Unveiling Odoo 18: Top Features and Benefits for Your Business

Summary

If you are an Odoo enthusiast like us, you may already have heard of Odoo Experience – one of the biggest events of the year where the unveiling of new Odoo features is the highlight. This year, Odoo Experience 2024 is scheduled between October 2nd and October 4th in Belgium where we can expect the reveal of the latest – Odoo 18. 

However, if you want to prepare yourself for the exciting new features that the new update will bring forward, this is the place. In today’s blog post, we will discuss some of the most anticipated Odoo 18 features that will likely go live with the update. 

So, let’s take a closer look at it!

So, let’s take a closer look at it before you get started with Odoo development!

Odoo 18: General Improvements

• Grouping by Fields: With the Odoo 18 release, you can now group and sort lists even with unsaved related fields. 
• Clarified Product Types: Earlier, there was confusion between the terminologies “Consumables” and “Product Types”. Now, the term “Consumables” is renamed to “Goods” for clarity. The “Track Inventory” option for “Goods” is also moved to a different location for ease.
• Add Products from Catalog View: You can add products directly from the catalog view in Odoo 18.

Odoo 18: Sales Features

• Sales Commissions: The new module in Odoo 18 helps calculate salespersons’ commissions. These achievements and targets can be based on margin, amount sold, amount invoiced, sold quantity, new MRR, and invoiced quantity. You can also combine different points and set new rules for specific products, categories, or recurring periods. 

• Loyalty in Portal: In Odoo, you can add a dedicated loyalty card to the portal and leverage discounts and other benefits.
  

• Combo Products: If you are an eCommerce company, you can club various products and sell them as a combo at an attractive price. This also helps recommend personalized products to customers, enabling them to purchase conveniently.

• PDF Quote Builder 2.0: The revamped PDF quote builder now contains custom zones. You can insert custom zones and modify them manually for each quotation. Make your quotes as unique as possible for various customers and leverage advanced features like translations to tend to the needs of varying customers. You can also use any field in the 2.0 version of PDF Quote Builder in Odoo 18. In Odoo 17, we had used the earlier Quote builder which wasn’t as sophisticated as this.

Odoo 18 POS Features

• Seamless Product Creation: In Odoo 18 POS, you can create products directly from the POS interface without having to leave it. Just add the product name, sales price (exclusive of taxes), customer taxes, POS category, etc. 
• Lookup Products Using Barcode: Now, look up products and related information seamlessly by scanning barcodes in Odoo POS. 
• Variant Products: Like in eCommerce portals, your Odoo POS interface also features variants of a product. You can see the different variants in Odoo POS. 
• Revamped Design: The update is expected to bring forth improved user experience for various pages like the login page and payment screen. Thus, users can work more efficiently and flexibly with an enriched experience. 
• POS events and adding free orders on POS are some other key features you can expect in Odoo 18. 

Odoo 18: New Ecommerce Features

• New Location Selector Widget: The addition of this exclusive feature in Odoo 18 now lets you search and add pick-up points precisely without making any mistakes. 
• Sign-In Button in Checkout Form: While Odoo lets its customers checkout as a guest, now it also features a dedicated “Sign-In” button that lets your customers sign up to your eCommerce site or subscribe to your newsletter. You can benefit from this sign-in feature as you want and convert your new customers into loyal followers. A great new addition indeed! 
• The single-page checkout option makes for a hassle-free shopping experience and lets you secure more deals than usual. 
• You can expect a redesign of the Product and Shop pages for more engagement and customer retention. 
• You can also choose to hide /shop page for unknown users. 
• The “Click and Collect” flow is improved in Odoo 18. 
• Depending on the eCommerce categories you create, you can generate a mega menu for yourself. 
• A new order confirmation feature is added to the checkout page that lets you confirm your order before proceeding to the payment page. 
• Odoo 18 now allows you to add multiple warehouses on a website and lets you see the available stock quantity on the product page. 
• Some SEO improvements are also made in Odoo 18 that will help you get more organic reach and better search results.

 Odoo 18: Inventory/Purchase 

• Delivery Dispatching: Delivery dispatching in Odoo involves managing and coordinating the delivery of orders from your warehouse to the customers. It includes planning, scheduling, and tracking the movement of goods to ensure timely and efficient delivery. With new features like Order Pickings in Batch for Delivery Round, you can group multiple orders into a batch and instead of picking all items one by one, delivery executives can do it at a time. It not only saves time but also helps with efficiency.
  Assigning vehicle to batch feature allows assigning a specific vehicle to a batch of orders. By doing so, the logistics team can ensure that the selected vehicle is used to deliver all orders in the batch, optimizing the delivery process and vehicle utilization.
  In the Odoo 18 inventory module, the map view of the batch gives you a visual representation of the location and addresses for the deliveries so you can plan routes smartly which saves time and helps reduce fuel consumption.
  
