Duration: 26:46
PART 1 — Analytical Summary: Odoo Sales & Purchase, The Improved Catalog Feature 🚀
Context 💼
This session, led by Arthur Gino (Odoo consultant), introduces recent improvements to the Catalog feature across Sales, Purchase, and now Invoicing/Billing. The talk targets a common pain point: building large, accurate quotations or purchase requests quickly and with fewer errors. The updates—positioned as part of the Odoo 19 scope—focus on structuring quotes, speeding selection, and assisting replenishment decisions.
Core ideas & innovations 🧠
The enhanced Catalog puts structure and discovery at the center of the quoting process. Users can create Sections directly inside the catalog, drag-and-drop them, and insert products into the appropriate section in context. Once selections are made, a per-section filter reveals only the items chosen for that section, making it easier to review, adjust quantities, and present a clean, subtotaled quote.
Filtering has been simplified and generalized. The left panel removes attribute-based filtering and replaces it with Tags, broadening applicability beyond product variants. Users can combine category navigation with tag filtering to quickly narrow to relevant items (e.g., “Chairs & Sofas” plus “Colored”).
On the Purchase side, the catalog introduces Replenishment suggestions. Odoo proposes quantities to buy based on recent sales history and a user-defined future coverage period. The engine computes a monthly demand from a chosen lookback (e.g., last 30 days, 3 months, 12 months) and scales it to the desired horizon (e.g., next 7 or 30 days), with a seasonality factor to up/down-adjust expectations. The result: buyers can convert sales momentum into proactive, data-aware purchasing—without leaving the PO.
The experience is now consistent across Sales, Purchase, and Invoicing/Billing: Sections created in orders carry over, and the catalog can be used in bills/invoices as well. In the demo, this unified approach produced a structured Sales quotation, auto-triggered Purchase RFQs based on re-supply rules, and leveraged the catalog within Purchase to finalize vendor-specific orders—complete with sections and notes.
How it works in practice ⚙️
Starting from Sales, the user creates catalog Sections like “Chairs & Sofas,” “Desks,” and “Accessories,” then filters by categories and tags to add specific products and quantities. A section-level “Selected” filter shows only what’s already chosen for that section, helping validate the selection before adding it to the quote. The resulting quotation displays clean section subtotals.
When confirming the Sales order with make-to-order settings, Purchase RFQs are created automatically for each vendor configured on the products. Inside each RFQ, the Catalog shows only items that vendor supplies (for vendor-specific POs). The new “Suggest” pane offers replenishment recommendations per product, derived from historical sales and adjusted by the chosen period and seasonality coefficient. Buyers can create or duplicate sections, add notes, and organize subsections via drag-and-drop, then confirm the order.
Finally, similar sectioning and catalog usage is now available in Invoicing/Billing, bringing consistent structure through to the financial documents.
Impact & takeaways 💬
These improvements primarily reduce quoting and purchasing friction. In Sales, teams gain a cleaner, faster way to assemble complex quotes, with visuals and structure that minimize selection errors and improve customer-facing clarity. In Purchase, the Replenishment suggestions transform the catalog from a static picker into a lightweight decision aid, helping buyers act on demand signals without leaving their flow. The addition of Sections to Invoicing/Billing completes the loop, standardizing how information is grouped all the way from quote to bill.
There are practical constraints to note. The catalog’s left panel is not editable by default (it’s hardcoded), though Odoo’s openness and Studio make deeper changes possible. Tag filtering uses an OR logic (not AND), which is simpler but less precise for complex combinations. Variant attributes were intentionally removed from catalog filtering in favor of more universal Tags, and dynamic variant filtering is still handled best in list views. Lots/serials remain a logistics operation (selected at delivery, not on the Sales order). Replenishment lookbacks are fixed to preset windows, with finer customization achievable via custom development if needed.
Overall, the Catalog evolves from a product picker into a structured, end-to-end tool that improves speed, accuracy, and consistency across Sales, Purchase, and Accounting—while keeping Odoo’s hallmark emphasis on simplicity and integrated workflows.
PART 2 — Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
Disclaimer: AI-generated creative perspective inspired by Odoo's vision.
We’ve always believed the best UX is the one you don’t notice. By letting teams build and manage sections directly inside the catalog, we removed unnecessary steps and kept the user focused on outcomes—clear, consistent quotes and purchases. The replenishment suggestions follow the same philosophy: small, smart nudges that turn data into action, without adding complexity.
Integration is the real product. When the catalog, sections, and notes behave the same way in Sales, Purchase, and Invoicing, teams collaborate better and automate more. We’ll keep refining the details with the community so the simplest path is also the most powerful.
PART 3 — Viewpoint: Competitors (SAP / Microsoft / Others)
Disclaimer: AI-generated fictional commentary. Not an official corporate statement.
Odoo’s catalog advances reflect strong product thinking: intuitive sectioning, unified UX across modules, and practical replenishment suggestions built into purchasing. For fast-moving SMBs and mid-market teams, this will improve speed-to-quote and purchasing discipline with minimal training.
The challenges ahead are familiar at enterprise scale: governance for in-catalog edits, robust audit trails for forecast-based buying, and deeper controls for complex variants or multi-entity compliance. Tag-based OR filtering is accessible, but advanced assortments may require richer logic. Still, Odoo’s pace and integrated approach continue to differentiate its UX and time-to-value—areas where many suites remain heavy.
PART 4 — Blog Footer Disclaimer
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes. Viewpoints labeled as "Odoo Perspective" or "Competitors" are simulated and do not represent any real statements or positions. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.