/odoo-erp/inventory-and-warehouse
Odoo Inventory — what it does, and where teams get it wrong.
Double-entry stock, multi-warehouse routing and traceability. Two of its configuration decisions are effectively permanent, and both are usually made in the first week.
/what-it-covers
What it covers
- Double-entry stock moves — every quantity comes from somewhere and goes somewhere
- Multi-warehouse and multi-location, down to bin level
- Lot and serial traceability, forwards and backwards
- Replenishment: reordering rules, min/max, make-to-order
- Routing — receipt, quality, storage and delivery in configurable steps
- Barcode operations for picking, receiving and counts
- Landed costs, so freight and duty reach unit cost
- Cycle counting rather than an annual shutdown
/who-its-for
Who it's for
Distributors
holding thousands of SKUs across several locations, where the stock figure has to be right at the moment someone promises it.
Manufacturers
where raw material, WIP and finished goods all need valuing and the shop floor consumes stock continuously.
/what-it-connects-to
What it connects to inside Odoo
/customisations
Customisations we're asked for
usually justified
Custom picking sequences
Warehouse layout is genuinely idiosyncratic and picking efficiency is real money.
usually not
Custom stock reports
Odoo's pivot and list views reach most of what's asked for, and a custom report is a maintenance cost that reproduces something already there under a different name.
occasionally justified
Bespoke reservation logic
Frequently a sign that the reservation strategy hasn't been configured properly first. Worth exhausting the standard options before writing anything.
usually configuration
Barcode scanner integration
Rather than development. Odoo's barcode support covers more than people expect, and most scanners are keyboard-emulating devices that need no code at all.
/proof
Proof
A homeware and HORECA distributor moving its history off a bespoke system, with lot tracking on the categories that would matter in a recall and one-step receipts everywhere else.
Sector. Distribution & retail · Ref ref /DR-07
Link. Read the case study →
/next
Bring us your stock count variance.
Thirty minutes, no slides. We will tell you straight if Odoo is not the answer.