How to Automate Activities in Odoo 19: Complete Tutorial
How to automate activities in Odoo 19 is one of the most impactful skills for any CRM user or Odoo administrator. This complete tutorial is a beginner guide and step by step walkthrough of activity configuration — from creating activity types and setting default users, to chaining triggers that automatically schedule the next follow-up the moment a task is marked done. Manual activity handling causes delays, inconsistency, and missed follow-ups across sales and support teams. Odoo 19 solves this by enabling fully automated activity sequences based on preconfigured criteria, so your salespeople can focus on conversations rather than administrative scheduling. Whether you are managing CRM leads, purchase orders, invoices, or HR records, this step by step guide covers everything you need to build reliable automated activity pipelines in Odoo 19.
What You'll Learn:
- What activities are in Odoo 19 and how they appear across modules
- How to navigate to Activity Types and configure them correctly
- How the Action dropdown, Default User, Default Summary, and Schedule Days fields work
- The difference between Suggest Next Activity and Trigger Next Activity chaining modes
- How to build a fully automated activity chain — for example, Meeting triggers Call automatically
- How to manage, mark done, and reschedule activities in the CRM pipeline Kanban view
- Practical automation scenarios for lead qualification, customer onboarding, and support tickets
- How Schedule Days are calculated and what values to use for different follow-up timings
What Are Activities in Odoo 19?
Activities in Odoo 19 are structured tasks and actions assigned directly to records throughout the system. They represent real business actions — phone calls, meetings, emails, document upload requests, to-do reminders — that need to be completed by a responsible team member within a defined timeframe. Unlike unstructured notes or freeform reminders, activities are formally typed, have a clear deadline, are assigned to a specific user, and integrate visually into Odoo's list and kanban views.
Activities can be attached to virtually any record in Odoo: CRM leads and opportunities, sales orders, purchase orders, vendor bills, customer invoices, inventory transfers, HR employee records, project tasks, and more. This universality makes activity automation extremely powerful — the same chaining mechanism you configure for CRM can be applied to support tickets, onboarding flows, and financial approval processes.
In list views, activities appear as small colored icons next to each record. The color communicates urgency at a glance: green means the activity is scheduled for a future date and is on track, orange means the activity is due today and requires attention, and red means the activity is overdue and has passed its deadline without being completed. In the CRM Kanban view, these icons appear directly on each lead card, giving the whole pipeline a real-time status view without opening individual records.
Activity Type Configuration
Each activity type defines the nature of a task — its name, the action it represents (call, meeting, email, document), the default responsible user, a predefined summary template, and the number of schedule days for automatic deadline calculation. Configuring activity types correctly is the foundation of every automated workflow in Odoo 19.
Trigger Chaining
The Trigger Next Activity setting is the engine of Odoo 19 activity automation. When a salesperson marks an activity as Done, Odoo automatically creates the configured next activity on the same record — no manual scheduling required. This creates linear pipelines where each completed step seamlessly hands off to the next without any human intervention.
Default User Assignment
Setting a Default User on an activity type pre-assigns every automatically created activity of that type to a specific team member. Combined with trigger chaining, this enables fully automated team handoffs — a meeting completed by a sales rep automatically creates a follow-up call assigned to the account manager, without any manual reassignment.
CRM Pipeline Integration
Activities integrate directly into the CRM Kanban pipeline view as colored icons on each lead card. Clicking the icon reveals all planned activities for that lead, lets you mark any as Done to trigger chaining, reschedule by editing the date, or add a new manual activity. The chatter on each record maintains a full audit trail of every completed activity.
Activity Types Configuration in Odoo 19
Activity types are the building blocks of every automated workflow. Before you can set up chaining or automation, you need to understand what each field in the activity type form does and how it affects behavior throughout the system. Odoo 19 ships with several default activity types — Call, Email, Meeting, Upload Document, To-Do — but you can create as many custom types as your business processes require.
To access activity types, navigate to any module that uses activities — CRM is the most common starting point. From the CRM menu, go to Configuration > Activity Types. Other modules such as Sales, Purchase, Inventory, and HR have their own Configuration menus that also provide access to activity types, and changes made in any one location apply globally across the entire Odoo instance.
