Sales, CRM and POS overview

1. Overview & Business Value#

This comprehensive operational guide details the architecture, business workflows, configuration parameters, and execution steps for Sales, CRM and POS overview within SmartERP.

This page provides the operational and architectural foundation of SmartERP Sales, CRM, and Point of Sale (POS). It is written for Commercial Directors, Sales Managers, Account Executives, POS Supervisors, Cashiers, and Credit Controllers.

SmartERP Commercial Suite integrates pipeline opportunity tracking, customer master dossiers, automated credit limit governance, quotation workflows, Ethiopian fiscal VAT invoicing, multi-lane retail point of sale, and national digital FinTech payment rails (Telebirr and Chapa).

[sales-lead-to-cash-workflow]

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2. Prerequisites & Security Access Groups#

• Required Modules: sale_management, crm, point_of_sale, smarterp_payment_telebirr
• Security Groups:
  • Sales User (Technical ID: sales_team.group_sale_salesman)
  • Sales Administrator (Technical ID: sales_team.group_sale_manager)
  • POS User / Cashier (Technical ID: point_of_sale.group_pos_user)
• Master Data Dependencies: Customer partner registry, selling pricelists, product inventory balances, payment providers (Telebirr/CBE Birr), and POS terminal sessions.

3. Step-by-Step Configuration & Execution#

Step 1: Navigating to the Module Interface#

1. Log into your SmartERP instance at https://smarterp.et/odoo.
2. Open the main App Switcher (grid icon in the top-left corner).
3. Select the Sales app icon.
4. From the top navigation bar, open Sales → Orders → Quotations / Orders; Point of Sale → Dashboard.

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Step 2: Creating and Parameterizing Records#

1. Click the New button in the top-left control panel.
2. Complete the mandatory fields in the record form:
   • Customer Name (Mandatory): Registered partner record with complete invoicing and delivery addresses
   • Product Lines (Mandatory): Saleable items with approved commercial pricelist rates and VAT classification
   • Payment Terms (Mandatory): Immediate settlement, milestone advance, or agreed commercial credit terms
   • Salesperson (Mandatory): Account executive responsible for the customer commercial relationship
3. Configure optional operational parameters and localized tags as required:
   • Analytic Account (Optional): Revenue center or project allocation for commercial tracking
   • Customer PO Reference (Optional): External purchase order number issued by the client
   • Shipping Policy (Optional): Deliver all products at once or allow partial dispatches
4. Click the Save icon in the control bar to commit the record.

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Step 3: Validating and Processing Transactions#

• State Transitions: Execute operational state progression (Quotation → Sent → Confirmed Sales Order → Delivery Done → Invoiced → Paid).
• Ledger & System Impact: Generates customer tax invoice, posts accounts receivable debit and sales revenue credit, and updates inventory valuation upon delivery.
• Audit Verification: Automated recording of author ID, timestamp, and immutable revision history.

{screenshot:overview-transaction-processing-state}

Core Capabilities#

Statutory Commercial Compliance Baseline#

SmartERP Sales operations comply with Ethiopian commercial and tax regulations:

• 15% Value Added Tax (VAT): Automated calculation across taxable goods and services; generates statutory VAT sales registers and monthly declaration schedules for the Ministry of Revenues (MOR).
• 2% Withholding Tax (WHT) Receivable: Automatically flags withholding agent clients, deducts 2% WHT at billing or settlement, and tracks Withholding Voucher (WHV) certificate claims.
• Tax Identification Numbers (TIN): Mandatory 10-digit TIN validation on all B2B invoices exceeding statutory commercial thresholds.
• Fiscal Cash Register Integration: Supports interface with fiscal printer devices (MRC) and electronic fiscal receipts.

Commercial Lifecycle#

Every sales engagement follows an auditable 6-stage lifecycle:

[sales-data-model]

1. Lead Qualification (crm.lead): Inbound inquiries are scored, enriched with company data, and assigned to sales specialists.
2. Quotation & Proposal (sale.order): Product pricing, delivery lead times, and terms are structured into a formal quotation or proforma invoice.
3. Credit Verification (base_accounting_kit): The system verifies total customer exposure (open AR + pending orders) against the approved credit limit.
4. Order Confirmation & Reservation (stock.picking): Order confirmation reserves inventory in the warehouse and schedules delivery.
5. Fiscal Invoicing (account.move): Delivery triggers statutory 15% VAT sales invoice with buyer/seller TINs.
6. Payment Settlement (pos.session / payment_telebirr): Cash, bank transfer, or Telebirr payment settles the receivable and posts to the General Ledger.

4. Advanced Configuration Points#

• Automated Actions & Scheduled Tasks (Crons):
  • CRM: Lead auto-assignment (crm.ir_cron_lead_assign): Runs hourly to allocate unassigned leads across sales teams
  • Sales: Expire overdue quotations (sale.ir_cron_expire_quotes): Runs nightly to mark stale quotes as cancelled
  • POS: Close abandoned register sessions (point_of_sale.ir_cron_session_cleanup): Runs nightly to alert managers of open cashier terminals
• Custom Print Templates & Reports:
  • Customer Sales Quotation / Pro-forma Invoice
  • Commercial Tax Invoice (Model 85 Compliant)
  • POS Cash Register Receipt with QR Validation
  • Customer Credit Limit & Receivables Aging Statement
• Multi-Company Rules: Record-level security isolation under Company 1 (Ashewa Technology Solutions S.C.), preventing cross-company ledger leakage across parent and subsidiary legal entities.

5. Comprehensive Troubleshooting Matrix#

Next#

• Understand commercial concepts: Concepts and commercial governance.
• Walk through a complete order: Quick start.
• Manage your sales pipeline: Manage CRM pipeline stages and lead scoring.