POS Ship Later Odoo 18
By Braincuber Team
Published on December 30, 2025
Electronics retailer loses $8,500 weekly because customer wants high-end camera but it's temporarily out of stock, so customer goes to competitor instead. Another scenario: customer buys laptop at point of sale, but prefers delivery next week when they move to new apartment—cashier manually writes delivery note on paper receipt, warehouse team misses the note, laptop sits on shelf while customer calls daily asking about delivery status. These inventory disconnects happen because POS system operates independently from warehouse management.
Odoo 18 Point of Sale "Ship Later" feature bridges this gap by connecting POS transactions directly to inventory operations. When cashier selects "Ship Later" during checkout, Odoo automatically creates delivery order in backend warehouse system, schedules fulfillment date, reserves inventory quantities, tracks shipping status, and synchronizes stock levels in real-time—ensuring customers get products when promised while preventing overselling and maintaining accurate inventory across all sales channels.
Core Benefit: Ship Later transforms POS from simple cash register into integrated order management system. Sell products not currently in stock, schedule deliveries for customer convenience, manage backorders automatically, and maintain single source of truth for inventory across retail locations and warehouses.
Understanding Ship Later Workflow
Traditional POS assumes immediate product handover: scan item, accept payment, give product to customer. Ship Later breaks this assumption by separating sale transaction from physical delivery.
Sale at POS
Customer completes purchase at point of sale. Payment processed immediately. Order confirmed even if product not physically available in retail location.
Delivery Order Created
Backend system automatically generates delivery order with scheduled delivery date, shipping address, product quantities, and special instructions.
Warehouse Fulfillment
Warehouse team receives picking order, prepares products for shipment, validates delivery, and updates shipping status visible to customer and sales team.
Inventory Sync
Stock quantities automatically adjusted across all locations. Prevents overselling. Real-time visibility into available inventory for both retail and online channels.
Real-World Use Cases
Out-of-Stock Sales
Scenario: Customer wants DSLR camera ($2,499) but showroom only has demo unit. Main warehouse has 15 units available.
Without Ship Later: "Sorry, we don't have it in stock. Try our website or come back next week."
With Ship Later: "I can sell you this camera now, and we'll deliver it to your home tomorrow from our central warehouse. Payment processed today, delivery scheduled for 11 AM tomorrow."
Customer Convenience
Scenario: Customer buys gaming laptop ($1,899) but traveling for business until next Friday.
Customer Request: "Can you deliver this to my office address next Friday afternoon? I'm not home this week."
Solution: Process sale today, schedule delivery for Friday, send confirmation email with tracking information.
Bulk Orders
Scenario: Small business owner buys 25 tablets ($12,475 total) for employee fleet.
Challenge: Retail location has only 8 tablets in stock.
Solution: Sell all 25 units immediately, schedule delivery from multiple warehouses, coordinate shipment to business address, maintain inventory accuracy across locations.
Step 1: Configure Ship Later in POS Settings
Enable Ship Later feature in POS configuration. Path: Point of Sale → Configuration → Settings
Navigate to POS Settings
- Open Point of Sale module from Odoo main menu
- Go to Configuration → Settings
- Find the POS system you want to configure (e.g., "Main Store POS")
- Click to open settings form
Enable Ship Later
Scroll to Inventory section and locate:
- Allow Ship Later: Enable this checkbox to activate the feature
- Warehouse: Select warehouse that will fulfill Ship Later orders (e.g., "Central Warehouse")
- Specific Route: Optional - choose delivery route for these orders (e.g., "Express Shipping", "Standard Delivery")
Configure Shipping Policy
Choose how to handle partial stock availability:
| Shipping Policy | Behavior | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| As soon as possible | Create multiple deliveries if needed. Ship available items immediately, backorder rest. | Customer wants partial delivery. Ship laptop today, ship accessories when available. |
| When all products are ready | Wait until all items available, then ship complete order together. | Customer prefers single delivery. Hold entire order until all 5 monitors in stock. |
⚠️ Important Configuration Note: If your warehouse doesn't have enough stock to fulfill Ship Later orders, Odoo will automatically trigger procurement rules (purchase orders, manufacturing orders, or transfers from other warehouses) based on your inventory configuration. Ensure procurement rules are properly set up before enabling Ship Later.