The list view of activity types shows four columns: Name (the display label users see when scheduling), Default Summary (a pre-filled description template), Planned Date (how many days ahead the deadline is set by default), and Type (the action category). Understanding this list helps you identify which types to modify versus which to create from scratch.
Activity Type Form Fields Explained
When you create or edit an activity type, the form presents several fields that control both the display and automation behavior. Each field contributes to how automatically created activities appear and behave when triggered by chaining.
| Action Type | Use Case | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Calls | Schedule outbound calls, qualification calls, follow-up calls | CRM lead qualification, sales follow-ups, customer check-ins |
| Meetings | Demo sessions, discovery calls, onboarding meetings, check-ins | Opportunities requiring synchronous discussion or presentation |
| Send proposals, follow-up emails, introductions, newsletters | Asynchronous communication that requires a written record | |
| Upload Document | Contract signatures, invoice attachments, compliance documents | Document-gated processes where a file must be received before proceeding |
| To-Do | Internal tasks, reminders, data entry, record updates | Non-communication actions that need tracking but no external contact |
The Name field is the label users see in the activity scheduling dialog and in activity icons. Choose clear, action-oriented names like "Initial Qualification Call" rather than generic labels like "Call" — this helps users immediately understand what action is expected without reading the description.
The Action dropdown determines the functional category of the activity type. This controls which icon appears in list views and whether Odoo opens any linked functionality when the activity is opened (for example, the Meetings action type integrates with the calendar). Available options include Upload Document, Meetings, Phone Calls, Email, and To-Do.
The Default User field pre-assigns all activities of this type to a specific Odoo user. When left blank, the activity is assigned to the user who triggered it or created it. When set, every auto-generated activity of this type — whether from manual scheduling or trigger chaining — will be assigned to the configured user. This is the foundation of automated team handoffs.
The Default Summary is a predefined text template that pre-populates the activity's summary field whenever a new activity of this type is created. It saves time for repetitive activity types and ensures consistency — for example, a "Send Proposal Email" activity type might have a default summary of "Send customized proposal document based on discovery call notes."
The Schedule Days field defines how many days from the current date (or from the date the triggering activity is marked Done) the new activity's deadline will be set. A value of 1 sets the deadline to tomorrow, 3 to three days from now, and 0 to the same day. This field is the primary timing control for all automated follow-up sequences.
Activity Chaining: The Next Activity Tab
The Next Activity tab is the core automation feature of Odoo 19 activity types. It is where you configure what happens automatically when a user completes an activity of this type. This tab contains a single but critical setting: the chaining mode, which determines how the system responds when the current activity is marked as Done.
Odoo 19 provides two distinct chaining modes, each suited to different workflow requirements. Understanding the difference between them is essential for building activity pipelines that match your team's processes — one mode gives users flexibility at completion time, while the other enforces a rigid, automated sequence.
| Feature | Suggest Next Activity | Trigger Next Activity |
|---|---|---|
| User decision required | Yes — user can accept, modify, or skip the suggestion | No — next activity is created automatically |
| Workflow rigidity | Flexible — user adapts the flow based on context | Strict — process always follows the same path |
| Best for | Complex sales cycles where context varies per lead | Standardized pipelines where every step must occur |
| Automation level | Semi-automated — user confirms each handoff | Fully automated — no clicks required to create next step |
| Risk of infinite loop | None — user controls chain continuation | Yes — must ensure chain has a defined end point |
| Schedule Days applied | User can override the suggested date | Applied automatically from Schedule Days field |
Suggest Next Activity Mode
When Suggest Next Activity is selected, Odoo shows the user a recommended follow-up activity when they mark the current activity as Done. The user sees a dialog with the suggested next activity pre-populated, and they can accept it as-is, change the activity type, modify the due date, update the summary, or dismiss the suggestion entirely. This mode is ideal for complex sales cycles where the appropriate next step may vary depending on the outcome of the conversation — a call might lead to a meeting in some cases, but to sending a proposal in others.
