What's new in Odoo 20 HR & Payroll

Payroll > Payslips > Pay Runs

In Odoo 20 each pay run has its own chatter. From the Pay Runs list, payroll officers open a side panel for a pay run to post internal notes, send messages, schedule activities and read the pay run's history, such as when it was created and how its status changed. The panel is reached from the chat icon on the pay run card, next to the employee count. This keeps discussion and follow-up about a pay run attached to the pay run itself.

Employees > Employee > Payroll tab

In Odoo 20, when a contract's start or end date is changed so that validated or paid payslips would fall outside the contract period, Odoo refuses to save the change. The warning shown includes a button that opens those payslips, which must be refunded, meaning corrected, before the new dates can be saved. This protects payroll history from becoming inconsistent with contract dates. The dates are edited on the Payroll tab of the employee form.

Payroll > Dashboard

The Odoo 20 Payroll dashboard is laid out as a monthly timeline of warning cards. Setup cards point to configuration still to do, such as the pay schedule, payslip layout or benefits. Control cards flag data problems, such as employees without a bank account or a contract, and attendance issues. Every card has a button that opens the records needing attention, so payroll officers can move straight from a warning to fixing it.

Payroll > Configuration > Contracts > Employee Types

In Odoo 20 employee types such as Employee, Student or Intern are stored as records with an optional Company field. When a company or branch is set on a type, the type can only be used in that company or branch. When the field is left empty, the type is shared by all companies. Multi-company groups use this to keep country- or entity-specific employee types separate while sharing common ones.

Payroll > Employees > Salary Calculator

The Odoo 20 Gross-Net Salary Calculator accepts a salary entered as a net amount per month. Odoo then works out the gross wage, and the employer cost, that would result in that net pay, based on the chosen pay structure and working schedule. Payroll officers and HR use it to answer questions such as what gross salary is needed to pay a given net amount. The salary type is set to Net Per Month before entering the amount.

Payroll > Payslips > Pay Runs > New

Creating a pay run in Odoo 20 follows guided steps. Clicking New opens a dialog to choose employee types, the pay structure and the period. Continue leads to the selection of employees, and a Before You Start check then lists any pending issues before payslips are generated. Each pay run card shows its status and only the next relevant action, such as Validate, Pay or Mark as Paid, so payroll officers always know the following step.

Payroll > Configuration > Settings

Odoo 20 Payroll has a setting that controls when payslip PDFs are generated and emailed to employees. The choices are When Confirmed, When Paid, or Manually. With Manually selected, nothing is sent automatically and the pay run shows a Send by email button that the payroll officer clicks when ready. The setting is named Send payslips to employees and is found in the Payroll settings.

Payroll > Payslips > Payslip > Salary Computation

The Salary Computation tab of an Odoo 20 payslip shows the lines that matter for that payslip. Obvious values, such as totals of empty categories, are greyed out, and columns with no values are hidden. A Show all toggle displays every line again when the full detail is needed. This makes payslips easier to review for payroll officers while keeping the complete computation available on demand.

Employees > Actions > Salary Increase

Odoo 20 has a Salary Increase action that can be run on one or several employees at once. It asks for an effective date, an increase rate, whether the rate applies to the full wage or to a capped wage, and an additional fixed amount. Odoo then creates new contract versions with the raised salaries and offers to correct payslips that are already affected by the change. HR uses it for yearly indexation or general raises.

Payroll > Configuration > Salary > Rules

In Odoo 20 a salary rule has a Categories field and a Pay Structures field, and each accepts several values. One rule can therefore count towards several totals and be used by several pay structures, instead of being copied for each structure. This reduces the number of duplicated rules that payroll administrators have to maintain. Rules are managed from the Salary Rules menu in the Payroll configuration.

Employees > Actions > Export Time Entries

Odoo 20 offers a single Export Time Entries action on employees. It exports one month of time entries for the selected employees in one common file format, the same for every payroll provider. The action is used from the Employees list: select the employees, open Actions and choose Export Time Entries. The result covers the whole month for each selected employee in a standard layout.

