Odoo Native Product Models

Motivating Questions

A. Why Rely on Odoo's Native Product Models?

Odoo has several built-in product constructs. Before introducing ABS logic or custom bundling frameworks, we must understand:

• What Odoo already supports natively
• Which product structures are stable, traceable, and safe to use
• How Odoo expects products to behave in sales, pricing, and fulfillment

This foundational clarity prevents:

• Unnecessary customization
• Misalignment between commercial and technical teams
• Uncontrolled "bundle explosion"

B. Commercial Requirements

We need to design:

1. Channel-specific product offerings: Products differ by country, distributor, franchise, or sales agent
2. Configurable bundles: Define which Product-Units can be combined (e.g., Subscription ↔ Swap Credits ↔ Deposit)
3. Long-lived commercial assets: Deposits, service privileges, warranties, entitlement to swap programs
4. Avoid combinatorial explosion: Structured, rule-based bundles without creating 500 SKUs per market

C. Example

Customer purchases:

• "45Ah Battery Swap Option": Long-term entitlement (deposit or privilege)
• "45Ah Battery Weekly Swap": Recurring service product (requires above entitlement)

Requires:

• Meaningfully related product structures
• Controlled bundling
• Traceable sales records
• Channel-specific pricing
• Compatibility with Odoo's subscription and service models

D. What We Need from Odoo

• Product Categories
• Product Bundles / BoM Kits
• Company-specific and channel-specific products
• Pricelists
• Sales order behaviors
• Warranty / returns / deposits handling
• Service products and subscription models

Odoo Native Product Constructs

Odoo Construct	What It Is	Purpose in Odoo	Relevance to OVES/ABS
Product Template	Product family definition	Base object for sellable items	Where Product-Units live; defines type
Product Variant	Specific variation	Attribute-based variations	Avoid for commercial packaging
Product Category	Classification tree	Accounting, reporting, segmentation	Group: physical goods, services, deposits
BoM (Kit/Set)	Predefined bundle	Sales bundle (delivered as components)	Good for fixed bundles only
Pricelist	Price rules per channel	Channel/customer/market-specific pricing	Critical for channel differentiation
Company-specific Products	Products visible only in selected companies	Multi-company separation	Country/franchise-specific offerings
Sales Order	Commercial transaction record	Drives fulfillment, revenue recognition	Anchor for deposits, privileges, subscriptions
Service Product	Product with no stock movement	Subscriptions, entitlements, swap credits	Swap subscription, access privilege
Subscription Model	Recurring invoicing	Subscriptions, memberships	Weekly swap fees, recurring commitments
Deposit Product	Service + Liability Account	Returns/refunds, warranties	Battery swap privilege deposits
Warranty/Return Rules	After-sale processes	Standard RMA flow	Deposit recovery, entitlement cancellation

Architecture Alignment

Odoo provides:

• Product Templates for units
• Service Products + Liability Accounting for deposits/entitlements
• Pricelists for channel specialization
• BoM Kits for fixed bundles
• Subscription Models for recurring services
• Sales Orders for binding commercial logic

ABS provides:

• Dynamic bundling rules
• Entitlement logic
• Asset lifecycle management
• Usage tracking