Odoo 18 is on the horizon, and we, like you, are as excited about what’s in store. The latest version is scheduled to be launched with a bang at Odoo Experience 2024 in Belgium, with a host of innovative features designed to elevate the way businesses operate.
Already attracting over 5 million users globally, Odoo is looking to continue attracting more while improving the user experience across the board with each release. This article will update you with the latest improvements and cutting-edge features that Odoo 18 has officially announced.
Whether you are a seasoned Odoo user or new to the platform, you should explore these advancements to prepare for a new revolution in the way your business resources are run. Buckle up and join us as we unveil the game-changing updates that Odoo 18 is sure to bring!
Odoo 18 - “Business Features Done Well”
Odoo 18 is about to hit the market and is expected to make a big splash in the ERP world. The focus of this version is “Business Features Done Well”, reflecting the commitment to help you improve the way you manage your business.
After receiving feedback from users and continuously improving on Odoo 17, Odoo 18 has shifted its focus to refining usability, radically improving features, and simplifying your experience. It’s not just about a beautiful interface, it also makes seamless interactions within modules more efficient and enjoyable.
So, overall, how will Odoo 18 be different?
- Improved User Experience: Odoo 18 prioritizes streamlined integration processes and a user-friendly interface. It ensures that whether you are a new or existing user, you can still navigate easily when using this platform.
- Enhanced Automation: New tools added in Odoo 18 help improve automation and streamline your workflows, increasing productivity and efficiency.
- In-Depth Insights: With improved reporting and analytics in Odoo 18, you can gain a deeper understanding of your business performance, customer preferences, and make data-driven decisions.
- Global Compliance: Odoo 18 ensures simplified international business operations with accounting compliance across 120 countries, meeting regulatory standards whether you want to scale your operations in your home market or abroad.
More than just an update, Odoo 18 is a huge leap forward in improving operational efficiency across every feature to internal management of every business.
Odoo 18 Improvements Updating: Old but Enhance Experienced
The new update, Odoo 18, brings new improvements based on the existing Odoo 17 platform. It will surprise you with significant changes that will impact your business.
Next-level Security with Passkeys
Odoo 18 takes security to the next level with the introduction of passkeys. This advanced authentication method replaces traditional usernames and passwords with WebAuthn technology. Passkeys provide strong protection against phishing attacks and unauthorized access, while ensuring your sensitive data is always safe.
Enhanced Product Management with Clearer Terminology
Odoo 18 brings clarity to product management by updating terminology and streamlining inventory settings. The term “Consumables” is renamed to “Goods”, and inventory tracking options are moved to a more dedicated environment.
This update eliminates confusion, helping you manage and track inventory levels accurately. Whether you are tracking items by product, lot, or serial number, it streamlines your inventory process and improves operational efficiency.
Custom Fonts for a Unique Brand Identity
Enhance the aesthetics of your website by uploading your own fonts directly to Odoo 18's servers. This feature allows you to customize your website's typography to match your brand identity in a unique way.
Custom fonts also add to the appeal of your website by automatically hosting them on Odoo's servers, ensuring faster load times and a positive impact on SEO rankings and user experience.
Unified Activity Overview
Stay organized with the revamped activity overview in Odoo 18. This improved menu consolidates all your activities, whether personal or related to others, into a single and comprehensive view.
You can organize, group, and manage tasks more efficiently with options for bulk actions like marking multiple tasks as completed or canceling them. This upgraded feature helps you keep a close eye on your responsibilities and stay productive across different aspects of your business.
Automated Communication with WhatsApp
Odoo 18 will include the ability to send automated WhatsApp messages based on predefined rules. You can set fixed triggers for actions like order status updates or appointment reminders, and the system will automatically send WhatsApp messages to your customers or team members.
It replaces the one-click CTA button to the WhatsApp platform as in previous versions, while the application is considered a key-network-building platform in Malaysia.
Enhancing communication efficiency with customers and partners, ensuring timely updates and interactions without manual intervention, these are the things you will experience with Odoo 18.
Seamless Product Addition from the Catalog
The improved feature in Odoo 18 lets you add products directly from the product catalog to the suppliers and customers invoices. This enhancement streamlines the invoicing process by allowing you to seamlessly pull product details from the catalog, reducing manual data entry and minimizing errors.
This integration ensures that your invoices are accurate and up-to-date with the latest product information.
Streamlined Cloud Storage Integration
Odoo 18 will support integration with Google and Azure cloud storage, simplifying file management. You can now directly upload email attachments and other files to your chosen cloud service, then quickly download them to your local device when needed.
This seamless process completely eliminates the complexity and time-consuming middleman steps, allowing businesses to store and retrieve files more efficiently.