The suggestion is based on which activity type you set in the Next Activity configuration. You can suggest a single activity type or leave the field blank if no suggestion is needed. Even with a blank suggestion, completing the activity will still show the dialog, giving users the opportunity to schedule any follow-up they choose.
Trigger Next Activity Mode
When Trigger Next Activity is selected, Odoo automatically creates the configured next activity the moment the current activity is marked as Done — no dialog, no user decision, no manual scheduling. The new activity appears on the same record, assigned to the Default User of the triggered activity type, with a deadline calculated from the Schedule Days value. This mode is the foundation of fully automated activity pipelines and is the primary mechanism for building hands-free follow-up workflows in Odoo 19.
For example, if you configure the "Meeting" activity type with Trigger Next Activity set to "Follow-up Call" and Schedule Days set to 3, then whenever any user marks a Meeting activity as Done on any record, Odoo automatically creates a new "Follow-up Call" activity due in 3 days on that same record. The salesperson sees the next step waiting for them without having to schedule anything manually.
Warning: Avoid Infinite Loops with Trigger Next Activity
Using Trigger Next Activity creates activities automatically without any user confirmation — which means a misconfigured chain can create an infinite loop. If Activity A triggers Activity B, and Activity B triggers Activity A, every time one is marked Done it recreates the other indefinitely. Always ensure your chained sequences have a clearly defined end point — either the final activity in the chain has no Next Activity configured, or it uses Suggest (not Trigger) so the user can choose to stop the chain. Review each chain end-to-end before activating in production.
Step by Step Guide: Setting Up Activity Automation in Odoo 19
This step by step guide walks through the complete process of configuring automated activity chains in Odoo 19, from navigating to activity types all the way through testing the automation in the CRM pipeline. Follow these steps in order for a beginner guide experience that covers every configuration detail.
Navigate to Activity Types Configuration
Open the CRM module from the main Odoo app menu. In the top navigation bar, click Configuration to open the configuration submenu. Select Activity Types from the dropdown list. You can also reach activity types from any other module that supports activities — Sales, Purchase, Inventory, and HR all have Configuration menus with the same Activity Types option. The list view that opens shows all existing activity types available in your Odoo instance, including the default types that ship with Odoo 19. Make a note of what types already exist before creating new ones to avoid duplication.
Create an Activity Type
Click the New button in the top-left corner of the Activity Types list view to open a blank activity type form. Enter a descriptive Name for the activity — for example, "Initial Qualification Call" for the first touchpoint in a lead qualification flow. Choose a name that clearly communicates the expected action to any team member who sees the activity on a record. If you are modifying an existing default type rather than creating a new one, click the type name in the list to open its form instead. Use custom types when the default options do not match your specific business process terminology.
Configure the Action and Fields
In the activity type form, set the Action dropdown to the appropriate category — Phone Calls for call-type activities, Meetings for calendar-integrated sessions, Email for email-type tasks, Upload Document for file request activities, or To-Do for general internal tasks. Next, set the Default User to the team member who should be responsible for this activity type when it is automatically created through chaining. Leave it blank if the activity should be assigned to whoever triggers it. Enter a Default Summary that describes the expected output — for example, "Conduct initial needs assessment and qualify budget and timeline." Set Schedule Days to the number of days from completion of the previous activity that this activity's deadline should be set — use 1 for same-day follow-ups, 3 for three-day windows, and 7 for weekly check-ins.
Set Up Activity Chaining
Click the Next Activity tab in the activity type form. This tab is where you define what happens when this activity is marked as Done. You will see a chaining mode selector and a next activity type field. First, decide which chaining mode to use based on your workflow requirements — see the next step for guidance on this decision. Once you select the mode, use the Next Activity field to specify which activity type should follow. For example, if you are configuring an "Initial Qualification Call" activity type, you might set the next activity to "Send Proposal Email." Save the activity type by clicking the Save button or navigating away — Odoo saves automatically in some versions.
