Unlock the Power of Odoo HR 18.4 Features: A Comprehensive Guide to Transforming HR Operations

In today’s fast-paced business world, efficient Human Resources (HR) management is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity. Businesses are constantly seeking robust tools to streamline operations, enhance employee experiences, and drive productivity. This is precisely where Odoo HR 18.4 Features step in, bringing a suite of powerful enhancements designed to revolutionize how you manage your most valuable asset: your people.

Recently, a comprehensive webinar (accessible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1w8UKLPN2Y) detailed the significant advancements in Odoo’s HR module across minor versions 18.3 and 18.4. This blog post will dive deep into these impressive Odoo HR 18.4 Features, providing you with a persuasive overview of their benefits and practical, step-by-step tutorials to help you leverage them effectively. Get ready to discover how these updates can dramatically improve your HR workflows, from recruitment and employee management to payroll and attendance.

Core Enhancements in Odoo HR 18.4

The latest iterations of Odoo’s HR applications introduce improvements across several key areas:

• Employees & Documents: Enhanced tools for managing employee data and streamlining document handling.
• Recruitment & Appraisals: Smarter ways to attract, track, and evaluate talent.
• Time Off: More intuitive and flexible leave management.
• Payroll: Streamlined and more transparent payroll processing.
• Attendances: Accurate and location-aware attendance tracking.
• Other Applications: Subtle yet impactful improvements to Approvals, Fleet, and Front Desk modules that contribute to overall HR efficiency.

These Odoo HR 18.4 Features are not just incremental updates; they represent a commitment to providing HR professionals with the most intuitive and powerful tools available. Let’s explore some of the standout functionalities with actionable tutorials.

Deep Dive into Key Odoo HR 18.4 Features: Tutorials and Benefits

Odoo continues to refine its HR suite, and the 18.4 version is a testament to this evolution. Here’s how you can leverage these pivotal Odoo HR 18.4 Features in your daily operations.

1. Streamlining Onboarding: Bulk User Creation

The Challenge: Traditionally, if you had a large number of employees already imported into Odoo but without user accounts, creating individual users for each one could be a time-consuming and tedious process. You’d either import users separately and link them, or create them one by one.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 introduces a powerful server action that allows you to create users in bulk from your existing employee records. This feature drastically cuts down on manual effort, ensuring your new hires or existing staff quickly gain access to the system.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Creating Users in Bulk

1. Configure Default Access Rights (Crucial First Step):

   • Before creating users in bulk, set up their default permissions. Go to the Settings application.
   • Scroll down and locate “Default Access Rights.”
   • Adjust the permissions for new users as needed (e.g., granting access to projects, HR apps, or other relevant modules). Remember, all bulk-created users will inherit these default settings, though you can modify them individually later.
   • Click Save to apply your changes.

2. Select Employees for User Creation:

   • Navigate to the Employees application.
   • Switch to the List view, which makes it easier to select multiple records.
   • Tick the checkboxes next to the names of the employees for whom you wish to create internal user accounts.

3. Initiate Bulk User Creation:

   • Once employees are selected, click on the Action button (usually found at the top of the list view).
   • From the dropdown menu, select Create User.
   • A warning message will appear, informing you about the number of new users being invited and the potential impact on your subscription cost. Review this, and if you’re ready, click Confirm.

4. Verification:

   • After confirmation, you’ll receive a notification that the users have been successfully created.
   • To verify, go to Settings -> Users & Companies -> Users. You will see the newly created user accounts, each automatically linked to their respective employee profiles.

This enhancement is a game-changer for businesses with growing teams or those migrating to Odoo, making the user onboarding process significantly more efficient.

2. Elevating Talent Management: Skills & Certifications

The Challenge: While Odoo has long offered skill tracking, a clear distinction and management system for formal certifications (often with expiry dates) was desired. This made it harder to quickly identify who was qualified for specific roles or projects, especially when compliance or up-to-date knowledge was critical.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 introduces a dedicated “Certifications” tab on employee profiles and the ability to designate skill types as certifications. This provides visual cues for validity and allows for better tracking of professional credentials, empowering HR teams and managers to make informed decisions for talent allocation and recruitment.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Managing Certifications

1. Configure Certification Skill Types:

   • Go to Employees -> Configuration -> Skill Types.
   • You can either create a new skill type (e.g., “Professional Certifications”) or edit an existing one.
   • When creating or editing, check the Is a Certification checkbox. This will mark skills under this type as certifications.
   • Within this skill type, add your specific certifications as “Skills” (e.g., “Project Management Professional (PMP)”, “Certified Public Accountant (CPA)”). You can still define levels if a certification has different tiers.

