What is CRM in Odoo? From lead to quotation
Understand Odoo CRM leads, opportunities, activities and Sales quotations. Follow four fictional records, reconcile their amounts and check free-plan scope, missing quotations and Lost versus Archived.
In this guide
- What is CRM in Odoo?
- Lead, customer, opportunity or activity?
- Do you need a separate lead before an opportunity?
- Who owns the next activity, and what happens after it?
- Why is New Quotation missing from an Odoo opportunity?
- Follow the same four records through the workflow
- Reconcile pipeline amounts and commercial documents
- Does Archived mean the same as Lost?
- Is Odoo CRM free, and what is included?
- Download the workflow, reconciliation and review files
What is CRM in Odoo?
Odoo CRM is the customer relationship management app in the Odoo suite. It helps a sales team qualify enquiries, track possible purchases through a pipeline and plan the next follow-up. Connected Sales quotations, orders and accounting work have their own records and app requirements.
Odoo’s CRM overview describes opportunity cards grouped by stage. This guide reviews the Odoo 20 documentation on 16 October 2026 and follows a fictional sales example. Use the Odoo CRM profile for product fit, plan routes and software comparisons.
Lead, customer, opportunity or activity?
| Concept | Question it answers | In the example |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | Is this enquiry worth qualifying? | L01 has an unknown purchase amount and needs clarification. |
| Customer | Which person or organisation is this about? | C01 is linked to two separate possible purchases. |
| Opportunity | What might this customer buy? | O01 and O02 have their own purchase, stage, owner and estimate. |
| Activity | What follow-up should happen next? | An accountable person and date are needed for the next action. |
A customer name is not a transaction count. The same organisation can have different purchases in progress, while one purchase can pass through several document states. Keep the customer reference, opportunity reference and purpose together when reviewing a pipeline.
Do you need a separate lead before an opportunity?
The reviewed lead-conversion documentation treats Leads as an optional qualifying step. The setting is enabled in CRM configuration and can be adjusted by sales team. Conversion can link an existing customer or create a new customer record.
Decide which enquiries need qualification and who owns that work. In the fixture, L01 needs a buying requirement before a useful opportunity estimate can be recorded. Its blank amount remains unknown. Treating that blank as a zero-value deal would answer a different question.
Odoo also documents reviewing similar leads before merging. Check whether two records describe the same enquiry or separate purchases. O01 and O02 both use C01, but their lobby and patio purchases are deliberately distinct. Customer matching alone is insufficient grounds to merge them.
Who owns the next activity, and what happens after it?
The CRM activity guide describes tasks attached to leads and opportunities. Its default-user setting matters: without a configured default user, the activity is assigned to its creator. That can differ from the person responsible for the opportunity.
Agree an owner and deadline for the actual follow-up. The documented Email activity is a reminder; creating one is different from sending a message. Suggest Next Activity presents recommended follow-up choices, while Trigger Next Activity launches the configured next activity when the previous one is marked Done.
In your review, record who creates the task, who receives it, the retained configuration and what happens on completion. Keep the observed result blank until a controlled test is performed. The CRM setup blueprint helps define stages and follow-up responsibility before rollout.
Why is New Quotation missing from an Odoo opportunity?
The reviewed quotation workflow requires the Sales app for New Quotation to appear. Customer information must be added or linked before sending a quotation. Check the installed apps, access and commercial package before changing the database.
In the example, O01 is a prospective lobby purchase with an earlier £5,000 estimate. Q01 is a linked draft quotation for £4,800. These values describe different fields at the supplied snapshot; no automatic update rule or completed send is demonstrated.
Review the receiving customer, permitted products, quantities, quote validity and required handover in an authorised environment. Keep approval to send customer communications separate from a draft-document exercise. The downloadable files contain no real customer contact details.
Follow the same four records through the workflow
The fixture has 1 unqualified lead and 3 opportunities for 2 customers. Stage labels, role names and GBP purchase values are editorial choices. They are not Odoo fees, customer data or a measured product trial.
| Record | Customer / purchase | State | Expected value | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L01 / Lead | Not linked / General enquiry | Unqualified | Unknown | Intake / Clarify the buying requirement |
| O01 / Opportunity | C01 / Lobby furniture | Qualified | £5,000.00 | Sales A / Review draft quotation Q01 |
| O02 / Opportunity | C01 / Patio furniture | Proposition | £3,000.00 | Sales A / Confirm the preferred specification |
| O03 / Opportunity | C02 / Reception unit | Won | £2,000.00 | Sales B / Arrange the delivery handover |
O01 and O02 are open, with £8,000.00 combined expected value. O03 is a separate Won opportunity with £2,000.00 expected value. Its linked SO01 is a confirmed sales order for the same purchase. No invoice or payment record is supplied.
Give a colleague the fixture and ask them to find the owner of O02, explain why the two C01 opportunities remain separate and identify the document needed for the next handover. Record their actual findings in the review sheet.
