Workshop: prepare parts allocations and check readiness
Use this guide between estimate decisions and technician execution. It covers an authorized parts requirement, its allocation to an operation, and the evidence needed for the selected readiness gate.
An allocation attributes quantities to workshop work. Saving it does not reserve stock, receive a purchase or move parts. Native Inventory and Purchase records remain the underlying evidence. This guide follows the reviewed Odoo 20 source; no new runtime or complete role-acceptance test was performed.
Before you begin
Have Workshop and Workshop Operations installed, with native Inventory and Purchase configured. Use Parts User with access to the repair order's company and an appropriate parts access grant for that order. With Operations installed, Parts User also grants ordinary native Inventory and Purchase user access.
Parts User alone does not grant access to Workshop operations. The person linking an allocation to an operation also needs legitimate access to that operation. If the requirement links a finding or estimate revision line, allocation creation also needs legitimate access to that provenance. Parts User alone does not grant finding or estimate-line read access. Have the administrator verify the team's access to the operation and linked provenance before using this workflow; retain those links. Workshop Manager and Workshop Administrator can maintain allocations but still need the necessary native application permissions; Workshop Dispatcher alone can read allocation records, not maintain them.
Check the customer's current authorization and the agreed parts requirement. Neither an allocation nor a readiness status establishes customer approval. Ask the responsible manager to choose the appropriate readiness gate before execution.
1. Check the requirement
Open Workshop → Parts & Supply → Initial Parts and find the requirement for the repair order. Confirm the product, unit of measure and positive quantity. Requirements use goods products, not services; the unit must be available for that product. If a finding or estimate revision line is linked, it must belong to this order, and the estimate line's product must match.
Review Allocated Quantity and Remaining Quantity under Operations Execution. These show how much of the requirement is assigned to active allocations. They do not show received stock. Once allocations exist, the requirement's product and unit cannot be changed, and its quantity cannot be reduced below the active allocated total.
2. Create the allocation
- Open Parts & Supply → Parts Execution and create an allocation for the active requirement.
- Select the intended operation from the same repair order. Do this with an operator who has the necessary operation access. An allocation left at order level does not contribute to a particular operation's execution readiness.
- Enter the quantity in the requirement's unit. The total active allocations cannot exceed the requirement quantity.
- Choose the warehouse, source location and staging location for the actual material flow. The warehouse must match the order's company; company-specific locations must also match.
- Select the agreed Readiness Gate, check the disposition and save.
| Readiness gate | Quantity used to judge readiness |
|---|---|
| Receipt Verified | Quantity recorded as Verified in the allocation's Verification tab. |
| Staged | Quantity attributed to completed stock moves with the Stage role. This is the default gate. |
| Issued | Quantity attributed to completed stock moves with the Issue role. |
The allocation is Not Ready when the selected gate has no quantity, Partially Ready when it has some but less than required, and Ready when it reaches the allocation quantity. Remaining Qty is the shortfall at that selected gate. Do not weaken the gate merely to clear a blocker.
3. Establish the native supply evidence
First check whether the required supply already exists. Under Purchase Allocation, link the relevant purchase-order line and the quantity belonging to this allocation. Use Purchase Orders or Transfers to inspect the related native documents; these buttons are available to Parts Users. Confirm the product, company and units before linking a document.
Ordered Qty counts attributed quantities on purchase lines that are not cancelled; it can include a draft purchase line. Received Qty comes from those lines' received quantities, attributed in proportion to the allocation's share. A linked purchase line is therefore neither confirmation of an approved purchase nor proof that all its parts arrived.
If new supply is needed and your purchasing procedure authorizes it, Run Procurement invokes native stock rules. Depending on configuration, this can create or use stock and purchasing documents. It is an action with operational side effects, not a readiness check. Check routes, warehouse setup and existing supply first.
The action deducts its previous Running or Done procurement attempts when calculating a new request; it does not deduct every manually linked purchase or stock quantity. Review Procurement Audit and the resulting documents before retrying or requesting more. A Done procurement attempt means the request was processed, not that goods were received, staged or issued. Automatically linked stock evidence uses Supply, which does not itself satisfy a readiness gate.