Configuration Settings Summary:
Point of Sale → Configuration → Settings → [Your POS] INVENTORY SECTION: ☑ Allow Ship Later └─ Warehouse: Central Warehouse └─ Specific Route: Standard Delivery (optional) └─ Shipping Policy: As soon as possible RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL SETTINGS: ☑ Track Inventory in Real-Time ☑ Enable Barcode Scanner ☑ Product Availability Display ☑ Customer Management (required for Ship Later) SAVE CONFIGURATION
Step 2: Using Ship Later in POS Session
Once configured, Ship Later button appears in POS interface during checkout. Here's the complete workflow from cashier perspective.
Start POS Session
- Open POS interface: Point of Sale → Session → New Session
- Enter opening cash amount if using cash register
- Click Open Session
Create Sale Order
Example Transaction: Customer buys high-end camera with accessories
- Scan or search products:
- Canon EOS R5 Camera - $3,899
- Canon RF 24-70mm Lens - $1,099
- SanDisk 256GB SD Card - $79
- Camera Bag - $149
- Products added to cart, total: $5,226
- CRITICAL: Select customer before enabling Ship Later
- Click Customer button in POS interface
- Search existing customer or create new one
- Customer name, phone, and delivery address required
⚠️ Customer Requirement: Ship Later requires customer selection because delivery orders need shipping address. Without customer, Ship Later button will be disabled. This is a fundamental difference from regular POS sales where customer is optional.
Activate Ship Later
- After adding products and selecting customer, click Ship Later button in POS toolbar
- Ship Later popup window opens with calendar interface
- Select Delivery Date:
- Choose date from calendar (e.g., tomorrow, next week, specific date)
- Set delivery time if needed (morning/afternoon/evening)
- Add special delivery instructions (optional): "Ring doorbell twice", "Leave at reception desk", etc.
- Click Confirm to apply Ship Later to order
💡 Tip: Ship Later indicator appears next to order total after activation. You can still modify products in cart after setting Ship Later. Delivery date can be changed before payment validation.
Step 3: Payment & Order Validation
Process Payment
Payment handled identically to regular POS sales:
- Click Payment button
- Select payment method: Cash, Credit Card, Mobile Payment, Bank Transfer
- Enter payment amount: $5,226
- Process payment through integrated payment terminal (if using card)
- Handle change if paying with cash
Validate & Print Receipt
After payment confirmation:
- Click Validate button to complete transaction
- POS generates receipt with shipping information:
- Standard receipt items (products, prices, tax, total)
- PLUS Shipping Information:
- Scheduled Delivery Date: January 15, 2025
- Delivery Address: [Customer address]
- Order Reference Number: POS/2025/0123
- Tracking instructions
- Print receipt for customer
- Optionally email receipt to customer email address
Sample Receipt with Ship Later:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ELECTRONICS MEGASTORE
123 Tech Avenue, Suite 100
Phone: (555) 123-4567
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Order: POS/2025/0123
Date: January 10, 2025 14:35
Cashier: Sarah Johnson
ITEMS:
Canon EOS R5 Camera $3,899.00
Canon RF 24-70mm Lens $1,099.00
SanDisk 256GB SD $ 79.00
Camera Bag $ 149.00
──────────
Subtotal: $5,226.00
Tax (8%): $ 418.08
──────────
TOTAL: $5,644.08
PAYMENT:
Credit Card (Visa) $5,644.08
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
DELIVERY INFORMATION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Customer: Michael Chen
Phone: (555) 987-6543
SHIP TO:
456 Photography Lane
Apartment 12B
San Francisco, CA 94102
Scheduled Delivery:
January 15, 2025 (2-5 PM)
Delivery Instructions:
Ring doorbell twice
Tracking: Track your order at
braincuber.com/track/POS20250123
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for your purchase!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 4: Backend Fulfillment & Inventory
When cashier validates Ship Later order, Odoo automatically creates delivery order in backend inventory system. Warehouse team manages fulfillment without manual data entry.
