Standard Time® vs Fishbowl

Fishbowl is an inventory and warehouse management ERP — powerful for tracking stock, but not built for shop floor time tracking. Standard Time® gives you barcode-driven job timers, WIP dashboards, AI scheduling, and job costing at $8.99/user/month, live in a single day.

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The short answer: Fishbowl is designed to manage inventory — tracking stock across warehouses, handling purchase orders, and building assemblies from BOMs. Standard Time® is designed to manage time — tracking which employee is working on which job right now, what that labor costs, and how production is flowing. If your biggest pain is "we don't know what jobs actually cost in labor," Fishbowl won't solve it. Standard Time® will, at $8.99/user/month, live today.

Standard Time® — Best for

  • Shops that need scan-to-start job time tracking
  • Teams tracking labor cost by work order
  • Operations wanting WIP dashboards on the shop floor
  • Manufacturers already using QuickBooks for accounting
  • Anyone who wants AI scheduling without a consultant
  • Companies that need to go live this week, not in six weeks

Fishbowl — Better when you need

  • Lot and serial number tracking throughout inventory
  • Lot and serial number tracking throughout inventory
  • Purchase order and vendor management workflows
  • Bill of materials and assembly manufacturing orders
  • Pick, pack, and ship fulfillment processes
  • Advanced QuickBooks inventory extension

Pricing — $8.99 vs $33+/User/Month

Standard Time® Pro is a flat $8.99/user/month with every feature included. Fishbowl Drive (cloud) pricing starts around $329/month — which works out to $33+/user equivalent for a 10-person team, not including setup or onboarding.

Pricing bar chart: Standard Time $8.99/user vs Fishbowl $33+ per-user equivalent
Plan Price What's included
Standard Time® Pro $8.99/user/mo All features — barcode scanning, WIP dashboards, job costing, Gantt charts, AI scheduling, inventory scanning, QuickBooks integration
Standard Time® Enterprise Contact us Everything in Pro + dedicated server, multi-site coordination
Fishbowl Drive ~$329+/mo Cloud inventory & warehouse management, manufacturing orders, QuickBooks sync; setup and onboarding separate
Fishbowl Warehouse / Manufacturing (perpetual) $4,395+ upfront On-premise perpetual license; annual maintenance and support fees apply; requires server setup
Real-world cost for a 10-person shop: Standard Time® Pro = $89.90/month — all features, no setup fees, live today. Fishbowl Drive = $329+/month for the base plan, plus onboarding time and configuration. Standard Time® costs less per month than Fishbowl's base subscription, and includes capabilities Fishbowl doesn't have at any tier — like scan-to-start timers, WIP dashboards, and AI scheduling.

Feature Comparison

The two products have different core strengths. Standard Time® leads on shop floor visibility and time tracking; Fishbowl leads on lot/serial tracking, fulfillment workflows, and purchasing depth.

Feature matrix comparing Standard Time and Fishbowl manufacturing capabilities

Standard Time® Strengths

Scan barcodes to start timer for work order
Scan-to-Start Job Timers

One scan starts a job timer — no menus, no typing. Fishbowl's barcode scanning is designed for inventory moves, not for starting and stopping employee time on work orders.

Time logs view
Job Costing by Labor Hours

Every scan creates a time log showing exactly how many hours each employee spent on each work order — ready for job costing and QuickBooks sync. Fishbowl tracks material costs but not granular labor by scan.

Gantt chart project planning
AI Scheduling + Gantt Charts

Drag-drop Gantt for production planning plus AI that reschedules jobs when you describe changes in plain language. Fishbowl has no AI scheduling capability.

Resource allocation bar chart
WIP Dashboards on Big Screens

Display live job status, employee activity, and capacity on wall-mounted monitors. Fishbowl has inventory reports but no shop floor WIP display built for large screens.

Where Fishbowl Has More Depth

  • Lot and serial number tracking end-to-end
  • Purchase order creation and receiving workflows
  • Pick, pack, and ship fulfillment
  • Bill of materials with multi-level assembly builds
  • Vendor pricing and lead time management
The tradeoff: Fishbowl is an excellent inventory and warehouse system, especially if you're extending QuickBooks with proper inventory tracking. But it doesn't solve the shop floor time tracking problem — which employee worked on which job, for how long, and what that cost in labor. That's what Standard Time® does.

Two Different Kinds of Barcode Scanning

Both products use barcode scanning — but for entirely different purposes. Fishbowl scans items to track where inventory moves. Standard Time® scans to record when an employee starts and stops working on a job. If you need job-costed labor data, only one of these solves the problem.

Starting a job timer by scan

Standard Time scan barcodes screen — timer started for work order 10200, Weld operation

Scan the employee barcode, then the work order — the timer starts immediately. The screen confirms: Started: Work Order 10200, Weld. No typing, no menus, no delays.

Stopping the timer

Standard Time scan barcodes screen — timer stopped for employee Buzz

Scan STOP and the timer stops. The screen confirms Timer stopped for Buzz. The time log is written — ready for job costing and QuickBooks sync.

