2. Creating a New Meeting
To schedule a new meeting in Odoo 18, simply click on the desired
date within the calendar. This action will trigger a pop-up form
titled New Event, where you can begin by entering the title of the
meeting. Within this form, you can define the start and end date and
time of the meeting, and if it is intended to span the entire day,
you can mark it as an All Day event. You also have the option to add
attendees by selecting users from the system. If the meeting is to
be held virtually, insert a video call URL or generate a meeting
link directly through Odoo.
Once the basic details are filled in, you can either click Save &
Close to create the event or choose More Options to access advanced
settings. After the event is created, you can always return to it
and open the full event form to apply further customizations or
edits as needed.
When you click on More Options while scheduling a meeting in Odoo
Calendar, a detailed form opens, allowing you to configure every
aspect of the event. You begin by entering the Meeting Subject,
followed by setting the Start and End Date/Time. If the meeting is
intended to last the whole day, you can check the All Day box, which
disables the time input and reserves the entire day for the event.
The Duration field automatically updates based on your start and end
times, but it can also be manually adjusted. If the event is
recurring, enabling the Recurrent checkbox lets you configure the
recurrence pattern—daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly—and set
conditions such as an end date or number of repetitions.
The Privacy field controls who can view the meeting: you can choose
between Public, Private, or Only Me. The Organizer defaults to the
logged-in user but can be reassigned to any internal user.
To make the meeting easier to find and classify, you can assign Tags
such as “Sales Meeting.” The Description field is where you provide
additional context or details about the meeting. This space can
include the agenda, discussion points, goals, or any important
information that attendees need beforehand. This content is visible
to invitees and helps ensure everyone is well-prepared.
If the meeting has a physical or virtual location, you can fill out
the Location field accordingly. For online meetings, you can paste a
video conferencing link, such as a Google Meet or Odoo Discuss URL,
into the Videoconference URL field.
Odoo also offers options for automatic notifications. In the
Reminders section, you can set up email or in-app alerts to notify
attendees ahead of time.
In the Calendar module of Odoo 18, all the attendees added to a
meeting are displayed in the Attendees section. You can manage their
visibility on the calendar and check their availability to prevent
scheduling conflicts. If you need to invite more participants,
simply click the plus icon next to the attendee list.
For more detailed attendee management, navigate to the Invitation
tab. Here, you can add or remove attendees, include their contact
information such as email addresses and phone numbers, and track the
status of their invitations, whether they have accepted, declined,
or not yet responded.
Odoo also provides a useful feature called Share Availabilities,
which can be accessed from the main dashboard of the Calendar
module. This tool allows you to propose multiple time slots for a
meeting, making it especially valuable when scheduling with external
clients or collaborators. To use this feature, you can click and
drag across the calendar interface in Day view to select your
available time ranges. If you need to adjust or remove a time slot,
simply click the trash icon on the respective time block.
Once you’ve selected your availability, click Configure to access the
related appointment settings and further refine the schedule.
Odoo 18 provides a comprehensive set of configuration options within
the appointment form, allowing businesses to personalize and
optimize the booking experience to fit their operational needs. The
Duration of each appointment slot sets how long each session will
last, such as 30 minutes or one hour. Alongside this, the Create a
Slot Every field allows you to determine how frequently slots should
be generated throughout the day. For instance, setting it to “30
minutes” will generate time slots every half hour within the working
hours configured.
You can also control how far in advance users must schedule their
appointments by setting the Pre-booking Time, which defines the
minimum lead time required for booking. If you set this to one hour,
for example, users won’t be able to book a slot that starts in less
than an hour. Similarly, the Allow Cancelling field gives you
control over how late users can cancel their appointment; this is
also set in terms of hours before the scheduled time.
The Availability on the field determines whether the appointment is
to be booked with Users such as team members or service providers.
Once selected, a list appears below where you can specify which
users or resources should be available for booking.
The Assignment Method then determines the order in which users or
resources are matched to time slots. You can select from three
approaches: Pick User/Resource then Time, where the attendee selects
who they want to meet first before choosing the time; Select Time
then User/Resource, where time selection comes first; or, if
resources are involved, Select Time then auto-assign, which
automatically matches the time to an available resource without
manual selection.
In the Schedule tab, you can manage available time slots. The
initially selected date and time will be pre-filled, but you can
easily add new time slots by clicking “Add a line.” Then, enter the
new start and end times under the respective "From" and "To" fields.
This helps efficiently allocate slots based on user or resource
availability.
The Options tab provides additional control over how appointments are
displayed and managed. You can define the Website where the booking
will appear and adjust the Timezone, which defaults to the one set
in the Settings app. The Location field allows you to select or
create a meeting place. If left blank, the system assumes the
meeting is virtual. You can add a Videoconference Link by selecting
either Odoo Discuss or Google Meet, or leave it blank if no link is
required. For meetings involving resources, a Manual Confirmation
setting becomes available, enabling you to manually approve bookings
once a certain percentage of the resource’s capacity is reached. You
can also enable Up-front Payment, which prompts users to pay before
confirming their booking, and a link is provided to configure
supported payment providers.
Other helpful options include Limit to Work Hours, which restricts
bookings to a user’s defined working schedule, and Create
Opportunities, which automatically generates CRM opportunities from
confirmed appointments. You can set Reminders to notify attendees
via email or in-app messages, and configure both Confirmation Email
and Cancellation Email templates to automate communication.
Additional contacts can be added in the CC field to receive meeting
updates, even if they aren’t attending. Lastly, enabling Allow
Guests gives participants the option to invite additional attendees.
The Questions tab allows you to gather important information from
attendees at the time of booking. You can add questions by selecting
“Add a line,” then defining the Question Type, including a
Placeholder Answer, and marking the question as required if needed.
This feature ensures you collect all relevant details before the
meeting. For advanced question forms, users can refer to Odoo’s
Survey app documentation.
Finally, the Messages tab offers fields for customizing
communication. Use the Introduction Message to provide extra context
or instructions that will appear on the booking page, while the
Extra Message on Confirmation appears after the booking is
successfully confirmed. Once all configurations are complete, you
can preview the appointment as it will appear to attendees using the
Preview button. Then, click Share to generate a direct booking link
or select Publish to make the appointment publicly available on your
connected Odoo website.
Odoo 18 allows seamless integration with external calendars such as
Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, making it easier to manage
appointments across platforms. To enable synchronization, navigate
to the Calendar module, then go to Configuration, followed by
Settings. Here, you’ll need to enter your Client ID and Client
Secret, which you will obtain from your Google or Outlook developer
account. Once these credentials are entered, simply click the
Connect button to initiate the synchronization process. If you wish
to temporarily stop syncing at any time, you can tick the Pause Sync
checkbox.
Once connected, any events created in your third-party calendar will
automatically appear in Odoo, and likewise, events created in Odoo
will reflect in your synced external calendar, ensuring consistent
scheduling across all platforms.
With the Odoo 18 Calendar module, planning and managing meetings has
never been easier. Its seamless integration with other apps,
user-friendly design, and robust scheduling capabilities make it a
powerful tool for boosting internal coordination and productivity.