Shipping and Receiving in Odoo: Inbound and Outbound Flows
Stock is only useful when it moves: in from suppliers, out to customers. Odoo gives you real control over these inbound and outbound flows, from dead simple to genuinely sophisticated. Here is how shipping and receiving works.
One step, two steps, three steps
The key idea is that you choose how many steps a flow has, to match how your warehouse really works.
Receiving (inbound):
- One step: goods arrive and go straight into stock. Simple and fast.
- Two steps: goods are received, then put away to their storage location.
- Three steps: goods are received, inspected or checked for quality, then put away.
Delivery (outbound):
- One step: pick and ship in a single move.
- Two steps: pick the goods, then pack and ship.
- Three steps: pick, pack, then ship.
A small shop might run everything in one step. A larger operation with quality checks and a packing station needs more. Odoo lets each warehouse pick the level that fits.
Reservations: promising the right stock
When an order needs fulfilling, Odoo reserves stock for it so the same units are not promised twice. You can control how and when that reservation happens, immediately, or only when you are ready to process the order, which keeps busy warehouses from tripping over themselves.
Carriers and delivery methods
For outbound goods, Odoo supports delivery methods and integrations with shipping carriers. That can mean calculating shipping costs, producing labels, and passing tracking information back, so dispatch becomes part of the same smooth flow rather than a separate manual job.
Why the flexibility matters
The reason Odoo offers one, two and three step flows is that forcing every business into the same process is exactly what makes software painful. A quality-critical importer and a quick-turnaround retailer have genuinely different needs. Matching the flow to your reality means the system helps rather than fights you.
Getting started sensibly
Begin with the simplest flow that is honest about your process. If you do not inspect incoming goods, do not add an inspection step just because it exists. Add steps only where they reflect real work. You can always increase the detail as your operation grows.
My take
Shipping and receiving is where inventory meets the real world of vans, boxes and deadlines. Odoo’s step-based flows let you model exactly how goods move through your business, no more and no less. Start simple, match the steps to reality, and both your receipts and your dispatches stay fast and accurate.
Next in the series: how Odoo decides which stock to pick first, with removal strategies.
Based on the official Odoo 19 Inventory documentation. A plain-English guide, not a replacement for the docs.