2. Add Certifications to Employee Profiles:

   • Navigate to the Employees application and select an employee’s profile.
   • You’ll now find a Certifications tab. Click on it.
   • Click Add a line.
   • Select the relevant certification skill from the dropdown.
   • Enter the Start Date (when the certification was obtained).
   • Crucially, you can now add an End Date (expiration date) for time-bound certifications.
   • Save your changes.

Important Visual Cues:

• Expired certifications will appear grayed out on the employee’s profile, providing an immediate visual warning.
• Certifications nearing their expiration date will be highlighted in orange, prompting timely renewal.

Beyond Individual Profiles: The Skills Inventory Report
These Odoo HR 18.4 Features also enhance the Skills Inventory Report. By going to Reporting -> Skills Inventory, you can view a comprehensive report grouped by skill type. This allows you to quickly identify how many employees possess a specific language, certification, or skill, making it invaluable for project staffing, training needs analysis, and recruitment.

3. Revolutionary Contract Management: Employee Versions

The Challenge: Previously, managing changes to an employee’s terms (like working hours or salary) often required creating a new contract record. This could lead to a cluttered contract history and tedious manual processes, especially for temporary changes or promotions. For example, reducing working hours for a month meant creating a new contract, then another to revert.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 introduces a significant “refactor” by merging the contracts model directly into the employee model. This new “Employee Versions” feature allows you to manage different states of an employee’s information (including contract details, working hours, salary, job position) linked to specific dates, all within a single employee record. It drastically simplifies HR administration.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Using Employee Versions

1. Access the Employee Record:

   • Go to the Employees application and select the employee whose details you want to modify.

2. Navigate to the Payroll Tab:

   • You’ll notice that the Payroll tab now consolidates much of the information previously found on separate contract records (e.g., wage, working schedule, contract start/end dates).

3. Create a New Version:

   • To record a change (like a salary increase, a temporary change in working hours, or a new contract period), click the New Version button.
   • Specify the Effective Date for this new version. This is the date from which the new information will be valid.
   • Make the necessary adjustments to fields like Working Hours, Wage, Job Position, or Contract End Date.
   • Save your changes.

4. Switching Between Versions:

   • At the top of the employee form, you’ll see a version selector. This allows you to easily navigate between different historical and future versions of the employee’s data, seeing exactly what was/will be valid on specific dates.

Key Concepts:

• Centralized Employee Data: All relevant employee and contract information is now housed in one place, simplifying record-keeping.
• Date-Specific Information: Each version is tied to a specific start date, ensuring that payroll, attendance, and other applications correctly interpret the employee’s status for any given period.
• Simplified Contract Adjustments: No more creating multiple short-term contracts for minor changes. Simply create a new version with the new parameters. For promotions, you can index the contract or create a new contract within a new version, easily managing salary changes and new responsibilities.

This is one of the most transformative Odoo HR 18.4 Features, promising immense flexibility and reducing administrative overhead, especially for payroll officers and HR managers.

4. Empowering Employees: Documents in the Portal

The Challenge: Sharing employee-specific documents (e.g., pay slips, HR policies, training certificates) could be a disjointed process, sometimes involving emails or external drives, making centralized access for employees difficult.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 significantly enhances document usability with employees. The system now automatically creates a dedicated folder for each employee within your HR documents workspace, and importantly, these folders can be made visible to portal users. This allows employees to access their personal documents directly from the Odoo portal, promoting self-service and centralization.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Sharing Employee Documents via Portal

1. Automatic Folder Creation:

   • Whenever a new employee is created in Odoo, the system automatically generates a unique folder for them under Documents -> Company -> HR -> Employees.

2. Adding Documents to the Employee Folder:

   • To share a document with an employee, simply upload or move it into their dedicated folder within the Documents application.

