# Fishbowl: "Class cannot be more than 5 levels."

> Class hierarchies in Fishbowl have a maximum nesting depth of 5 levels.

## What it means
Fishbowl classes—used for cost centers, departments, or other categorizations in your accounting integration—cannot be nested more than 5 levels deep. This validation error appears when you attempt to create or sync a class hierarchy that exceeds that depth.

## What to check
- Count the nesting depth of the class you're working with: a class with 4 parent classes above it is at level 5, the maximum allowed
- If syncing from QuickBooks or Xero, verify that your source class structure also stays within 5 levels
- If you're hitting the limit, consolidate the structure by moving some nested classes to higher levels in the hierarchy

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*From Israel Lopez Consulting (ILC). Custom Fishbowl Inventory integrations and software, and Fishbowl experts since 2015. Written by Israel Lopez. Questions about this topic, or want to reach the people who wrote it? Visit https://israellopezconsulting.com/contact*