View POS Order in Backend
Navigate to: Point of Sale → Orders → Orders
- Find order by reference number (POS/2025/0123)
- Order shows status: Paid
- Payment information visible with full transaction details
- Customer information and delivery address displayed
- Delivery Smart Button appears showing "1 Delivery" - click to view delivery order
Delivery Order (Picking)
Click Delivery button to open picking/delivery order:
- Reference: WH/OUT/00234 (automatically generated)
- Status: Waiting or Ready
- Scheduled Date: January 15, 2025
- Source Location: Central Warehouse / Stock
- Destination: Customers / Michael Chen
- Products to Ship:
- Canon EOS R5 Camera - Qty: 1
- Canon RF 24-70mm Lens - Qty: 1
- SanDisk 256GB SD Card - Qty: 1
- Camera Bag - Qty: 1
Warehouse Fulfillment Process
Warehouse team handles picking and shipping:
- Check Availability:
- Click Check Availability button
- Odoo verifies stock quantities in source location
- If available: Status changes to Ready
- If not available: Triggers backorder process (see next section)
- Pick Products:
- Warehouse worker receives picking list (can print or use mobile app)
- Collect products from warehouse shelves using barcode scanner
- Scan each product to confirm picking
- Mark items as "Done" in system
- Pack & Ship:
- Pack products securely for shipping
- Generate shipping label with delivery address
- Integrate with shipping carrier (UPS, FedEx, DHL, local courier)
- Enter tracking number in delivery order
- Validate Delivery:
- Click Validate button in delivery order
- Inventory quantities automatically updated:
- Warehouse stock reduced by shipped quantities
- Product availability updated across all sales channels
- Accounting entries created (COGS, inventory valuation)
- Customer notification email sent (if configured)
- Order status updated to Done
Handling Backorders
Backorder occurs when warehouse doesn't have enough stock to fulfill entire delivery order immediately. Odoo manages this automatically based on shipping policy configuration.
Backorder Trigger Scenario
Example: Order contains 3 products but only 2 available in stock
- Canon Camera - Available (3 in stock)
- Canon Lens - Available (5 in stock)
- SD Card - Out of Stock (0 in stock, 20 incoming next week)
Automatic Backorder Creation
When validating delivery with missing stock:
- Odoo prompts: "Create Backorder?"
- Options:
- Create Backorder: Ship available items now, create new delivery for remaining items
- No Backorder: Cancel unavailable items, ship only what's available
- If "Create Backorder" selected:
- Original Delivery: Ships camera + lens (marked as Done)
- Backorder Delivery: New delivery order created for SD card with status Waiting Availability
- Reference: WH/OUT/00234-001 (automatically numbered)
Resolving Backorders
When stock becomes available:
- Backorder status automatically changes to Ready
- Warehouse team receives notification
- Follow standard fulfillment process (pick, pack, validate)
- Customer receives remaining items with separate tracking number
Shipping Policy Impact:
| Shipping Policy | Backorder Behavior | Customer Impact |
|---|---|---|
| As soon as possible | Automatically creates backorder. Ships available items immediately, backordered items shipped when available. | Receives products faster (partial deliveries). May receive multiple shipments. |
| When all products ready | Delays entire delivery until all items available. No partial shipments. | Receives complete order in single delivery. May wait longer. |
Inventory Synchronization
Ship Later maintains real-time inventory accuracy across entire system. Understanding how quantities update prevents overselling and stockouts.
Forecasted Quantity
On-hand quantity minus reserved quantities for pending deliveries. Available for new sales or transfers.
Reserved Quantity
Products allocated to specific delivery orders but not yet shipped. Locked for those orders only.
Incoming Quantity
Expected stock from purchase orders, manufacturing, or transfers. Future availability visible.
Available Quantity
On-hand - Reserved + Incoming. True available stock considering all commitments and replenishments.
Quantity Calculation Example:
Product: Canon EOS R5 Camera INITIAL STATE: On-Hand Quantity: 50 units Reserved (Ship Later): 0 units Forecasted Available: 50 units AFTER SHIP LATER SALE (3 units): On-Hand Quantity: 50 units (still in warehouse) Reserved (Ship Later): 3 units (locked for delivery) Forecasted Available: 47 units (available for new sales) AFTER DELIVERY VALIDATION: On-Hand Quantity: 47 units (shipped 3 units) Reserved (Ship Later): 0 units (delivery completed) Forecasted Available: 47 units REAL-TIME ACROSS CHANNELS: - POS shows: 47 available - eCommerce shows: 47 available - Warehouse shows: 47 available - All channels synchronized automatically
Advanced Configuration
Multiple Warehouses
Configure different warehouses for different POS locations:
- Downtown Store POS → Ships from Downtown Warehouse
- Suburbs Store POS → Ships from Regional Distribution Center
- Airport Store POS → Ships from Main Central Warehouse
This optimization reduces delivery times by shipping from closest warehouse to customer location.
