Odoo 15
Strategy and features - everything important about the new Odoo version
22 October, 2021 by
Odoo 15
manaTec GmbH, Tom Pohling
 


At the beginning of October 2021 it was that time again, Odoo released version 15 of its open source ERP system as part of the Odoo Experience. To kick off the online event, Fabien Pinckaers, the founder of Odoo, opened the Odoo Experience and presented the main new features. Afterwards, the more than 55,000 attendees were able to learn in detail about the new features, technical developments as well as some success stories in more than 200 talks and presentations.

Odoo continues to focus on improving existing features this year, aiming to continually enhance the user experience. The focus is less on the development of new apps and modules, but rather on the optimization of existing features - especially the improvement of team collaboration as well as optimized handling and navigation options within Odoo to increase productivity. In today's blog, we present the most important innovations of Odoo 15.

Odoo 15

In the following link Odoo presents an overview of all new features and release notes.

To the release notes 

Odoo.

Navigation and communication in Odoo

For quick navigation and communication, Odoo has significantly simplified the use of hotkeys. By means of the key combination "Ctrl + K" a pop-up opens, in which we can browse the menu by means of "/" and navigate there directly. In addition, we have the option of using "Ctrl + K + @" to open the chat with a specific person or "Ctrl + K + #" to open the chat of a channel.

If we are in an object, we can also use "Ctrl + K" to open the pop-up, which, in addition to the features mentioned above, also shows us other hotkeys for direct editing of the object. This allows us, for example, to change levels, assign people, send messages or create activities.

Within the communication with a person or in a channel via the Discussion module or the Chatter, Odoo now shows us different icons as soon as we navigate with the mouse pointer over a message. This allows us to reply to older messages, for example, and also to edit and delete messages. The latter also applies to all notes within an object.

Editing objects in Odoo

A great feature that significantly speeds up work in Odoo is the ability to edit objects. To do this, we no longer click on the "Edit" button first, but in view mode on the field that is to be edited. This will take us directly to the edit mode and the corresponding field. After successfully entering the data, we save the change. Auto-save rounds out this feature, which means that records are automatically saved when a user exits them.

HTML editor in Odoo

In the HTML fields, Odoo has removed the editing menu. To edit a text, we now simply highlight the text, this opens the edit menu and we can, for example, make the text bold, italic or underlined, adjust the font size and color or add a link.

In addition, we also have the possibility to call up all commands by means of "/". With this we can format the text, add markups or checklists, create tables or add links, buttons, images or videos.

HTML-Editor in Odoo.
HTML-Editor in Odoo.

Voice and video calls in Odoo

One of the main new features in Odoo 15 are the voice and video calls, which can be started both in the Discussion module and via the Chatter with a person or people in a channel. We can make voice and video calls not only with internal users, but also invite external partners via a link.

During the call we can activate and deactivate our microphone and camera, split the screen and choose between different layouts. A particular advantage is that we can move around Odoo without restrictions during the call. For example, we can exchange messages or files directly in the chat with the person or channel in which we are making the call, or navigate to a specific object in Odoo.

Odoo currently recommends a maximum number of participants of about 40 people, until then there should be no performance limitations in the ERP system. Of course, this feature is also available when using mobile devices. The selection of backgrounds, the option to record the call as well as the integration into the Odoo calendar are not yet available in version 15. It remains to be seen to what extent Odoo will expand this feature in the next versions.

Voice and video calls in Odoo.
Voice and video calls in Odoo.

Odoo Website Builder

The website in Odoo has already been heavily redesigned in version 14 and some features have been added. There are also some new features in version 15. The first change concerns the selection of the theme using Website Configurator. Here we specify our industry and the purpose of our website when creating a new website. After selecting the color theme, Odoo suggests the three most suitable themes for us to choose from. In addition, Responsive Design has been optimized for all themes.

Furthermore, new snippets have been added. Particularly noteworthy here are the search bar, which we can configure globally or only for specific content. We use the embedded code snippet to integrate external content into our website without any HTML knowledge. For the implementation of donation appeals, we now have the Donation snippet. The Pop-up on Exit allows us to display a pop-up as soon as a visitor wants to leave our website. In addition, forms can now be individually extended with additional form fields. With the Download feature, we allow visitors to our website to download documents directly.

A new feature for all our snippets is visibility restriction. This allows us to display certain content on our website only to visitors of a country, campaign, medium or source, for example, as well as to distinguish between the visibility of content for logged-in and non-logged-in visitors. In forms, this gives us the ability to show certain form fields only when a pre-defined condition is met.

Regarding our design, we can select color gradients for our texts and backgrounds. Animated shapes have been added within the snippets, content of the snippets as well as the texts can also be animated. All these customizations apply to our e-commerce as well, of course, because Website Builder is used for that as well.

Project management in Odoo

There are some enhancements for projects and project tasks. For projects, we can now define Kanban levels, so that we can assign a level to the projects and display them in a Kanban view. The project overview has been completely reworked and offers us besides the known smart buttons the possibility to define project updates and milestones as well as an overview of the profitability of the project. Furthermore, we can share the projects for external partners with read or even write permissions.

We can now assign project tasks to multiple users. By specifying the scheduled date, we have the possibility to schedule the project tasks on a time basis. If a user is scheduled to be absent, Odoo shows us a note about it in the project task. Also, we can assign products in project tasks and bill them alongside the recorded time. We no longer create the subtasks via the smart button, but within a designated tab.

In addition, we can now define dependencies between project tasks. In the Gantt view, these dependencies are displayed as a gray arrow. If we are on a critical path, the color of the arrow changes to red. In general, the Gantt view is very suitable for our project planning, because we can also edit all project tasks from this view. It is especially easy to assign a user as well as the scheduled date via drag and drop. All the new features related to the project task also affect the tasks in the Field Service module.

Furthermore, we can create project tasks that are only visible to the respective user. To do this, we create a project task and do not store a project, assigning a fictitious project "Private". Via the "My Tasks" menu in the Project module, these project tasks are visible to the respective user and marked with a small lock icon. In this overview we also find a grouping by "Personal Stage". These stages are detached from the actual task stages. They cannot be edited, but each user can move his tasks within the stages to set up his personal time schedule.

Besides the new features in Odoo 15 listed so far, there are of course minor customization in many other modules as well. In Point of Sale, we can retrieve information of the products, including the stock. In the warehouse, inventory adjustments have been redesigned and now allow cyclical inventory. In production orders, cost centers can be assigned.

In Accounting, we find optimized support for OSS regulations, optimization of the OCR function, support for additional banks in bank synchronization, as well as improved account reconciliation and optimized accruals. Collaborative working in spreadsheets allows us to see which other users are working simultaneously within a spreadsheet. With the help of tracking overtime via the Attendance module, we convert overtime to vacation days in the Absences module.

These and many other adjustments can be read in the link to the release notes at Odoo mentioned at the beginning. However, one thing is already clear from our summary - with version 15 Odoo creates a significant optimization of usability and thus contributes to the increase in performance when working in the ERP system. Odoo achieves this this year primarily by focusing on community feedback.

You want to learn more about Odoo 15? No problem! Contact us now and we will be at your side as a reliable Odoo partner! You can also find all the talks and presentations of Odoo Experience 2021 on Odoos YouTube-Channel!


 
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