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We covered following in
Part 1: Implementing Odoo Financials & CRM - Step by Step Guide (Part 1 of 5)
Step 1: Pre-Implementation Planning
Step 2: Company Setup
Step 3: Chart of Accounts Setup
Part 2: Implementing Odoo Financials & CRM - Step by Step Guide (Part 2 of 5)
Step 4: Tax Configuration
Step 5: Banking and Payment Setup
Step 6: Customer and Supplier Master Data
This article provides a comprehensive, step-by-step walkthrough for implementing Odoo Financials and CRM. There will be 5 articles as lot of details to cover.
Step 7: Products and Pricelists
If you are using Odoo for invoicing beyond simple service billing, proper product setup connects your sales and purchasing flows to your accounting automatically.
What to Do
- Create product categories with default income and COGS/expense accounts.
- Create products (services and physical goods) with correct accounting settings, tax assignments, and unit of measure.
- Set up pricelists if you have tiered pricing, volume discounts, or currency-specific pricing.
- Configure units of measure (UoM) if you sell/buy in different units.
Key Issues to Consider
- The income account on a product/product category overrides the journal default. A wrong account on a product means every invoice using that product posts to the wrong GL account.
- Pricelists interact with CRM quotations. If sales staff use discounts informally, implement a formal discount/pricelist structure before go-live to maintain margin visibility.
- For physical products, decide now whether you will use stock valuation (FIFO, AVCO) — this requires the Inventory module and has significant accounting implications.
Step 8: CRM Configuration
The Odoo CRM module manages your sales pipeline from initial lead to won opportunity. Properly configured, it gives your team full visibility of the sales funnel and integrates seamlessly with invoicing.
What to Do
- Navigate to CRM > Configuration > Sales Teams and create your sales teams with team leaders.
- Configure the CRM pipeline stages in CRM > Configuration : typically Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won/Lost. Customize to match your sales process.
- Set up lost reasons (price, competition, timing, budget) to enable loss analysis.
- Configure lead scoring and assignment rules if you have a high-volume inbound lead flow.
- Set up email aliases so incoming emails to sales@ or info@ automatically create CRM leads.
- Configure activity types and schedules for follow-ups (calls, meetings, emails).
- Enable lead mining or website integration if you generate leads online.
Key Issues to Consider
- Leads vs. Opportunities: Odoo supports a two-step flow (lead → opportunity) or a direct opportunity flow. Choose one and stick to it — mixing the two creates pipeline confusion.
- Sales team assignment rules must be defined before go-live. Without them, all leads land in a generic pool and go unassigned.
- CRM stages should reflect your actual sales process, not an aspirational one. Overly complex pipelines lead to poor adoption.
- Integration with email is powerful but requires correct DNS configuration (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to avoid emails being marked as spam.
- Ensure your CRM data handling complies with GDPR (or relevant local regulation). Odoo has some built-in GDPR tools, but you need a defined data retention policy.
Step 9: Invoicing and Accounts Receivable
With company, CoA, taxes, customers, and products configured, you are now ready to set up and test the invoicing flow — the core of Odoo Financials for most businesses.
What to Do
- Configure invoice templates: go to Accounting > Configuration > Settings and set invoice layout, payment communication (reference) type, and default terms.
- Test the invoice creation flow: create a draft invoice, add a customer and product line, confirm, and review the journal entry generated.
- Set up invoice numbering sequences (e.g., INV/2024/00001). Ensure they comply with local tax authority requirements.
- Configure automated payment reminders (follow-up actions) in Accounting > Configuration > Follow-up Levels.
- Set up customer portal access so customers can view and pay invoices online.
- Configure online payment methods (Stripe, PayPal, bank transfer) if accepting online payment.
Key Issues to Consider
- Invoice sequence integrity is legally required in most jurisdictions. Never allow gaps in invoice numbering. Test locking periods before go-live.
- The 'Lock Date' feature in Odoo prevents posting to closed periods. Set this up and establish a clear month-end close process.
- Credit notes (refunds) must be linked to original invoices wherever possible. Train users never to delete or reset confirmed invoices — always use credit notes.
- Recurring invoices require a subscription or automated entry setup. Plan this before go-live if you have recurring billing.
If you need assistance with Odoo Implementation. Reach out to us, we will be glad to assist.
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