Enhanced Document Layout Options
Odoo 18 expands your options with 3 new document layouts, bringing the total to 7. These additional layouts provide more flexibility in how you format and present your documents, whether for internal use or customer-facing materials.
This flexibility allows you to customize your documents in a more diverse way, easily mixing and matching your unique business needs and brand personality.
Boosted eCommerce Functionality
Odoo 18 brings a number of improvements to your eCommerce operations.
- Improved SEO features help your eCommerce site rank better on search engines, making it easier to reach new customers and increase trust with existing ones.
- Odoo 18's mega menus are built based on product category classification, improving navigation.
These upgrades are designed to improve the performance and customer experience of your online store.
Optimized Shop Floor Operations
The new update in Odoo 18 makes managing shop floors more efficient. Features such as the ability to add notes to assembly tasks, improved task handling instructions, and quick access buttons for new assembly orders help streamline the production process. These improvements play a key role in better managing shop floor operations, making your operations smoother and more effective.
Advanced Features for Field Service, Helpdesk, and Planning
While full details are still being released, Odoo 18 hints at exciting improvements in these areas.
For Field Service:
- Integration with Maintenance Management: Odoo 18 introduces seamless integration between field service and maintenance. It allows field service technicians to record directly from their service tasks. Issues are resolved in real-time, facilitating faster resolution between service and maintenance teams.
- Location-Based Planning: Odoo 18 enhances field service planning by integrating location data. This feature allows you to schedule and allocate tasks based on geographic location, optimizing route planning and reducing travel time when handling goods.
- Incorporation of Product Costs into Analytical Accounting: The new update of Odoo 18 allows field service operations to include product costs in analytical accounting. For example, if a technician in your business uses replacement parts during a service call, the associated costs will be recorded and analyzed in the financial system, from where they can be tracked and allocated to the job. This feature provides a comprehensive view of the cost impact of service activities, enhancing financial oversight and budgeting.
For Planning:
- Schedule Recurring Shifts with Availability Consideration: Odoo 18 improves shift scheduling by taking into account employee availability. This module allows you to automatically create recurring shifts based on the working hours of each employee. If your employees indicate that they are unavailable on certain days, the system will avoid scheduling them during those times. This feature leads to better employee management and reduces scheduling conflicts.
- Tools for Resource Allocation: Out of the box, you can visualize and reallocate resource allocation tasks for each project and task with greater relevance. In particular, if you are working on a project that requires specific personnel to be responsible for different stages, you can easily use this feature of Odoo 18 to allocate and reallocate your employees dynamically based on project needs and availability.
For Helpdesk:
- Contextual Documentation Suggestions: To improve support efficiency, Odoo 18 provides contextual documentation suggestions. When a customer submits a helpdesk ticket, Odoo 18 automatically suggests documentation or FAQs that might address the issue. This allows customers to proactively find solutions themselves, and makes it easier for businesses to reach their pain points.
- Ticket Suggestion System: Odoo 18 suggests a ticket suggestion system that recommends similar or related to support agents. When a new ticket is created, the system analyzes the content of the ticket and suggests previously resolved tickets with similar issues. This feature helps agents find ways to resolve tickets faster by leveraging existing solutions and knowledge.
Big Gifts: New Added Features For Users in Odoo 18
In addition to the enhancements to the existing features, Odoo 18 also has many new added features to enhance the satisfaction and efficiency of Malaysian businesses.
Odoo 18 - Sales Features
- Sales Commission Management: Odoo 18 introduces an innovative Sales Commission module designed to enhance the way you manage your sales team. This feature allows you to set performance goals and track achievements based on various criteria such as invoice amounts, quantities sold, and sales margin.
For example, if you want to reward your team based on total sales generated or on specific product categories, you can set flexible rules to calculate commissions accordingly. This module also makes it easier to track and motivate your salesforce to be more efficient and aligned with your business goals.
- Combo Product Sales: Say hello to the flexibility of selling Combo Products across various sales channels with Odoo 18. Whether you are using POS, eCommerce, Rental, or Subscription apps, you can proactively bundle multiple products into a single “Combo Product” offer at a discounted price for potential customers or on a special occasion to stimulate demand. You can create compelling offers and streamline your sales process across all platforms.
- Loyalty Points Integration: Odoo 18 lets you enhance customer loyalty by integrating loyalty points directly into your online checkout process and customer portal. Customers can now view and redeem their loyalty points during their online purchase or access their loyalty card through their account portal. This allows customers to apply their earned points seamlessly, increasing their satisfaction and encouraging repeat business.
