minimum and maximum levels, and Auto PO creation, are also documented features with genuine real-world value — Whitney S., reviewing on G2 on 28 May 2024, describes moving away from physically inspecting stock to determine purchases, citing meaningful time savings from minimum levels and automatic purchase order creation. The gap operators report is not the absence of a forecast, but the absence of a decision: a forward-looking risk score, expressed as a 0–1 probability, that tells a buyer which SKUs are most likely to stock out before the next replenishment cycle and in what sequence to act. Fishbowl’s forecasting functionality needs to be assessed for whether it delivers that specific output, not simply whether a forecast module exists. Stok.ly computes a lead-time-aware reorder point, a trend-adjusted demand forecast and a 0–1 stockout risk score for every SKU at every location, every day, feeding directly into purchasing without a separate analytical step.
Module and implementation costs that shift materially above the entry price
Fishbowl’s published UK pricing runs from £150 per month for Essentials to £550 per month for Scale, billed annually, before implementation, add-ons and user expansion. The implementation package as described covers migration excluding history, training and go-live support; forecasting is an add-on at Growth tier; a B2B portal and advanced ecommerce capabilities appear as additional purchases; and Advanced editions for warehouse or manufacturing requirements carry separate pricing starting from £375 per month. Bryce W., reviewing on G2 on 27 October 2025, praises the training quality but warns explicitly that additional modules can make the total solution expensive. The relevant comparison for any buyer is a fully scoped configuration — software edition, users, add-ons, implementation and any required third-party connectors — not the entry-level headline figure. Stok.ly’s pre-built integrations across 200-plus ecommerce channels, 150-plus couriers and 20-plus accounting packages are maintained by Stok.ly and require no middleware licence or integration partner, which keeps the gap between the quoted price and the real operating cost narrow.
A note on this evidence: every trigger above traces to an operator who reached out because something in their Fishbowl setup had stopped working for the way their business now operates. The same platform, correctly scoped and implemented, works well for a large number of businesses — Capterra’s review population and the Xero App Store’s 4.7-star average from 124 reviews reflect that. If you are not experiencing these specific gaps, Fishbowl may remain the right fit. The question worth asking is whether your current configuration — the edition, the add-ons, the integrations and the analytical layer — still matches the complexity and speed your operation now runs at.
How Stok.ly handles AI-driven inventory decisions differently from Fishbowl
AI inventory management: which stock is worth reordering
Most inventory systems can tell you how much stock you hold. The harder question — which of those SKUs is worth replenishing, at what quantity, and by when — is where Fishbowl’s documented AI Insights module, powered by a third-party ConverSight integration and running on a daily data-analysis cycle, leaves a gap between the answer and the moment of the purchasing decision.
Stok.ly is AI-native. Demand forecasting, stockout risk scoring and margin analysis are computed inside the platform for every SKU at every location, every day, and the results feed directly into purchasing without a separate query or export. The daily snapshot carries the full inventory position and valuation alongside the commercial layer: gross margin recognised at fulfilment, GMROII over 30, 60 and 90 days, demand statistics and variability, days since last demand, and recorded stockout days. Forward-looking figures sit alongside these: a demand trend ratio, a trend-adjusted forecast, statistical safety stock calculated at a 95% service level, a lead-time-aware reorder point, days of cover, and a 0–1 stockout risk score for every SKU. Because Stok.ly pre-computes the analysis rather than querying it on demand, the answer exists at the moment of the decision — not after a daily batch run completes.
See how Stok.ly AI inventory management, demand forecasting, GMROII and stockout risk scoring work
Product data: build it once, list it everywhere
Fishbowl Commerce documents a Product Information Manager with variant and channel-attribute support, and bulk catalogue workflows exist in that product. In practice, though, Commerce is a separately licensed and maintained component sitting between Fishbowl Advanced and each sales channel — which means a product record created in Advanced and an equivalent listing managed through Commerce are not the same record, and a change to one does not automatically propagate as a single, governed action across every channel.
Stok.ly holds product information once. Attributes, variants, images, barcodes, dimensions, pricing and channel-specific content all live against a single product record. Listings are created and updated from that record. A price change, a description update or a new attribute applied through bulk editing reaches every SKU and every connected channel in one action — not a sequence of exports, imports and manual checks spread across a middleware layer. The cost operators underestimate most is not stock: it is the duplicated data-entry work that accumulates every time two systems each hold their own version of a product.
Integrations that connect without a project
Fishbowl publishes an integration ecosystem covering QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, WooCommerce and shipping services including its own ShipExpress. Independent reviews — and Fishbowl’s own September 2026 release notes, which document fixes for accounting-export failures and post-shipment cost-reconciliation dating errors — confirm that connecting those integrations reliably, and keeping them working across upgrades, is where real implementation effort and real risk concentrates. Some Fishbowl integrations route through scheduled tasks rather than continuous sync, and custom plugins carry explicit upgrade-compatibility warnings.
