Technology, AI & ERP — explained in plain English
Dropshipping in Odoo routes a confirmed sales order straight to a vendor, who ships directly to the customer while your stock never moves. This guide covers the setting, the product configuration with vendor and Dropship route, the RfQ-to-dropship-receipt flow, and the mistakes that silently break it.
Odoo 20’s AI agents go beyond drafting and summarizing: they create and update records, work from uploaded files, and run inside automated and scheduled actions. This explainer covers how agents are built from a system prompt, skills, and sources, the guardrails around them, and the IAP credits that meter every run.
Odoo 20 upgrades the Gantt view platform-wide — row and column selection, visible start and end buffers, and Studio-enabled side-panel scheduling — while Planning absorbs the discontinued Field Service app with live maps, routing, and Mapbox travel times. Here is what changed for anyone who schedules people for a living.
Odoo POS, Square and Lightspeed are three different kinds of product — an ERP app, a payments-led till, and a retail specialist — and that structural difference drives the real comparison. This article compares their pricing models, processing, inventory depth and hardware, plus what Odoo 20’s POS changes add for small shops.
A finished product’s cost in Odoo is built from components actually consumed, work center and employee time, extra costs, and subcontracting fees, minus any by-product cost share. Odoo 20 makes that cost provisional while the order runs and real when it closes — this article traces each dollar, with a worked cost-component breakdown table.
Odoo 20 adds new KPIs to digest emails — without naming them in the release notes — and upgrades financial reporting with a bank reconciliation summary report, an auditable CTA line, parent accounts, and included journals in consolidation. This article explains how to audit the digest KPIs tab after upgrading and gives a reporting test list for upgrade week.
Odoo reordering rules watch forecasted stock, not just shelves, and refill from a minimum up to a maximum via a chosen route. This guide explains automatic and manual triggers, the quantity calculation, the 0/0/1 pattern, and how to choose min/max values from daily demand and lead time.
Odoo Online, Odoo.sh, and self-hosting run the same Odoo 20 software — what changes is who runs the servers, who may install custom modules, and who owns upgrades and backups. This comparison lays out the three options side by side and the three questions that settle the choice.
Odoo 20 adds a platform-wide offline mode: create, edit, archive, unarchive, and delete records — and re-run previous searches — with no connection, then sync when coverage returns. This article explains what the mode covers, who it is built for, and how it differs from the older POS-only offline behaviour.
The POS session is Odoo’s unit of cash control: opening counts, reasoned cash in/out, and the Closing Control comparison of expected versus counted cash. Odoo 20 keeps that ritual but reworks the accounting behind it, with a global sale at close and payment journal entries that no longer wait for the session to end.
Odoo’s Replenish on Order (MTO) route turns a confirmed sales order into a linked manufacturing order automatically, and Odoo 20 adds draft-or-confirmed MOs, continuous production, and splittable orders around it. This tour follows one custom product from quotation to delivery, including the cancellation traps that break the chain.
Odoo 20 gives Canada a new Avalara Included integration method covering full tax computation for Canada and the US, batch CPA 005 pre-authorized debit payments, and a reworked localised chart — plus a stricter fiscal-position rule that can silently remove tax from invoices. This guide separates the verified Canada items from the general changes and provides an eight-point checklist to test with your accountant.
Multi-warehouse routing in Odoo decides where demand is sourced from and which transfers satisfy it, using routes made of pull and push rules. This guide sets up the built-in resupply route between a central warehouse and a shop, explains custom routes, and gives a testing checklist before go-live.
Odoo 20 adds 13 industry packages — from beauty parlors and therapy practices to machine rental and vineyards — that pre-build a trade’s apps, data, and workflows into a new database. This article lists all 13 with what Odoo’s release notes say each covers, and where the head start ends.
Loyalty cards, gift cards, and eWallets in Odoo POS all run on one program engine shared with Sales and eCommerce. Odoo 20 adds expiring loyalty points and single-use-per-customer discount codes on top of the long-standing register workflows for earning, redeeming, and selling prepaid balances.
The Master Production Schedule turns a planner-controlled demand forecast into manufacturing orders and purchase orders period by period, balancing starting stock, forecasted and indirect demand, safety stock, and replenishment. Odoo 20 strengthens what follows the plan: ASAP scheduling, a redesigned MO Kanban, new work order Gantt and Kanban views, and draft-versus-confirmed MOs from procurement.