Capabilities guide

Fishbowl + Claude — what you can do with your data

Ask in plain language and Claude works with your live Fishbowl data on your behalf. This is the full set of actions it can take, grouped by area. You never type the action names below — they're just here so you can see exactly what's available.

Claude can both look things up and make changes. The actions marked ✎ create, change or remove real records in Fishbowl. The destructive ones — deleting, scrapping, voiding, closing short — carry an explicit instruction to restate what's about to happen and wait for your agreement. That's a strong habit rather than a hard lock, and the everyday writes (raising an order, moving stock) don't carry it, so read the ✎ column as "this one touches real data". Everything else only reads and reports.

53Actions availableacross 9 areas of the business

21Look things upread-only — never change data

32Change data in Fishbowlmarked ✎ · touches real records

✎Write creates, changes or removes something in Fishbowl — everything else only reads / reports

Buying & suppliers

8 of 11 change data

The full procurement cycle — raising an order, sending it to the supplier, changing it, and closing it out when the delivery doesn't match what you ordered.

Purchase orders

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_search_purchase_orders	Find purchase orders however you think about them — open, issued, late, by supplier, by date. Answers things like “show all open POs grouped by vendor with expected dates” or “which POs are past their expected delivery date?”	—
fishbowl_get_purchase_order	Open one purchase order in full — every line item, quantity, price, address, and any custom fields your business has added.	—
fishbowl_create_purchase_order	Draft a new order to a supplier — e.g. 500 lbs of 1/4-inch plate at $1.85/lb from Acme Steel, expected next Friday. It starts as a draft, so nothing reaches the supplier until you issue it.	✎Write
fishbowl_update_purchase_order	Change an order that already exists — quantities, prices, dates, lines. Anything you don't mention is left exactly as it was rather than blanked out.	✎Write
fishbowl_issue_purchase_order	Issue the order — the step that commits it and sends it to the supplier.	✎Write
fishbowl_unissue_purchase_order	Pull an issued order back to draft so it can be corrected before going out again.	✎Write
fishbowl_close_short_purchase_order	Close a whole order for less than was ordered — the supplier cancelled the balance. This is final.	✎Write
fishbowl_close_short_purchase_order_item	Close a single line short — “they shipped 450 of the 500 and cancelled the rest.” Final for that line.	✎Write
fishbowl_void_purchase_order	Void an order you're not going ahead with — e.g. you're switching suppliers. The record stays on file, marked void.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_purchase_order	Erase a purchase order record entirely. Voiding is usually the better choice, because it keeps the history.	✎Write

Suppliers

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_get_vendors	List and filter your suppliers by name, account number, city, state, country, or whether they're still active.	—

Manufacturing

6 of 8 change data

The full production order lifecycle, from opening a job off a bill of materials through releasing it to the floor and closing it out.

Manufacture orders

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_search_manufacture_orders	Find production orders — open, behind schedule, by product, by date. “Show me all open manufacture orders and their completion percentages.”	—
fishbowl_get_manufacture_order	Open one production order in full, including its bill of materials — so you can check whether every component is actually in stock before starting.	—
fishbowl_create_manufacture_order	Open a new production order from a bill of materials — e.g. 100 units of FG-500 scheduled for next Monday. It starts in Entered status, not released.	✎Write
fishbowl_update_manufacture_order	Change a production order's quantity, dates, or details. Its component list can only be changed while it's still in Entered status.	✎Write
fishbowl_issue_manufacture_order	Release the order to the production floor. This commits the components to the job.	✎Write
fishbowl_unissue_manufacture_order	Reverse a release — puts the order back to Entered and frees the committed components.	✎Write
fishbowl_close_short_manufacture_order	Finish a job with less than the full quantity — “we only made 80 of the 100.” Final.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_manufacture_order	Erase a production order record entirely.	✎Write

Inventory & warehouse

4 of 6 change data

Knowing what you have and where it is — and keeping that accurate as stock arrives, moves, is counted, and is written off.

