The service industry has been booming recently with its operational capabilities and the smoothness of function they bring into their customer firms and infrastructures. The industry has been prevailing since the introduction of the industrialization era which has rooted in its development. As the service provider companies hold skilled technicians which cannot be employed efficiently by the customers, the demand for the sector has never diminished. Furthermore, having a large client base, the service provider companies should function in a flexible, reliable, and effective manner to be successful in the sector.
With the era-defining invention and intervention of digitalization software and applications have been used for the management operations of businesses and companies. Enterprise and resource planning software has seemed to be highly effective with its usability and the number of customers for it. Odoo one of the ERPs is an open-source, customizable business management platform that has a huge clientele.
Odoo operating as a complex business management single platform-based software has centralized database storage and controllability of the entire business operations from a single system. Moreover, the operations of the company are managed by dedicated applications defined modules of operations which will cover the entire corners of company operations.
This blog will provide insight into the field service module of Odoo 14
Overview of the field service module
As mentioned earlier Odoo platform has designated applications that would help its user to run the company on all levels of operations. Because the companies need to manage their field operations and for the companies operating as service providers an application to manage the field activities is mandatory thereby Odoo has developed the field service module which will help the users to manage all the field activities of the company.
The field service module can be installed from the applications menu of the platform which comes in as the basic addon in the enterprise as well as community editions. The operations in the field service module are defined based on the projects created and the tasks defined on them. Furthermore, the operations of the module are integrated with all other modules of operations allowing the user to be functional with more efficient manners. Moreover, the user can assign employees to each task, invoice the customer directly from the module and the sales quotations for the products as well as the service sales can be generated. Also, the invoicing is done based on the timesheet operations which can be defined based on the financial attributes of the service. Where the timesheet operations are measured based on a timer that can be started while operating for the respective task, paused, and can be stopped at the end.
General Configuration
The field operations in Odoo are classified based on projects and task operations, the user is depicted with the task dashboard on entering the module. Here all the tasks are defined and the user can create a new one based on the projects being described. Additionally, many filtering and grouping options help the user to retrieve the dedicated information needed.
Task Creation
The user can create a new task by selecting the create options available, on the window the user can allocate a new for it, customer, assign sales order details and the service information. Moreover, the project, worksheet template, parent task, and the scheduled dates can also be assigned. Also, the timesheet operation along with a customized description of the task can be provided.
Project Creation
The projects can be created and defined in the module based on the service aspects of operations. The project menu will list out all the ongoing as well as the finished projects where the user can also create new ones. A customized project can be created with the task allocated to it. Additionally, the project manager, customer, and accounting aspects of the project can be defined.
Moreover, there are various configuration options available by default which can be enabled and disabled as per the user requirements.
The user can enable the quotations option which allows the user to create sales quotations on field service tasks and operations. Also, this aspect will allow the user to bill the customers based on the time spent and the products being used.
Planning
Considering the field operations, planning is an important aspect of consideration. The Odoo platform has a precise planning window that allows the user to plan the tasks and project operations using the calendar view.