Every year, Odoo presents its major directions for the upcoming version. It is not a catalog of features set in stone — the product teams say so themselves. It is more of an open window into how they think about the software. And that window is instructive.
Here is how we at Auguria read what is coming for Odoo 20, and what it means in practice for companies that use or are considering using the platform.
Odoo Roadmap For Odoo 20.pdf
A guiding principle: making other tools unnecessary
What strikes you first in Odoo 20's direction is the stated ambition to replace the satellite tools that many companies accumulate around their ERP: an electronic signature tool, phone software, a marketing campaign platform, an online booking solution…
The idea is not new, but version 20 seems to take a step forward in execution. Each module receives features that, until now, justified keeping an external subscription. This is good news for users who want to simplify their application landscape. It is also a strong selling point for companies that are still hesitant about centralizing their management.
Simple and intuitive — The interface first
A mobile experience finally designed for touch
Until now, using Odoo on a phone meant navigating a shrunken version of the desktop interface. Version 20 changes the approach: screens are redesigned from scratch for use on a smartphone or tablet. Forms adapt to the finger, navigation is simplified, essential information is highlighted. For field teams — salespeople, technicians, delivery drivers — this is a change that really eases day-to-day adoption.
The Payroll module gains readability
Two major changes are announced for payroll management.
The first concerns the dashboard. Before running a payroll batch, you need to make sure everything is in order: valid contracts, bank details filled in, identification numbers present. Today, this check is done manually, searching through different menus. Tomorrow, a dashboard groups all the alerts with a direct link to the fix to be made. The payroll manager sees at a glance what is blocking and where to act.
The second concerns the calculation engine itself. The current process requires a step of generating and validating a work schedule before payslips can be calculated. This intermediate step, a source of confusion and errors for many of our clients, disappears in version 20. The calculation relies directly on leave taken and the schedule. Fewer steps, fewer errors, less time wasted.
The calendar becomes a real time management tool
The Odoo calendar has long been a passive display of appointments. Version 20 gives it a real functional dimension: several distinct calendars per user, synchronization with several Google or Outlook accounts at the same time, a personal appointment booking page accessible by link from outside — like a built-in Calendly — and work location synchronization for teams working partly remotely.
Timesheets fill in almost by themselves
A timer accessible from any Odoo screen lets you start the stopwatch on a task without interruption. And at the end of the day, an assistant analyzes the user's activity — calls received, documents viewed, messaging exchanges — to suggest time allocations by project. The user validates or adjusts. Time entry, often neglected because it is tedious, becomes almost automatic.
Artificial intelligence as an action layer
This is probably the most structuring change in Odoo 20. Artificial intelligence is not just a "generate text" button added here and there. It is present in every module as a capability to act on data, not just to produce it.
An assistant that understands accounting for you
For an executive with no accounting training, interpreting a balance sheet or spotting an anomaly in the accounts is often difficult. An assistant automatically analyzes bank accounts, expenses and reconciliations, flags inconsistencies — for example bank transfers with no matching invoice — and presents a clear report. The finance manager or executive only has to validate or dig deeper into the flagged points.
A website that improves through description
In the website editor, the user can now describe in plain language what they want to change — "make this headline punchier", "add a picture of a gym", "put a contact button right below" — and the changes are applied directly on the page. No code, no complex menu. This approach democratizes website management for teams without technical skills.
Bulk actions through a simple instruction
Artificial intelligence can execute operations directly in the database from a request in everyday language: reassigning sales opportunities from one salesperson to another, creating a structured project from a PDF document, or answering a question about company data without going through reports. What used to take several minutes of navigation and manipulation is done in a few seconds.
Faster support on repetitive requests
From a support ticket, the assistant summarizes the history of exchanges with the customer, drafts a suggested reply and searches among previously resolved tickets for those that resemble the current situation. For teams handling a large volume of similar requests, the time savings are real.
A point of caution for integrators
Artificial intelligence that acts directly on Odoo data profoundly changes the risks associated with deployments. For each client, we will need to define precise scopes of action for these agents, particularly on financial and human resources modules. Odoo access rights apply, but ease of execution mechanically increases exposure to unintentional errors.
Accounting — Several structural changes
Pay your vendors without leaving Odoo
Today, paying vendors by bank transfer means exporting a file from Odoo, importing it into the bank's interface, then validating the payment. In version 20, Odoo sends the transfer order directly to the bank from the interface, with a single validation. The bank connection stops being one-way.
Reconcile any account
Accounting reconciliation — matching entries that cancel each other out, such as an invoice and its payment — was until now reserved for customer, vendor and bank accounts. It becomes possible across the entire chart of accounts. Odoo automatically calculates and generates adjustment entries when differences remain, which avoids many manual entries.
