Odoo Documents

Odoo Documents (DMS) introduction

Within Odoo version 12 there is a new Documents module, also called DMS. DMS stands for Document Management System. This gives you as a user the opportunity to set up a paperless office in addition to the implementation of smooth business processes within an Odoo package.

In addition to the fact that a paperless office is better for the environment, it saves costs and contributes to the smoothing of business processes. Setting up a paperless office has now become much easier thanks to Odoo and also ensures that processes are completed faster. For example, documents can be validated or rejected at the touch of a button thanks to the use of the action buttons.

Documents that require a signature can also be signed using the Odoo Sign app. This new module gives the possibility to request documents from other users and these documents can be easily shared with colleagues, customers and suppliers.

All in all, using Odoo Documents will make life a lot easier for you as a user and drastically reduce paper usage within your organization. As a result, costs go down and processes are completed faster.

Odoo Documents ensures that documents are stored in a central place that can be shared with users based on user rights and assignments to departments or persons. Odoo Documents also offers you the possibility to share documents with suppliers and customers. Documents can be added more easily to messages sent through Odoo, which allows uploading and sending documents.

Odoo Documents gives the user the opportunity to reduce paper use within your organization to a paperless office. 

Layout and functionality

In the next paragraph, more insight will be provided into the functionality and use of Odoo Documents. This is not a manual, but it will give you as a user some explanation about the functionalities within this fantastic new module.

Upload and Share

Odoo Documents gives you as a user the possibility to request documents to be uploaded and to add URL link, all of which can then be shared with colleagues or contacts such as suppliers and customers. For this purpose, several buttons have been created within Odoo that are located as large buttons at the top.

• Upload (Add/read in a document)
• Add URL (Add a URL / web address)
• Request document (Request for a document)
• Share (Share a file or URL)

The upload button will open an explorer that offers the possibility to select documents to upload. Documents can also be added by dragging them into the desired folder in Odoo Documents, using the Drag and Drop function. When a folder is empty, this function will be clearly indicated.

Through the Add URL button, a user can add a URL as a document and thus share websites or links to videos. This makes it easier for a user to share YouTube videos or an online document in Office 365 or Google Docs, for example.

If a document is missing, for example a report or an expense claim, you can send documents and a request via Odoo to the relevant colleague to save the file. Sending a request for a document can be done via the Request document button. When used, an Odoo internal message window will open through which a request can be sent. The user where this request is submitted can send the document via the message or place it in the desired folder for the submitter of this request.

Within Odoo documents, there are several ways to share files with other people. This can be done by using the Share button, which will pop up to share a file through it.

Folders and Tags

Within Odoo documents documents are sorted into folders which in turn can be assigned to departments or persons with specific user rights if desired. The folders can also be provided with labels that can be selected in the left menu to simplify filtering for files in a folder. The labels can be distinguished in Main labels and sub-labels that hang below the main label, creating a tree structure. Tags are associated with folders. You can create your own labels for each folder. This created the limitation that searching can only be done within the folder selected at the time of searching. However, it is possible to search within the documents in the folder. At the moment we at Odoo Experts have not yet found the possibility to search for files over the entire folder structure within Odoo documents. However, as this is the first release of this module, we expect this option to be added in a next release.

Edit menu

When a file is selected within Odoo documents, a number of preset functions appear in the right menu. We will briefly describe these functions here.

At the top of the menu, there is space for possibly an image based on the file that has been uploaded, along with a message link specific to the selected file. Directly below the image field are a number of quick buttons that allow the user to; download the file, share the file, replace the file and to Block the file so that it cannot be modified and only viewed. Then a number of text fields are shown where the user, if the file is not locked, can change the name of the file, add a contact person, change an owner of the document, change the folder where the file is stored and add labels. can add or remove.

Finally, there are a number of Action buttons that are pre-created and related to the type of file selected. For example, documents, invoices, contracts, etc. can be approved or rejected via the action buttons, depending on the type of document. An approval or rejection can be added to an invoice, after which feedback can be sent directly to the customer or colleague. Files that have been confirmed can also be returned to draft or specific tasks can be created for further processing of documents. All of these actions can be customized or created through the DMS settings. If desired, the actions can be assigned to certain types of files and folders, in order to speed up recurring actions.

Settings

Within the Odoo DMS it is possible to go to the settings. Here the user has a number of options to check

• Create Product folder and label
• Create Project folder and label
• Create accounting folder and label

These functions ensure that the mentioned folders are automatically created within the assigned root folder. Preset labels can also be added to these documents to speed up filtering. These labels can always be added or changed at a later time.

Via the settings menu the folder structure can be adjusted, the labels can be managed, the action buttons are created/modified and assigned and the shared links can be managed.

Editing the above features is similar to customizing other features within Odoo and has the same user-friendliness.

Advantages paperless office

The term paperless office comes from the 1970s, with the aim of working everywhere based on this concept in 20 years. However, in the 20th century large amounts of paper are still used in many places. The paperless office concept was not only conceived from the point of view of combating tree felling, but its main objective is that it contributes to improving business processes. A paperless office uses digital documents, making them faster and easier to share with larger groups of people. Besides the fact that it is faster to share a document online than to transfer it physically, making adjustments and improvements within a digital document is faster. That is why we at Odoo Experts are very enthusiastic about the new Odoo documents module that has been added to version 12 and we also see many opportunities for companies to run processes even more smoothly.