Odoo 20 is here – the key updates
Odoo 20 has been released. AI agents can now take part in automated workflows, and the planning of field service visits can take customers’ locations into account. The new version also brings improvements to manufacturing, inventory, eCommerce and accounting. The interface has a more focused layout, clearer icons and more muted colours.
Watch Odoo’s presentation of version 20 below. After the video, we look at the updates we think businesses should pay particular attention to.
AI in Odoo 20: From assistance to automated tasks
Allerede i Odoo 19 introduced a range of AI features that made it possible, among other things, to search data, summarise correspondence and get help creating content across apps. Odoo 20 builds on these capabilities. AI agents can now be triggered by automated actions or run on a schedule.
An agent no longer has to wait for an employee to send it a message in a chat. Odoo also lets you review how an agent carried out an automated task and adjust its configuration if the result was not as expected.
Examples of AI automation in Odoo 20
There are many opportunities to automate work with AI. When you start using agents in Odoo, it makes sense to begin with a process that has clear boundaries and an outcome you can check. This helps you assess whether the agent performs as expected and identify where an employee should approve its actions. Here are some examples of tasks an agent could help with:
- When a new lead is created: The agent reads the enquiry and assigns the lead to the appropriate salesperson according to criteria you have defined.
- When an agreement is signed: The agent creates a project with the relevant tasks, giving the project team a starting point for its work.
- When an order arrives by email: The agent can create a draft sales order from the email and send it to an employee for approval before the customer receives a confirmation.
- Each week in purchasing: An agent can review past purchases and identify suppliers whose prices may be worth renegotiating. The buyer assesses the suggestions before contacting the suppliers.
- At month-end: An agent can review the bank reconciliation and compile potential errors and unresolved entries for the finance team. An employee decides what needs to be investigated or corrected.
AI is particularly useful when a task involves reading and assessing content, such as the text of an enquiry. If an action depends solely on a fixed threshold or date, a standard automation rule may be enough. You should therefore define the task and the relevant access rights before choosing to use an agent.
The AI assistant in Odoo’s website builder has also been expanded. It can help create forms, change menus, add interactive elements and use existing product or event information as the basis for a page. This can make it easier to build and maintain pages, although their content and functionality still need to be checked before publication.
Keep an eye on usage: According to Odoo’s release notes, AI features require credits purchased through its IAP service. Expected credit usage should therefore be part of your assessment of any proposed automation.
Better planning for field service visits
When a craftsman or service technician has several customer visits in one day, the addresses matter when deciding how best to schedule the work. In Odoo 20, automatic planning can take customers’ locations into account. This gives planners a better starting point for scheduling the day’s visits and adjusting the plan when a job changes.
Employees in the field can also continue working if they lose their connection. Offline capabilities were expanded in Odoo 19.x and remain relevant: a craftsman can record details of a job, while a consultant can update an activity after a customer meeting. Which records are available offline depends on what has previously been accessed online. Changes are synchronised when the connection returns. The workflow should therefore be tested in the apps and on the devices your employees use.
Manufacturing: A clearer view of backorders and costs
If a planned manufacturing order is split and a backorder is created, Odoo 20 can now schedule the backorder automatically. This makes it easier to see the remaining work in the production plan and prioritise it alongside other orders.
Odoo also shows a provisional cost while a manufacturing order is in progress and its actual cost once the order is complete. For manufacturers, this can make it easier to track costs as work progresses and investigate differences afterwards. The usefulness of these figures depends, among other things, on how material consumption and working time are recorded.
Inventory management with more precise replenishment suggestions
How much should you reorder, and when? Odoo 20 can suggest minimum and maximum stock levels for reordering rules based on demand history, the number of days of stock cover you want and how often you place orders. This gives buyers a starting point for adjusting the rules for each product instead of setting every level manually.
This is particularly relevant if you have a large product range or sales patterns that vary from one product to another. The suggested figures still need to be considered alongside supplier lead times, seasonal changes and campaigns. The system can support the decision, while your business determines how much risk of stockouts or excess stock it is willing to accept.
Odoo also gives buyers more information about suppliers. They can see a supplier’s quality results based on completed quality checks of delivered products. If your business records quality consistently, this provides another factor to consider alongside price and delivery time when choosing a supplier.
An online store that better reflects stock and customer types
In Odoo 20, products can automatically be unpublished from the online store when they are out of stock and published again when they become available. This is useful for stores where availability changes frequently and staff would otherwise have to update the product range manually. The right configuration depends on whether you want to accept orders for temporarily unavailable products.
Price display can now be controlled through pricelists, allowing prices to be shown including VAT to consumers and excluding VAT to business customers on the same store. Odoo also highlights improved coverage and data quality for the store’s GA4 events. If your business actively measures conversions, it is worth reviewing both the events and your existing tracking after an upgrade.
Stronger controls for bank reconciliation
Odoo 20 includes a new bank reconciliation report showing reconciled and open transactions as of a selected date. Odoo also requires accounting entries that affect bank accounts to originate from bank transactions. This is intended to prevent discrepancies that can arise from manual entries posted directly to a bank account.
When upgrading, the finance team should check how existing bank entries and open transactions appear in the report on a specific date. If you currently make manual corrections to bank accounts, you should also examine how they are handled in the new workflow.
Communication and support
Communication tools have also been expanded in Odoo 20. Discuss calls can be recorded and summarised, while Phone has a tool for configuring the flow of incoming calls. If you already manage sales and support in Odoo, it is worth exploring whether these options suit the way you receive and follow up on enquiries.
In Helpdesk, AI can find similar tickets and suggest replies based on them. This may help support teams find and reuse previous solutions when a new enquiry arrives. Employees still need to assess whether a suggestion fits the case at hand.
What does Odoo 20 mean for your business?
The Odoo 20 changes that offer the most value depend on how you use the system. A trading company may benefit most from looking at replenishment and the connection between inventory and its online store. A manufacturer may want to examine backorder planning and cost tracking. Others may start with one clearly defined AI automation.
For a business with employees working in the field, a practical first step could be to test automatic planning using a week of actual customer visits. This lets you see how customer addresses affect the schedule before changing the daily workflow.
Get started with Odoo 20 – or upgrade your existing system
If you already use Odoo, we can help you plan and carry out an upgrade to version 20. We start with your workflows, customisations and integrations, and test the changes that could affect your day-to-day operations.
If you are new to Odoo, we can help you define your requirements, set up the system and put it to work. At itpilot, we also develop and extend Odoo solutions as your needs change.
Would you like to learn more about what Odoo 20 could offer your business? Call us on +45 87 25 07 87 or fill in the contact form to get in touch.