Stok.ly’s connectors are pre-built and maintained by Stok.ly. There is no middleware to licence, no connector to commission, and no integration partner to pay to build or service the link. Configuration replaces development. More than 200 ecommerce channels and marketplaces sync stock, orders, pricing and fulfilment status in real time; 150-plus couriers and freight partners cover rates, labels, manifests and tracking at dispatch; and 20-plus accounting packages — including Sage, Xero, QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics — connect without a separate project. When Stok.ly updates, the connectors are updated by Stok.ly.
See Stok.ly’s ecommerce, courier and accounting integrations
Orders drive execution, and rules remove the decisions
Fishbowl documents a sales order lifecycle that links to purchasing and manufacturing, and picking and batch shipping workflows are real, documented capabilities. What is not established in Fishbowl’s published sources is automatic, rules-driven backlog release: a situation where a sales order held because of partial stock, a credit condition, or a manufactured item not yet complete moves itself forward the moment its condition clears — without anyone deciding it should, and with the reason for the hold recorded throughout.
In Stok.ly, the sales order is the operational controller. Allocation, reservation, routing, fulfilment priority and exception handling — including returns — all run from the order. An order that meets its configured conditions moves to pick automatically. One that does not is held with the reason attached, not queued in an undifferentiated backlog for someone to investigate. The rules engine converts analysis into action: allocation logic, routing decisions, carrier selection, replenishment triggers, transfer top-ups, pricing tiers, credit holds and exceptions all run on rules you configure once. The result is a warehouse floor where the system manages the sequence, not the team.
See how Stok.ly’s automation rules engine controls order management, inventory and warehouse execution
Where Fishbowl is the better choice for inventory management
Stok.ly is an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP built around multi-channel commerce and automated fulfilment. That is not the right fit for every operation, and saying so is worth your time before a demo.
- Manufacturing is the core requirement. Fishbowl Advanced has a well-documented, established manufacturing capability: bill-of-materials-driven production, work orders, production scheduling and labour tracking through Fishbowl Time. Businesses whose primary operational need is managing a production floor, not a fulfilment operation, will find Fishbowl’s manufacturing depth more directly suited to that work.
- QuickBooks is deeply embedded in the business. Fishbowl was built around QuickBooks integration and has a long-standing customer base that runs its accounts there. If a business’s accounting team, accountant, and historical data are all committed to QuickBooks and that will not change, Fishbowl’s native connection is a genuine practical advantage over a platform that treats accounting as one of many integrations.
- The team needs a self-hosted or on-premise option. Fishbowl has historically supported self-hosted deployments, which some businesses in regulated sectors or with strict data-residency requirements actively require. Stok.ly is a cloud platform; if on-premise control is a non-negotiable procurement condition, Fishbowl meets it and Stok.ly does not.
How to migrate from Fishbowl to Stok.ly without losing your stock history or operational continuity
The migration question is really three separate questions: what data moves, what workflow changes, and what runs in parallel during the transition. Fishbowl holds your products, open purchase orders, open sales orders, supplier records, customer records, stock quantities and, in many installations, location data. All of that needs to land correctly in Stok.ly before go-live. Stok.ly’s onboarding process maps each of those object types before a single record is imported — products and variants first, then suppliers and customers, then open orders with their current status, then stock quantities by location. Historical closed transactions are exported from Fishbowl in structured form and held in your Stok.ly account as reference data, so your team can look up a past order without staying in Fishbowl post-cutover.
Product data is usually the longest part of the pre-migration work, and it is worth doing properly before anything else. If your Fishbowl product records are clean — consistent units of measure, populated barcodes, accurate costs — the import is straightforward. If they are not, Stok.ly’s bulk editing tools let you correct and enrich records during the migration window rather than inheriting the mess. Attributes, variants, images, dimensions and channel-specific content are built against the product record once; they do not need to be re-entered per channel after migration.
Open order migration is the operationally sensitive moment. Stok.ly imports open purchase orders and sales orders with their existing line-level status — received quantities, allocated stock, outstanding balances. The cutover date is agreed in advance; orders received or placed in Fishbowl on the final day are the last to be imported before the switch. Stok.ly’s allocation engine then picks up the open backlog immediately: orders meeting their fulfilment conditions move to pick, orders on hold carry their reason, and your team does not start day one with an undifferentiated queue to work through manually.
Integrations are configured, not developed. If your current stack includes Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Xero, QuickBooks or one of the 200+ other channels and accounting packages Stok.ly connects to natively, those connections are set up through the platform’s configuration interface rather than commissioned as a development project. There is no middleware to licence and no connector to maintain — Stok.ly owns and updates the integrations. Courier connections for shipping labels and manifests follow the same pattern: configured at setup, ready at go-live.
The parallel-run period is short by design. Running Fishbowl and Stok.ly simultaneously for an extended period doubles data-entry workload and creates the stock-discrepancy problems it is supposed to prevent. The standard approach is a clean cutover after a verified data migration, with Fishbowl kept in read-only access for historical lookups rather than as a live parallel system. Your team trains on Stok.ly’s workflows during the migration window, not after go-live.
