Documents¶
Odoo Documents allows you to store, view, and manage files within Odoo.
You can upload any file (max 64MB per file on Odoo Online) and organize them in various workspaces.
Configuration¶
By going to , you can enable the centralization of files attached to a specific area of your activity. For example, by ticking Human Resources, your HR documents are automatically available in the HR workspace, while documents related to Payroll are automatically available in the Payroll sub-workspace . You can change the default workspace using the dropdown menu and edit its properties by clicking the internal link button (➔).
Note
If you enable the centralization of your accounting files and documents, it is necessary to click on Journals and define each journal independently to allow automatic synchronization.
If you select a new workspace, existing documents are not moved. Only newly created documents will be found under the new workspace.
Workspaces¶
Workspaces are hierarchical folders having their own set of tags and actions. Default workspaces exist, but you can create your own by going to and clicking New. On the new page, fill in the following information:
Name
Parent Workspace: if you want to create a sub-workspace, select its Parent Workspace
Access rights¶
To manage your workspace access rights, go to , open the workspace you want to edit, and go to the Access Rights tab. You can add Write Groups that can view, create, and edit the workspace’s documents. You can also add Read Groups that can only view the workspace’s documents.
Description¶
You can add descriptive information to your workspace by going to , opening the workspace you want to describe and going to the Description tab.
Note
Workspaces can also be created and edited by clicking the gear icon ⚙ on the left menu.
Documents management¶
When selecting or opening a document, the right panel displays different options. On the top, additional options might be available: Download, Share, Replace, Lock or Split. It is also possible to Open chatter or use the Move to trash option.
Then, you can modify the name of your file by clicking on Name. A Contact or an Owner can be assigned. The related Workspace can be modified and it is possible to access the related Journal Entry or add Tags.
Note
The Contact is the person related to the document and assigned to it. He can only view the document and not modify it. I.e.: an existing supplier in your database is the contact for their bill.
The person who creates a document is, by default Owner of it and has complete rights to it. It is possible to replace the owner of a document. I.e., an employee must be owner of a document to be able to see it in “My Profile”.
Different Actions are available at the bottom of the right panel, depending on the workspace where your document is stored.
Split PDF documents¶
Select the PDF you want to split, and click the scissors icon. A new view displays all the pages of the document.
By default, each page of the document will be split when clicking Split. To remove a split between two pages, click on the scissors icon.
Tip
To merge documents from your dashboard, select them and click the scissors icon. Click on the scissors between the two documents and click Split to merge the documents.
Additional features¶
Select a workspace and click the arrow next to the Upload button to access additional features:
Request¶
You can create “missing documents” and organize them as documents, to remind users to download them.
Select the workspace where the file should be stored, click Upload, then Request. Add the Document Name, select the person you need it from in the Request To field, fill in the Due Date In, confirm the Workspace, the document should belong to, and add Tags and a Note, if needed. Then, click Request. A placeholder for the missing document is created in the workspace.
When your document is available, click the placeholder to upload it.
You can see all missing documents by going to the Activity view and to the Requested Document column.
Tip
From the Activity view, you can send a reminder email to users from whom you are expecting a document. Go to the Requested Document column, click on ⋮ and Document Request: Reminder.
Click on a date to see the details of a specific request. You can update it by clicking on the pen icon, Preview the content of the reminder email, or Send Now to send a reminder email.
Add a link¶
To add a link to your documents dashboard, click on Add a Link, enter the URL, and Name it.
New spreadsheet¶
To create a new spreadsheet, click New Spreadsheet. You can select a Blank spreadsheet or an existing template.
Workflow actions¶
Workflow actions help manage documents and overall business operations. These are automated actions that can be created and customized for each workspace. With a single click you can, for example, create, move, sign, and add tags to a document, and process bills.
These workflow actions appear on the right panel when a document meets the set criteria.
Create workflow actions¶
To create workflow actions, go to and click New.
Note
An action applies to all sub-workspaces under the Related Workspace you selected.
Set the conditions¶
You can Create a new Action or edit an existing one. You can define the Action Name and then set the conditions that trigger the appearance of the action button (▶) on the right-side panel when selecting a file.
There are three basic types of conditions you can set:
Tags: you can use the Contains and Does not contain conditions, meaning the files must have or must not have the tags set here.
Contact: the files must be associated with the contact set here.
Owner: the files must be associated with the owner set here.
Tip
If you do not set any conditions, the action button appears for all files inside the selected workspace.
Advanced condition type: domain¶
Important
It is recommended to have some knowledge of Odoo development to configure Domain filters properly.
The developer mode needs to be activated to access the Domain condition from the Actions tab. Once done, select the Domain condition type and click Add condition.
To create a rule, you typically select a field, an operator, and a value. For example, if you want to add a workflow action to all the PDF files inside a workspace, set the field to Mime Type, the operator to contains, and the pdf value.
Click Add New Rule (plus icon) and Add branch to add conditions and sub-conditions. You can then specify if your rule should match all or any conditions. You can also edit the rule directly using the Code editor.
Configure the actions¶
Select the Actions tab to set up your action. You can simultaneously:
Set Contact: add a contact to the file, or replace an existing contact with a new one.
Set Owner: add an owner to the file, or replace an existing owner with a new one.
Move to Workspace: move the file to any workspace.
Create: create one of the following items attached to the file in your database:
Link to record: link the document to a record (i.e. link to a vehicle in Fleet);
Product template: create a product you can edit directly;
Task: create a Project task you can edit directly;
Signature PDF template: create a new Sign template to send out;
PDF to sign: create a PDF to sign;
Applicant: create a new HR application you can edit directly;
Vendor bill: create a vendor bill using OCR and AI to scrape information from the file content;
Customer invoice: create a customer invoice using OCR and AI to scrape information from the file;
Vendor credit note: create a vendor credit note using OCR and AI to scrape information from the file;
Credit note: create a customer credit note using OCR and AI to scrape information from the file;
Miscellaneous Operations: create a record in Miscellaneous Operations in Accounting;
Bank Statement: create a Bank Statement in Finance;
Expense: create an expense automatically based on a file’s content.
Set Tags: add, remove, and replace any number of tags;
Activities - Mark all as Done: mark all activities linked to the file as done;
Activities - Schedule Activity: create a new activity linked to the file as configured in the action. You can choose to set the activity on the document owner.
Digitize documents with AI and optical character recognition (OCR)¶
Documents available in the Finance workspace can be digitized. Select the document to digitize, click Create Bill, Create Customer Invoice, or Create credit note, and then click Send for Digitization.
See also