What’s New in Field Service (Odoo 19)

🚀 Project and Task Setup

• Project templates (revamped): You must explicitly flag a project as a template before it can be used as one. This prevents accidental edits by regular users.
• Task templates: Preconfigure tasks with defaults like priority, tags, etc. Reuse them across projects to save time and enforce consistency.
• Role-based assignment: Define roles on task templates (e.g., Plumber, Electrician). When the project is created, Odoo automatically assigns tasks to people matching those roles, reducing manual effort.

📍 Geolocation & Timesheets

• GPS logging on timers: When a technician starts/stops the timer, Odoo logs GPS coordinates in the chatter. Useful to verify timesheets against actual on-site work.

🧾 Pricing Visibility Controls

• Hide unit price (customer & user): A project-level setting that hides product prices on the worksheet PDF for customers and also hides prices for users with only Field Service user access (e.g., when adding products from a task).

📆 Planning & Views UX

• Gantt view
• Collapse empty columns (e.g., weekends) based on company working hours; can uncollapse for exceptions.
• Wizard → Kanban cards: More compact, customizable pop-up; can set priority directly in Gantt.
• Undo button to revert changes quickly.
• Portal Gantt: External collaborators can access Gantt via the portal.
• Kanban view
• Three-star priority scale (like CRM) instead of single star for finer control.
• Quick assign assignees directly from Kanban without opening tasks.
• Subtask visibility toggle: A single control to show/hide all subtasks (replaces per-subtask eye icon).
• Map view
• Manual route ordering: Reorder tasks to adjust the visit sequence without leaving Odoo.
• Calendar view
• Drag-and-drop to plan and reschedule tasks easily.

🏗️ Subcontracting, POs & Profitability

• Subcontracted services (POs ungrouped): Purchase Orders triggered by sold services are ungrouped by default, making it easier to send individual instructions to vendors.
• POs in project dashboard: PO costs are included in project profitability before vendor bills arrive. When bills are linked to POs, costs aren’t double-counted.
• Clickable graphs: In reporting, click directly on graph elements to open filtered data.

🤝 Appointments Integration

• Appointments → Task: If a product creates a task through Appointments, the task is created upon confirmation. The assignee and allocated time are now carried over.

🧪 Demo Highlights (Prime Heat Services)

• Urgent repair via task template: Pre-filled high priority and tags; plan from Gantt with weekends collapsed; use Undo if needed.
• Skill-based scheduling: Filter by employee skills (from Employee records) to assign the right technician.
• Technician workflow: Start GPS-logged timer, add parts without seeing prices (user access), log timesheet (e.g., 3 hours), complete worksheet and capture customer signature.
• Manager invoicing: Manager sees product prices; Sales Order includes changed parts and service on timesheets; create and send invoice.
• Project roles on creation: New popup to assign Plumber/Electrician/Junior/Painter; Odoo auto-assigns tasks to selected roles; subtask visibility toggle; Calendar drag-and-drop to schedule; POs created from project and reflected in dashboard.

❓ Q&A Highlights

• Geolocation setting: Per-project; enable by default via a project template.
• Role assignment popup: Appears when creating a project from the action menu; not shown when a service line auto-creates a project from a Sales Order line.
• Field Service vs Planning: Separate apps. Use Field Service when technicians need timesheets + worksheets (requires access). Planning is for shifts for employees without Odoo access.
• Skills source: Filters use Employee skills from employee records.
• Return visits: Create a subtask of the original task to keep traceability.
• Subcontractor selection: Defaults to the first vendor; PO is draft, so you can change the vendor.
• Assets/installations: You can link to a serial number and retrieve intervention history (not fully demoed here).
• Drag in Gantt? Not yet; only from Calendar at the moment.
• Team assignments: Assign multiple people to the same task; role-based popup can include more than one person for a role.
• Travel time: No automatic calculation; Mapbox integration for routing; you can group by ZIP code to cluster visits.