What's on hand

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_search_inventory	See current on-hand stock — by item, by location, or across the whole business. “What's the on-hand for SKU-1042 across all locations?” or “what's in Receiving that hasn't been put away?”	—
fishbowl_get_location_groups	List your warehouses and location groups, so stock can be reported site by site — e.g. total inventory value by location group.	—

Moving & adjusting stock

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_add_inventory	Receive stock into a location, with unit cost, lot or serial tracking details, and a note explaining why.	✎Write
fishbowl_cycle_inventory	Reconcile a physical count against the system — “I counted 47 of SKU-2201 in Bin A-3, the system says 50.” Sets the on-hand to your counted figure.	✎Write
fishbowl_move_inventory	Transfer stock from one location to another — e.g. 200 units from Main Warehouse to the production floor.	✎Write
fishbowl_scrap_inventory	Write off damaged or lost stock — “scrap 12 units of SKU-3300, water damage from the roof leak.” The stock is removed and can't be un-scrapped.	✎Write

Parts, products & pricing

2 of 5 change data

The items you make, buy and sell — plus the cost and price intelligence that tells you whether a job or a quote is worth doing.

Finding and managing items

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_search_parts	Find items by number, description, type, supplier, barcode, whether they carry a bill of materials, and more. This is also how you find a product — search on its product number or description.	—
fishbowl_delete_part	Remove an item from your list. Fishbowl refuses if the item is in use anywhere.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_product	Remove a saleable product. The underlying item it's based on stays in place.	✎Write

Cost & price

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_get_part_best_cost	The best cost available to you on an item across your suppliers — the figure you'd cost a job or a quote from.	—
fishbowl_get_product_best_price	The best applicable sale price for a product, taking a specific customer, quantity, date, or unit of measure into account. Pair it with best cost to see your margin.	—

Sales & customers

Both change data

Fishbowl itself offers only limited direct handling of sales orders and payments. Reading them is done through the ad-hoc data question further down; creating and updating them is done through bulk import. Only removal is direct.

Sales orders & payments

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_delete_sales_order	Remove a sales order — “the customer cancelled SO-7781.” To look sales orders up, ask a data question; to create them in bulk, use the import action.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_payment	Remove a payment record, including card payments taken through Clover Connect. Payments are created through bulk import rather than directly.	✎Write

Reporting & bulk changes

1 of 2 changes data

The catch-all pair: one that answers any question about your data, and one that changes many records at once.

Ask anything about your data

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_data_query	Ask a question of any data in your Fishbowl system — customers, sales orders, shipments, receipts, history — including things the specific actions above don't cover. “Top 10 selling products by units last quarter”, “which vendors have the longest average lead time?”, “how many orders shipped complete and on time last month?” Reads only; it never changes anything.	—

Bulk create & update

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_run_import	Create or update many records in one go using Fishbowl's own import formats. A standard Fishbowl install typically covers parts, products, customers, vendors, sales orders, bills of materials, inventory counts, cycle counts, payments, receipts and shipments — your own install's exact list is checked against it first, since imports can be customised per site. You see exactly what's about to go in and confirm before it runs.	✎Write

Notes on orders

3 of 5 change data

The running commentary on an order — phone confirmations, exceptions, hand-offs — kept on the record itself instead of in someone's inbox.

Memos

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_list_memos	See every note attached to a purchase order or production order.	—
fishbowl_get_memo	Open one specific note in full.	—
fishbowl_add_memo	Attach a note to an order — “Vendor confirmed ship date by phone 5/20.”	✎Write
fishbowl_update_memo	Rewrite the text of a note that's already there.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_memo	Remove a note from a record.	✎Write

Setup & reference data

6 of 11 change data

The supporting lists everything else refers to — units, people, and the custom fields your own Fishbowl has been configured with.

