When companies plan an Odoo rollout, one question comes up early: do we really need to pay a full licence for every employee? In most cases the answer is no. Odoo now has four access levels — Portal, Light, User and Administrator — and the new Light User role lets front-line and self-service staff work inside Odoo at a fraction of the cost of a full user.

As an Official Odoo Partner, Mediod Consulting sizes licences for clients every week. This guide explains what a Light User can do, who fits the role, and the settings that quietly turn a Light User into a paid Full user. This article is part of our Odoo 20 series — start with Odoo 20: what’s new and should you upgrade?.

The four Odoo access levels

• Portal user — customers, vendors and partners who log in to your website portal to see quotes, invoices, tickets or timesheets. Free.
• Light User — employees who only handle their own HR tasks or front-line work. Light pricing.
• User — employees who sell, buy, invoice, run projects or manage other people’s records. Full user pricing.
• Administrator — owners, IT staff and key users who configure the database and manage users. Full user pricing.

What a Light User can do

According to Odoo’s pricing page, Light Users get:

• Self-service: My Time Off, My Expenses, My Appraisals, My Attendances, My Referrals and My Planning.
• Front-line tools: Field Service, Inventory Barcode operator, Point of Sale and the Manufacturing Shop Floor.
• Payslips and read-only access to Knowledge articles.

Odoo 20 also lets administrators restrict Light Users to the Barcode module only — useful for warehouse teams who should see nothing else.

What a Light User can’t do

Light Users have no access to core business apps such as Sales, Purchase and Accounting. They can’t create quotes, approve purchases, post invoices, configure projects, customize Odoo or change settings. If someone needs any of that, they need a Full user licence.

Why Light Users save money

Most employees don’t manage the books, send quotes or buy stock. They clock in, request leave, scan boxes or ring up sales. Paying a full licence for those roles rarely makes sense.

• Lower licence costs: pay full price only for people who need full access.
• One system for everyone: no separate HR, attendance or shift tools on the side.
• Tighter security: staff only see what their job requires.
• Predictable growth: hiring more hourly or front-line staff doesn’t multiply your bill at full-user rates.

Example: in a 100-person distribution company, the sales reps, buyers, accountants and managers (say 25 people) need full access. The other 75 — warehouse pickers, drivers, cashiers and technicians — can usually work as Light Users.

How to decide: Light User or Full user?

Ask three questions for each employee:

1. Do they create or approve quotes, orders, invoices, purchases or projects? If yes, they need a Full user licence.
2. Do they configure Odoo or manage other people’s records? If yes, they are a Full user or Administrator.
3. Is their work limited to their own HR tasks or front-line jobs (POS, scanning, shop floor, field service, shifts)? If yes, they fit the Light User profile.

Watch-outs for administrators

• Accidental upgrades: granting a Light User access to Sales, Purchase or another core app automatically makes them a billed Full user. Review access rights before each renewal.
• Employees without logins count: Odoo defines a Light User as any active user marked “Light” or any active employee record not linked to an active non-portal user. Archive leavers and count every active employee when you ask for a quote.
• Getting the licence: Odoo currently provides Light User pricing through a quote from an Odoo advisor or partner, so plan it into your subscription conversation.

To set the role, go to Settings → Users & Companies → Users, open the user and set the Role to Light.

Plan your licence mix before you buy or renew

Light Users arrived alongside a 20–31% increase to the Custom plan, so getting the user mix right matters more than ever. Our Odoo subscription & licensing service maps every role to the cheapest licence that still covers the work, and our guide to optimizing Odoo subscription costs covers the other levers. You can also explore Odoo Employees and HR apps on odoo.com.

More from our Odoo 20 series

• Odoo 20 Is Here: What’s New and Should You Upgrade?
• Mediod Consulting at Odoo Experience 2026: Exploring Odoo 20 AI

See all Odoo 20 articles →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Light User in Odoo?

A Light User is an internal user who only uses Odoo for their own HR tasks (time off, expenses, attendance, appraisals, payslips) or front-line work such as Point of Sale, Inventory Barcode, Shop Floor, Planning and Field Service. They cost less than a full user.

Can a Light User access Sales or Accounting?

No. Light Users have no access to core business apps such as Sales, Purchase and Accounting. Giving them access to one of those apps automatically upgrades them to a billed full user.

Do employees without an Odoo login count as Light Users?

Yes. Odoo’s pricing page counts any active employee record that isn’t linked to an active non-portal user account as a Light User, so include every active employee in your licence planning.

How do I set a user as a Light User?

Go to Settings → Users & Companies → Users, open the user and set the Role field to Light.

Source: Light User definition and capabilities from odoo.com/pricing (checked 30 September 2026). Prices and licence terms differ by country and can change — confirm them on your own quote.

The post Odoo Light Users Explained: Cut Licence Costs Without Cutting Access appeared first on Mediod Consulting.

