This glossary explains common Odoo, ERP, implementation, data, and operations terms in practical business language. It is written for decision makers, process owners, and teams preparing for an ERP project.
Core ERP Terms
- ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning, a system that connects finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, operations, projects, and reporting in one operating platform.
- Odoo: A modular ERP platform with apps for accounting, sales, CRM, inventory, manufacturing, projects, HR, websites, e-commerce, and more.
- CRM: Customer Relationship Management, used to manage leads, opportunities, sales activities, and customer follow-up.
- Master data: The core records a business depends on, such as customers, vendors, products, accounts, employees, warehouses, and price lists.
- Workflow: The sequence of actions, responsibilities, approvals, and system records needed to complete a business process.
Implementation Terms
- Implementation: Preparing, configuring, testing, training, and launching a system so it supports daily operations.
- Configuration: Setting up standard system options without changing source code.
- Customization: Extending or changing the system to support a specific business requirement that standard configuration cannot cover.
- Integration: Connecting Odoo with another system such as a website, payment gateway, shipping service, bank, BI tool, or external platform.
- Data migration: Moving data from Excel or an old system into Odoo after cleaning, mapping, validating, importing, and reconciling it.
- Go-live: The point where users start using the new system for real business work.
- Post-go-live support: Stabilization, issue handling, user guidance, small improvements, and planning the next phase after launch.