Delivery Routes
Create specific routes for different service levels:
- Same-Day Delivery: Premium route with 4-hour delivery window
- Next-Day Delivery: Express route for next business day
- Standard Delivery: 3-5 business days, lowest cost
- White Glove Delivery: Installation service included, scheduled appointment
Automated Notifications
Configure email templates for customer communication:
- Order Confirmation: Sent immediately after POS sale with delivery date
- Shipment Notification: When warehouse validates delivery with tracking number
- Delivery Confirmation: When carrier confirms delivery completion
- Backorder Alert: If items delayed, notify customer with new expected date
Best Practices
✅ Recommended Guidelines:
- Train POS staff: Ensure cashiers understand when to offer Ship Later (out of stock, customer requests delivery, bulk orders)
- Set realistic delivery dates: Account for warehouse processing time, shipping duration, and carrier schedules
- Verify customer information: Confirm delivery address, phone number, and preferred delivery time before validation
- Monitor inventory daily: Review reserved quantities to identify popular products needing replenishment
- Configure reordering rules: Automate purchase orders when stock falls below minimum quantity including reserved amounts
- Use delivery routes wisely: Don't promise same-day delivery if warehouse closes in 1 hour
- Communicate with customers: Send tracking information, delivery updates, and backorder notifications proactively
- Review backorder patterns: Products frequently backordered = increase safety stock or adjust forecasting
Common Challenges & Solutions
🚨 Issue #1: Ship Later Button Not Appearing
Cause: Customer not selected in POS interface.
Solution:
- Click Customer button in POS
- Select existing customer or create new one
- Ensure delivery address filled in customer form
- Ship Later button will become active
🚨 Issue #2: Delivery Order Not Created
Cause: Warehouse not configured in POS settings.
Solution:
- Go to Point of Sale → Configuration → Settings
- Select your POS system
- In Inventory section, set Warehouse field
- Save configuration
- Restart POS session
🚨 Issue #3: Stock Shows Available in POS But Delivery Fails
Cause: POS showing on-hand quantity but stock already reserved or in different warehouse location.
Solution:
- Enable "Display Stock Availability" in POS settings
- Configure POS to show forecasted quantity (available - reserved)
- Ensure POS warehouse matches delivery warehouse in settings
- Use "Check Availability" in delivery order to verify before promising delivery date
Reporting & Analytics
Monitor Ship Later performance to optimize inventory and improve customer satisfaction.
Key Metrics to Track:
Ship Later Usage Rate
Percentage of POS orders using Ship Later vs immediate handover.
High rate may indicate stock issues or customer preference for delivery.
Average Fulfillment Time
Time from POS sale to delivery validation.
Target: Under 24 hours for local deliveries, 48-72 hours for regional.
Backorder Frequency
Number of Ship Later orders requiring backorders.
High frequency = adjust reordering points or safety stock levels.
Revenue from Ship Later
Total sales captured via Ship Later feature.
Demonstrates value of selling out-of-stock items instead of losing sales.
Conclusion
Odoo 18 Ship Later transforms Point of Sale from simple transaction system into comprehensive order management platform. By connecting POS to inventory and delivery operations, retailers can sell products regardless of immediate stock availability, schedule deliveries for customer convenience, manage warehouse fulfillment efficiently, maintain accurate inventory across all channels, and capture sales that would otherwise be lost to competitors. This integration eliminates manual processes, reduces errors, improves customer satisfaction, and provides real-time visibility into entire fulfillment workflow from cash register to customer doorstep.
🎯 Key Takeaway: Ship Later isn't just a delivery scheduling tool—it's a competitive advantage. Retailers using Ship Later capture 30-40% more revenue from out-of-stock situations, improve customer retention through flexible delivery options, and maintain operational efficiency through automated inventory synchronization. The investment in proper configuration pays for itself within first month through captured sales that traditional POS systems would miss.