Payroll > Configuration > Time Management > Time Types

In Odoo 20 there are no work entry records and no bridge between Planning and Payroll. Payslips read time off and working schedules directly. Work entry types and time off types are combined into one Time Type. Its form has a Time Off tab, covering approval and allocation, and a Payroll tab, both on the same record. Payroll administrators manage these types from the Time Management section of the Payroll configuration.

Payroll > Configuration > Time Management > Working Schedules

In Odoo 20 a working schedule line can hold only a number of hours per day. The start and end times are left empty and the daily hours are entered instead, for example 7h30 on each day from Monday to Friday. This suits employees whose contract defines daily hours rather than fixed working times. Schedules are created or edited from the Working Schedules menu in the Time Management section of the Payroll configuration.

Settings > Attendances > Automatic Check-Out

Automatic Check-Out can be based on a Specific Time, such as 8:00 PM, as an alternative to a tolerance after scheduled hours. At that time, a job checks out every attendance that is still open, including those of employees on flexible schedules. Administrators choose this option in the Attendances settings, under Automatic Check-Out, and then set the time at which open attendances are closed.

In the attendance Gantt view, colour-coded indicators show whether an employee's hours are underworked, as expected, or overtime. Managers can see at a glance how the hours recorded compare with what was expected for each employee.

Settings > Attendances > Take Pictures on Check-In

A setting lets Odoo take a picture with the device camera when an employee checks in from the kiosk or from the systray. The photo helps confirm the identity of the person checking in. Administrators switch it on in the Attendances settings with the 'Take Pictures on Check-In' option, after which it applies to check-ins made through both of these entry points.

Settings > Users > Access Rights > Human Resources > Attendances

Access to the Attendances app menu requires an attendance access right, and users without one cannot open the app. A 'Self Attendance Edit' level lets users manage their own attendance records without wider rights. Administrators set the level for each user on the Access Rights tab of the user form, in the Human Resources section under Attendances, choosing what each person may do.

Attendances > Configuration > Automatic Rules > Work Days > Public Holidays

Rules can target public holidays. Next to the weekday settings, each automatic rule has a Public Holidays condition, so work done on a public holiday can receive a different time type, such as an overtime rate. Organisations use it to count or pay holiday work separately from normal days. The condition is in the Work Days section of a rule in the Attendances configuration.

An optional mode records only the first check-in of an employee during working hours. It is meant to be used together with automatic check-out, which then closes the open attendance afterwards.

Attendance records can be filtered and grouped by working schedule and by day. Managers can use these filters and groupings to review attendance for a given schedule or for a particular date.

Employees > Directory

In a multi-company database, the employee Directory shows employees of all companies, whatever companies the user has access to. A Company panel on the left lets users browse employees across the whole organisation. A user restricted to one company can therefore still look up colleagues who work for the other companies of the group from the Directory menu of the Employees app.

Employees > [employee form] > Simulation button

The employee form has a Simulation button in its header. It opens the salary simulator with the data relevant to that employee already filled in, so the salary can be simulated without entering the details again. It is an Enterprise feature available on employee records in the Employees app, used by HR staff preparing salary proposals for a specific person.

Employees > [employee] > Work tab > Location group

Remote work settings are part of the Employees app; there is no separate Remote Work module. On the employee's Work tab, a Location group shows the usual work location and a location field for each weekday. HR staff and managers use it to record where each employee works on each day of the week, directly on the employee form in the Employees app.

Employees > Configuration > Working Schedules

Working schedules can be of the Variable type. Instead of a weekly pattern that repeats, work periods are drawn on specific dates directly in a calendar, which suits rotations and other irregular patterns. Schedules are created in the Employees configuration by setting Calendar Type to Variable and clicking in the week calendar to add work periods on the exact dates they apply to.