3. Sharing the Folder with the Employee (Portal Access):

   • Ensure the employee has an Odoo portal user account (which can be created via the bulk user creation feature or individually).
   • Within the employee’s document folder, use the sharing options to grant access to their portal user. You can set them as a viewer or editor.

Result: When an employee logs into their Odoo portal, they will now see a “Documents” tab. Clicking on this tab will display all files and workspaces that have been shared with them, including their personal employee folder. This significantly improves data centralization and simplifies document sharing, not just for HR but also for sharing client-specific documents from a sales perspective.

5. Agile Recruitment & Appraisals

The Challenge: HR teams constantly strive for more efficient recruitment and appraisal processes. Previous versions, while capable, could sometimes feel less streamlined in terms of UI and bulk actions.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 brings a fresh look and enhanced functionalities to both Recruitment and Appraisals, enabling HR professionals to manage talent more effectively from hiring to performance evaluation.

Key Recruitment Improvements:

• Refreshed Kanban View: The Kanban view for job positions now features a cleaner, less overwhelming interface, making it easier to manage job postings. Published jobs are prioritized, followed by starred ones.
• Centralized Link Trackers: Previously a smart button, link trackers for job positions are now conveniently located in a dedicated “Trackers” tab within the job position’s configuration. This allows for quick access to copy URLs for different recruitment channels.
• Dedicated Promote Button: The “Referral Campaign” feature (introduced in 18.1/18.2) now has a dedicated Promote button, making it even easier to internally share job positions with employees for wider network reach.
• Bulk Follow/Unfollow for Applications: A highly anticipated feature, this allows recruiters to select multiple applications and perform bulk follow or unfollow actions, saving considerable time and keeping pipelines organized.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Launching Appraisal Campaigns

1. Navigate to the Appraisals Application:

   • From your Odoo dashboard, select the Appraisals application.

2. Access “Launch Campaign”:

   • You’ll find a new Launch Campaign button. Click on it. This button streamlines the process of creating multiple appraisals at once.

3. Configure Your Appraisal Campaign:

   • Mode: Choose how you want to group your appraisals:

     • By Employee: Select specific employees.
     • By Company: For multi-company setups.
     • By Department: Appraise an entire department at once (e.g., all administration staff).
     • By Employee Tag: Group by custom employee tags.

   • Template: Select the default appraisal template to be used for these appraisals.

   • Filters (Optional): Apply additional filters (e.g., “First Contract Date” to target employees nearing the end of their probationary period).

   • Manager Warning: The system will provide a warning if any selected employee does not have a manager assigned, as a manager is required for an appraisal.

4. Schedule the Campaign:

   • Once your criteria are set, click Schedule. Odoo will automatically generate all the individual appraisal records based on your configuration.

These Odoo HR 18.4 Features ensure that both the acquisition and development of talent within your organization are handled with unprecedented efficiency and clarity.

6. Mastering Time Off Management

The Challenge: Managing employee time off efficiently requires clear visibility and flexible request options. Previously, differentiating between full and half days on the calendar overview, or requesting time off in hourly increments directly from the calendar, could be less intuitive. Overlapping requests also presented approval hurdles.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 introduces three key improvements to the Time Off application, making leave management more transparent, flexible, and error-proof.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Enhanced Time Off Features

1. Visibility of Half Days on Overview:

   • How it Works: When an employee requests a half-day off (e.g., morning or afternoon), the calendar overview now visually highlights only the respective half of the day. This provides instant clarity for both employees reviewing their own leave and HR officers checking team availability.
   • Action: Simply request a half day as usual. The visual representation on the calendar is automatic.

2. Time Off by Hours from Calendar View:

   • How it Works: Employees can now request time off for specific hours directly from the weekly or daily calendar view, rather than just full or half days. This is perfect for appointments or partial absences.

   • Action:

     • Go to the Time Off application.
     • Switch to Weekly or Daily view in the calendar.
     • Click and drag your cursor over the specific time slot you wish to take off (e.g., 9 AM to 12 PM).
     • A request window will pop up, pre-filling the start and end times based on your drag selection.
     • Select the appropriate time off type and click Submit Request.

