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Supplier Commitments

Purpose​

Supplier Commitments adds a supplier response and buyer review process to RFQs and purchase orders. Suppliers can accept, change or reject individual lines through a portal. Authorized buyers decide whether to apply proposed quantities, dates, prices, substitutes and split deliveries. Purchase versions preserve the request, response and effective order, while advance shipping notices (ASNs) describe expected shipments.

Before you start​

Install the package matching your exact Odoo major version. It depends on Purchase with Inventory integration, Portal, Discuss/mail, Sales with Inventory integration, Manufacturing and Delivery (purchase_stock, portal, mail, sale_stock, mrp, delivery). The manifest does not declare an Enterprise-only dependency. Configure vendor contacts and outgoing email before requesting a real supplier response.

This guide follows Odoo 19.0 source. Other listed releases received selected source-difference review. No runtime workflow or email delivery was tested.

Access and roles​

Supplier Commitment User reads commitments, policies, versions and ASNs and can update procurement exceptions. Supplier Commitment Buyer creates and edits commitments and ASNs and can accept, counter or reject responses. Supplier Commitment Manager also manages policies and includes Purchase manager permissions. A visible request button does not give the read-only User role permission to create its underlying commitment.

Portal access is limited to the selected supplier contact and named delegates when signed in. Public invitation access uses the document's token. Contacts must belong to the order supplier's commercial entity. Expiry and revocation controls are available on the commitment; use these when access should end and keep invitation links private.

Configure a policy​

A manager opens Purchase → Supplier Control → Configuration → Commitment Policies. Set company and sequence, vendor/tag/product-category filters and any minimum order amount. The first active policy matching these criteria is selected. Configure response hours and a working calendar, permitted quantity/date/price changes, split schedules and substitutes, and whether changed lines require reasons. Set a responsible buyer and reminder options.

The working calendar calculates the response deadline; without a usable calendar the code falls back to elapsed hours. Automatic reminders can email the supplier near or after the deadline and flag overdue responses. Review these settings before using real addresses.

The Supplier Control menu also contains Control Tower, Supplier Commitments, Advance Shipping Notices, Procurement Exceptions and Purchase Versions.

Request and accept a commitment​

  1. An authorized buyer reviews an active RFQ or purchase order and uses Request Supplier Commitment. A matching policy is required. The action snapshots the purchase lines and sends an email request; it is not a preview-only action. If no contact was set, the send routine selects a supplier child contact with email, falling back to the supplier. Maintain the vendor's contacts accordingly before using this shortcut.
  2. Open the resulting commitment to review the supplier contact, delegates, deadline and access settings. A repeated request reuses an existing open commitment; review its state before sending again.
  3. The supplier opens the invitation, chooses Accept, Change or Reject for each required line, enters permitted changes and adds reasons where required. Saving individual responses produces a partial response. Submitting the complete response moves it to Buyer Review and schedules the buyer's review activity.
  4. Review every proposed change, attachment and line decision. Resolve a proposed substitute to an internal product or reject that line. Split schedule quantities must total the proposed quantity after unit conversion.
  5. Use Accept Supplier Proposal to apply eligible changes to the purchase order. This is the action that updates native purchase quantities, dates, permitted prices and substitutions. Split delivery schedules can split a purchase line into several dated lines. Rejected lines are skipped; they are not automatically cancelled from the purchase order.
  6. Use Counter Proposal when another supplier response is needed, or Reject with a buyer note. Acceptance refuses unresolved counter lines, stale order content and locked/closed orders. Material changes are not applied automatically once a line has received quantities or a non-cancelled bill line. Review the native documents and create a controlled buyer revision in that situation.
  7. Inspect Versions on the order or Purchase Versions in Supplier Control. These snapshots cannot be manually edited or deleted. Later monitored order changes can flag Requires Reconfirmation. Confirming a purchase order itself only adds a reminder when a policy matches; it does not automatically request or require a supplier response.

Work with shipping notices​

After acceptance, the supplier can create an ASN from the portal. Internal buyers can use Create ASN on an eligible purchase order. Review shipment reference, shipping and arrival dates, positive line quantities, tracking details and package records. The package count must match the authored packages, and cumulative quantities across non-rejected/non-cancelled ASNs must stay within the allowed purchase or commitment quantities.

Use Submit ASN, then have an authorized buyer use Accept ASN. Submitted shipment details are protected from editing; corrections require a replacement process. Prepare Receipt requires acceptance even if the button is visible earlier. It links the ASN to open receipt moves, creates receipt information when needed and marks the ASN in transit. It does not validate the warehouse receipt.

After normal inventory receiving, use Reconcile Receipts. The calculation allocates the purchase line's received quantity across accepted ASNs in shipping-date order, avoiding counting the same received quantity repeatedly. It can mark ASNs partially received or received. Supplier lot names and expiry details are shipment information; entering them does not itself create validated stock lots.

Practice scenario​

In an authorized test database with controlled email recipients, use fictional Harbor Components and an RFQ for 100 units. Permit date changes and splits. Have the test supplier propose 60 units on one date and 40 on another, with a reason. The buyer reviews and accepts before receipts or bills exist, then checks the two purchase schedule lines and version history. Create and reconcile two shipping notices through normal inventory receiving. This scenario is source-derived and has not been executed.

Troubleshooting and limitations​

Stale portal pages require reloading the current revision. A changed purchase order requires a new buyer revision before submission or acceptance. Missing email, no matching policy, incompatible units, forbidden changes and incomplete line responses prevent progression. Portal attachments accept PDF, PNG, JPEG or plain text up to 10 MiB each.

Use the procurement exceptions queue to review delays, quantity/price changes and shipment variances. An exception is a review item, not an automatic correction to inventory. The reviewed source does not establish a native receipt-validation block from the Require ASN Before Receipt setting; confirm the receiving controls needed by your operation separately.

Packages are listed for Odoo 15.0–20.0. Odoo 15.0–16.0 use earlier purchase acknowledgement and state-based lock handling; 17.0–20.0 retain the explicit locked-order check. Odoo 15.0–18.0 use older unit-category APIs and purchase-unit fields; 20.0 uses the newer unit field and access-policy format. Native list layouts and PDF APIs also vary. Full workflow equivalence across releases has not been established.

Live Test — Odoo 19.0 · Choose your exact Odoo version in the Corvus catalogue.

Related guides: Vendor Performance Scores, Purchase Price History and Invoice Receipt Evidence.