Odoo 20 was unveiled at Odoo Experience 2026 in Brussels, and Odoo has published the full Odoo 20 release notes. They run to hundreds of changes across every app. This guide picks out what matters for a typical business: the new AI agents, accounting and inventory improvements, country updates for Pakistan and the USA, and the changes you need to plan for before you upgrade.

Odoo 20 AI: agents that do the work

The biggest change is how far Odoo’s AI agents can go. According to the release notes, agents can now:

• Create and update records on request, including from an uploaded file of instructions such as a PDF.
• Run inside automations — agents can be triggered by automated and scheduled actions, and you can review how they handled each run.
• Answer questions about a file while you preview it, and accept dictated requests by voice.
• Generate images and buttons for websites and mailings.
• Connect to other tools through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Two practical points. First, all AI features now need IAP credits, bought separately from your user licences, so budget for usage. Second, Odoo now lists “Agentic AI” on the Custom plan card, next to Odoo Studio — at the same time as a 20–31% Custom plan price increase. Our Odoo AI guide covers practical use cases, and you can explore Odoo AI on odoo.com.

Accounting: less manual entry, fewer mistakes

• Bill line prediction: when you enter or import a bill, Odoo suggests the product, account, tax and analytic distribution from your bill history.
• Customer invoice reminders can be sent manually or automatically from the Accounting settings.
• Better duplicate detection with two warning levels — red for likely duplicates, yellow for ones to check.
• Bank consistency: every journal entry that touches a bank account must now come from a bank transaction.
• New reports: a bank reconciliation summary, and a Cumulative Translation Adjustment line for multi-currency groups.
• Renamed payment statuses: “In Process” becomes “Paid” and “Paid” becomes “Reconciled” — worth a short briefing for your finance team.
• Expenses: approved expenses now create draft bills that accountants review alongside vendor bills.

See our Odoo Accounting guide or try Odoo Accounting.

Inventory and manufacturing

• Suggested reordering levels: minimum and maximum stock are suggested from demand history, desired days of coverage and order frequency.
• Stock aging report and an improved view of inventory at a past date.
• Landed costs per product, and delivery values that update when a product’s cost changes afterwards.
• Intercompany flows: resupply one company from another and deliver from another company’s warehouse.
• Manufacturing: continuous production across work orders, splitting ongoing manufacturing orders, resetting orders to draft, and provisional vs. real MO cost.
• A redesigned manufacturing-order Kanban grouped by week, with component status and remaining time.

More in our Odoo MRP guide, or explore Odoo Inventory.

Sales, CRM and Point of Sale

• Sales: a dashboard on the quotations list, pricelist rules for specific periods or weekdays, payment-based and manager commissions, and editable margins on order lines.
• CRM: lead generation now uses the Dun & Bradstreet company database, plus new lead rotation rules for sales teams.
• Point of Sale: multiple currencies at checkout, service fees, “snoozing” unavailable products, several printers per POS, and a simplified inventory mode that works without the Inventory app.
• Offline mode: create and edit records while offline.

Retailers can explore Odoo Point of Sale; see also Odoo for retail businesses.

Odoo Studio

Studio gets a new report editor, drag-and-drop ordering of form buttons and tabs, Kanban stage editing from the form view, many-to-many fields in PDF reports and more readable technical names for new fields. Remember that installing Studio moves you to the Custom plan — see Odoo Studio vs custom development.

Country updates: Pakistan, USA and Germany

Pakistan

• FBR e-invoicing integration for registered businesses, in line with S.R.O. 1852(I)/2025.
• FBR integration for Point of Sale for real-time reporting of POS orders — mandatory for Tier-1 retailers.
• A restructured chart of accounts aligned with the Companies Act 2017, and taxes consolidated into sales tax, further tax and withholding tax.
• A “Business Identification Number” field that accepts NTN or CNIC, plus a separate consumer identification field.
• Payroll: payslips include end-of-year income tax adjustments.

Pakistani businesses that relied on custom FBR connectors should review them before upgrading. See our Odoo price increase in Pakistan post and Odoo services in Lahore.

United States

• “Avalara Included” — a new, more affordable AvaTax integration for small and mid-sized businesses in the USA and Canada.
• A redesigned US sales tax report with multi-jurisdiction breakdowns and state summaries.
• Payroll: New York City and Yonkers local taxes; Tennessee, Iowa, Georgia, Mississippi and New Jersey support; qualified overtime deduction rules.

US teams: see Odoo price increase in the USA and our Odoo services in the USA.

Germany

The Odoo 20 release notes list no Germany-specific localization changes. German companies still benefit from the general accounting improvements above; for DATEV and GoBD topics see our Odoo DATEV guide and Odoo services in Germany.

