Odoo is an Enterprise Resource Planning software package that allows you to look after your enterprise’s billing, accounting, manufacturing, project management, customer resource management and every other important aspect that encompasses it.
Odoo is one of the best ERP packages on the market right now, being consistently ranked higher and higher on best lists.
Customer satisfaction has also been reported in good spirits and the benefits of ERP software of its kind are indisputable, if implemented in the right way. Indeed, with the need to implement ERP software in today’s enterprises, it is also critical that they are implemented in the right way.
The following will discuss how to implement Odoo in retail business the right way and get your investment’s worth.
How to Implement Odoo in Retail Business
There are two versions of Odoo; Community and Enterprise, with the latter providing more robust features on top of all the necessary features provided by Community.
Odoo may be acquired through either its online version, where the Odoo Company will guide you through implementation or its direct download version, which you can customize and adjust all on your own.
You may also acquire Odoo through a service partner who will implement and integrate Odoo for you into your enterprise, charges varying. After acquiring Odoo through any of these ways, the next step is to create the database.
This database is a macro unit formed of many modules that you must install from Odoo Apps but they are automatically integrated upon installation. The core modules are:
Accounting and Finance
Simple and powerful, this is useful for quick processing of transactions. It is connected seamlessly with the other follow modules.
This module deals with accounts and transactions with features such as double entry bookkeeping and accrual and cash basis methods, which report income and expense at the moment transactions occur.
It also currently has support for currencies of over 50 countries and is constantly being updated to keep up with inflation and exchange rates. With this module, you are also exempt from requiring to keep a year-end journal as it automatically calculates your yearly earnings in real-time.
Customer Relationship Management
Integrated with Accounting and Finance as well as Purchase, the CRM module is a combination of eight apps and plugins that manages CRM operations for you.
This module can track your sales activities, schedule meetings with customers, allow you to communicate with customers via e-mail, chat and social media directly from within the module and also has the tools to enable automatically generated promotional e-mails to customers.
Odoo being ahead of the ERP curve, also has GeoIP features that automatically gathers detailed location information from your customers’ IP addresses.
Human Resources
An efficient HR management tool for use with Odoo. Allows automation of processes such as recruitment and leave management while also giving you good insight into your employees as a body.
The HR module comes with options for creating employee directories, management of employee attendance, simplifying the payroll process with a defined salary structure, and most notable of all, managing the recruitment process.
You can automate and monitor all recruitment processes such as criteria, stages, and qualifications with this module.
Websites and E-commerce
A novel feature of Odoo that allows you to create your own website quickly and efficiently without depending on third party apps.
It is also integrated well into other modules. The application specifically is the Odoo Website Builder.
It is just as robust as Wix and WordPress and can also integrate other modular features such as those from Human Resources and CRM into the website.
There are two types of users in this module: Editors and Designers and Restricted Editors, each with varying levels of access.
Project Management
This module allows you keep track of all your projects with a user-defined workflow. It helps you keep track of processes such as project initiation, planning, analysis and closing.
It is one of the most powerful tools in Odoo and puts it above the rest owing to its accessibility and potent scaling options.
You can define your project well by adding tasks in it, assigning specific tasks to employees, managing employee time sheets and track issues associated with the project without hassle. It also comes with a portal view that enables clients to track the progress of your project.
Inventory Management
The inventory is the heart of a business as it gives the rest of the parts its lifeblood. Hence, this is the most important module to have as it can mean the difference between a healthy business and an ailing one.
This module can be scaled to be of use to any business organization irrespective of size and it is fully integrated with the other modules. You can view your inventory as you would in a real-time strategy video game.
After you are done with setting your database, you can create more if needed and appoint different administrators for each of them. It is necessary to make an administrator account as it will be given complete control over the ERP system.
It also possible to designate multiple tiers of administrators with different levels of control.
The other type of ERP users are the system users. These are the employees that will login and access different sections of the ERP such as the department heads, project managers, team leaders etc, depending on the organization hierarchy of your enterprise.
You would also do well to make use of the grouping features, allowing you to designate clusters of employees according to their roles and tasks.
This allows the ERP to assist you in hierarchy management and impose access controls quickly. An infinite number of groups can be made, merged and disbanded at will.
It is also important that you set up a Master Password. This allows designated users to make changes at will to the database data can be assigned to groups at once in the Enterprise edition.
Interested in learning more on how to implement Odoo in retail business? Visit www.syncoria.com to schedule a consultation session with us. Syncoria is a digital transformation solutions expert based in Canada, and an Odoo Ready Partner. We also provide custom development of software, mobile apps, and other digital solutions