Open ERP Book (Developing a real case)

Developing a real case

Now that you’ve discovered some of the many possibilities of Open ERP from a tour of the demonstration database, you’ll develop a real case. An empty database provides the starting point for testing a classic workflow from product purchase to sale, completing your guided tour and your familiarization with Open ERP.

A database loaded with demonstration data is very useful for understanding Open ERP’s general capabilities. But to explore Open ERP through a lens of your own company’s needs you should start with an empty database. You’ll work in this chapter on a minimal database containing no demonstration data so that there is no confusion about what you created. And you’ll keep the database you’ve created so that you can build on it throughout the rest of this book if you want to.

You’ll develop a real case through the following phases:

1. Specify a real case.

2. Describe the functional needs.

3. Configure the system with the essential modules.

4. Carry out the necessary data loading.

5. Test the system with your database.

The case is deliberately extremely simple to provide you with a foundation for the more complex situations you’ll handle in reality. Throughout this chapter it’s assumed that you’re accessing Open ERP through its web interface. And it’s also assumed (as in the rest of this book) that you’re using the latest download of Open ERP version 5, the stable production version at the time of writing (not the trunk version, which is likely to have new and potentially unstable features).

Use case

Configure a system that enables you to:

buy products from a supplier,

stock the products in a warehouse,

sell these products to a customer.

The system should support all aspects of invoicing, payments to suppliers and receipts from customers.

Functional requirements

For working out the business case you’ll have to model:

the suppliers,

the customers,

some products,

inventory for despatch,

a purchase order,

a sale order,

invoices,

payments.

To test the system you’ll need at least one supplier, one customer, one product, a warehouse, a minimal chart of accounts and a bank account.

Database creation

Use the technique outlined in Database creation to create a new database, openerp_ch03 . This database will be free of data and contain the least possible amount of functionality as a starting point. You’ll need to know your super administrator password for this – or you’ll have to find somebody who does have it to create this seed database. You won’t be able to use the openerp_ch1 or openerp_ch2 databases that you might have created so far in this book because they both contain demonstration data.

Start the database creation process from the Welcome page by clicking Databases and then completing the following fields on the Create new database form, as shown in Creating a blank database:

Super admin password : by default it’s admin , if you or your system administrator haven’t changed it,

New database name : openerp_ch03 ,

Load Demonstration data checkbox: not checked (this step is very important, but catches out many people),

Default Language : English ,

Administrator password : admin (because it’s easiest to remember at this stage, but obviously completely insecure),

Confirm password : admin .

(Pic) Creating a blank database

Then click OK to create the database and move to the setup screen Setting up a blank database - first screen.

(Pic) Setting up a blank database - first screen

After a short delay you are connected to the new openerp_ch03 database as user adminwith the password you gave it. You’ll have to go through the Setup wizard in steps:

1. Select a profile : select Minimal Profile and click Next.

2. At the Define Main Company step you could select your own Company Name and Currency, and address details on the first tab General Information; and you can add more details on the second tab Report Information including a logo that would appear on reports. In this test you should leave everything untouched for the moment and just click Next: you’ll change them later.

3. At the Summary page you can go back to change details if you need. Click the Install button.

4. Finally, at the Installation done page, click Start Configuration.

Configuration consists of a set of wizards that help you through options for the installed modules. Since you chose the minimal database hardly anything is installed so this is a very simple process at the moment, starting with the menu layout Configuring a minimal database - first screen .

(Pic) Configuring a minimal database - first screen

1. At the first screen click Continue to go into the first wizard. Choose View Mode : Extended Interface so that you can see everything and then click Set to save it.

2. Click Skip Step to step over the next wizard, which would enable you to add other users.

3. You’ve now reached the end of the configuration so click Continue to start using the system as the Administrator as shown in the screenshot Starting the minimal database.

(Pic) Starting the minimal database

Installing and configuring modules

All of the functional needs are provided by core modules from Open ERP:

product management (the product module),

inventory control (the stock module),

accounting and finance (the account module),

purchase management (the purchase module),

sales management (the sale module).

Use the menu Administration ‣ Modules Management ‣ Modules ‣ Uninstalled modules to show the list of all modules that are registered within Open ERP but as yet uninstalled. Then:

1. Enter product into the Name field and click Filter to list the product module.

2. Click the name product in the list to display the product module in form view, rather than the list view that a search displays.

3. Click the Schedule for Installation button on the product module form.

4. Click the Search button at the top of the form to toggle back to the list view with search selection fields on it.

5. Search for the sale module then select it, too, as you did with product, to show it in form view.

6. Click the Dependencies tab to see that you’ll automatically be loading the product, stock, mrp, and process modules along with the sale module. product and process are both already marked for installation as a result of the first steps.

7. Return to the Module tab and then click its Schedule for Installation button.

8. Click Apply Scheduled Upgrades in the Action toolbar to the right.

9. When the System Upgrade form appears, review the list of Modules to update – it may be longer than you had expected, and now includes all the modules you need, because the dependencies themselves had their own dependencies.

10. Click Start Upgrade, wait for System upgrade done to be displayed, then click Start Configuration on that form.

Configuration is required for both the accounts setup and the sales defaults.

1. Accept the defaults for the Fiscal Year and choose the Charts of Account to be None then click Continue.

2. The sales defaults are shown in the screenshot The module form once a module is installed. The selections you make determine how Open ERP’s processes work by setting its default behaviour (although you can override any of them for any sales order, so you are not strictly bound by these defaults). Accept the initial set by clicking Set default behaviour.

3. You’ve reached the end of this configuration stage so click Continue to continue using the system as the Administrator. You first reach a new tab Features that lists the new menus and views as shown in the figure The Features tab once a module is installed. Each of the modules that were installed has its own new tab - it’s not only the one you see displayed in front of you. Click Next and Previous to move between them.

4. The main menu now displays all of the menu items that were loaded by the modules you installed. Click MAIN MENU to see this, shown in the screenshot Continuing with the database after installing new modules.

(Pic) The module form once a module is installed

(Pic) The Features tab once a module is installed

(Pic) Continuing with the database after installing new modules

Database setup

You’ll create all the elements in the database that you need to carry out the use case. These are specified in the functional requirements.

Configuring Accounts

You need to start off with a minimal set of accounts, and to do that you will need a couple of account types. You can structure your accounts into a chart at any time (and, in fact, you can structure them into several additional charts at the same time as you’ll see in the chapter Configuring Accounts from A to Z), so you don’t need to be concerned unduly about structure.

Account Types

Create account types using Financial Management ‣ Configuration ‣ Financial Accounting ‣ Financial Accounts ‣ Account Types and then clicking the New button. You’ll need the following four types, the first of which is shown in figure New Account Type.

Defining Account TypesAcc.

Type Name

Code

Sequence

Sign on Reports

Deferral Method

Partner Account

View

view

5

Positive

None

unchecked

Income

income

5

Positive

Unreconciled