Odoo Sales can create a quotation once your rep knows the product variant, quantity and applicable price. Manufacturing customers often supply those details indirectly, through old orders and requests such as “same cable entry, but stainless this time.”
This guide explains how Bourne can prepare a customer quotation from that kind of request while keeping the transaction in Odoo Sales. It concerns incoming customer RFQs; Odoo’s purchase RFQs, which ask your suppliers for prices, are a different workflow.
Keep the quotation in Odoo Sales
An Odoo sales quotation includes validity settings and source-document references. Keep the offer in that record so sales and order entry work from the same price.
Use Bourne to build the intake and preparation workflow around Odoo Sales. During setup, we confirm your edition, hosting arrangement, API access and installed modules, then connect the quotation actions your team needs.
Find the old configuration and apply the requested change
Consider an example request: “Quote 40 of the control boxes from April, with the same cable entry, but stainless this time.”
Retrieve the April quote and retain its product and approval history as evidence for the starting product. Then check the requested material against the current catalog while preserving the cable-entry requirement. If no valid combination exists, prepare a technical clarification instead of inventing a sellable item.
For complex product families, CPQ configuration rules can enforce the combinations engineering has approved. The agent can gather the requested options without having to reconstruct those rules from old quotes.
“Stainless this time” can affect the production definition behind a variant. NIST’s manufacturing digital-thread research connects engineering information with production and quality. In this quote, that means checking what the material change requires downstream of the sales screen.
Ask production whether the new version uses the same machining route and purchased components. Identify any different finishing or inspection work before keeping the old price. Save the offered configuration with the quote, then verify that order confirmation produces the intended manufacturing information in your Odoo setup. Changing a visible attribute without reviewing its production consequences can leave the document correct and the build instructions wrong.
Use current pricelist conditions
Odoo pricelists can include validity periods and minimum quantities. Confirm which pricelist applies to this customer and transaction, and test its conditions rather than copying a historical unit price.
For example, if the buyer increases 40 units to 48, the agent should revisit the relevant pricing conditions. If the earlier quotation used a promotion that has expired, the reviewer should see that exception. Do not maintain an unexplained second pricing table in the automation.
Take the reviewed draft through saving, sending and order confirmation
| Action | What to demonstrate |
|---|---|
| Read context | Correct account, current product and applicable pricing source. |
| Prepare a quote | Complete proposed header and lines, including unresolved questions. |
| Write the draft | Required fields and the returned quotation identifier. |
| Send the offer | Current approved revision and intended recipients. |
| Confirm the order | A separate authorized step with the expected downstream effects. |
Approve and test each action as you add it to the workflow.
Test email revisions and incomplete requests
Include an RFQ with customer shorthand, a changed variant and a later revised quantity. Ask the reviewer to trace the source behind each final value. For Gmail intake, account for repeated messages and attachment versions before creating the quotation.
The pilot’s finished-quote test should include the time needed to correct missing lines and incorrect terms in Odoo. A fast first draft is less useful if the rep must rebuild the quotation afterward.
Extend Odoo Sales with Bourne
Use Odoo’s native quotation workflow for requests your team can prepare from known items and terms. Choose Bourne when customers describe variants through old orders, attachments or technical shorthand. We can build a review app that puts those references beside the proposed Odoo quotation.
Your team can resolve the product question and approve the quote in one workflow, then extend it into customer follow-up. Build your Odoo quoting workflow with us.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as automating Odoo purchase RFQs?
No. Purchase RFQs ask suppliers for prices. This workflow handles a customer’s request and prepares a sales quotation. Confirm the intended direction when evaluating an app or connector.
Can AI choose the correct product variant?
It can propose a variant from the current catalog using the customer’s stated requirements and relevant history. Keep ambiguous or unavailable combinations for review rather than treating a plausible description as a valid product.
Will customer pricelists still apply?
They should remain part of the agreed pricing process. Test the applicable customer, currency, dates and quantity conditions. Do not accept a demo that uses a generic price while your production quotes depend on customer rules.
Can we begin before connecting our live Odoo database?
Yes. Use representative exports to test interpretation and draft quality. Then test live reads and writes separately in the appropriate environment; offline quality does not prove production permissions or transaction behavior.
Further reading
NIST: digital thread for manufacturing
Connecting engineering, manufacturing and quality information.
Arda Bulut
Arda Bulut is the co-founder and CTO of Bourne and HockeyStack. He leads engineering at Bourne, building the platform people use to create AI products, agents and automations.