- Frontend POS Editing: Managing your POS products has never been easier with Odoo 18's frontend editing capabilities. You can create and update POS product statuses directly from the frontend, eliminating the need to navigate through complex settings in the backend. This enhancement simplifies the process of adding new items or modifying existing ones, making it easier for managers to update product catalogs.
- PDF Quote Customization: The new PDF Quote Builder in Odoo 18 takes customization to the next level. You can create and edit translations for quotations and add modifiable custom zones, such as specific subtitles or details, for each quote. Imagine customizing a quote to include additional terms or project details specific to each client - this feature lets you do exactly that, making your quotes more personalized, relevant, and professional.
- Quotation Template Organization: Another feature related to quotation - your important touchpoint for customers. Odoo 18 introduces a new way to manage your quotation templates by allowing you to organize them by importance. This helps streamline the process of creating and selecting the right template for each situation, ensuring your sales team uses the most relevant and effective templates for their quotes.
- Product Document Emails: With updated email templates, Odoo 18 now includes references to product documentation available to customers in the portal. When sending a quote or order confirmation, you can include links to product documentation, giving customers quick access to detailed information and making your communications more comprehensive.
- Discount Display Rules: The latest update in Odoo 18 brings important changes to how discounts are applied and displayed. In this version, discounts are only displayed if the discount function on the order line is enabled, and you can choose the price list as the basis for discount rules. This means you can choose to display discounts or not based on your sales strategy, giving you more control over pricing and promotions.
Odoo 18 - Manufacturing
- Manufacturing Master Scheduler: Odoo 18 brings a fresh and intuitive interface to Master Production Scheduling (MPS). This update introduces automated replenishment and flexible routing options, ensuring your inventory levels and production processes are fully aligned with demand forecasts. The enhanced UI improves navigation and helps you keep track of production schedules with minimal effort.
- On-Demand Quality Checks: With Odoo 18, performing quality checks on your warehouse is now more convenient than ever. Users can initiate quality checks directly from warehouse orders, ensuring that products meet your standards before they are processed further. This feature also improves the efficiency of quality control processes and maintains high standards across the entire warehouse.
- Smart Manufacturing Resource Planning: Odoo 18 takes Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) to the high level with streamlined processes and advanced features. Automated replenishment and customizable routing improve material requirements planning, leading to more efficient manufacturing. These enhancements allow you to properly manage resources and easily adapt to changes in production needs.
- Enhanced Gantt Views: The Gantt view in Odoo 18 has been enhanced for a better user experience. You can now zoom in and out, scroll horizontally, and view individual tasks. This flexibility allows you to get a more detailed and organized view of your Odoo manufacturing projects, helping you manage and track task progress and adjust schedules as needed.
- Labor Cost Valuation Adjustments: The new update of Odoo 18 introduces separate valuation journal entries for labor costs in manufacturing orders. This means that labor costs, previously lumped into a general manufacturing cost account, are now posted to a separate cost account linked to specific work centers. This change provides clearer insights into production costs and improves financial accuracy by accurately allocating labor costs.
Odoo 18 - PoS (Point of Sale)
- Streamlined Product Management: You can create and edit products directly from the Odoo PoS interface, bypassing the need to switch to the backend. Simply add or modify product details like name, price, and category on the spot. This feature also supports barcode scanning for international products, automatically filling in product information based on online data.
- Enhanced Login Interface: The new login screen for Odoo 8 cash register brings greater flexibility and security. Employees can now log in simply by scanning in batches, entering a PIN, or entering it manually. This update streamlines the login process, ensuring quick and secure access to the PoS system.
- Advanced POS Integration: Odoo 18 integrates backend functions directly into the PoS, enabling a seamless workflow. From the PoS screen, you can access advanced features like barcode search and product creation without leaving the interface. The integration also enables better handling of free orders at restaurants and events, along with improved product variant displays similar to those found in ecommerce applications.
- SMS Order Confirmations: Customer communication is improved with Odoo 18’s new SMS integration. Order confirmations can now be sent via SMS with a single click, keeping customers updated and improving the overall experience.
- Revised Employee Permissions: The update also refines employee permissions in the PoS system. Employees using Odoo 18 can only perform cash-on-delivery and cash-out transactions, but cannot adjust prices or edit products from the checkout screen. This change ensures consistent pricing policies and separates sales functions from product management.
- Detailed Sales Reporting: Odoo 18 improves financial accuracy with the “Closing entry with product lines” option in the PoS module. Instead of a single journal entry for total sales, the system now creates entries for each product, providing detailed information about sales data. The detail and accuracy of financial reports are further improved.
