Variants

The Variants module, located in the Materials group, is a free plugin that can be installed from the Plugin module. After installing the plugin, a new module is added that allows the user to quickly create many product variants in Fishbowl Advanced. This is similar to importing a CSV, but the redundant steps are handled by the plugin and displayed in an intuitive interface.

Install

The documentation on this page is for the most recent version of the Variants plugin. To get the most recent version, Update Fishbowl.

In any Fishbowl Client, open the Plugin module, located in the Integrations group.
Select the Variants plugin and click Install.
Completely close all Fishbowl Clients.
Exit the Fishbowl Server by right-clicking the Fishbowl Server tray icon and selecting Exit.
After re-opening the Fishbowl Server, the admin user can access the Variants module from any Fishbowl Client by opening the Materials group.
To grant access to additional users, assign the Variants-View access right to the appropriate groups in the User Group module.

Module buttons

New creates a new Parent Product.

How To opens this article in a web browser.

Refresh reloads whatever is currently open in the module.

Parent product

Before you use the Variants module, please note that the Base Number and Base SKU you enter must be for a part/product that doesn’t currently exist in your Fishbowl database. That’s because, once you click the Create button on the bottom-right of the Parent Product section, it will create a new part/product marked as Non-Inventory and Inactive. That Parent Product will never be used on sales orders and purchase orders; only the Product Variants generated from it will be used in those ways.

With this in mind, let’s go through the text fields and dropdown menu you will need to fill out to create a Parent Product.

Base Number - The name of the Parent Product, which will go at the start of each Product Variant’s Product Number. Even though it’s called Base Number, this can include letters (e.g., CottonShirt). You can add spaces if you like. This will be unchangeable after you click the Create button.
Base SKU - The stock-keeping unit used to identify the Parent Product in the system. Like the Base Number, the Base SKU will go at the start of each Product Variant’s Product SKU. And it can just as easily include letters, though you will want to make it different than the Base Number (e.g., CTNSHRT). You can have spaces if you like. This will be unchangeable after you click the Create button.
Base Cost - The amount of money you pay to a vendor for this product. You can make adjustments to the Base Cost in the Attributes section below, so don’t worry if this cost isn’t the same across all of the Product Variants you intend to create. You can change this by clicking the Update button after clicking the Create button.
Base Price - The amount of money you will charge customers for this product. You can make adjustments to the Base Price in the Attributes section below, so don’t worry if this price isn’t the same across all of the Product Variants you intend to create. You can change this by clicking the Update button after clicking the Create button.
UOM - The unit of measure assigned to the Parent Product. This will be unchangeable after you click the Create button.

NOTE: In the Australia and Canada versions of Fishbowl Advanced, there are two additional fields relating to taxes: Part Tax and Product Tax. These are both dropdown menus that enable users to assign a tax code from the Tax Rate module to the new part/product, as well as each of the Product Variants under it.

When you are done entering information into the above fields, click the Create button. A message will pop up telling you if it is successful. When that is done, the Create button will change to an Update button. You can use that to save your changes to the Base Cost and Base Price.

In addition, clicking the Create button will make the Add New Attribute button clickable in the Attributes section under the Parent Product section.

Attributes

The Attributes section enables you to add a variety of Product Variants according to their attributes and options. Click the Add New Attribute button to bring up a text field to enter the Attribute Name. This is a category header that specific options will fall under. You can create multiple attributes (e.g., SleeveLength, Color, Size). The trash icon next to the Attribute Name text field lets you delete the attribute.

There are three buttons in the component toolbar that allow you to make changes to an attribute by adjusting its options.

Add - The first button lets you add information about the attribute option and then click the Add button to save it. This button requires the Attribute Name field to be filled before you’ll be able to click it. It opens the New Attribute Option popup, which has the following text fields to fill out:
- Option Name - The name of the specific option that falls under the attribute (e.g., LongSleeves, ShortSleeves, Red, Blue, Large, Medium, Small). You can create multiple options, but they must be done one at a time.
- SKU Segment - The stock-keeping unit that differentiates each attribute option from all other options under the same attribute (e.g., LNGSLV, SHRTSLV, R, B, LG, MD, SM).
- Added Cost - The amount of money to add to the Base Cost of the Parent Product. This number can also be negative to lower the cost of the Product Variant. Leave this field blank to use the Base Cost.
- Added Price - The amount of money to add to the Base Price of the Parent Product. This number can also be negative to lower the price of the Product Variant. Leave this field blank to use the Base Price.
Edit - The second button opens a popup that lets you modify the Added Cost and/or Added Price of the selected attribute option. You won’t be able to change the Option Name or SKU Segment.
Remove - The third button gives you the option to delete the selected attribute option. However, it won’t work if there is a Product Variant based on that option in the Product Variants section below. And a variant is automatically created as soon as you click the Add button in the New Attribute Option popup. So if you want to delete an attribute option, you will have to delete the entire attribute it falls under.

To add another attribute, simply click the Add New Attribute button at the top of this section. You can do that as many times as you like and repeat the steps above. Each time you create a new attribute and attach attribute options to it, you will multiply the number of Product Variants in the section below.

Product variants

The bottom section of the Variants module is called Product Variants. It is primarily composed of a table displaying every Product Variant that has been created based on the information above. This table is separated into the following columns:

Create - A series of checkboxes. Each Product Variant has a checkbox next to it indicating whether or not it will be created in the Product module when you click the Create Variants button on the bottom-right of this section.
Product Number - A combination of the Base Number and all Option Names associated with each Product Variant (e.g., CottonShirt-LongSleeves-Red-Large).
Product SKU - A combination of the Base SKU and all SKU Segments associated with each Product Variant (e.g., CTNSHRT-LNGSLV-R-LG).
Standard Cost - A combination of the Base Cost and all Added Costs from the attribute options associated with each Product Variant.
Product Price - A combination of the Base Price and all Added Prices from the attribute options associated with each Product Variant.

The Create Variants button generates new products for the selected Product Variants in the Product module with the names, SKUs, costs, and prices you have specified. You don’t have to click this button immediately. You can leave the Variants module, return, and click the Parent Product name in the Parent Product Search section on the lefthand side of the module to see that your work has been saved.

Parent product search

The Parent Product Search section displays a list of all of the Parent Products that have been created in the Variants module. It shows their Base Number and Base SKU, and it lists them in the order they were created. However, it doesn’t indicate whether or not any Product Variants have been created from them.

Only products created in the Variants module will appear in this list. If you added multiple variants of a product via the Part Product and Vendor Pricing CSV, that product (and its variants) won’t be listed here.

Click a Parent Product from the list to see its attributes, attribute options, Product Variants, and other information.