For a broader view of how Stok.ly compares with Fishbowl across the full range of operational capabilities, see the complete Fishbowl vs Stok.ly comparison.
How Stok.ly’s pricing model works: what you pay for and what is included
Stok.ly is an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP priced on the scope of your operation rather than on a per-user seat count. The practical implication is that adding a warehouse operative, a purchasing manager or a second channel does not trigger an incremental licence charge for each person who needs access to carry out their role. Pricing is structured around the scale and complexity of what the platform manages — order volumes, locations, channels and the depth of functionality required — rather than around headcount.
The capabilities that sit at the core of the platform — demand forecasting, stockout risk scoring, GMROII analysis, the daily inventory snapshot, the rules engine, allocation, warehouse pick and pack, and all pre-built integrations — are included as part of the platform rather than sold as separately licensed add-ons. There is no forecasting module to purchase on top of a base plan, no AI insight tier to unlock, and no additional charge per connected channel or courier beyond the core subscription. Implementation, data migration and onboarding are scoped and quoted per customer; the price depends on the complexity of the existing data and the number of integrations being connected at go-live.
The right way to compare Stok.ly’s cost against Fishbowl’s is to build the full configured cost for both: Fishbowl’s edition (Inventory or Advanced), the specific add-ons required for forecasting, B2B portal, additional ecommerce connectors, implementation services, and any third-party middleware or integration partners. Several independent reviewers note that Fishbowl’s module and add-on structure means the total cost of a fully scoped installation can differ substantially from the published starting price. Stok.ly’s pricing should be assessed on the same basis: request a scoped quotation against your specific requirements, channels and order volume, and compare that against the equivalent fully configured Fishbowl total.
Which operations Fishbowl typically suits, and which Stok.ly is built for
Fishbowl is typically a strong fit for operations that:
- Need manufacturing work orders, BOMs and production scheduling as a primary requirement, and are buying Fishbowl Advanced specifically for that scope.
- Run primarily from a single location with a stable, relatively simple product range and no significant multi-channel complexity.
- Are already integrated with QuickBooks and want to keep accounting in that ecosystem — where the integration has been validated for their specific QuickBooks product and country.
- Have the internal resource to configure and maintain the reporting framework and integration connections, or an implementation partner who has done so reliably for similar businesses.
- Value the option of self-hosted deployment as a deliberate architectural choice.
Stok.ly is typically the better fit for operations that:
- Sell across multiple channels — ecommerce, marketplace, wholesale and trade — and need stock, pricing and order status to stay consistent across all of them from a single system.
- Need AI-native demand forecasting, stockout risk scoring and GMROII analysis built into the daily purchasing workflow rather than configured as a separate add-on or external tool.
- Want the rules engine to handle allocation, routing, carrier selection, replenishment triggers and exceptions automatically, so that the team manages exceptions rather than every decision.
- Are growing the number of channels, locations or SKUs and need the platform to absorb that complexity without each change requiring a development project or additional licence.
- Need product data maintained in one place and pushed out to every channel — not re-entered or separately maintained per listing.
- Are currently on Fishbowl and finding that the configuration, integration delivery or reporting flexibility is creating manual workaround work that the team’s time cannot sustainably absorb.
Stok.ly is an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP built for product businesses that have outgrown single-channel, single-location inventory tools and need tighter control across purchasing, fulfilment, and stock positioning. Stok.ly is an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP. It is a strong fit for the operations above, but not the right choice in every situation.Which inventory operations is Stok.ly built for?
When Stok.ly is not the right fit
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Stok.ly calculate reorder points and safety stock automatically, without a buyer estimating figures per SKU?
How does Stok.ly handle scheduled fulfilment for teams moving off Fishbowl?
Can Stok.ly set different replenishment thresholds per location rather than a single shared min/max?
How does Stok.ly manage returned stock to prevent it re-entering available inventory prematurely?
Can Stok.ly surface return-reason patterns across SKUs and suppliers, or does it only log individual returns?
When is Fishbowl the better choice over Stok.ly?
Does Stok.ly support multiple legal entities sharing one inventory pool, with separated accounting per entity?
How does Stok.ly control which sales channels can see available stock, to prevent overselling across channels?
Does Fishbowl handle your replenishment, fulfilment, and returns the way Stok.ly does?
If your team is manually releasing picks each morning, estimating safety stock per SKU, or processing returns without visibility into repeat causes, the gap between Fishbowl and Stok.ly is an operational one — not a feature-list one. Stok.ly’s Scheduled Automated Fulfilment Rule Execution, Automated Reorder Point & Safety Stock Calculation, and Return Reason Analytics address those workflows directly, as a native part of an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP.
Book a walkthrough to see exactly how Stok.ly handles your specific stock positions, channel mix, and fulfilment pattern — with your own product and location data, not a generic demo script.
Contact Information
All our sales, support and development team are located in Hereford and Cheltenham in the U.K. Please submit the contact form and we will contact you within the same business day.