INVENTORY

INVENTORY

The Inventory module of the Odoo 16 Community version allows you to categorize and manage your company’s inventory-related functions. Apart from organizing and tracking product stock, it executes different inventory tasks. Moreover, using this module, you can easily manage your product’s quantity and keep tabs on all the orders. The Inventory module can productively influence your firm’s profit margin by integrating with the modules like Sales, Point of Sale, Purchase, Accounting, Manufacturing, Repairing, etc.

To begin with, you need to configure all the products into the module. Let us look at the configuration, cataloging, and management of products in the Inventory module.

Products

The Inventory module in Odoo 16 is an excellent platform for storing and configuring product-related data. The Products tab allows you to add new products and their variants to the module. You can also edit or delete these records if required. Select ‘Products’ from the dropdown list of the Products tab. The Products window, by default, will project the Kanban view of all the products configured in the module. You can switch the display to a list view using the List view icon on the window's top right corner.

This module allows you to separate and analyze specific product records using the Filters and Group By options. You can apply the desired filter from the dropdown list of ‘Filters,’ which has the options like Services, Products, Published, Available in POS, Can be Sold, Can be Purchased, Can be Subcontracted, Can be Expensed, Available Products, Negative Forecasted Quantity, Favorites, Warnings, Archived, and Add Custom Filter.

If you want to add custom filters, select the required parameters from the two dropdown boxes and enter the condition in the third box. Finally, click on Apply.

You can use ‘Group By’ to categorize the records according to specific groups. Select the appropriate group from Product Type, Product Category, POS Product Category, and Add Custom Group.

To add a custom group, pick the suitable group from the dropdown list and click on ‘Apply.’

Using the Favorites section, you can save the filters of your choice so that you don’t have to apply them all over again. The dropdown list of this section offers the options like ‘Save current search,’ ‘Import Records,’ and ‘Add to my dashboard.’

‘Save current search’ has a sub-section where you can provide a name for your applied filters. If you check the ‘Use by default’ box, the Products window will show only those products by default. ‘Share with all users’ will help you share this filter with the rest of the users. Click on ‘Save’ to bring these modifications into effect. The ‘Import records’ option will feed the product data into the system from the form view, easing the labor of entering individual records manually.

If you want your filtered data to be visible in the Dashboard module, click on ‘Add to dashboard.’ The existing filter will appear in the text box by default. You can change the name of the filter according to your preference. Finally, click on ‘Add.’ Open the Dashboard module to see these filtered records.

The preview of each product will showcase its name, image, and price. Click on a particular product’s preview to get its detailed overview. Odoo 16 allows you to directly edit a specific record in its form view without using a separate Edit button. This feature is a timely update to the new version.

The window has the provision for monitoring and administering the sections – Extra Prices, Go to Website, Number of Units On Hand, Number of Units Forecasted, In and Out (Product Moves), Reordering Rules, Lot/Serial Numbers, Bill of Materials, Purchase Analysis, Sales Analysis, and Digital Analysis. Additionally, you can notice that the placement of the Create button has shifted to the right in the form view. This feature is one of the new updates of Odoo 16. To perform additional operations, you can go to ‘Action.’

You can perform various actions according to the options – Archive, Duplicate, Delete, Get Pictures from Google Images, and Generate Pricelist Report.

Click on ' Create' to add and configure a new product to the system. You will get a window to enter the product’s details with sections like General Information, Attributes & Variants, Sales, Purchase, and Inventory. You can add this product to your Favorites by clicking on the star icon next to the product’s name.

You can assign your product’s name in the Product Name field and insert an image by clicking on the camera icon. Besides, you can also check the boxes applicable to your product from the options – Can be Sold, Can be Purchased, and Can be Expensed. You can decide the Product Type under the General Information tab. It will show a dropdown list with options like Consumable, Service, Storable Product, Event Ticket, Course, and Event Booth. Each of these sections is explained below.

Consumable Product: This is a physical product that can be received and delivered. This product’s stock is not managed.

Service Product: The type of non-physical product that your company provides.

Storable Product: You can manage the stocks of these products.

Event Ticket: These are products that have tickets for an event.

Course: This option allows you to sell different courses as products.

Event Booth: You can list these stalls as products and sell them.

