Let's explore the revealed information about Odoo 20 with Leonix, the practical value for business operations, as well as what businesses need to prepare for the official launch of Odoo 20 at the end of September this year.
I. Context of the Odoo 20 Launch
After 2025, focusing on expanding features and laying the foundation for the AI Agent in Odoo 19, Odoo is moving into the next phase with a direction aimed at creating a breakthrough that helps businesses work faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
Odoo 20 is the next version of the Odoo ERP platform, expected to be officially announced at the Odoo Experience 2026 event in Belgium on September 24, 2026. The focus of this version is the AI Agent capable of taking action, automating processes, and simplifying the user experience across most modules, from Field Service, Accounting, POS to Marketing Automation, Sign, and Manufacturing. As it is still in the roadmap stage, feature details may change before the official launch date.
In this article, Leonix focuses on a deep analysis of the features that have the most significant operational impact on small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam.
II. Target Businesses
Most features of Odoo 20 are suitable for all business sizes looking to automate operations; technology companies/SMEs. Additionally, it promises standout features tailored for specific industry characteristics.
III. The Latest Updates on Odoo 20 Features
3.1 AI becomes an active enforcement tool
AI in Odoo was previously known for tasks such as content writing or chatbot support. With Odoo 20, AI is integrated deeper into operations, capable of interacting with data across the system to help:
Search, update, and process data using natural language.Users can search, reassign, and create records across the entire Odoo database using simple commands, reducing manual steps as before.
AI searches, updates, and processes data using natural language.
MCP Server Integration: Odoo has a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows AI assistants like Chat GPT, Claude, etc., to connect directly to ERP data for querying, searching, and aggregating data in a controlled manner.
AI reads technical documents and creates projects:AI reads technical PDF files and automatically creates projects with specific phases and tasks, instead of having to manually input data from scratch.
From an assistant to a proactive execution tool, AI helps perform and extract data faster, significantly reducing repetitive tasks for departments, paving the way for secure integration with external AI agents.
3.2 POS: Simplifying device connections, no IoT Box needed
At the point of sale (POS), Odoo 20 focuses on stability and simplifying the device connection process. One notable change is that the POS can connect directly to devices without the need for an IoT Box.
Previously, to connect printers, barcode scanners, or payment devices to the POS, businesses often had to use an IoT Box - an intermediary hardware device, while also performing an additional certificate configuration step. This incurred extra costs and increased complexity during deployment, especially for businesses with multiple sales points.
With Odoo 20, the POS leverages the Local Network Access API on the Chromium browser to automatically detect and connect directly to supported devices on the same LAN. This allows businesses to reduce reliance on intermediary hardware and simplify the POS setup process, eliminating the need for an IoT Box and certificate import. This change is particularly beneficial for retailers, F&B businesses, or any company that needs to quickly scale up sales points at a low cost.
POS Feature
Note: the device detection feature over LAN currently only works on Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge); iOS is not supported.
3.3 More Accessible and Efficient Accounting
Accounting for non-CFOs
Instead of only responding when asked, the AI Agent in Odoo 20 can autonomously run the entire financial audit chain according to a checklist (Analytical Review, Bank Fees Review, Bank Statements, Cash inventory reconciliation...), automatically marking each checked item, detecting anomalies, and summarizing them into an easy-to-understand report. Business owners and non-accounting managers can still grasp the financial situation without waiting for an accountant's explanation, while also detecting unusual/unreconciled transactions early.
AI-assisted Document Reconciliation
For transactions that have not been reconciled, such as the case of 3 bank transactions missing linked invoices/bills in the image above, the system automatically flags them, provides a brief explanation, and suggests the next action. This is good news for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have a specialized accounting department or mid-level managers who need to understand financial data without waiting for explanations from accountants.
Flexible tax display conversion
The feature allows for flexible switching between pre-tax and post-tax prices (Tax Excl. / Tax Incl.) directly on each order instead of requiring staff to manually adjust taxes on each product/service line as in previous versions, enabling the sales team to recalculate the total amount with just one click.
Flexible Tax Display Feature
3.4 Upgrade E-commerce & Marketing Features
ECommerce with new features
Odoo 20 enhances the eCommerce experience towards "post-sale and personalization," not only stopping at the sales stage but expanding to upsell suggestions, self-service return management, and tools to drive conversions directly on the eCommerce page interface.
Automated Cross-sellhelps the system automatically suggest additional/related products based on the customer's order instead of manual configuration as before.
Standalone Catalog Pagesallows the creation of independent product catalog pages without building a full e-commerce website, suitable for businesses that only want to display a catalog, introduce products, or provide information but do not yet have a need for online sales.
