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Introduction

About this guide

This guide supports both the first steps and the daily use of Odoo 19. It covers the core features and the essential processes you will meet in your work: the interface and the actions common to all applications, configuring the database, access rights, customer relationship, catalogue, purchasing, stock, sales, invoicing and electronic invoicing, accounting, manufacturing, projects, analysis, artificial intelligence, automation, import/export and customisation.

Each procedure is described step by step, from the menu path through to the expected result.

Astuce

The document reads equally well from cover to cover, as part of a training course, or one section at a time, to find a specific operation again. The chapters stand on their own.

What is Odoo?

Odoo is a suite of management applications covering the whole range of an organisation's needs: sales, customer relationship, purchasing, inventory, accounting, manufacturing, project management, human resources, website and online commerce. These applications share the same database, which guarantees the consistency of information from one end of the system to the other.

Odoo comes in two editions:

  • Odoo Community: the free open source edition, covering the essential features.
  • Odoo Enterprise: the subscription edition, including advanced features, official support and guaranteed updates.

Note

The procedures in this guide explicitly flag the features reserved for the Enterprise edition or requiring an additional application to be installed.

The fundamentals

A modular approach

You install the applications you need and add others as your business develops. Technical dependencies are handled automatically at installation.

Hosting options

Three hosting modes are offered:

  1. Odoo Online (SaaS): hosting provided by Odoo. Immediate go-live, automatic updates and maintenance, subscription including the hosting. Suited to organisations wishing to start without technical infrastructure.
  2. Odoo On-Premise: hosting on your own servers. Full control of the environment, unrestricted customisation of the code, direct integration with your internal systems, control over the update schedule.
  3. Odoo.sh: a managed hosting platform. Development, test and production environments, Git integration, automated deployment, branch and version management. Suited to projects involving specific developments.

Note

The choice depends on your customisation needs, on your in-house technical resources and on your security or data confidentiality constraints.

Architecture and access

  • A responsive web interface, usable on computer, tablet and phone.
  • A progressive web application, recommended by Odoo, and store applications for iOS and Android.
  • An external API allowing integration with other systems.
  • Offline consultation of what has already been displayed during the session; data entry, on the other hand, requires the connection to be restored.

Integrated workflows

The applications are designed to work together without re-keying:

  • a confirmed quotation generates the delivery order for the goods ordered, provided the Inventory application is installed;
  • a receipt of goods feeds the quantities to be invoiced by the vendor, when the product is controlled on received quantities;
  • a posted invoice feeds the general ledger, and its payment settles the receivable;
  • a subscription generates the recurring invoices (Subscriptions application, Enterprise).

Note

This integration avoids double entry, reduces the risk of error and gives full traceability of transactions.

Customisation

Odoo is configured at several levels, from the simplest to the most technical:

  • configuration through the standard interface;
  • assistance from the built-in artificial intelligence (Enterprise), which generates content and automates decisions within processes;
  • Odoo Studio (Enterprise), to add fields and change views without writing code;
  • automation rules with conditional triggers;
  • reports and dashboards, whose modification belongs to the Enterprise edition;
  • development of bespoke modules, for very specific needs.

Collaboration

  • A chatter on every document.
  • Management of activities and reminders.
  • Real-time discussions and topic channels.
  • Sharing of attachments from the chatter, with the document's access rights.
  • Shared calendars and synchronisation with external agendas.

Compliance and localisation

  • Pre-configured charts of accounts by country.
  • Automated tax handling.
  • Electronic invoicing compliant with local regulations.
  • Export formats compatible with official filings.

How to use this guide

Structure of the document

The guide is organised into chapters covering the functional areas:

Chapitre Contenu
3 Interface and navigation
4 Operations common to all applications
5 Initial configuration of the database and of the users
6 Access rights, scopes and partitioning
7 Customer relationship: pipeline, leads and opportunities
8 Customer relationship: automation and analysis
9 Catalogue of products and services
10 Purchasing and replenishment
11 Contacts, quotations, orders and deliveries
12 Invoicing and payment follow-up
13 French electronic invoicing and e-reporting
14 Bookkeeping, closing and financial statements
15 Inventory and logistics
16 Routes and rules governing the movement of goods
17 Manufacturing and subcontracting
18 Project management
19 Analyses, reports and dashboards
20 Intelligent assistance, agents and automated decisions
21 Process automation
22 Import, export and data migration
23 No-code customisation with Studio

Three appendices complete the guide: keyboard shortcuts, frequently asked questions and the glossary.

Astuce

If you are new to Odoo, start with chapitre 3 and chapitre 4: they describe the navigation and the actions common to all applications, and they make the business chapters lighter to read.

Conventions

To make reading easier, this guide applies the following conventions:

  • App › Menu › Submenu indicates a navigation path.
  • Label designates an interface element: button, field, tab or checkbox.
  • Value indicates a value to be entered.
  • Step-by-step procedures are presented as numbered lists.
  • Each chapter opens with an objectives block announcing what it will enable you to do.
  • Figures are numbered by chapter: Figure 7.3 designates the third figure of chapter 7.

Note

A path describes where an entry sits, not the number of clicks. In Odoo's drop-down menus, the intermediate levels appear as grey group headings, and the entries they contain are listed directly underneath. A four-level path is therefore usually walked in three clicks: the application, the section of the menu bar, then the entry you want under its heading.

Note

Accounting paths are given with the Accounting application. Where only Invoicing is installed, read that name at the first level of the path: the rest is identical and the screens are the same. What really sets the two apart is detailed in section 12.1.

Four kinds of box punctuate the text:

Note

Important information to bear in mind for the rest of the procedure.

Astuce

Advice that allows you to work more efficiently.

Point d'attention

A point to watch: a frequent mistake or an irreversible consequence.

Feature

A key point to know about the module under discussion.

Further resources

← Initial configuration Inventory →