Odoo 18 Enterprise Book: Sales

1. Customers

The customer management platform in Odoo 18 Enterprise Sales module simplifies the process of managing customer information and enhancing customer relationships. Accessible from the Orders menu, this platform offers a user-friendly Kanban view where customer photos and essential details like names and contact information are displayed.

This visual and organized layout makes customer management more intuitive and efficient. The interface also includes a clock icon to schedule sales-related activities, ensuring timely follow-ups and interactions.

The platform provides robust filtering and grouping options to streamline customer searches. Users can filter customers based on categories such as Individuals, Companies, Archived, Vendor Bills, Customer Invoices, and Subcontractors.

The Group By feature allows categorization by parameters like Company, Country, or Salesperson, enabling businesses to manage their customer base effectively.

Adding new customer profiles is straightforward; clicking the New button opens a configuration window where users can input essential details such as the customer's name, type (Individual or Company), address, contact information, tax identification number, website URL, and tags for segmentation (e.g., VIP, Wholesale, Retail).

Odoo 18 Enterprise allows businesses to add multiple addresses and contact details for a single customer, such as billing and shipping addresses, using the Contacts & Addresses section. The flexibility to define various address types ensures seamless management of customer-specific needs.

These include Invoice Address, Delivery Address, Contact Address, Other Address, and Follow-Up Address, each serving a distinct purpose. The Invoice Address is the designated address for billing purposes, linked to vendors or clients for the delivery of invoices. It ensures that all financial documents are routed to the appropriate location. The Delivery Address, on the other hand, is the specific location for shipping products or services, typically tied to a vendor or client to streamline logistics.

A Contact Address represents a unique, non-business address associated with a contact, often used for personal or social communications. The Other Address is an additional point of contact, often utilized for temporary purposes, supplementary business sites, or alternative correspondence locations. Lastly, the Follow-Up Address serves as a specialized contact point, assigned for follow-up messages or activities related to a particular record, ensuring seamless communication for ongoing tasks.

After selecting the appropriate address type, users can input details such as the contact's name, physical address, email, phone number, and mobile number in the designated fields.

Furthermore, the Sales and Purchases tab offers several configuration options to enhance sales and procurement processes.

You can designate a Salesperson to manage the sales activities for the customer, ensuring accountability and efficient tracking of sales efforts. If a specific payment term is defined, it will override the default setting and be applied to client invoices and sales orders, catering to customized payment terms. Mention suitable Payment Method for this customer in the specified field.

For customers requiring tailored pricing, you can define a unique Price List in the respective field, which will be used for all sales transactions instead of the standard pricing. Additionally, an Avalara Code can be assigned to the customer for cross-referencing within the Avalara tax compliance portal. You can also specify the Avalara Partner Code and Avalara Exemption details in the designated fields to ensure accurate tax calculations and exemptions.

To enhance the delivery process, the Delivery Method option allows you to specify the default shipping method for the customer’s sales orders.

Under the Purchase tab in Odoo 18, you can configure settings to streamline procurement processes for each customer or vendor. By selecting the customer's preferred Payment Terms, these terms will automatically apply to vendor bills and purchase orders, overriding the default payment terms. The 1099 Box field allows you to assign a specific box on the 1099 report, where the vendor's journal entries will be recorded, ensuring accurate reporting and compliance with tax requirements. You can also define the preferred Payment Method for the vendor, which helps in filtering vendor bills by the desired payment method, particularly useful for managing bulk payments efficiently.

Enabling the Receipt Reminder feature automates communication by sending a confirmation email to the vendor a few days before the expected receipt date, prompting them to confirm the exact delivery timeline. The Supplier Currency field specifies the currency used for transactions with a particular supplier.

To streamline customer management and ensure accurate tracking at the point of sale, you can assign a Barcode for the customer, making identification quick and efficient. Within the Fiscal Information section, you can specify the customer's Fiscal Position, which determines the applicable taxes and accounts based on the customer’s financial or geographical situation, ensuring compliance with fiscal regulations.

In the Miscellaneous tab, you can provide essential details such as Company ID, Reference, Company, Website, Website Tags, Industry, and SLA Policies. These fields allow for comprehensive documentation of the customer's profile, supporting better organization and service delivery.

Under the Inventory section, you can define the Customer Location, which indicates the stock location designated as the shipping destination for products sent to this contact. Additionally, the Vendor Location field lets you specify the stock location used as the source for receiving products from this contact, ensuring smooth inventory operations and precise stock management. The Subcontractor Location refers to the specific stock location used for managing products sent to or received from subcontractors as part of a subcontracting process.