Choose Suggest vs Trigger Mode
Select Suggest Next Activity if your workflow benefits from user flexibility at each handoff — for example, complex enterprise sales where the salesperson may need to adjust the follow-up type based on how a call went. The user will see a pre-filled suggestion dialog when marking the activity done, which they can accept, modify, or dismiss. Select Trigger Next Activity if your workflow is standardized and should always follow the same sequence without exception — for example, a customer onboarding flow where every new client must receive the same sequence of touchpoints. The next activity will be created automatically with no user interaction. For beginners, start with Suggest mode to observe the workflow before switching to Trigger mode for high-confidence automations.
Test the Automation in CRM
Navigate to the CRM module and open the Kanban pipeline view. Select a test lead or create a new one specifically for testing. Click the activity icon (clock icon) on the lead card to open the activity scheduling panel. Manually schedule an activity of the type you just configured by clicking Schedule an Activity, selecting your activity type, setting a date, and confirming. The activity icon on the lead card will now show in the appropriate color. To test the chain, click the activity icon again, find the planned activity, and click the checkmark (Done) button. If you configured Suggest mode, Odoo will show the suggestion dialog — verify that the correct next activity type is suggested and the Schedule Days are applied correctly. If you configured Trigger mode, the next activity should appear automatically on the record without any additional input. Check the chatter at the bottom of the lead record to see the activity log entry confirming the completion and creation.
Understanding Schedule Days Behavior
Schedule Days is one of the most frequently misunderstood settings in Odoo 19 activity configuration. Many users assume the deadline of the next activity is calculated from when the first activity was created. This is incorrect and leads to miscalibrated follow-up timings in automated pipelines.
Key Insight: Schedule Days Are Calculated from the Completion Date, Not the Creation Date
When an activity is marked as Done and a triggered next activity is created, Odoo sets the new activity's deadline by adding the Schedule Days value to the date the current activity was marked as Done — not the date the next activity was created, not the original due date of the completed activity, and not any fixed calendar date. This means that if a salesperson completes an activity three days after it was due, the triggered follow-up activity's deadline is still calculated from today's completion date. Understanding this behavior is critical for designing activity chains with predictable, reliable follow-up windows.
The practical implications of this behavior are significant for automated pipeline design. If your "Send Proposal Email" activity has Schedule Days = 3, and the salesperson marks the preceding "Initial Call" as done on a Wednesday, the proposal email activity will be due on Saturday. In many organizations, you will want to account for weekends and public holidays when setting Schedule Days values — set slightly higher values to compensate, or use values that align naturally with business day cycles.
Here is a practical reference for common Schedule Days configurations and what they produce in typical business scenarios:
| Schedule Days Value | Deadline Result | Recommended For |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Due same day as completion | Immediate same-session follow-up, urgent escalations |
| 1 | Due tomorrow | Next-day follow-up calls, quick proposal turnarounds |
| 3 | Due in 3 calendar days | Standard short-cycle follow-ups, proposal acknowledgment |
| 5 | Due in 5 calendar days | Typical work-week follow-up window, mid-cycle check-ins |
| 7 | Due in 7 calendar days (one week) | Weekly check-ins, review cycles, extended proposal windows |
| 14 | Due in 14 calendar days (two weeks) | Bi-weekly follow-ups, longer-cycle enterprise deals |
| 30 | Due in 30 calendar days (one month) | Monthly account reviews, long-cycle customer nurturing |
Managing Activities in the CRM Pipeline
Once activity automation is configured, understanding how to interact with activities day-to-day in the CRM pipeline is essential for your team to work effectively with the system. Odoo 19 integrates activity management deeply into the CRM Kanban view so that pipeline management and activity management happen in the same place.
In the CRM Kanban view, every lead card that has a planned activity shows a colored clock icon in the bottom-right corner of the card. Green means the activity is future-dated and on track, orange means it is due today, and red means it is overdue. This visual system gives sales managers an instant read on which leads need immediate attention across the entire pipeline without opening any individual records.
Clicking the activity icon on any Kanban card opens a dropdown panel that shows all planned activities for that lead. Each activity entry shows the activity type icon, the due date, the assigned user, and the summary text. From this panel you can perform three key actions without opening the lead record: mark the activity as Done (which triggers chaining if configured), reschedule the activity by changing its date, or edit the activity to update its details.
