User Guide (SqMetre)

The Square Metre Calculator helps you order tile-style products by square metre while Fishbowl still tracks them by box and pallet. Enter the square metres you actually need, and it works out how many boxes to order — for a brand-new line, or to adjust the quantity on one already on the order.

This tool works with the current Sales Order’s existing lines, plus the full active product catalog. Use it any time you need to add or adjust a square-metre product on an order.

Step 1: Load a Sales Order

Load an existing Sales Order in Fishbowl Advanced, or start a new one and save it. The Square Metre Calculator opens in the context of a saved Sales Order.

Step 2: Open the Square Metre Calculator

Locate the Square Metre Calculator in the Pages sub-menu in Fishbowl Advanced. Selecting it opens a new window showing a grid of the standard line items already on this Sales Order.

The grid shows: Num, Description, m² Price, Qty Order, UOM, m²/Box, and Box/Pallet. See the Column Glossary below for what each one means.

If the order has no standard line items yet, the grid will simply be empty — use Search New (Step 3b) to add the first one.

Step 3a: Edit an Existing Line

1. Click a row in the grid to select it, then click EDIT LINE.
2. The Square Metre to Box Calculator opens, showing reference info for that product (current price per box, price per m², m²/box, m²/pallet, boxes/pallet) alongside two fields you can edit:
   • Target Square Metre — the total square metres you want on this line
   • Suggested Number of Boxes — the number of boxes that covers it
3. Editing either field updates the other automatically — box count always rounds up to a whole box, since you can’t order a fraction of one. Total Square Metre and Total Pallets below update to match.
4. Click Save. This marks the line as edited in the grid, but nothing is sent to Fishbowl yet — that happens in Step 4.

Editing a line only changes its quantity (and adds a note recording the box count) — its price is not changed, even though the calculator shows a freshly looked-up current price for reference while you work.

Step 3b: Add a New Item

1. Click SEARCH NEW to open a search window listing the full active product catalog.
2. Type in the search box to filter by product number or description, then select a row and click Select.
3. The same Square Metre to Box Calculator opens for the selected product — enter your Target Square Metre the same way as Step 3a.
4. Click Save. If you leave Target Square Metre at 0 or blank, you’ll be prompted to enter a valid number and the item won’t be added — enter a quantity greater than 0 to proceed.
5. The new item appears in the main grid as a pending addition, same as an edited line — it isn’t sent to Fishbowl until Step 4.

New items use a live, freshly-looked-up price at the moment you open the calculator — this is what gets recorded on the Sales Order when you save.

Step 4: Update the Sales Order

Once you’ve edited and/or added everything you need, click Update Sales Order. This commits everything in one action:

• Edited lines have their quantity (and a note showing the box count) updated.
• New lines are added to the Sales Order using the price shown in the calculator when you added them.

A confirmation shows how many lines were updated/added — click OK to close the window, or Cancel to keep working.

If nothing was edited or added, you’ll see a reminder that there’s nothing to update.

Column Glossary

Column	What it represents	Example
Num	The product’s item number in Fishbowl	TILE-100
Description	The product’s description in Fishbowl	Ceramic Tile, White
m² Price	The price per square metre used for this line	$12.50
Qty Order	The quantity currently on this Sales Order line (square metres) — shown in the main grid only	24.00
Available (Search New grid only)	Company-wide available inventory (on hand minus allocated/unavailable), converted to the product’s unit of measure. Not scoped to a specific location — it reflects your whole company’s inventory, not just the location on this order.	150.00
UOM	The product’s unit of measure	M2
m²/Box	Square metres covered by one box, from the product’s m2 Per Box custom field (defaults to 1 if not set)	1.44
Box/Pallet	Boxes per pallet, from the product’s Boxes Per Pallet custom field (defaults to 1 if not set)	48

Tips

• The main grid only shows this order’s existing standard line items — if you don’t see a product you expect to edit, it may not be on the order yet (use Search New instead), or it may have been added as a non-standard line type that this tool doesn’t display.
• The box and pallet numbers are a calculation aid, recorded as a note on the line — the Sales Order itself still tracks quantity in the product’s normal unit of measure (typically square metres), not boxes.
• If you’re not sure how many boxes you need, enter Target Square Metre first and let Suggested Number of Boxes calculate itself — it always rounds up so you don’t end up short.

Still stuck? Contact ILC support for help.