Setting up an optimal Odoo system is no easy task. Many companies get into trouble believing that they can just install the software and throw in some data. Inevitably, the scope of the project grows and what was supposed to be a simple system ends up being a confusing mess. Fortunately, Odoo's modular design will allow you to take a systematic approach to implementing Odoo for your business.

The bare bones installation of Odoo simply provides you with a limited messaging system. To manage your Odoo implementation, you must begin with planning the modules with which you will work first. Odoo allows you to install just what you need now and then install...

If you have installed Odoo on your own server, now you will need to create a database. The necessary tables and fields will be added to the database you specify as you install additional applications to Odoo.

After you have installed a fresh copy of Odoo, you will be prompted automatically to create a new Odoo database:

In the preceding screenshot, you can see the Odoo form to create a new database.

Odoo provides basic instructions for creating your database. Let's quickly review the fields and how they are used.

After clicking on Create Database (depending on the speed of your system), it can take a little time before you are shown a page that lists the available applications:

This screen lets you select from a list of the most common Odoo modules to install.

There is very little you can do with just an Odoo database with no modules installed. Now, we will install the Sales application so we can begin setting up our business selling t-shirts:

Click on the Install button to install the Sales module.

During the installation of modules and other long operations, you will often see an animated Loading icon at the center of your screen. Unlike previous versions of Odoo, which prompted you for accounting and other setup information, Odoo now completes the installation unattended.

After the installation of the sales order application, Odoo 12 takes you to the Discuss messaging app where your inbox and other communication activities are located. Notice the small purple teardrop that provides helpful tips.

Unlike previous versions of Odoo Community, which displayed menus across the top of the screen, Odoo 12 now nests applications in a menu on the far left. Click on Sales in the menu to bring up the sales application.

In Odoo 12, there is a brand new onboarding panel to configure the application:

This new onboarding panel makes it easier to identify the steps you need to take to successfully set up the sales application. Working from left to right, we can see that it starts with the Company Data. You then pick a Quotation Layout to customize the look of your quotations and sales orders. Next, you can define how you wish to...

Now that we have a customer, it is time we enter some products to sell to our new customer. For our example, we are going to enter a medium white cotton t-shirt. Click on the Products menu at the top of the page and choose the Products menu to pull up the screen:

Now, in Odoo 12, even if you specify that you do not want demonstration data, you still get a Sample Product for $1.00. Let's ignore this product and create a new product for our t-shirt.

Create a new product by clicking on the Create button:

The preceding screenshot is for the General Information page of the product form for entering a product record into Odoo.

Now for the moment we have all been waiting for. We finally get to sell our products by entering a sales order. To get to the Sales Orders screen, click Orders in the top-left menu and then choose the Sales Orders menu item.

The following screenshot shows existing Sales Orders and allows users to create a new sales order:

Click on the Create button to create a new sales order. Every brand-new sales order begins as a quotation and stays in that state until you confirm the sale. Only after confirming the quotation will your sale be referred to as a sales order. Let's have a look at the following screenshot:

The preceding screenshot is of a new sales order form with the cursor set on the Customer field.

Depending on the workflow of the business, a lot of different things can happen after you have confirmed a sales order. In manufacturing companies, you may need to both purchase products and create a manufacturing order to produce the final product before you invoice the customer. In our example, we are going to go ahead and invoice the customer for the t-shirt they have ordered. Click on the Create Invoice button to generate an invoice for the sales order. An Odoo Invoice Order wizard pops up to walk you through the invoice creation process:

The preceding screenshot is of the Invoice Order wizard.

Odoo provides a variety of options for invoicing the entire sales order or instead...

In this chapter, we started by creating an Odoo database. We then installed the Sales Order Management module and created our first customer. With our customer created, we turned our attention to setting up a product in Odoo and entering our basic company information. Next, we created a quotation and followed the workflow all the way through to confirming the sales order and generating an invoice. In the next chapter, we'll look at our sales strategy and what we want to achieve via CRM software.