Odoo Low-Stock Reorder + Vendor Bill Approvals via n8n

Automate Odoo low-stock reorders and get vendor bills approved via Slack—with n8n

This n8n workflow automatically checks Odoo for low-stock items, drafts purchase orders, and emails vendors through Gmail. It also turns incoming “vendor bill”/“invoice” emails into draft vendor bills in Odoo, then sends them to Slack for approval before posting.

What this workflow does

• Runs daily at 8:00 AM to fetch product records from Odoo and identify items below your configured stock threshold.
• If low-stock products are found, it looks up the preferred vendor and vendor contact details in Odoo for each product.
• It then creates a draft purchase order in Odoo using a fixed reorder quantity of 20 units.
• Next, the workflow emails the draft PO details to the vendor via Gmail.
• It posts to Slack (in #procurement) with the drafted PO information—or posts a “no reorder needed” update if nothing is low.
• Separately, it polls Gmail every 5 minutes for unread emails with subjects matching “vendor bill” or “invoice”, extracting vendor name, amount, and reference from the subject line.
• If the vendor matches an Odoo partner, it creates a draft vendor bill in Odoo and sends a Slack approval request to #finance-approvals that pauses until approved or declined.
• When approved, it posts the vendor bill in Odoo. If declined—or if the vendor is not recognized—it emails the submitter via Gmail with next steps.

Use cases

• Keep purchasing responsive by automatically reordering when stock drops below threshold.
• Standardize vendor bill intake by capturing key details from subject lines and creating draft bills in Odoo.
• Enforce finance governance with Slack-based approvals before bills are posted.

Technical details

• Odoo node: read products/vendors; create purchase.order and draft/post vendor bills via account.move.
• Gmail node: send draft PO emails and poll for unread bill/invoice messages.
• Slack node: notify procurement and request finance approvals in #procurement and #finance-approvals.
• Workflow logic built with nodes like if, set, and supports clarity via `sticky note`.

Setup note: add an Odoo API credential with permissions to read products/vendors and create purchase orders and vendor bills.