Marking an activity as Done from the Kanban view is the primary trigger for automated chaining. When you click the checkmark on an activity that has Trigger Next Activity configured, Odoo creates the new follow-up activity immediately and the Kanban card updates to show the new activity's icon in the appropriate color. If the activity uses Suggest mode, a dialog appears first.
The chatter section at the bottom of each lead record maintains a complete, timestamped audit trail of every activity — scheduled, rescheduled, completed, and auto-triggered. This log is invaluable for managers reviewing lead histories, understanding customer interaction timelines, or investigating why a particular follow-up was or was not made.
Practical Automation Scenarios
The following three real-world automation scenarios demonstrate how to combine activity type configuration, trigger chaining, default user assignment, and schedule days to build complete end-to-end automated workflows in Odoo 19. Each scenario maps to a common business process and can be adapted to fit your specific team structure and cycle times.
| Scenario | Trigger | Next Activity | Schedule Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead Qualification — Step 1 | Initial Qualification Call done | Send Proposal Email | 1 |
| Lead Qualification — Step 2 | Send Proposal Email done | Follow-up Meeting | 3 |
| Customer Onboarding — Step 1 | Welcome Call done | Product Demo Session | 2 |
| Customer Onboarding — Step 2 | Product Demo Session done | Check-in Call | 7 |
| Support Ticket — Step 1 | Review Ticket done | Customer Reply Request | 0 |
| Support Ticket — Step 2 | Customer Reply Request done | Close Ticket Confirmation | 1 |
Scenario 1: Lead Qualification Flow
The lead qualification flow automates the most common CRM sequence: initial contact, proposal delivery, and discovery meeting. Configure three activity types: Initial Qualification Call (Action: Phone Calls, Schedule Days: 1, Default User: inside sales rep, Trigger: Send Proposal Email), Send Proposal Email (Action: Email, Schedule Days: 3, Default User: sales account executive, Trigger: Follow-up Meeting), and Follow-up Meeting (Action: Meetings, Schedule Days: 5, no Next Activity — end of automated chain).
With this configuration, a new lead in the CRM pipeline only needs one manual action to start the chain: a salesperson schedules the Initial Qualification Call. After that, completing each activity automatically creates the next one. The entire qualification sequence runs through three distinct activities across three different timeframes, with assignments automatically routed to the appropriate team members, without any manual scheduling at any step.
Scenario 2: Customer Onboarding
Customer onboarding requires a consistent, repeatable sequence of touchpoints after a contract is signed. Configure three activity types: Welcome Call (Action: Phone Calls, Schedule Days: 2, Default User: customer success manager, Trigger: Product Demo Session), Product Demo Session (Action: Meetings, Schedule Days: 7, Default User: solutions engineer, Trigger: Check-in Call), and Check-in Call (Action: Phone Calls, Schedule Days: 7, Default User: customer success manager, no Next Activity).
This chain ensures that every new customer receives the same structured onboarding experience regardless of which sales rep closed the deal, which CSM is assigned, or how busy the team is at any given time. The automatic assignment to specific Default Users means the CSM and solutions engineer are pulled in at the right stages without the sales rep having to coordinate handoffs manually.
Scenario 3: Support Ticket Flow
Support ticket automation ensures that every ticket follows a defined resolution path. Configure three activity types: Review Ticket (Action: To-Do, Schedule Days: 0, Default User: support agent, Trigger: Customer Reply Request), Customer Reply Request (Action: Email, Schedule Days: 1, Default User: support agent, Trigger: Close Ticket Confirmation), and Close Ticket Confirmation (Action: Phone Calls, Schedule Days: 1, Default User: support team lead, no Next Activity).
With Schedule Days set to 0 for the first activity, the review task is created as due the same day the ticket arrives. Once reviewed and the reply request activity is completed, the closure confirmation is due the next day — keeping the entire resolution cycle tightly managed with minimal manual intervention from the support team lead.