3. Warning for Overlapping Requests:

   • How it Works: To prevent errors and avoid approval conflicts, Odoo now provides an immediate warning if an employee attempts to submit a time off request that overlaps with an already booked leave period.

   • Action:

     • When submitting a time off request through the My Time Off menu (not necessarily the calendar overview), if the selected dates conflict with existing approved or pending time off, a warning will appear.
     • This allows the employee to cancel or adjust their request before submission, streamlining the approval process for managers and HR.

These Odoo HR 18.4 Features for time off management significantly improve user experience, reduce errors, and provide clearer insights into employee availability.

7. Advanced Payroll Capabilities

The Challenge: Payroll processing demands precision and flexibility. Previous versions sometimes required specific localizations for essential reports or had less streamlined batch processing for pay slips, leading to potential complexities for diverse business needs.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 introduces three powerful payroll enhancements: optional overtime work entries, standard availability of the payslip lines report, and the new “Pay Runs” feature, replacing batch payslips for more granular control.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Key Payroll Features

1. Optional Overtime Work Entry:

   • How it Works: Previously, if attendance was tracked outside of an employee’s set working schedule, an overtime work entry was automatically generated. Now, this is an optional setting. You can choose whether extra hours recorded via attendance reflect in payroll work entries.

   • Action:

     • Go to an employee’s profile in the Employees application.
     • Navigate to the Payroll tab.
     • Locate the Work Entry Source and Extra Hours options.
     • If your Work Entry Source is ‘Working Schedule’ or ‘Planning’, you can now tick or untick the Extra Hours checkbox.
     • Ticked: Extra hours from attendance will generate overtime work entries in payroll.
     • Unticked: Extra hours are tracked in attendance but will not reflect in payroll work entries.
     • Save your changes.

2. Payslip Lines Report (Standardized):

   • How it Works: This crucial report, which provides a detailed breakdown of all lines appearing on payslips, was previously available only in specific localizations. Now, it’s a standard feature in Odoo 18.4, accessible to all users regardless of their localization.
   • Action: Go to Payroll -> Reporting -> Payslip Lines. You can apply filters and groupings (e.g., by contract, payslip) to analyze amounts and details as needed.

3. Pay Runs (Replacing Batch Payslips):

   • How it Works: The “Batch Payslips” functionality has been replaced by the more intuitive and flexible “Pay Runs.” This new interface provides a quick overview of each pay run’s stage, dates, gross, and net amounts, grouped by status.

   • Action: Creating a New Pay Run:

     • Go to the Payroll application.
     • Click on Pay Runs.
     • Click the New button.
     • Select Salary Structure: Choose the relevant salary structure (e.g., “Monthly Pay for CP200 employees”). The scheduled pay will often default from this.
     • Define Period: Select the start and end dates for the pay period.
     • Select Employees: Click Continue. Odoo will display eligible employees based on the selected salary structure. You can further filter by department, tags, or specific employees if needed.
     • Click Select. Your new pay run is now created in a “waiting” stage, ready for confirmation.
   • You still have the option to create individual “Off-Cycle Payslips” directly from the Payslips menu for payments not associated with a standard pay run.

These payroll Odoo HR 18.4 Features are designed to give payroll officers greater control, transparency, and ease of use, making monthly processing smoother and more accurate.

8. Intelligent Attendance Tracking

The Challenge: Accurate attendance tracking is fundamental for HR and payroll. Relying solely on IP addresses for location or lacking a quick visual indicator on kiosk modes could sometimes lead to less precise data or slow down check-in/out processes.

The Solution: Odoo HR 18.4 enhances the Attendance application with GPS-based location tracking and a clear presence indicator on the kiosk screen, alongside existing security measures, ensuring more reliable and user-friendly attendance management.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Enhanced Attendance Features

1. GPS-Based Location on Attendance Records:

   • How it Works: The “Localization” field on an attendance record now leverages GPS coordinates (if the employee grants browser permission) instead of just the IP address. This provides a more precise and verifiable location for check-ins and check-outs. If GPS permission is denied, it defaults back to IP address.
   • Action: Employees check in/out as usual. When reviewing attendance records (Attendances -> My Attendances or Attendances -> Management -> Attendances), you’ll see the location details, which are now more accurate. You can also group attendance records by location.