Reconcile pipeline amounts and commercial documents
Start every total with its population and state. The following measures answer different questions and must not be added into a single sales total. Invoice and payment amounts remain unknown because their evidence is absent.
| Measure | Supplied references | Record count | Illustrative value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unqualified lead | L01 | 1 | Unknown | The purchase amount is unknown; keep it outside opportunity totals. |
| Open opportunity estimates | O01, O02 | 2 | £8,000.00 | Prospective purchase value in two open opportunities; not quotations or cash. |
| Won opportunity estimate | O03 | 1 | £2,000.00 | CRM outcome for one purchase; not evidence of an invoice or payment. |
| Draft quotation | Q01 | 1 | £4,800.00 | Q01 belongs to O01; its quoted value differs from the earlier estimate. |
| Confirmed sales order | SO01 | 1 | £2,000.00 | SO01 belongs to O03; do not count the same purchase again as new pipeline value. |
| Invoice evidence | Not supplied | Unknown | Unknown | Not supplied. No invoice total or state can be established from this fixture. |
| Payment evidence | Not supplied | Unknown | Unknown | Not supplied. Cash received is unknown, rather than a demonstrated zero. |
For O01, the opportunity estimate and Q01’s draft amount are two views of the same prospective purchase. For O03, the Won estimate and confirmed order refer to the same purchase at different workflow points. A Won label alone does not establish an invoiced or paid amount.
The fixture supplies no probability model, tax calculation, recognised revenue or cash reconciliation. Keep any actual forecasting or accounting report’s filters, date basis and supporting records with its total.
Does Archived mean the same as Lost?
The Odoo 20 quotation and outcome guide says an opportunity must be specifically marked Lost to count as Lost in reporting. Simply archiving it is insufficient. The visible active pipeline and the Lost reporting population therefore need separate checks.
In a controlled review, inspect the intended outcome, reason and relevant report before making a change. Compare how the same test record appears in the active, archived and Lost views. Record the actual result and filters; this guide has not archived, merged or marked any Odoo record.
Is Odoo CRM free, and what is included?
The reviewed One App Free offer provides one selected app on Odoo Online for unlimited users, with required dependencies included. Standard covers all apps on Odoo Online. Custom lists wider deployment choices and external API access; Odoo.sh hosting is additional.
Check which apps the complete workflow needs and which are dependencies in the actual installation. The CRM label alone does not prove every independent app is free. For an integration, identify which system initiates the API call and confirm the retained package. Request the actual regional quote and include implementation, migration and custom work in the brief.
The profile’s app and subscription scope gives a compact plan comparison. Use the software total-cost guide when the decision extends beyond the base subscription.
Download the workflow, reconciliation and review files
Download the four-record workflow ↓
Download the seven-measure reconciliation ↓
Download the six-check review sheet ↓
Read the assumptions and mapping notes ↓
The original workflow and review files are preserved; the reconciliation adds explicit populations and unknowns. These use an editorial schema and need mapping to the actual Odoo version. Retained plan, roles, observations and decisions remain blank in the review sheet.
No Odoo account, database, app installation, activity, message, quote send, order, invoice, payment or subscription was operated for this guide. Define your required sales workflow with the small-business CRM guide, then use the comparison scorecard to record a controlled assessment.
Frequently asked questions
What is CRM in Odoo?
Odoo CRM is the customer relationship management app in the Odoo suite. It organises prospective sales as leads and opportunities, with pipeline stages, owners and follow-up activities. Sales quotations, orders and accounting work have their own app and document requirements.
What is the difference between an Odoo lead and an opportunity?
A lead is an enquiry to qualify before a formal opportunity is created. An opportunity represents a possible purchase in the sales pipeline. Odoo makes the separate Leads step optional; a customer record can be linked to several distinct purchases.
Do all Odoo opportunities need a lead first?
The reviewed Odoo 20 documentation treats Leads as an optional qualification step, configurable in CRM settings and by sales team. Check the actual version and team setup.
Can two Odoo opportunities use the same customer?
Yes. In the fictional example, C01 has separate lobby and patio purchases represented by O01 and O02. Review the purchase and record references before deciding whether similar records are duplicates.
Why is the New Quotation button missing in Odoo CRM?
The reviewed quotation guide requires the Sales app for New Quotation. Confirm the installed apps, actual access and package before changing the setup; customer information is also required before sending.
Does an Odoo Email activity send the message automatically?
The reviewed CRM activity guide describes Email as a reminder. Activity ownership and Suggest or Trigger Next Activity configuration are separate from a message being sent. Verify the retained setup with an authorised test.
Which user owns an Odoo CRM activity by default?
The reviewed activity-type documentation says that, when no Default User is configured, the activity is assigned to the person creating it. Confirm the actual activity type or plan; the opportunity owner is not automatically the assignee in every arrangement.
Does Won in Odoo CRM mean an invoice has been paid?
Won is a CRM outcome. A quotation, confirmed order, invoice and received payment need their own evidence. The example includes no invoice or payment, so those amounts remain unknown.
Does archiving an Odoo opportunity count it as Lost?
The reviewed Odoo 20 quotation guide says an opportunity must be specifically marked Lost for Lost reporting. Generic archiving alone is insufficient.
Is Odoo CRM free for unlimited users?
One App Free offers one selected app on Odoo Online for unlimited users, including its required dependencies. Check the complete workflow, app requirements and actual package; this does not establish unrestricted access to every independent app.