Several official identifiers per partner
A single partner record can now store several identifiers of different kinds: intra-community VAT number, SIRET, LEI identifier for financial institutions, EORI number for customs exchanges. Each identifier is associated with its type and validated against the expected format.
Display prices excluding or including tax depending on context
For each product, you define whether the reference price is tax-excluded or tax-included. On a document — quotation or invoice — a button lets you switch the display from one mode to the other without manual recalculation. Handy for companies that address both businesses and individuals.
Point of Sale — Hardware, restaurants, self-order kiosk
Connect POS hardware without technical skills
Connecting a receipt printer or a payment terminal to Odoo today requires installing an intermediate box and handling security certificates — operations that call for technical intervention. In version 20, the Chrome browser automatically detects and configures the equipment present on the local network, the way you install a printer from a computer. Setting up POS hardware becomes accessible to everyone. Note: this change does not yet work on Apple devices.
Combo menus trigger without waiter intervention
When the items ordered match a defined combo menu — starter, main course and drink, for example — Odoo detects it automatically and offers to switch to the bundled price, with the savings displayed. The waiter no longer has to think about it, which avoids oversights and customer dissatisfaction.
Reconfigure the dining room directly from the POS
The table layout can be changed by drag and drop directly on the POS screen. You choose the shape of each table, the zone colors, and you can import an existing floor plan as a background. Managing the floor plan no longer requires going into the administration.
Temporarily hide an item without changing its record
When a product is no longer available for this service, a simple button hides it from the online ordering menu, without touching the product record and without affecting other points of sale. The item reappears automatically at the next service or on demand.
New payment and cash management integrations
On the payment side: Mollie, M-Pesa and Wero — which takes over from Payconiq and Bancontact — join the list of available integrations. On the cash management side: machines that count and give change automatically — Glory, Cashdro, Cashmatic — are now supported. All payment terminals also become compatible with self-service ordering kiosks.
Electronic signature — Automation and international reach
Signature requests that trigger by themselves
Today, sending a document for signature requires a manual action. In version 20, this step can be automated: as soon as a sales opportunity moves to the "proposal" stage, Odoo automatically sends the corresponding agreement to the right recipient. Signatories can be determined dynamically — the contact associated with the record — or set in advance — always the director for the internal signature.
This automation also integrates with Odoo's activity system, which makes it possible to trigger a signature request from any record, in any module. And signature fields can now be inserted directly into PDF documents generated by Odoo, without going through an external template.
Significantly expanded international coverage
The itsme electronic identification system — the Belgian equivalent of France Connect — is now supported in more than 30 countries. Fonts are extended to cover more than 40 new locales, enabling signing in countries with non-Latin alphabets. The document template creation interface is optimized for use on a touch tablet.
The information entered by signatories in a document — contact details, references, dates — can be exported in bulk to a spreadsheet for batch processing.
Field planning — Field Service becomes Planning
The name change reflects a fundamental evolution. This module is no longer limited to technical field interventions: it now covers the planning of all of a company's mobile resources, whether people or equipment.
Several resources per intervention
A single intervention can mobilize several technicians with different roles and several pieces of equipment at the same time, each with its own allocated time.
Intervention sheets adapted to the trade
Each intervention sheet can be configured as needed: equipment reference, serial number, type of service, free-form description. The sheet ends with the technician's digital signature, directly on their device.
What's coming in this version
- Travel time between two interventions appears in the planning view, for a better estimate of the day
- When a technician has several stops in the day, Odoo automatically calculates the visiting order that minimizes the kilometers traveled
- The planning manager has a map showing in real time the position of each technician on the move
- Equipment and tools can be assigned directly to a technician in the planning
- A side panel lets you drag and drop interventions without leaving the main view
Track the real profitability of each job
Two reports are announced to manage margin by project. The first compares what the project has actually earned — services invoiced, milestones reached, additional invoicing — with what it cost in non-rebillable time. The second projects what the project should still cost until closing, by comparing what was sold with what was invoiced. For consulting and services companies, this is a view long awaited in standard Odoo.
Website and e-commerce
Customers manage their returns on their own
From their area on the website, the buyer can initiate a return, select the items concerned and give the reason, without contacting customer service. The request automatically triggers logistics processing on the company side.
Complementary product suggestions with no rules to configure
Odoo analyzes the cart contents and automatically suggests products likely to interest the buyer, without the need to manually define product associations.
A store dashboard and visible progress toward promotions
The online store's key indicators are grouped in a dedicated dashboard. On the customer side, a progress bar shows what is missing to reach a promotional benefit — free shipping, a discount — directly in the cart.