2. Presence Indicator on Kiosk Screen:

   • How it Works: For businesses using the attendance kiosk mode, a new visual indicator immediately shows an employee’s current status (checked in/on site or absent) right on the kiosk screen after manual identification.

   • Action:

     • Open the Odoo Attendance Kiosk mode.
     • Click Identify Manually.
     • After selecting or searching for an employee, their presence status (e.g., “On Site,” “Absent”) will be clearly displayed next to their name. This is useful for both employees checking their status and managers quickly seeing who is in.

Ensuring Legitimacy: Attendance Security Measures
The webinar also touched on how to verify legitimate check-ins/outs, leveraging existing Odoo HR 18.4 Features:

• PIN Identification: Set a unique PIN for each employee to verify manual check-ins on the kiosk.
• Barcode Scanning: Employees can scan their unique barcode (e.g., on an ID badge) via the kiosk.
• RFID Badges: For the highest level of physical verification, use RFID readers with employee badges. The employee must physically tap their badge to check in/out.
• User Account Check-in: Employees with Odoo user accounts can check in/out directly via their user interface (the green/red dot in the system tray), which also tracks location.

These attendance Odoo HR 18.4 Features enhance accuracy and provide real-time insights, contributing to better workforce management.

9. Streamlining Operations: Other Noteworthy Odoo HR 18.4 Features

Beyond the core HR applications, Odoo 18.4 also brings subtle yet impactful improvements to related modules:

• Approvals: Force Approval Action:

  • How it Works: Administrators of the Approvals application can now Force Approval on requests, even if they aren’t designated as a specific approver. This is invaluable when an official approver (e.g., a manager) is unavailable or on leave, preventing bottlenecks.
  • Action: On an approval request, an admin can click Action -> Force Approval.

• Fleet: Quick Create & Model Configurations:

  • Quick Create: The Quick Add form for creating new vehicles now includes fields for Model and License Plate, allowing for faster and more complete data entry directly from the Kanban view.
  • Manufacturer Configurations: Clicking on a manufacturer card in the Fleet application now displays a list of all models linked to that manufacturer, while clicking on the logo still allows configuration changes. Vehicle model configurations also now allow selecting the unit of measure (kilometers or miles) for range, which automatically adjusts CO2 emission units.

• Front Desk: UX Improvements & Host Checkout Link:

  • Visitor Check-in UX: For visitors, typing the host’s name during check-in now intelligently filters the list, making selection much easier than scrolling through a long directory.
  • Host Checkout Link: When a visitor checks in, the host receives a notification email that now includes a direct “Check out” link. This empowers the host to mark the visitor as checked out, reducing reliance on front desk staff and streamlining visitor management.

These additional Odoo HR 18.4 Features demonstrate Odoo’s commitment to enhancing user experience and operational efficiency across its integrated modules.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Odoo HR

While Odoo HR 18.4 Features already offer significant advancements, the Odoo team is continuously working on further innovations. Upcoming highlights, often showcased at events like Odoo Experience (OXP), include:

• Partial Days in Time Off Requests: More granular control over leave.
• Preloaded Public Holiday Data: Automated holiday schedules.
• Time Off Balance in Mobile App: On-the-go access to leave information.
• Overtime Rate on Work Entry Type: Enhanced payroll accuracy for overtime.
• Further Payroll Refactor: Continuous improvements to payroll localizations and core functionality.

Odoo actively encourages feedback from its community to shape future developments. If you have insights or feature requests, engaging with the Odoo team at webinars or events like OXP can make a real difference.

Elevate Your HR Today with Odoo HR 18.4 Features

The Odoo HR 18.4 Features represent a powerful leap forward in human resources management. From streamlining administrative tasks like user creation and document sharing to enhancing strategic functions like talent tracking and performance appraisals, these updates empower HR professionals to be more efficient, accurate, and responsive. The intuitive interfaces, combined with robust functionalities, make Odoo an indispensable tool for any organization looking to optimize its HR operations.

Don’t let outdated systems hold your HR department back. Explore the transformative capabilities of these latest Odoo HR features and start building a more agile, employee-centric, and data-driven HR environment. Your team and your bottom line will thank you.