What to check before upgrading to Odoo 20

Several changes affect databases with custom modules or Studio customizations:

• Simplified access rights: record rules have been removed in favour of a domain on the access right itself. Custom security rules need to be reviewed.
• Chatter tracking: stored tracking values have been removed and tracking messages are generated on the fly. Custom reports built on tracking data need checking.
• Icons: Font Awesome has been replaced by Material Symbols, which can affect custom views and website themes.
• Push notifications no longer use Firebase.
• Process changes such as the renamed payment statuses and the removed “Employee Expenses” menu need user training.

Our advice: test the upgrade on a copy of your database first, check every custom module and integration, and train key users on the renamed flows before go-live. Odoo Online databases are upgraded on a schedule set by Odoo, while Odoo.sh and on-premise customers choose their timing. Read our Odoo upgrade guide, or let our Odoo migration team run a test upgrade for you.

Should you upgrade now?

• Starting a new implementation? Starting on Odoo 20 avoids an upgrade later — check that your localization and any apps you rely on are ready.
• On Odoo 19 with little customization? Plan the upgrade once you have tested it on a copy; the new AI and accounting features are worth it.
• On Odoo 17 or older, or heavily customized? Start planning now. Budget time for rewriting custom security rules and reviewing integrations.

Going deeper? Our Odoo 20 series covers each change in detail — Light User licensing, AI agents and credits, payroll, field service, offline mode, direct bill payments and the technical side of the upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Odoo 20 released?

Odoo 20 was unveiled at Odoo Experience 2026 in Brussels (24–26 September 2026), and Odoo published the Odoo 20 release notes in September 2026.

What are the main new features in Odoo 20?

AI agents that can create and update records, work from files and run inside automations; MCP connectivity; bill line prediction and automatic invoice reminders in Accounting; suggested reordering levels and a stock aging report in Inventory; continuous production in Manufacturing; and multi-currency checkout in Point of Sale.

Are Odoo 20 AI features free?

No. According to the release notes, all AI features now need IAP credits, which are bought separately from user licences. Odoo also lists Agentic AI on the Custom plan.

Does Odoo 20 support FBR e-invoicing in Pakistan?

Yes. Odoo 20 adds an FBR e-invoicing integration for registered businesses (S.R.O. 1852(I)/2025) and an FBR integration for Point of Sale for real-time reporting, which is mandatory for Tier-1 retailers.

Will my custom modules work in Odoo 20?

Not automatically. Odoo 20 changes access rights, chatter tracking and the icon set, so custom modules and Studio customizations should be reviewed and tested on a copy of your database before you upgrade.

Source: Odoo 20 release notes (odoo.com, September 2026). Feature availability can differ by edition, hosting type and country.

The post Odoo 20 Is Here: What’s New and Should You Upgrade? appeared first on Mediod Consulting.

The biggest event in the Odoo ecosystem is right around the corner! Odoo Experience 2026 is taking place September 24–26 at the Brussels Expo in Belgium, and the team at Mediod Consulting is excited to announce that we will be attending.

This year’s event promises to be one of the most transformative yet—and we can’t wait to connect with clients, partners, and the broader tech community in person.

What We’re Focusing On: The Revamped AI in Odoo 20

The headliner for this year’s conference is the official unveiling of Odoo 20, and top on our agenda is exploring its completely revamped Agentic AI capabilities.

Odoo 20 moves beyond simple chat assistants, embedding native, process-aware intelligence directly into everyday business workflows:

• Process-Aware AI Agents: Perform complex multi-step tasks across modules—such as automatically generating structured projects directly from uploaded proposal PDFs or reassigning leads using natural language.
• Native MCP Server: Native integration for AI clients to communicate directly with your enterprise database.
• AI for “Non-CFOs”: Intelligent anomaly detection in treasury data, double-payment alerts, and automated cash flow insights that simplify complex financial monitoring.
• Automated Timesheets & Support: Predictive time tracking and AI-assisted Helpdesk sidekicks that summarize chatter and suggest historical ticket solutions automatically.

At Mediod Consulting, our primary focus during OXP 2026 is evaluating how these new AI features can be practically integrated into custom workflows to eliminate manual overhead for our clients.

Reconnecting with Our Valued Customers

One of the highlights of Odoo Experience for us is spending quality time with the businesses we serve. A number of our long-term customers will be join us in Brussels this year.

We’re looking forward to:

• Hosting 1-on-1 strategy sessions to map out migration and upgrade paths to Odoo 20.
• Walking through live demos of new vertical features together.
• Gathering direct feedback on ongoing implementations to refine our ongoing support and delivery.

Let’s Connect in Brussels!

Whether you’re a current customer visiting the event or an organization curious about how Odoo 20’s new AI engine can optimize your operations, we’d love to talk.

• Where: Brussels Expo, Brussels, Belgium
• When: September 24–26, 2026

Want to schedule a dedicated sit-down with our team at OXP 2026? Reach out to our team today or send us a message to lock in a time slot!

The post Mediod Consulting at Odoo Experience 2026: Exploring Odoo 20 AI appeared first on Mediod Consulting.