4. Record what actually happened
Use the organization's native Inventory procedures to receive, stage or issue the parts. Then maintain the allocation's evidence:
- In Stock Evidence, link the corresponding stock move, choose its actual role and enter the attributed quantity in the allocation's unit. A link records attribution; it does not perform or reserve the move.
- For the Staged or Issued gate, use the corresponding Stage or Issue role. Only completed moves contribute. The quantity is proportional to the linked share of the move, so a partially completed move may contribute less than the linked quantity. The supplied checks require an internal destination for Stage, Issue and Consume evidence; also verify that the actual locations match the intended handling.
- For Receipt Verified, add a Verified row in Verification, with the quantity actually checked and an explanatory note. Cumulative verified quantity cannot exceed the allocation quantity or the larger of its derived Received and Staged quantities. Verification records are immutable: check the quantity and note before saving.
- Reopen or refresh the allocation and inspect Derived Execution Quantities, Readiness State and the remaining shortfall.
Supply and Receipt stock-evidence roles alone do not increase the selected gate quantity. An Exception verification row records an issue but does not subtract earlier Verified quantities or automatically place the operation on hold. Route issues to the responsible parts or workshop manager for the appropriate operational response.
5. Check the operation and hand it over
Open Parts & Supply → Parts Exceptions to find active allocations that are not ready or have a recorded backorder. The backorder flag compares attributed Ordered and Received quantities, so an allocation can meet its selected gate and still appear in this queue.
Before handover, check that the whole intended parts requirement has been allocated; a ready allocation does not cover an unallocated remainder. On the linked operation, review Execution Parts Readiness. All active allocations linked to that operation must be Ready for this measure to be Ready. Pending or partially ready allocations block execution with the message “Linked stock execution has not reached its readiness gate.”
If no active allocation is linked, this measure reads Not Required; that does not prove the planned job needs no parts. Verify the operation linkage. The operation's separate Parts Readiness setting, dependencies, holds, required handoffs and capacity checks can still block work after allocation readiness is satisfied. Hand the operation back to the dispatcher and technician only after those checks and the physical parts handoff are complete.
Fictional practice case
A fictional repair needs four mounting clips, all measured in units. Its four-unit allocation uses the Staged gate and is linked to the fitting operation.
| Recorded evidence | Expected allocation result |
|---|---|
| Purchase line for four units linked; two received; no Stage evidence | Received 2, Staged 0, Not Ready, remaining 4. |
| Completed two-unit staging move linked as Stage for two units | Staged 2, Partially Ready, remaining 2. |
| Remaining two received and a second completed two-unit staging move linked as Stage | Staged 4, Ready, remaining 0. |
This example assumes each linked move is fully completed and no other allocations or evidence share those quantities. The operation still needs its other execution gates to pass.
Troubleshooting and limits
| Problem | Check or next action |
|---|---|
| Order, requirement or operation is unavailable | Company access, the order's parts grant, separate operation access and access to any linked finding or estimate revision line. Ask the administrator to verify the intended roles. |
| Allocation or evidence quantity is rejected | Remaining requirement quantity, product/company match, compatible units and amounts already attributed to the purchase line or move. |
| Verified quantity is rejected | Recorded Received or Staged evidence and earlier Verified rows; an order or reservation alone is insufficient. |
| Stock exists but readiness remains blocked | Selected gate, actual move completion, evidence role and attributed quantity. Check that the allocation is linked to the intended operation. |
| Procurement reports an error | Check native routes, permissions and supply configuration with the purchasing team. Inspect existing documents before retrying; do not assume a failed attempt was durably recorded. |
| An allocation cannot be cancelled | Enter a Pending Cancellation Reason before Cancel. Any verification, a Done procurement attempt, received quantities, or purchase/stock documents beyond Draft or Cancelled can prevent cancellation—even before stock completion. Ask the responsible team to handle the underlying transaction. |
Executed allocation history cannot simply be deleted, and operation/location context cannot be changed after execution evidence exists. Returns, core returns and customer-retained quantities are tracked separately; they are not deducted from the selected gate. Consequently, Ready is not a fresh physical-availability check or a quantity net of returns. Recheck physical stock and unresolved exceptions before release.
This workflow does not confirm invoices, payments or insurer settlement. It does not resolve the failed-QC verification or outbound-email limitations described in the existing Workshop overview and repair/QC guide.