Return Managementenables customers to initiate return/exchange requests directly on the Customer Portal (select product, enter reason, submit request) without needing to contact support.
In addition,eCommerce Dashboardprovides a dedicated overview dashboard for e-commerce activities, helping businesses monitor and manage sales activities more effectively. The Rating Request feature automatically sends requests for product or service reviews to customers after purchase, thereby creating additional opportunities to gather feedback and improve customer experience.
Promotion Progress Barprovides a progress bar to show customers how many more products they need to purchase to qualify for the next discount/promotion.
Feature for customers to initiate return requests themselves.
Customers can select products, enter reasons, and submit requests without contacting support, helping to reduce the load on customer service and particularly useful in industries with high return rates like fashion, furniture, and electronics.
Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation has been completely revamped in the flow-building section. Instead of just a few rigid steps, there is now a drag-and-drop interface to create flexible customer care flows as a comprehensive process-building tool.
Customer care flow building feature.
This new feature has many practical values for businesses, specifically:
Allows the creation of multi-channel customer care scenarios.(Email + SMS + WhatsApp) within the same automated flow, without needing third-party marketing automation tools (like ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp...).
Split & Filter helps.personalize the customer journey by segmentation.(segmentation) right within the flow, instead of having to create multiple separate campaigns.
Coupon & (Un)sub to list.automates the process of offering deals and managing lists., reducing manual tasks for the marketing team.
AI step allows.inserting AI-driven actions directly into the flow.(for example: AI auto-generating content, lead classification...) helps increase the level of automation/personalization.
Solving the problem:automating the nurturing of potential customers.(lead nurturing), customer retention, optimizing the customer lifecycle without the need for a large marketing operations team.
This feature is suitable for businesses with a Marketing/CRM department running multiple customer nurturing campaigns, especially in the eCommerce sector, B2C services with a long customer lifecycle (SaaS, education, real estate, retail). Additionally, it is for businesses using multiple communication channels in parallel (Email + SMS + WhatsApp) that want to consolidate into a single platform instead of separating each tool.
3.5 Seamless internal communication and documentation
Call management and centralized communication on a platform
Discuss (conversations) and Phone (calls) are supplemented with a unified Audio/Video/Transcript player right in the call record, allowing users to listen to the audio while viewing the synchronized transcript by timestamp, along with a video call display if available.
Consolidate conversations, calls, and transcripts on the same interface
Compared to Odoo 19 (when VoIP was renamed to 'Phone' and mainly focused on recording), this is a significant advancement for Sales and customer service teams that need to log and control call quality, and the content exchanged with customers without needing third-party recording tools, while also shortening review time as management can skim through the transcript instead of listening to the entire file. Additionally, it helps support the training of new staff (coaching) based on sample calls with clear transcripts.
Share documents and knowledge within the team
Previously, sharing Documents or Knowledge articles was mainly done on an individual basis. Odoo 20 allows sharing by group (department, team) and Knowledge articles can be published directly to the public web with access configuration.
Group document sharing feature
For companies with a clear departmental structure, this is a much faster way to manage document permissions, allowing the HR department to automatically have Editor rights on the Recruitment folder without needing to add each person individually, reducing the risk of forgetting to grant/revoke permissions when personnel change positions.
The ability to create polls directly in the chat channel
The ability to create polls directly in the chat channel
The chat channel (Discuss) has been enhanced with the ability to create polls directly, allowing members to ask questions, provide multiple choices, and vote in real-time. At the same time, it synchronizes with other improvements in Discuss aimed at transforming the chat channel into a more comprehensive internal communication tool.
The ability to create polls directly in the chat channel
This feature not only supports quick decision-making internally without the need for separate survey tools but also increases interactivity in internal communication, suitable for quick meetings, gathering opinions, and discussing ideas right in the chat channel, helping to keep all internal interaction data within the Odoo ecosystem.
3.6 Tighter production operations and contracts
Add Kanban interface for the production process
The Production module adds a new Kanban interface for Work Orders, allowing workshop managers to visually see all ongoing work by each Work Center and update schedules with just one click.
Kanban interface for the production process
This feature helps workshop managers/team leaders grasp the actual work status at each machine station/production center on a single screen, instead of having to filter through multiple views, helping to:
Quickly identify bottlenecks(bottleneck): easily see which station is overloaded, allowing for timely reallocation of personnel or machinery.
Shortening planning operations:merging planning actions (Plan Orders) and schedule adjustments (Update Planning) directly on Kanban, allowing for quick plan adjustments without going through multiple steps like the old process.
For businesses with multiple production stages such as furniture, machinery, assembly, wood, and metal, this is a way to quickly identify bottlenecks when a station is overloaded, to timely reallocate personnel and machinery in real-time, helping to optimize the working station's capacity and reduce downtime due to lack of coordination information.