• Automated Batches: In Odoo, Waves refer to groups of orders that are released to the warehouse floor for picking at specific times. They are typically used to manage high volumes of orders and coordinate picking activities in waves throughout the day. Batches are smaller groups of orders that can be picked together, often created based on specific criteria such as delivery routes or product types.The revamped Odoo 18 automated batches have combined waves and batches for improved workflow, flexibility, scalability, and resource optimization. 
• Revamped Barcode App: The barcode app in Odoo 18 e-commerce is revamped for better engagement. It lets you access all the necessary information in a place, thus helping improve productivity. 
• You can hide theoretical quantities in inventory adjustments. 
• You can now download the barcode app as a PWA on your mobile device. 
• Aggregate lines of the same products in batches. 
• Inventory valuation by lots. 
• The package content report now contains a QR code with a serial inside. 
• The Odoo 18 inventory module now allows you to scan QR codes with mass data. 
• Down payments, purchase templates, manual merge of RFQs, easy import of structured data UBL in PDF RFQ/PO in sales, and improved resorts are some other key features of the purchase module. 

Odoo 18: Shipping Functionalities 

• The shipping methods are available based on multiple factors like weight, volume, and products/tags. 
• New shipping connectors, such as FedEx, DHL, and USPS, are added to facilitate the seamless shipment of products to your customers. 
• With compatible connectors, the selection of pickup points and deliveries is revamped. This helps minimize pickup and delivery time and hassles. 

Odoo 18 MRP Capabilities 

• MPS Updates: The MPS (Master Production Schedule) updates in Odoo is a plan for the production of products, which is based on demand forecasts, inventory levels, and production capacity. It helps manufacturers ensure that they produce the right quantity of products at the right time to meet customer demand while optimizing resource use. Automatic replenishment of inventory and improved routes for shipments are exclusive new features added to it. You can also expect to see a redesigned user interface for your manufacturing module. 

• Gantt View Enhancements: The Gantt View has been revamped for usability and ease of use. You can now scroll horizontally, zoom in/out, and even view one task per line at your convenience. There’s more to the revamp that we will explore when the Odoo 18 release date approaches. 

• On-Demand Quality Checks: You can schedule on-demand quality checks for any manufacturing product at any point in time. The quality check will be performed by the assigned and authorized personnel and they can add comments and feedback to the quality check request. 

• Shop Floor Enhancements: You will see a few new features on the Shop floor in Odoo, such as adding important notes, fold/unfold operations, and Next operations. 

• Work in progress management, project, and MO link, repair for rental returns, product catalog for BOM, MO, repair, and MRP documents refactor are some other key enhancements to look out for. 

Odoo 18: Services 

• Odoo 18 features a dedicated top bar from where you can browse related project records. 
• With Odoo services, find the right resources based on their skills from a filtered search. 
• If any revisions are assigned in tasks, you can track those easily. 
• Odoo 18 also lets you display products under warranty. 

Odoo 18: CRM 

• A brand new Social Share app is introduced in Odoo 18 CRM that helps take advantage of communities and promote your content. It also facilitates single-click sharing of your content, helping improve your reach. 
• The Whatsapp integration is now more vivid with integration in different flows such as inventory, marketing, and automation. 
• Catch double bookings in case of scheduling appointments. Odoo lets you calculate booking prices based on the number of seats booked, customize pages, and more. 
• Social improvements, design of the marketing page, improved mail composer, new marketing automation onboarding, etc. are some other key features of the Odoo 18 CRM. 

Odoo 18: Accounting Features 

• In Odoo 18 accounting, the Odoo Enterprise users will now see a new invoicing feature. While you get an all-inclusive dashboard, you also get to benefit from features like smooth onboarding, and more. 
• The product and description column is now merged into one. 
• You can see the preview of the layout configuration in Odoo 18. 
• There’s a dedicated tax selection guide option that lets you choose your tax regime and work seamlessly with Odoo accounting. 
• The lock date wizard is revamped. You can see hash on send rather than on post or on demand. 
• Quickly create reconciliation from the Kanban view.

Odoo 18: Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap on exclusive new Odoo 18 features! But that’s not all; there’s more to it. You can expect to see some major changes in HR module, marketing, framework, documents, and sign module. To get exclusives of the new update, keep an eye out on our space. 

Intrigued what you can do with the new Odoo 18? Well, it’s time to get your plans in action. And BiztechCS, a leading certified Odoo partner can help you in this path. Connect with our Odoo experts, hire Odoo developers, and get started with the most amazing and flexible ERP of today.