Units of measure

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_get_uoms	List the units you track, buy and sell in — each, box, case, pallet — with their abbreviations and types.	—
fishbowl_get_uom	Open one unit of measure with its full conversion list — e.g. how many cases make a pallet.	—
fishbowl_create_uom	Add a new unit and its conversions — “add a unit of measure: Pallet = 48 cases.”	✎Write
fishbowl_update_uom	Change a unit of measure. Its existing conversions are kept unless you deliberately replace them.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_uom	Remove a unit of measure. Refused if anything is still using it.	✎Write

People & configuration

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_get_users	List the people set up in Fishbowl — who's active, their names and initials.	—
fishbowl_list_custom_fields	Show the custom fields your own Fishbowl has been configured with on items, purchase orders, production orders and suppliers — so reports can include the fields your business actually uses, not just the standard ones.	—

Add-on integration records

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
fishbowl_search_plugin_info	Look up the linkage records that Fishbowl add-on products (such as Fishbowl Time) keep to tie their data back to outside systems. Specialist — most businesses never need this.	—
fishbowl_create_plugin_info	Create one of those add-on linkage records.	✎Write
fishbowl_update_plugin_info	Update one of those add-on linkage records.	✎Write
fishbowl_delete_plugin_info	Remove one of those add-on linkage records.	✎Write

Your Fishbowl connection

Nothing in Fishbowl changes

These three appear only if your setup gives each person their own Fishbowl login rather than one shared account for the whole company. On a shared-account setup they aren't offered at all — the connection is already made for you.

Signing in

Action	What you can do / what to expect	Writes?
connect_fishbowl	Get your personal link for connecting your own Fishbowl login. You type your Fishbowl username and password on a secure page, never into the chat. It also tells you whether you're already connected.	—
fishbowl_connection_status	Check whether your own Fishbowl login is currently connected and stored.	—
disconnect_fishbowl	Remove your stored Fishbowl login. Nothing in Fishbowl itself changes — you'll simply be asked to sign in again the next time you use it.	—

Good to know

Limits & safeguards

The honest boundaries — what Claude will always ask you first, what it deliberately won't do, and the two things you'll need in place on the Fishbowl side.

How it behaves

Point	What it means for you
You confirm first	The destructive actions — delete, scrap, void, close short — carry an explicit instruction to restate exactly what will be affected and wait for you to agree. It's a strong instruction that travels with the action itself, not something the connection can physically enforce, and the everyday writes (raising an order, moving stock) don't carry it. If you want writes genuinely prevented rather than confirmed, the reliable control is the Fishbowl permissions on the account the connection uses.	—
Permissions stay yours	It won't change Fishbowl user permissions or access controls. That stays with your Fishbowl administrator.	—
Only when asked	It won't act on its own or on a schedule. Every action starts from something a person types in a conversation. (Scheduled automation is a possible future addition, not something it does today.)	—
Fishbowl's rules still apply	It can't get around Fishbowl's own business rules. It goes through the same validation as your Fishbowl screens, so anything Fishbowl would reject, it rejects.	—
Deletions are permanent	Deletions are genuinely permanent. On purchase orders, voiding is preferred to deleting because it keeps the record and the history.	—

Where Fishbowl's own limits show

Point	What it means for you
Sales orders & customers	Sales orders, customers, bills of materials and payments have no direct create-or-update action, because Fishbowl doesn't offer one. Looking them up goes through the ad-hoc data question; creating and updating them goes through bulk import; only deletion is direct.	—
No separate product search	There's no separate product search. Products are found through the item search, using product number or description — in Fishbowl an item is the underlying record and a product is its saleable face.	—
Search filters	Filters on the built-in searches are limited to the ones Fishbowl publishes for each area (for example supplier name or status on purchase orders). Anything more specific than that is answered through the ad-hoc data question instead.	—

Access, privacy & what you'll need

Point	What it means for you
Who can use it	Only people you've explicitly granted access through Microsoft can use it, and only while they're actively in a conversation. Nothing is pre-loaded or cached — every question goes fresh to Fishbowl at that moment, and no data is copied or stored outside Fishbowl.	—
Two prerequisites	Two prerequisites on your side: your Fishbowl instance needs the Advanced REST API add-on active (it's a Fishbowl add-on, sorted out with Fishbowl directly), and you need a dedicated Fishbowl login for the integration with multi-factor sign-in turned off on that one account.	—
Whose name is on it	Today all activity runs through a single shared Fishbowl service account, so Fishbowl's own audit log shows that account rather than the individual person. A per-person sign-in mode is built and can be switched on if you need Fishbowl's own per-user permissions and audit trail.	—