- Drag-and-drop Layout Editing: Redesigning your restaurant layout is now easy with Odoo 18's new drag-and-drop functionality. You can easily arrange tables directly on the floor plan in edit mode. The grid system helps align tables precisely, while the solid white background provides a clean and organized look.
Odoo 18 - Accounting
- Global Compliance Expansion: Odoo 18 strengthens its commitment to accounting compliance by expanding localization coverage from 70 to 120 countries. This upgrade ensures that users across the globe can comply with local accounting regulations with ease, making international operations smoother.
- Intuitive Invoicing Enhancements: New invoicing-related features in Odoo 18 include clearer unified product and description columns, improved send/print functionality, and pop-up previews for quick document viewing. Enhanced duplicate detection and updated invoice layouts, while PEPPOL network integration makes the e-invoices process seamless. This is really ideal for Malaysian businesses when e-invoices are becoming mandatory for all enterprises in this country.
- Kanban-Based Reconciliation Entries: Reconciliation has become easy with Odoo 18’s Kanban Quick Create Form. You can access the Reconciliation page directly to manage multi-currency journals easily. Create and process reconciliation entries quickly, keeping your financial data accurate, and organized with minimal hassle.
- Efficient Budget Management: Odoo 18 revolutionizes budget management by focusing on analytical accounts. The new system simplifies budget calculations and introduces a “mandatory amount” field for better financial tracking. The new budget report overview helps you track and adjust your budget easily, directly from your reports.
- Advanced T-Account Balance Display: For those who prefer the traditional view, Odoo 18 offers a balance sheet in the form of a T-account. This horizontal layout presents debits and credits side by side, providing a clear and direct representation of your financial situation.
Odoo 18 - E-commerce
- Precision Pickup Location Widget: Say goodbye to confusion about pickup locations with Odoo 18’s new map-based location picker. This widget allows customers to precisely mark their preferred pickup points, ensuring absolute accuracy in where their orders will be brought.
- Streamlined Single-Page Checkout: Odoo 18 simplifies the checkout process with a single-page checkout. Shoppers can complete their transactions on a single page, with options to log in, manage their accounts, and subscribe to newsletters – all without leaving the checkout screen. This reduces cart abandonment and speeds up the purchase process.
- Mega Menu for Better Navigation: This new feature allows you to create expanded menus based on your product categories, making it easier for customers to find what they’re really looking for.
- Multi-Warehouse Integration: Odoo 18 displays live inventory on product pages, allowing customers to see real-time availability across all your warehouses.
- Enhanced Product Page Design: Product and store pages can be completely redesigned with Odoo 18, increasing customer engagement and retention. With improved layouts and interactive elements, these changes ensure an engaging experience and keep customers coming back for more.
Odoo 18 - HR (Human Resources) and Payroll
- Advanced Overtime Reporting: It allows you to generate detailed reports on overtime hours, providing specific information on labor costs, thereby helping you make informed decisions on resource allocation and budget planning.
- Dynamic Calendar View: Keep track of your team's schedule with the improved calendar view. Odoo 18 displays pending allocation requests and working hours directly in the calendar, providing a comprehensive view of leave requests and shifts. You can also customize the visibility of holidays and leave types to tailor the calendar to your needs.
- Fingerprint Integration for Attendance: You will ensure accurate attendance by automatically recording attendance information in and out of Odoo 18.
- Comprehensive Payroll Enhancements: Odoo 18 introduces a series of payroll enhancements, including new fields for better efficiency, global CSV export option for bank transactions, and enhanced overview reports. These new updates streamline payroll processing and provide clearer financial data.
- Simplified Onboarding Process: Welcome new employees conveniently with improved onboarding. Odoo 18’s onboarding process simplifies the onboarding process with company information and job-related documents available, with each welcoming step predefined. This ensures a smooth process and helps new employees quickly adapt.
Odoo 18 - Website Builder
- Enhanced Web Forms with Custom Fields: Whether you want to capture product preferences from your prospects or collect customer insights, this new feature ensures you can do it with your Odoo 18 website.
- SEO Management: Odoo 18 enhances your SEO workflow by notifying you of missing SEO elements in your content.
You can check out more updates on Odoo website builder version 18 in this article: Odoo Website Builder: Simple Way to Build Your Excellent Web
Final Thoughts
Odoo 18 will definitely be a turning point for your business resource management and operations. Still the basic modules but it is guaranteed to bring a new breeze with updates and new added features, ensuring to help businesses continue to grow and develop in a positive direction when applying ERP solutions.
If you have any questions about Odoo 18 or our Odoo services, please don’t hesitate to contact us, A1 Consulting. As an Odoo trusted partner in Malaysia, we’re always ready to help you!
