The purchasing department of a company is not only responsible for the procurement of articles or raw materials. Rather, it is also about ordering processes, stock levels and the optimization of production orders. Thus, the purchasing department bears an enormously important responsibility in everyday business life. The work of the purchasing department is usually mapped in an ERP system. This is also the case in Odoo.
Odoo is an open source ERP developed by the Belgian company Odoo S.A.. It covers various business areas, including sales, purchasing, warehouse management, production, accounting, human resources and much more. What makes Odoo special is that it offers a comprehensive suite of applications that are aligned and can be seamlessly integrated to create a complete ERP system. One of these applications is the Odoo Purchase module, which we would like to present in more detail in this article.
The following functions and features are included in Odoo Purchase
1.supplier management:
Odoo Purchase allows you to manage supplier data, including contact details, payment terms, delivery times and supplier-specific notes.
2. Product management:
You can enter and manage products and product variants, services and materials (e.g. raw materials) to be purchased from suppliers in the system. You can feed these products with additional information, such as prices, minimum order quantities and stock levels.
3. Order transactions:
Odoo Purchase includes, on the one hand, the creation of purchase requisitions and, on the other hand, requests for quotations (RFQ), purchase orders and framework agreements. You can compare prices and conditions from different suppliers to get the best deals. Odoo also offers dropshipping functionality – orders can be delivered directly from the supplier to a third party.
4. Price comparisons:
With the option of comparing offers, you will always get the best price. In addition, it is possible to store several suppliers directly on a product in order to obtain a direct price comparison.
5. Order monitoring:
With Odoo Purchase, you can track the status of orders at any time, monitor delivery dates or receive notifications about delays or changes in delivery.
6. Warehouse management:
Odoo Purchase is closely linked to the inventory management module to ensure that inventories are always available in sufficient quantities and that the right items are procured at the right time.
7. Goods receipt:
When the ordered items arrive, the goods receipt should be recorded directly. This is the only way to ensure that the orders have been executed correctly and completely. In case of differences, you can request a backorder from the supplier directly from the purchase order.
8. Invoice matching:
The purchasing module can be integrated with Odoo’s accounting module to facilitate invoice reconciliation and streamline the payment process.
9. Reports and analyses:
Odoo provides extensive reporting capabilities that allow you to analyze purchasing performance and optimize the procurement process.
Since Odoo is modular, you can seamlessly connect the purchase module with many other modules, such as sales, warehouse management and accounting. This overarching interaction makes Odoo a very comprehensive ERP system with a high degree of flexibility. For example, orders can be automatically converted into invoices as soon as the goods have been shipped.