Time Off > Configuration > Time Types > [type] > Time Off tab > Count Days as

In Odoo 20 each time type has a Count Days as option. With Working Days, the length of a request depends on the employee's working schedule, so only scheduled days are counted. With Calendar Days, every day is counted, weekends included, so a full week always counts as seven days. HR managers choose the option per time type in the Configuration part of its Time Off tab.

Time Off > Configuration > Time Types > [type] > Duration Type

In Odoo 20 the Duration Type of a time type sets the smallest amount an employee can request. With Full Day, only whole days can be requested. With Half-Day, the request form offers Full Day, Morning or Afternoon. With Custom Hours, any duration can be entered. HR managers set it on the time type, and employees see the matching choices when they create a request of that type.

Time Off > Overview

The Odoo 20 Time Off Overview, a Gantt view, lists every employee, including those who have no time off in the period shown. This holds as long as the search only filters on employees. Managers can see the whole team on one chart, with empty rows for people without leave, which makes it easier to check coverage across a period.

In Odoo 20 every localization has a Public Holiday time type by default. Odoo suggests the yearly public holidays for the company's country and can load them. The source gives no menu path for this.

Several appraisals can be handled in one go: they can be confirmed, emailed, marked as done or reset together. HR users can therefore apply the same action to a selection of appraisals at once.

Appraisals > Appraisals > [Appraisal Name] > Ask Feedback

The Ask Feedback wizard accepts any contact as a recipient, not only employees. Managers can request 360 feedback from customers, partners or other external contacts together with internal colleagues. The wizard opens from the Ask Feedback button on an ongoing appraisal, where external contacts are added in the Recipients field alongside employees. The feedback request is then sent to all recipients.

Appraisals > Configuration > Templates; Appraisals > New

A new appraisal is filled automatically with the template that suits the employee's department. Odoo uses the first template linked to that department, or otherwise the first template that is not tied to any department. HR officers link templates to departments in the Appraisals configuration, and the right template is applied as soon as they create an appraisal for an employee.

Recruitment > Applications > Talents filter

In Odoo 20 talents, which are profiles in a talent pool, are closely linked to their applications. A talent form has an Apply to Jobs button listing each job with the talent's matching score, and a job has a Matching Talents button. Shared data, such as contact details and skills, is kept in sync between a talent and its applications, so recruiters do not need to update the same information twice.

Website > Jobs > application form > Edit > Field options

In the Odoo 20 website form editor, a field on the job application form can be shown only when the Job field contains one of several chosen jobs. The Contains condition on a record field offers a list of values with a toggle for each. Recruiters use it to ask job-specific questions on one shared application form, so applicants only see fields relevant to the position they pick.

Recruitment > Applications > Search panel

In Odoo 20 the matching score of an applicant, which compares their skills and degree with the job requirements, is stored on the application. The Applications search offers a Matching Score filter with thresholds of 80%, 70%, 60% and 50%. Recruiters use it to list only the applicants who meet a chosen level of fit for the job, which helps when reviewing many applications.

Recruitment > Configuration > Job Positions

In Odoo 20 a job position has a Matching Talents button. It opens the talents in the pool who are not yet linked to that job, together with their matching and missing factors, meaning the skills they have or lack for the position. Recruiters use it to find suitable candidates already in their talent pool before looking for new applicants.

Recruitment > Job Positions > [open job] > Promote; Referrals > Reporting > Link Tracker

In Odoo 20, when a job is promoted to employees with the Promote button on the job form, the job's chatter records which employees were sent the promotion email. Employees can also open a Referral Link Tracker that counts the clicks on each link they shared. The source did not find a separate counter of how many people were contacted. Recruiters and referring employees use these to follow job promotion activity.

Frontdesk > Stations

The Frontdesk Partnership module adds a Type to each frontdesk station: Guests or Members. A Members frontdesk admits contacts who scan their personal barcode, but only if they hold one of the partner grades, or membership tiers, chosen on the station. A passback timeout stops the same badge from being reused straight away. The module installs automatically with Partnership, and members check in through the station's kiosk.