Benefits of Activity Automation in Odoo 19
Automating activities in Odoo 19 delivers measurable benefits across the sales, customer success, and support functions of any business. The impact compounds as teams grow, since the automation scales linearly without requiring additional management effort for each new team member added to the pipeline.
Eliminating missed follow-ups is the most immediate benefit. In manual processes, follow-ups depend entirely on a salesperson remembering to schedule the next task. Activity chaining removes this dependency — every completed task automatically creates the next one, making it structurally impossible to drop a lead out of the follow-up sequence unless the activity is explicitly not completed.
Standardizing sales and support workflows ensures that every customer receives the same quality of engagement regardless of which team member handles their account. New hires follow the same process as senior representatives without requiring extensive coaching on what to do next at each stage.
Reducing manager overhead for task assignment is a significant operational gain. Without activity automation, sales managers often spend substantial time each day assigning follow-up tasks, checking that activities have been scheduled, and reminding team members of pending actions. With automated chaining and Default User assignment, this overhead is eliminated — managers can focus on coaching and pipeline strategy rather than administrative task distribution.
Creating a complete audit trail of all customer interactions is a compliance and management benefit that comes automatically from using activities consistently. Every activity completion is logged in the chatter with a timestamp and the responsible user's name, giving managers a full interaction history for any lead or customer record at any time.
Improving response times and customer satisfaction follows naturally from having zero gaps in follow-up sequences. Customers receive timely, consistent communication at every stage of the relationship, which builds trust and reduces churn in post-sale customer success processes.
Scaling across large teams without extra management effort is the long-term competitive advantage of activity automation. A team of five can run the same quality processes as a team of fifty, because the automation handles the routing and scheduling that would otherwise require a dedicated operations role at larger scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I automate activities in Odoo 19 without writing any Python code?
Yes, completely. Activity automation in Odoo 19 is configured entirely through the user interface — navigate to CRM > Configuration > Activity Types, create or edit an activity type, and use the Next Activity tab to set up chaining with either Suggest or Trigger mode. No Python code, no technical modules, and no developer access are required. This makes it accessible to any Odoo administrator or power user with access to the Configuration menu.
What is the difference between Suggest Next Activity and Trigger Next Activity in Odoo 19?
Suggest Next Activity shows the user a recommendation dialog when they mark an activity as Done — they can accept, modify, or ignore the suggestion. Trigger Next Activity creates the next activity automatically the moment Done is clicked, with no user input required. Use Suggest for flexible workflows where the next step may vary, and Trigger for standardized pipelines where every completed step must always be followed by the same action.
How are Schedule Days calculated when a triggered activity is created?
Schedule Days are calculated from the date the current activity is marked as Done — not the original due date, not the creation date of the chain, and not a fixed calendar date. If Schedule Days is set to 3 and you mark an activity as Done on a Monday, the triggered next activity will be due on Thursday. This means late completions shift the follow-up deadline forward correspondingly, so it is important to complete activities on time to maintain predictable follow-up windows.
Can activity chaining be used in modules other than CRM in Odoo 19?
Yes. Activity types and chaining are configured globally in Odoo 19 and apply across all modules that support activities — including Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Invoicing, HR, and Project. Any record in these modules can have activities scheduled and chained using the same configuration. The activity types you create in CRM Configuration are available everywhere activities can be used throughout the entire Odoo instance.
How do I stop an automated activity chain once it has started in Odoo 19?
To stop a running activity chain on a specific record, simply delete the pending activity rather than marking it as Done. Open the lead or record, click the activity icon, find the planned activity, and use the delete or cancel option to remove it without triggering the chain. The automated sequence only continues when an activity is marked as Done — deleting or canceling the activity breaks the chain without creating the next step. You can also edit the activity type's Next Activity configuration to remove the trigger for future records.
Need Help Configuring Odoo 19 Activity Automation?
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About the author
Odoo Practice Lead, Braincuber Technologies
Leads the Odoo practice at Braincuber. Has delivered Odoo ERP implementations, NetSuite/Tally migrations, and Shopify–Odoo integrations for US mid-market and D2C brands. Owns scoping, data migration, and go-live for every Odoo engagement.