When we talk about digitization within a company, the focus is not only on business processes, but also on all documents. The term "paperless office" is often used for this. In our past blog posts, we have already discussed some of the ways in which we can map our processes in the Odoo ERP system and have already had some contact points in dealing with documents in Odoo.

​ In doing so, we learned that Odoo generally works on an object basis and that documents can be uploaded to the individual objects, for example contacts or employees. In addition, we have already explained how we can generate documents from Odoo, for example incoming and outgoing invoices in purcasing and sales. In today's blog, we take a further look at the Documents module, Odoo's document management system, and the great possibilities it offers us for processing our documents. ​

To use the Documents module, three access rights are available, analogous to other modules. If a user does not have access rights, the module will not be displayed to him in the dashboard and he will not have access. The users of the "Users" group have access to the documents and can read and edit them. The users of the "Administrator" group have additional access to the configuration of the module.

If we open the Documents module from the Dashboard, we will directly get to the overview of all documents. The menu within the module consists exclusively of the overview of all documents and the configuration. The options for searching, filtering and favorites as well as switching to the list view are already familiar to us from Odoo. In addition, we see various buttons with which we can upload, request or share documents. The main view is divided into three areas - the categorization of the documents according to workspaces and tags, the documents themselves and a gray area on the right side, where we are given various options after selecting a document.

Let's start with the configuration of the module and navigate to the general settings for this purpose. There we have the option to centralize documents from other modules in the Documents module. This means that all documents from the selected areas, for example personnel or finances, are also stored centrally in the Documents module in a defined workspace and can optionally be provided with previously defined tags.

In the next step, we define the workspaces, which we create by department or process, for example. Within the configuration of a workspace, we create categories and the associated tags. With this we categorize, organize and structure our documents. In addition, we can define the access rights regarding reading and writing of the documents in the individual workspaces. Finally, we have the option of creating a hierarchy for the workspaces and assigning them to a company in a multi-company environment.

In the documents overview, we now use the workspaces and tags as filters for the documents. The documents can be added to the workspaces and tags via drag & drop. Clicking on the icon of a document opens its preview. Here it becomes clear that we can process any file formats with the Documents module, whether text files, images, videos or others. If we now click directly on a document, various editing options appear in the gray area on the right-hand side, as already mentioned above.

Here, too, we can open the preview of the document by clicking on its icon. Furthermore, we can download the document, share it, replace it with a current version, lock it or archive it. However, locking at this point only serves as an indication that another user is already working on the document and thus no write protection. Archived documents can be retrieved or, if necessary, deleted using the appropriate filter.

Another helpful feature is splitting. This gives us the option to split multi-page documents into individual documents and store them directly in the Documents module. Clicking on the speech bubble icon opens the chatter with the history and the functions known from other objects for ​ internal and external communication as well as activity planning. Finally, we can edit the name of the document, assign the document to a contact and assign it to an internal user, and customize the workspaces and tags.​

Now the question is how to bring our documents into Odoo as automatically as possible and process them effectively there. To bring the documents into Odoo, we use email aliases. We define the e-mail aliases within the configuration of the shared links. There we define to which workspace, which tags and which user an incoming email should be assigned as a document. In addition, we can define that an activity of a specific type is automatically created for a specific user in the process. In this way, we ensure that new incoming e-mails or documents can be recognized and further processed.

The further processing of the documents can be done manually. Alternatively, we can define so-called actions within the configuration of the workspaces. These actions are based on the assignment of a workspace and the tags and trigger certain processes. We can define whether this action assigns the document to another contact or another user, moves it to another workspace, assigns other tags or creates another object (applicant, project task, product, incoming invoice, outgoing invoice, credit note) in Odoo. In addition, we define whether activities not completed with the action are marked as completed and/or a new activity is created.

In the following use case, we will illustrate this procedure and look at the "Finance" workspace. For this workspace, we define an email alias that we use for our incoming invoices. Our suppliers send us all their invoices to this e-mail alias, which means that the incoming invoices initially end up in the Documents module in the "Finance" workspace. By configuring the email alias, when a new invoice is received, an activity is created with a request for one of our users to process it. By configuring an action, we enable our user to create an incoming invoice in Odoo from the document with one click.

As a result, the user jumps directly to the Finance module and finds himself in the incoming invoice that has just been created. There we select the supplier and use the auto-complete feature. In this field, Odoo shows us all the purchases that have not yet been paid for with the selected supplier. If we select one of these purchases, all the information of the purchase will be automatically included in the incoming invoice. We then confirm the invoice, transfer the open amount and mark the invoice as paid. Alternatively, Odoo also offers the option of reading the document using OCR and filling the incoming invoice using this information. However, this feature is chargeable and the purchase of credits from Odoo is necessary.

We therefore conclude that the Documents module integrates perfectly with the structure and processes of the Odoo ERP system. With the module, our document management system is also located in Odoo and is also accessible from anywhere. By using the e-mail aliases and actions, we ensure a flowing workflow for our documents, which proves to be very effective in interaction with other modules. This not only increases our productivity, but also saves us important resources through the digitized processing of our documents.

As of Odoo version 14, the spreadsheet feature has also been integrated into the Documents module. We will present how this works in one of our next blog posts.

Are you looking for an ERP system in which your document management is fully integrated? No problem! Contact us now and we will be at your side as a reliable Odoo partner!

Sources www.odoo.com