Small Gun Manufacturers and Dealers Meet ATF Reporting Requirements with Fishbowl Inventory

Orem, UT -- (SBWire) -- 02/19/2013 --Fishbowl Inventory has developed the top selling inventory control/manufacturing software designed specifically for the QuickBooks market. Some of the key features of interest to firearm-related businesses include serial/lot number tracking, assembly and sub-assembly tracking, vendor tracking and custom fields. Specifically every firearms manufacturer and dealer in the country must be a ATF Log Book. The ATF: Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms mandate this report and Fishbowl Inventory provides the needed data.

There are multiple stories about guns in the news. According to Business Insider magazine, there are 129,817 gun stores in the U.S., (which, incidentally, is 14,869 more gun stores than grocery stores). Most of these businesses are small to mid-sized and are therefore using QuickBooks for accounting (QuickBooks covers over 87 percent of the small-to-mid sized business accounting software market in the U.S.).

Fields to track include manufacturer and/or Importer, Model #, Serial #, Type, Caliber, Date in, Vendor, FFL #, Date Out, and Purchaser’s Name. Every time a firearm is sold, the seller needs to enter all of the above information into the log book (traditionally done by hand). Additionally, the ATF requires all firearms manufacturers to have the ABILITY to track all serialized component parts back to the original manufacturer in case that component was used in the commission of a crime. That is exactly the information Fishbowl tracks automatically. The ATF Log Book report in Fishbowl simply compiles the required fields into the report format the ATF wants.

CMMG, a firearms manufacturer is a satisfied Fishbowl customer. They are a small-arms manufacturer based in Fayette, MO that was founded as a hobby “offering high quality AR parts and accessories through websites and online auctions,” but quickly developed into a full-time business. CMMG now offers a wide array of rifles and component parts that are sold directly on their website. Side Note: For those new to firearms, “AR” does NOT stand for “Assault Rifle” but stands for “ArmaLite Rifle” named by the first company to develop the AR-15 platform that later sold the design to Colt. The term AR-15 really describes the firearm platform, similar to a car manufacturer to use the same frame and suspension for truck and van products, where the rifles’ receivers are a standard (fit and compatibility) across multiple manufactures in the industry.

Like many small manufacturers, CMMG began tracking inventory manually through paper, pencil, and spreadsheets; as they grew, that process became too difficult, time-consuming and prone to errors. They were also using QuickBooks to track their sales and accounting, and their website was run using the shopping cart Volusion to process online orders. As each order was received on the website, Volusion printed the sales order as a hard copy, which would then be used to hand-enter a sales order into QuickBooks and to pick, pack, and ship the order. The problem was that it was easy to lose a piece of paper (and therefore the record of that sale), and the lack of a direct integration with QuickBooks meant there was a lot of double data entry.

As a manufacturing and inventory control software solution, designed specifically for QuickBooks users, Fishbowl was chosen by CMMG to manage all inventory control and manufacturing needs, as well as to process all the orders from their website. When a sales order arrives within Fishbowl, all the inventory levels are automatically adjusted based on what was sold. Pick, Pack and Ship information is then instantly available to pickers in the warehouse via wireless barcoding devices that tell them all the items that need to be picked for each order. If the item is currently out of stock and needs to be manufactured, or reordered from a supplier, Fishbowl automatically provides the appropriate manufacturing and/or purchase orders to supply the needed products.

About Fishbowl Inventory
Fishbowl Inventory (http://www.fishbowlinventory.com) is the most requested inventory management solution for seamless integration with QuickBooks, and is a popular standalone solution for organizations or enterprises looking to track assets. For users of QuickBooks it provides the same advanced features, flexibility, and mobile management control larger organizations require.

QuickBooks owns an estimated seventy-eight (78%) percent of the accounting software market. Analysts estimate there are more than 7.1 million copies of QuickBooks in use. By conservative estimates, more than forty (40%) percent of these organizations directly need or could strongly benefit from inventory control.

Fishbowl Inventory has been the most frequently requested inventory solution for QuickBooks users for more than a decade. As small-to-medium companies grow and face increasing competition, the flexible cost-effective combination of QuickBooks and Fishbowl grows alongside SMBs regardless of the industry sector. These smaller firms need the same kind of inventory management large organizations enjoy at a more affordable price.

Manufacturers benefit in many ways by using Fishbowl’s Manufacturing Option. Fishbowl provides several competitive advantages, including configurable bills of materials, instructions, and stages; tracks tens of thousands of parts and integrates with QuickBooks.

Fishbowl
http://www.fishbowlinventory.com
Mary Michelle Scott, President
mary.scott@fishbowlinventory.com
801.882.3192