Standard Time® — Job Time Scanning

  • Employee ID barcodes (username)
  • Work order / job number labels
  • Task labels (Weld, Inspect, Fabricate…)
  • STOP barcode to end any timer
  • Inventory items (INV-SUB, INV-ADD, INV-BUILD)
  • Custom barcodes via Barcode Rules

Camera capture — use any phone, tablet, or notebook camera. No dedicated scanner hardware required.

RFID tap — tap a badge or work order traveler to start a timer instantly.

Voice recognition — speak the job number to the scanner.

Fishbowl Scanning vs ST Scanning

Fishbowl has barcode scanning built around inventory moves:

  • Scan to receive, pick, or ship inventory items
  • Track stock locations and quantities by scan
  • No scan-to-start job timer functionality
  • No employee time tracking by barcode
  • No job costing from scan data
  • No voice recognition or RFID timer start

In Standard Time®, every scan creates a time log tied to a specific employee and work order — the raw material for job costing. Fishbowl scans move things, not time.

Time Logs, Timesheets & Production Scheduling

Every barcode scan creates a time log tied to a specific work order and task. That data flows into job cost reports, timesheets, and Gantt charts — automatically, with no manual entry.

Time logs by work order

Standard Time time logs view showing start/stop times by work order and employee

Every scan creates a time log with the work order, task, employee, start time, stop time, and actual hours. Work order 10200 shows Weld and Bending time broken out by day and worker — ready for job costing.

Gantt chart — production scheduling

Standard Time Gantt chart showing production schedule across multiple work orders

Drag-and-drop Gantt charts for production scheduling. Rearrange jobs, adjust deadlines, and see the impact across your schedule instantly. Ask the AI to reschedule by deadline priority or employee availability.

Resource allocation & capacity

Resource allocation bar chart showing over and under-allocated employees

See immediately which employees are over- or under-allocated. Standard Time® color-codes capacity so you can rebalance the schedule before it becomes a bottleneck.

Weekly timesheet by project

Standard Time weekly timesheet showing hours per work order and task across the week

The timesheet view breaks down hours by work order and task across the week — exactly what job costing requires. This data syncs to QuickBooks automatically.

One Day vs Several Weeks

Standard Time® is designed to be running the day you sign up. Fishbowl requires data mapping, inventory import, and configuration before it's useful — which typically takes two to six weeks for a real shop.

Setup time comparison: Standard Time live in one day vs Fishbowl 2-6 week setup

Standard Time® Setup

  1. Sign up and create your account
  2. Add users and assign employee barcodes
  3. Create work orders and print job labels
  4. Mount a scan station (tablet or PC)
  5. First scan — timers and job costing are live

Live in under one day. No consultant required.

Fishbowl Typical Setup

  1. Purchase license or subscribe to Drive
  2. Map and import existing inventory data
  3. Configure locations, UOMs, and QB sync
  4. Set up warehouses, parts, and vendors
  5. Train staff on receiving, picking, and shipping
  6. Parallel run and verify opening stock counts

Typical timeline: 2–6 weeks, depending on inventory complexity. Fishbowl recommends a certified partner for implementation — additional cost.

Shop Floor Tracker vs Inventory ERP

Standard Time® and Fishbowl solve different problems. Understanding which one matches your pain is the whole comparison.

Standard Time purpose-built for shop floor tracking vs Fishbowl inventory ERP

Standard Time® includes inventory reorder levels, reorder quantity, reorder alert emails, custom reorder scripts, and project templates that automatically trigger a build-in-house job when stock drops below the reorder threshold. That's a more flexible replenishment system than most shops expect from a $8.99/user time tracker.

Fishbowl is a legitimate product with a long track record for inventory management, especially for manufacturers who need lot/serial number tracking, deep pick/pack/ship fulfillment workflows, or multi-level BOM assembly builds beyond what Standard Time® covers. If your problem is "we need to trace every part by lot number" or "we need full warehouse fulfillment workflows" — Fishbowl is worth evaluating.

But if your problem is "we don't know what jobs actually cost in labor" or "we can't tell who's working on what job right now" — Fishbowl doesn't solve that. It doesn't have scan-to-start timers, WIP dashboards, or AI-assisted production scheduling. Those are Standard Time® features, and they're included at $8.99/user/month with no setup cost.

Many shops run both: Fishbowl for inventory and QuickBooks for accounting, and Standard Time® for job timers and labor cost tracking. Standard Time® integrates with QuickBooks, so actual labor from barcode scans flows directly into your financial system — no double-entry, no spreadsheets.

Manufacturing shop floor with barcode scanning and real-time dashboards

Which One Should You Choose?

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Choose Standard Time® if you…

  • Need scan-to-start job time tracking today
  • Want to know what every job costs in labor
  • Use QuickBooks and want to keep it
  • Want WIP dashboards on shop-floor screens
  • Can't wait weeks to go live
  • Want AI scheduling without a consultant
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Consider Fishbowl if you…

  • Track inventory by lot or serial number
  • Need purchase orders and receiving workflows
  • Build assemblies from bills of materials
  • Manage pick, pack, and ship fulfillment
  • Want to extend QuickBooks with inventory
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Get the Shop Floor Features You Need — at $8.99/User/Month

Standard Time® Pro includes barcode scanning, WIP dashboards, AI scheduling, Gantt charts, job costing, and QuickBooks integration. Live in one day — no implementation required.

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