Fruit Crate Management — User Guide

Overview

Fruit Crate Management gives your team complete control over reusable fruit crates inside Odoo — from the moment fruit arrives from a supplier, through manufacturing, to the point empty crates are returned. Day-to-day operators work from two simple web screens (/receipt and /dispatch), while inventory and production managers supervise everything from the Odoo backend. This guide walks you through installation, role assignment, master-data setup, and each step of the daily workflow.

1. Installation

1. Download the fruit_crate_management module and place it in your Odoo add-ons path.
2. In Odoo, go to Apps, click Update Apps List, search for Fruit Crate Management, and click Install.
3. The module depends on Inventory (stock), Purchase (purchase_stock), Manufacturing (mrp), Barcode, Portal, and Website. Odoo installs these automatically if they aren't already present.

2. Assigning Roles (User Access)

The module adds four privilege groups under the Fruit Crate Management category. Each user only gets what their job requires, so operators never touch backend stock they shouldn't.

The four roles:

• Fruit Receipt Frontend — lets a user work the inbound /receipt screen only, with no backend inventory access.
• Fruit Dispatch Frontend — lets a user work the outbound /dispatch screen only.
• Fruit Crate Inventory — backend inventory and stock supervision for administrators.
• Fruit Crate Production — backend MRP and drum-tracking supervision for production administrators.

How to assign a role:

1. Go to Settings > Users & Companies > Users.
2. Open the user you want to configure (or click New to create one).
3. Scroll to the Fruit Crate Management section on the user form.
4. For each of the four privileges, use the dropdown to set the level — pick Allowed to grant access or leave it at No Access.
5. Click Save.

A single user can hold more than one role. For example, a shift supervisor might have both Fruit Crate Inventory and Fruit Crate Production. A gate operator typically only needs Fruit Receipt Frontend.

Note on record visibility: A record rule ensures receipt operators only see their own draft receipts, so operators can't view or edit each other's in-progress work.

3. Master Data Setup (do this before daily operations)

Complete this one-time configuration before anyone starts receiving or dispatching.

Suppliers

Open each supplier under Contacts and fill in:

• Supplier Code — a short code used when the system builds combo-lot names.
• Allowed on Receipt Frontend — tick this so the supplier appears in the /receipt dropdown.
• Allowed on Dispatch Frontend — tick this so the supplier appears in /dispatch.
• Dispatch Destination Location — optional supplier stock location for empty-crate returns.

Products

Configure each product for its role in the workflow:

• Fruit received from suppliers — enable Fruit Combo Product and set tracking to Lot.
• Reusable crate — enable Reusable Crate Product and set tracking to Serial.
• Drum output — enable Drum Product so it can be used in drum tracking.

Crate Sizes

Go to Fruit Crates > Configuration > Crate Sizes and create records for the crate dimensions your operators need to classify on each receipt line.

Inventory & Purchase readiness

Confirm before you start:

• An incoming picking type exists for the company.
• An outgoing picking type exists for the company.
• Vendor pricing is set on combo products if you want purchase orders to carry correct unit prices.

4. Daily Workflow

The overall order of work is: Receive → Manufacture → Return empties → Dispatch → Track drums.

Step 1 — Inbound Receipt (/receipt)

This is the first daily operation, used to record fruit crates arriving from a supplier.

1. Open /receipt in a browser.
2. Select the supplier from the dropdown.
3. Add one or more receipt lines. For each line:
   • Choose the combo product.
   • Enter the total weight (must be positive).
   • Set the quality rating from 1 to 5.
   • Scan or type between 1 and 4 crate barcodes.
   • Add an optional note if needed.
4. Click Save Draft if you're still unloading or scanning, or Submit Receipt when everything is complete.

Barcode validation happens in real time. A barcode is rejected if it's empty, already used in the current receipt, still tied to a combo lot in internal stock, or already sitting as an empty crate in internal stock. Fix any flagged barcode before submitting.

On submission the system automatically: validates all data again, creates or updates a Fruit Crate Receipt, finds or creates a serial lot per crate, creates one combo lot per line and links the crate serials to it, creates and validates an incoming picking, creates or syncs a purchase order for the supplier, and moves the receipt to Confirmed.

Combo lot naming follows the pattern [PRODUCT]-[SUPPLIER]-[DDMMYY]-[HHMM], with a numeric suffix added automatically if that base name already exists.

Step 2 — Draft Save & Recovery

Use Save Draft while the truck is still unloading or crates are still being scanned. The draft is stored for the current user to reopen and continue later, and local browser recovery helps if the page is interrupted before submission.

Step 3 — Manufacturing (MRP)

After receipt, production consumes the combo lot, not the individual crate serials.

1. Create a manufacturing order for the finished product.
2. Add the fruit combo product as a raw material.
3. Assign the combo lot from the receipt on that raw-material move line.
4. Save or confirm the order.

The system then reads the linked crate serials and automatically creates reusable-crate byproduct lines, sets the byproduct quantity to match the number of linked crates, and creates a move line for each empty crate serial.

Step 4 — Finish Manufacturing & Release Empties

When you mark the manufacturing order Done, the empty-crate byproduct moves return those crate serials to internal stock and release the active combo-lot link on each serial. The crates are now available for dispatch.

Step 5 — Outbound Dispatch (/dispatch)

Use this to return empty crates to a supplier.

1. Open /dispatch.
2. Select the destination supplier.
3. Scan or type each empty crate barcode.
4. Click Create Dispatch.

Dispatch is blocked if a barcode is unknown, the crate is still linked to an active combo lot, the crate isn't available in internal stock, or the same barcode is entered twice. On success, an outgoing picking is created and validated, the crates leave internal stock, and each crate record is updated with the supplier reference.

Step 6 — Drum Tracking

Record finished drum output with full source traceability.

1. Go to Fruit Crates > Drum Tracking and create a new record.
2. Enter the drum serial number and select the drum product.
3. Enter weight and production date.
4. Link the manufacturing order and source combo lot if available.
5. Click Confirm to register the drum serial lot and activate traceability.
6. Click Print Label to generate a thermal drum label.

Confirmed drums carry a unique serial and drum lot, the source combo lot reference, the linked manufacturing order, a quality rating inherited from the source combo lot, and a label-print counter.

5. Reports

Drum Label Report — a thermal-formatted label showing drum serial, product, weight, production date, and source lot. It prints through standard Odoo report actions from the drum record.

6. Automated Maintenance

Stale Draft Cleanup — a scheduled action runs daily and removes draft Fruit Crate Receipt records that haven't been updated in more than seven days, keeping the database tidy. No manual action is needed.

7. Quick Troubleshooting

• A supplier isn't showing in /receipt or /dispatch — confirm the relevant Allowed on … Frontend checkbox is ticked on the supplier contact.
• A barcode is rejected on receipt — the crate is likely still linked to a combo lot in stock, or already sitting as an empty crate in stock. It must be dispatched or released first.
• A crate can't be dispatched — it may still be reserved in combo stock or not yet returned to internal stock; finish the related manufacturing order first.
• Purchase order prices are wrong — check that vendor pricing is set on the combo product.
• A user can't open a screen — verify the correct privilege (Receipt/Dispatch/Inventory/Production) is set to Allowed on their user record.

Support

For issues or technical help, contact Serpent Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd. at support@serpentcs.com or visit https://www.serpentcs.com.