Fundamental improvements to SEO
- Faster page loading
- Structured data allowing Google to display rich information in its results
- Hierarchical organization of the website's pages
- Revised redirect management tool
- Fixes for indexing, sitemap and canonical URL issues that were hurting rankings
Technical points — What developers need to watch
Owl 3: an unavoidable migration
The software framework that drives Odoo's user interface moves to version 3. Custom interface components developed in version 2 will need to be reviewed and partly rewritten. No custom module will escape it.
New interface for communicating with third-party software
The interface that lets external applications talk to Odoo is moving to a new version. Existing connectors — websites, business applications, gateways to other software — will need to be adapted. Technical documentation is available on odoo.com.
The PDF report editor gets richer
The document editor built into Odoo, introduced in version 17, continues to evolve. It now lets you insert electronic signature fields directly into document templates — purchase orders, contracts, reports — without going through an external tool.
Odoo data directly in the spreadsheet, no export
A new formula in the Odoo spreadsheet displays any list of data — orders, customers, stock levels — with automatic updates. Manual CSV export to feed a dashboard becomes unnecessary.
Impact on payroll: a critical point for integrators
The removal of work entries from the payroll engine is the most impactful technical change for HR integrators. Any custom module that interacts with hr.work.entry in a payroll context will need to be reviewed. The new centralized flow is organized in three steps: Employees → Time → Payslips.
New industry verticals
Odoo is developing prebuilt configurations by industry — ready-to-use installations with settings, flows and documents suited to the trade, which considerably reduce setup time.
Hospitality
- Occupancy rate tracking by room type
- Connection to online booking platforms via Channex
- Revenue and rate management by season
- Organization of room cleaning and preparation
Construction and building trades
- Structured quotations with detailed work items, cost types and overheads
- Site planning by work package, with subcontracting management
- Invoicing based on actual progress of the work
Newly covered sectors
- Auto repair shop
- Manufacturer of custom industrial equipment
- Care facility and senior residence
- Pet groomer
- Home services and personal assistance
Other verticals in development
- Real estate: compatibility between property management, lease management and condominium management
- Recruitment agency: integrated flow between candidate tracking, customer relationship and invoicing
Agricultural equipment rental, beauty salons and insurance brokers are mentioned in the presentation as potential projects, with no commitment to release in this version.
CRM and marketing — Visual sequences and smart actions
A visual flow editor for automated campaigns
Marketing sequences are now built like a diagram: each step is represented by a block, linked to the next by a connector. You see the complete sequence of a campaign at a glance.
The available actions cover three areas:
Communicate: send an email, an SMS, a WhatsApp message, create a follow-up activity, leave an internal note
Organize the flow: redirect to another step, split based on conditions, filter contacts, wait a defined delay, react to behaviors
Act on data: subscribe or unsubscribe to a list, send a discount voucher, update a field, trigger a custom action, or ask artificial intelligence to write the message according to the recipient's profile
CRM
- Several distinct sales pipelines in the same interface
- New extensions for common business messaging tools
- Automatic lead assignment rules based on configurable criteria
Email marketing
- New content blocks and ready-to-use campaign templates
- Recipient lists that automatically stay up to date based on defined criteria
- Handling of large attachments in mailings
Payments and telephony — Internationalization and built-in phone system
Payment coverage extended to new markets
New providers join the list of available integrations: ECPay in Taiwan, Xendit in Singapore, PayWay in Cambodia, QF Pay, Belvo and Kueski in Latin America. TikTok Shop and Lazada are added as new connected marketplaces, along with a generic engine to connect other custom platforms. Saving payment methods for returning customers and manual validation before debit are extended to several additional providers.
A complete phone system, managed from Odoo
- Purchase of phone numbers in more than 100 countries directly from the platform, with no third-party carrier
- Visual call flow editor: depending on the time, public holiday or the caller's geographic origin, the call is routed to the right contact or queue
- Each call is recorded with its transcript, displayed alongside the relevant customer record
- A complete business telephony solution, with no additional subscription
Our overall reading
Odoo 20 is not a version that tries to impress by volume. It is a version that digs deeper where previous versions had laid foundations, and that fills functional gaps our clients regularly point out to us.
Artificial intelligence as an action agent changes the very nature of interacting with the ERP. The simplification of the payroll engine removes a major source of friction. The growing autonomy of end users — on POS hardware, on the website, on customer returns — reduces dependence on the IT department for everyday tasks.
For companies supported by Auguria, we recommend anticipating three topics right now before migrating to Odoo 20:
- The audit of custom interface components, which will need to be updated for the new software framework
- The review of payroll-related modules, particularly those that interact with work entries
- Defining a governance policy for AI agents, before enabling them on sensitive data