Odoo
Odoo, implemented around how the business already runs.
Consulting, implementation, customisation and optimisation — from a discovery that produces artefacts you can hold, to training built around the awkward cases.
01 / What usually brings people here
None of these are software problems yet.
Two branches, two versions of the truth
Stock and sales counted separately in each location, reconciled by hand at the end of the week.
The counter and the books disagree
Sales happen at the till, invoices are typed up later, and nobody can say which figure is current.
Orders tracked by hand
Intake, processing and delivery live in a notebook, a chat thread, and someone's memory of Tuesday.
Bought software nobody was shown
The system is live and paid for, and the team is still working around it because no one trained them on it.
Requirements nobody can test
Everyone signed off a document that cannot fail, so go-live becomes an argument instead of a check.
Reporting that arrives too late to act on
Numbers are assembled after the month closes, which makes them a record rather than a decision.
02 / The ecosystem
One platform, grouped the way a business thinks about itself.
Odoo is a few dozen applications sharing one database. The useful question is never how many you could install — it is which ones the operation earns.
Marked implemented where the work is behind a case study on this site. Everything else is platform I advise on rather than claim as delivery.
Sales & customers
From first enquiry to the payment at the counter, on one customer record.
Implemented
- CRM
- Sales
- Point of Sale
Platform
- Subscriptions
- Rental
- Sign
Supply chain
What was ordered, what arrived, what is on the shelf — counted once.
Implemented
- Inventory
- Purchase
- Barcode
Platform
- Quality
- Repairs
- Purchase agreements
Finance
Invoices and journal entries produced by the operation, not retyped after it.
Implemented
- Invoicing
- Accounting
Platform
- Expenses
- Documents
- Consolidation
Manufacturing & operations
Bills of material, work orders and the loop that improves them.
Platform
- Manufacturing
- PLM
- Maintenance
- Quality control
People
Employee records and the routine that surrounds them, in the same system.
Implemented
- Employees
Platform
- Recruitment
- Time off
- Appraisals
- Payroll
Services & projects
Work planned, tracked against time, and invoiced from what was recorded.
Platform
- Project
- Timesheets
- Field service
- Helpdesk
- Planning
Website & marketing
The public side of the business, reading from the same catalogue as the counter.
Platform
- Website
- eCommerce
- Email marketing
- Events
Customisation & platform
Where configuration stops and development starts — deliberately, and in that order.
Implemented
- Studio
- Automation rules
- Custom modules (Python / XML)
Platform
- External API
- Server actions
- Odoo.sh deployment
03 / In operation
A system is judged by its chains, not its screens.
Each of these crosses several modules. When one link is done outside the system, the numbers stop agreeing.
Counter to books
One sale at the till moves stock and writes the accounting entry. Nobody retypes it.
Product
Priced once, in one catalogue
Sale at POS
Counter or kitchen screen
Payment
Session closed and controlled
Stock move
Count falls as it is sold
Journal entry
Revenue posted automatically
Purchase to stock
A request for quotation becomes a receipt, a shelf position and a vendor bill without leaving the system.
RFQ
Sent from the shortage, not a memory
Purchase order
Confirmed with a deadline
Receipt
Checked against what was ordered
Put away
Scanned to a location
Vendor bill
Matched to the receipt
The improvement loop
What the floor reports comes back as a changed instruction, rather than as a conversation that ends there.
Shop floor
The problem is seen where it happens
Alert raised
Quality, maintenance or engineering
Change made
Control point, repair or routing change
Instruction updated
Next order runs the better way
04 / The platform
What the modules look like doing the work.
Screens on this page are labelled. Product material is published by Odoo S.A. and shown to illustrate the platform; client implementations are from engagements delivered by me.
Where the month actually ends
Reconciliation is the point at which the operation and the books either agree or do not. If sales, stock and payments are recorded once, this is a review. If they were retyped, it is an investigation.
Adoption is won on speed
A workaround survives because it is quicker than the system. Which means the fight is not policy — it is field count, click count, and whether the thing works on the device the person is actually holding.
Why teams go around the system
05 / From Odoo
The platform, in Odoo’s own words.
Two films published by Odoo S.A. Neither loads a byte until you press play.
06 / How I work with Odoo
Configuration is the fourth thing that happens, not the first.
01 Discover
Interviews with the people doing the work, a process map, and a gap analysis — before anything is configured.
02 Design
Requirements written as Given / When / Then, so there is one version of done both sides agreed to.
03 Implement
Configuration against those criteria, module by module, with the data the business actually holds.
04 Customise
Only where configuration genuinely runs out: automation rules first, custom Python and XML after.
05 Train
On site, built around the awkward cases — the refund, the split order, the delivery that arrives short.
06 Optimise
After go-live: what people go around, what takes too many clicks, and what the reports still cannot answer.
Customisation, in that order
Configuration first, then automation rules, then Studio, and only after that a custom module in Python and XML. Every step down that list costs more to maintain, so it has to be earned by a requirement rather than a preference.
- Configuration
- Automation rules
- Custom modules
- Data migration
- Integrations
- UAT
- On-site training
- Documentation
07 / Odoo work
Six engagements, in their own words.
- Cafe Laundrette — UKTwo branches onto one backend: Point of Sale and Inventory as a single count.Point of Sale · Inventory
- StayverzProperty, bookings and finance unified onto one record, with custom Python and XML where configuration ran out.Custom modules · Accounting
- Smart Laundry — UKIntake through to delivery defined as stages, then automated.Automation rules · Customer database
- Jak's CafeA point of sale staff would use instead of working around.Point of Sale
- Global Shipping & LogisticsOn-site training across five modules for a team already live on a system nobody had shown them.Training · Documentation
- Tyre & Tube manufacturer31 user stories restructured into criteria development and UAT could both run against.Business analysis
08 / Written on this
All insights- What discovery should produce before anyone configures OdooIf discovery ends with notes, it did not happen.
- Requirements you can testThe difference between a requirement and a wish is whether someone can prove it happened.
- Why teams go around the system after go-liveThe money is already spent by the time this shows up, which is what makes it the failure worth preventing.
Tell me what breaks first.
The counter, the count, the invoice, or the report nobody trusts. That is usually enough to know whether Odoo is the right answer — and which part of it to start with.