From our projects: solving Odoo problems in practice
These are not marketing case studies with savings percentages. They are three real problems from Odoo projects and how we approached them. We do not name clients, and we describe the status of each project as it actually is.
Payroll when moving to a new Odoo version: checking every employee
Company: a company that runs Croatian payroll in Odoo.
Problem. When moving to a newer Odoo version, employee data is migrated automatically. At first glance everything looked right: employees, contracts and payslips were in place. The problem was in details that only show up when payroll is calculated. Part of the second pension pillar and personal allowance data was not migrated correctly.
Approach. We did not rely on a sample of a few employees. We compared every employee with their last payslip from the old system, field by field. That revealed the cause: the import looked for a field name that no longer exists in the new version, so it wrote an empty value.
What was done. The import was fixed, the data was migrated again and the comparison was repeated until all coefficients matched the source payroll. A verified database backup was made before every change.
Lesson. A payroll migration is not finished when the data is moved. It is finished when payroll in the new system matches the old one. That check is worth doing for every employee, not for a sample.
Shop floor instructions on tablets: each worker sees only the next step
Company: a food manufacturer with several work stations.
Problem. Production workers followed paper instructions, and time per step was hard to track. When the same worker switched to another order, time tracking got mixed up. On top of that, the company was moving to a newer Odoo version.
Approach. Instead of a separate app, we used standard Odoo Shop Floor on tablets and adapted it to how workers actually work at the station.
What was done.
- Instructions for each step are shown on the tablet, with images and slides.
- The worker is selected at the start, and starting a new order stops time tracking on the previous one.
- Quality check steps unlock in order, so a check cannot be skipped.
- The produced quantity can be corrected before the order is finished.
The fixes are deployed to a test environment and verified. Some of the latest improvements are so far verified locally and are waiting to be deployed.
Lesson. A production screen should be designed for a person standing next to a machine with dirty hands, not for an office. Fewer choices on screen mean fewer mistakes.
Make-to-order products: from quotation to bill of materials and traceability
Company: a manufacturer that assembles every product to order from purchased components.
Problem. Every product is different. Quotations, material lists, purchasing, assembly and costing were kept in separate spreadsheets. When the configuration changed, it was hard to track what had been ordered, what went into which product and what the real cost was.
Approach. We started from the flow, not from the modules: how the configuration in a quotation becomes a bill of materials, the bill of materials becomes purchasing and a manufacturing order, and the finished product becomes a delivery and a final cost statement.
What was done.
- The product configuration from the quotation creates the bill of materials, with the material list imported from Excel.
- Project material is kept separate, so it is clear what belongs to which product.
- Traceability of components to the finished product.
- Partial deliveries and combined shipping of several delivery orders.
- The final project statement connects sales, material and labour.
The solution is in the training and user testing phase. Before go-live, users work through purchasing, receipts, packing and labelling on their own.
Lesson. In make-to-order production the biggest risk is not the manufacturing order itself, but the moment the configuration changes after material has already been ordered. That case should be tested before go-live, not after.
Do you have a similar problem?
If you recognise one of these problems in your company, describe it briefly. I will tell you how I would approach it and whether Odoo is a good choice for it.
