This guide helps getting started with Odoo Inventory. Once you are done, you will benefit from:
- Automated flows: from sale to delivery, and purchase to reception
- Automated replenishment rules
- Accurate visibility on all your operations
In short, you will get a more efficient warehouse management that leads to inventory reduction and better efficiencies in your daily operations.
For the Odoo Team,Fabien Pinckaers, Founder
Odoo has preconfigured one Warehouse for you. Edit its details or add new ones.
Warehouse Locations
To better organize your stock, you can create subdivisions of your Warehouse called Locations (ex: Shipping area, Merchandise return, Shelf 34 etc). Do not use Locations if you do not manage inventory per zone.
Unless you are starting a new business, you probably have a list of vendors you would like to import.
< 50 vendors
If you have less than 50 vendors, we recommend you to create them manually.
- Create Vendors, if accounting or purchase is installed
> 50 vendors
We handle the whole import process for you: simply send your Odoo project manager a CSV file containing all your data.
If you want to do it yourself:
- Download the Excel template
- Import using the top left button in the list of vendors
Before creating your products, here are a few concepts your should understand:
- Manufacture: the product is manufactured internally or the service is supplied from internal resources
- Buy: the product is bought from a vendor through a Purchase Order
- Make to Stock: your customers are supplied from available stock. If the quantities in stock are too low to fulfill the order, a Purchase Order is generated according the minimum stock rules in order to get the products required
- Make to Order: the product is acquired only as demand requires, each time a Sales Order is confirmed. This does not modify stock in the medium term because you restock with the exact amount that was ordered
Recommended if <100 products
Recommended if >100 products
We handle the whole import process for you: simply send your Odoo project manager a CSV file containing all your products.
If you want to do it yourself:
- Download the Excel template
- Import using the top left button in the list of products
It is time to make your initial Inventory. In order to do so:
- Create an Inventory Adjustment
- When everything is set, click on Start Inventory
- Set the Real Quantity for each Product and Validate the Inventory
Now, all your product quantities are correctly set.
It is also possible to import your initial inventory from an Excel or CSV file. If you want to do that, contact your Odoo project manager.
Odoo inventory management is fully integrated with sales and invoicing process. Everything is automated from the initial quotation to the delivery and the final invoice.
A classic sales flow looks like the following:
Like with the sales flow, Odoo inventory management is fully integrated with the purchase app.
A classic purchase flow looks like the following:
A good inventory management aims to optimize stock levels: not too low (or you may find yourself out of stock) and not too high (your products occupy space and may lose value).
In Odoo, Reordering Rules are used to replenish your products. Odoo will automatically propose a procurement to buy new products if you are running out of stock.
To create them, click on Reordering on a stockable Product and simply enter a minimum and maximum quantity.
If you configured automatic procurement, Odoo automatically generates Procurements Orders. You usually don't need to worry about them, but sometimes the system can remain blocked without generating a corresponding document, usually due to a configuration problem.
It is therefore a good idea to check and try to resolve those procurement exceptions. These are accessible from the Schedulers menu (you need the Stock Manager role to see it).
Here are some usual problems and their solutions:
- No bill of materials defined for production: you need to create a BoM or indicate that the product can be purchased instead.
- No supplier available for a purchase: you have to define a supplier in the Procurements tab of the product form.
- No address defined on the supplier partner: you have to complete an address for the default supplier for the product concerned.
- No quantity available in stock: you have to create a reordering rule and put it in the order, or manually procure it.
Odoo is able to run advanced traceability by using Product Lots and Serial Numbers, usually identified by bar codes stuck on the products.
Lots can be encoded on incoming shipments, internal transfers and outgoing deliveries according to the settings in the picking type. The tracking can be configured on every product: not any tracing at all, tracking by lot, or tracking by unique serial number.
In case of unique serial numbers, each serial number corresponds to exactly one piece. In case of lots, you need to supply the quantity for each lot when you move that product.
How to use Lot Tracking:
- Activate Track lots or serial numbers in your Inventory Settings.
- Set the products you want to track with lots or serial numbers by setting the Tracking field on the product form
- When you process an incoming shipment, internal transfer or delivery, assign a lot number or different lot numbers or serial numbers to a product by clicking on the icon
To check the trajectory of a lot, find it back in Inventory Control > Serial Numbers / lots. Choose a lot in the list and click on Traceabilityi>. You may also filter the Quantitative Valuation of a product with a certain lot.
Odoo handles advanced push/pull routes configuration, for example:
- Manage product manufacturing chains
- Manage default locations per product
- Define routes within your warehouse according to business needs, such as Quality Control, After Sales Services or Supplier Returns
- Help rental management, by generating automated return moves for rented products
This is quite complex to set up, so contact your Project Manager to address this.
Congratulations!
We hope this guide helped you implement Odoo Inventory.
Do not hesitate to send us an email to describe your experience or to suggest improvements!
Once it's fully working, give us some feedback: we love to hear from our customer. It would be great if you could send us a photo of your warehouse to feedback@mail.odoo.com
Enjoy your Inventory management with Odoo!
- The Odoo Team