Automating the signing process & expanding support scope
The feature to export answers/signature data in bulk to Spreadsheet
The Digital Signature module (Sign) has been upgraded in two ways: deeper integration into Odoo's automated processes (Activities/Activity Plans can automatically trigger signing requests, supporting both fixed and dynamic signers) and expanding global coverage (adding Itsme support for 30+ countries, adding fonts for 40+ languages, optimizing mobile/touch experience).
The feature to export answers/signature data in bulk to Spreadsheet
The signer data filled in the document can also be automatically updated back into the corresponding fields in Odoo. Most suitable for businesses that frequently sign contracts (Sales, HR, Legal) or operate multinational/European activities.
3.7 Professional solutions for industries
Odoo 20 introduces specialized solutions for many new verticals:
Hotel+: Managing room occupancy rates, managing distribution channels (Cannex), revenue management systems, housekeeping services, and seasonal pricing.
Construction: Quotation by work item and general costs, planning using Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and outsourcing, invoicing by progress.
Recruitment company: Integrated CRM-Recruitment-Invoicing process, better integration of talented candidates, new portal interface.
New business areas: Auto repair shop, custom industrial equipment, nursing home/retirement home, pet care services, community care.
New specialized solutions for industries
IV. Practical value for businesses
Overall, the value of Odoo 20 is not scattered across individual features but resonates across 5 management problem areas:
Reduce manual operations, shorten training time:AI Agent and automation features take on repetitive tasks, from scheduling Field Service, conducting accounting audits to processing bulk payments.
Make faster decisions based on real-time data:Production Kanban, eCommerce dashboard, and call transcripts provide a visual perspective on business operations, helping management grasp the situation without waiting for summary reports.
Reduce infrastructure investment costs: eliminating the need for IoT Box in some operations and integrating more features directly on the platform helps businesses reduce reliance on third-party tools.
Enhance customer experience and revenue: Automated cross-selling, self-service return processes, and progress bars for promotional programs help businesses create more sales opportunities and drive conversions directly on eCommerce.
Standardize processes, reduce compliance risks:Section Templates, automating Sign and document permissions by group helps businesses establish consistent processes while increasing control when scaling.
At Leonix, we believe that in ERP implementation and upgrade projects, most of the value does not come from enabling all new features, but from applying key features to the processes that are causing the most time consumption for customers and then measuring the results before expanding to other modules. Odoo 20, with its improved features compared to the previous version as well as new features launched, promises to bring practical value to businesses, not only changing the way businesses operate daily but also providing an intelligent operating platform that reduces risks and sustainably controls profits.
V. Challenges of implementing Odoo 20
In addition to the aforementioned values, businesses also need to face some challenges before planning an upgrade:
Compatibility with current customizations:businesses using Odoo versions 17–19 with custom modules need to carefully assess compatibility, especially in modules that have undergone deep structural changes (e.g., Payroll removing work entries, Field Service integrating more deeply into Planning).
Training staff to familiarize with AI Agent:for the AI Agent to "act" rather than just respond, staff must understand the limitations of AI, avoiding complete dependence on output without verification, especially with financial and contract tasks.
Cost and time of data migration:upgrading to a new version always carries data risks, especially when many modules change the underlying data table structure.
Dependence on the capabilities of the implementation partner:a new version with many deep changes requiring Odoo partners to have practical experience with the new version, not just read the roadmap documentation.
VI. What businesses need to prepare for the Odoo 20 update
Since Odoo 20 has not been officially released, this is the right time to prepare instead of rushing to upgrade:
Review the modules currently in use,compare them with the new features to identify necessary changes and operational goals that align with the business.
Create a list of all features that need customization and third-party integrationcurrently to assess compatibility before upgrading.
Monitor the official announcementat Odoo Experience 2026 (September 24–26, 2026) instead of relying entirely on preliminary roadmap information.
Train the operational team,especially the roles of interaction and quality control of AI Agent outputs.
Work early with the implementation partnerto build a phased integration roadmap, prioritizing the modules with the greatest impact first.
VII. Conclusion
Odoo 20 is not defined by a single "buzzworthy" feature, but by a consistent thread: simplifying processes, placing AI where work is happening, and deeper integration between modules.
New technology only creates value when deployed at the right time and in the right way, not just when it is announced. This is the right time for businesses to prepare for a system that integrates smart, useful, and more convenient features for their operations. Odoo 20 promises to provide such a flexible and comprehensive platform.
Please consult with Leonix experts to build a transformation plan suitable for the scale and industry of your business if you are considering an ERP upgrade roadmap or want to assess your readiness before the Odoo 20 wave.