The Accounting tab in Odoo allows businesses to manage a customer's financial information efficiently. Under the Banks Accounts section, you can add details of the customer’s bank accounts, such as the account number and bank name, using the Add a Line button. Invoice Follow-ups help businesses manage overdue invoices and ensure timely payments. The Follow-up Status provides an overview of the current state of an invoice follow-up. The Reminders feature allows businesses to set up automatic or manual reminders for their customers. Automatic Reminders are triggered by Odoo based on predefined rules, such as a certain number of days after the invoice due date. Manual Reminders, on the other hand, require the user to manually trigger the reminder when needed, providing more control over the timing and communication. In addition, users can also opt to Send reminders through different channels, such as email, depending on customer preferences.

The Next Reminder field specifies when the next reminder will be sent, allowing businesses to set a clear schedule for follow-up communications. Lastly, the Responsible field assigns a team member or department the responsibility for following up on a particular invoice.

The Account Receivable field is used to record payments owed by the customer, tracking all outstanding invoices and ensuring a clear view of receivables. Similarly, the Account Payable field tracks amounts the customer owes to vendors or suppliers, helping businesses maintain accurate records of their payables. In the Customer Invoices section, the Invoice Sending option allows businesses to define how invoices are delivered to customers, whether via email, printed copies, or other specified methods, ensuring smooth and timely communication.

The eInvoice Format feature facilitates the generation of electronic invoices in standardized formats, complying with regional or international e-invoicing regulations. The Peppol Address is used for customers who are part of the Peppol e-invoicing network. LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) option available in the Miscellaneous session, is a globally recognized unique identification code assigned to legally distinct entities that engage in financial transactions.

The Credit Limits section includes the Total Receivable, Days Sales Outstanding, and Partner Limit. Total Receivable represents the total amount the customer owes the business at any given time, including unpaid invoices and pending receivables. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is a financial metric that measures the average number of days it takes for a business to collect payments after a sale has been made. Partner Limit represents the maximum amount of credit that the business is willing to extend to that particular customer.

The Auto-post Bills feature, when enabled, allows vendor bills to be posted automatically without requiring manual validation, streamlining accounting operations, especially for frequent and trusted transactions. Additionally, the Ignore Abnormal Invoice Amount setting helps to detect and prevent errors or fraud by flagging invoices with amounts that deviate significantly from the norm. Likewise, the Ignore Abnormal Invoice Date feature flags invoices with unusual or unexpected dates, ensuring the accuracy of records and avoiding discrepancies caused by incorrect data entry.

The Internal Notes tab allows businesses to add specific remarks or additional information related to a customer. To enhance customer interaction and transaction management, you can activate the Sales Warning feature from the Settings menu of the Sales module.

This feature enables you to generate warning messages for transactions with specific customers. Once the Sales Warning feature is enabled, the Internal Notes tab in the Customer setup window offers the ability to configure and view these warnings.

Here, you can set warning messages for Sales Orders, Invoices, Purchase Orders, and Picking.

The Partner Assignment tab provides important features to manage and track partnerships effectively, allowing businesses to configure various details about their partners or customers. This tab includes the Partner Activation and Partner Review sections, as well as the Geolocation information.

The Partner Level refers to the tier or status assigned to a partner, helping to categorize and prioritize partners based on their significance to the business. For example, a partner can be classified as "Gold," "Silver," or "Platinum," reflecting their level of engagement or value to the business.

The Commission Plan is an option that allows businesses to define a specific commission structure for the partner. This can be useful for partners who are involved in sales or other revenue-generating activities. The Activation field shows whether the partnership is active or inactive. Level Weight is a field used to assign a value or priority to the partner level. The weight assigned helps in determining the importance of a particular partner compared to others, influencing decisions such as prioritizing sales or support resources.

In the Partner Review section, the Latest Partner Review refers to the most recent evaluation or assessment of the partner’s performance or relationship with the business. The Next Partner Review is the date set for the upcoming evaluation of the partner, allowing businesses to schedule regular reviews and maintain up-to-date information on the partner’s performance. The Partnership Date is the date when the partnership was initiated or formalized. Finally, Geolocation allows businesses to specify the physical location of the partner. This can be entered manually or calculated automatically based on the address information provided, helping businesses organize and track their partners' geographic distribution.

In Odoo, the Membership tab allows businesses to manage customer memberships efficiently. If you wish to offer a customer a free membership, you can activate the Free Member option. Additionally, the Associate Member box enables you to link the customer’s membership to another designated member. This tab also provides a clear overview of the customer's current membership status, helping businesses track active, expired, or pending memberships. If a customer needs to purchase a new membership, the Buy Membership button simplifies the process, allowing for quick enrollment. Other key details displayed in this section include the Join Date, the type of Membership, the Membership Price, the related Invoice, and the Membership Status, which indicates whether the membership is active or pending.

To enhance customer management, Odoo also provides smart buttons that allow quick access to various operations related to the customer. These smart buttons enable businesses to view and manage meetings, opportunities, sales, subscriptions, tasks, and purchases associated with the customer. Additionally, businesses can track details related to partner ledger, saved payment tokens, certifications, signatures, documents, direct debit requirements, and course enrollments, ensuring a comprehensive view of all interactions and transactions with the customer.