Under Invoicing Policy, you can choose whether you want to generate invoices on Ordered Quantities or Delivered Quantities. The former will create invoices for ordered products after the Order for Quotation is confirmed by Sales, whereas the latter will create invoices for the delivered products. You can assign the Unit of Measure, Purchase UoM, Sales Price, Customer Taxes, Cost, Product Category, Internal Reference, Products, Barcode, Product Tags, and Company name.

The Attributes & Variants tab allows you to configure the product’s variants to the record.

Click on ‘Add a Line’ to enter the variants and their corresponding attributes.

You may configure the details of the product associated with its sales under the Sales tab.

If you want to offer additional products along with the original product, you can specify them in the Optional Products section. The system will recommend this product when the customer adds the main product to their cart. This suggestion will also occur when you create a new quotation with the parent product. Under ‘Accessory Products,’ you can add the products you want to appear when the customer reviews their cart before payment. The Alternative Products section suggests alternative options for the main product.

You can publish this product on your eCommerce shop by mentioning the name of the Website in the given space. In the Categories field, you can add eCommerce product categories to easily filter the products. If you want to sell the product in eCommerce, even if it is out of stock, you can activate the Continue Selling option. In order to show the availability of quantity on the eCommerce page, activate the Show Available Quantity option. You can set a message in the given space to show that the product is out of stock. Activate the Available in POS option to make the product available in your PoSsession. Any extra media can be added to the Extra Product Media session. In the Sales Description section, you can add a sales note which will appear on the sales order and invoice of the product.

In order to generate warning messages while selling this product, you can activate the Waring feature from the Settings menu of the Inventory module.

After activating this feature, you will get a new field under the Sales tab of the product form view as shown below, where you can set a warning message which will be sent to the respective customer while creating a sales order using this product.

To add purchase-related details, you can select the Purchase tab. The name of the Vendors can be added one by one using the Add a Line button.

Here, you can add multiple vendors for a product and compare their prices. The default tax used while purchasing this product can be specified in the Vendor Taxes field. The Control Policy for vendor bills can be set as based on ordered quantities or received quantities. In the Purchase Description field, you can add notes which will appear on the purchase orders with this product.

In the Inventory tab, you can define the Routes of Operation of a product from the given option. The route can be set as Buy, Dropship Subcontractor on Order, Manufacture, Resupply Subcontractor on Order, and Dropship.

In the Traceability field, you can specify how to track the products in your warehouses. You can track products by a unique serial number or by lots. It is also possible to disable tracking by selecting the No Tracking option. To manage the logistics operations of the product, you can assign an employee in the Responsible field. In the respective fields, you can specify Weight, Volume, Manufacturing Lead Time, Days to Prepare Manufacturing Order, Customer Lead Time, HS Code, and Origin of Goods. Manufacturing Lead Time indicates the average time required to manufacture the product. The average number of days between the confirmation of the sales order and the delivery date defines the Customer Lead Time.

From the Settings menu of the module, you can activate the Product Packagings option, which can be used to define the packaging type for products.

Once you activate this option, you will be able to get a specified section in the Inventory tab of the product form view to configure the packing type for the product.

Here, you can add the Packaging for the product using the Add a Line button. The suitable Package Type can be selected from the given options. Mention the quantity of the product included in the package in the given space. If you want to use these packages in the Sales and Purchase orders, you can activate the corresponding fields. Additionally, you will get dedicated fields to add description for receipts, delivery orders and internal transfers. Add necessary details in the corresponding sessions.

The Accounting tab can be used to mention the accounting details of the product. You can specify an Income Account and Expense Account in the Receivable and Payable field to record the incoming and outgoing cash flow.

The Price Difference Account is used in automated inventory valuation to record the price difference between a purchase order and its related vendor bill when validating this vendor bill. You can set automatic email at invoice by mentioning an Email Template in the given space.

Once you complete the configuration of the product, you can use the Print Labels button to print labels, the Update Quantity button to automatically update the inventory, and Replenish button to replenish this product in inventory.

Clicking on the Print Label button will open a pop-up as shown below.

Here, you can mention the total Quantity of labels required. In the Extra Content field, you can mention extra content that will appear on the label while taking printouts. After selecting suitable Format, you can click on the Confirm button.

The screenshot shown above is an example of such labels. You can use it on packages of the product.