It’s the kind of change that sounds trivial when you describe it and saves five minutes of confusion every single time someone sets up a new product. Odoo 20 removes the “Track Inventory” checkbox from the product form and replaces it — along with the separate tracking method dropdown that appeared after you checked the box — with a single, always-visible “Tracking” field.
The Problem With Two Controls for One Decision
In previous versions, configuring inventory tracking on a product required two steps. First, you checked the “Track Inventory” checkbox. This enabled tracking and revealed a second field: a dropdown where you selected the tracking method (by lot, by serial number, or by quantity). If you didn’t check the box, the dropdown never appeared. If you checked the box but forgot to change the dropdown from its default, you got the default tracking method whether you wanted it or not.
This two-step pattern created a constant source of minor errors and support questions. New users would enable tracking but not realize there was a second choice to make. Experienced users would forget whether tracking was on or off for a particular product and have to click into the form to check. And across three different modules — Inventory, Manufacturing, and Purchase — the same two-step dance repeated with slightly different contexts and consequences.
One Field, Four Options, Zero Ambiguity
The new unified “Tracking” field is always visible on the product form. It’s a single dropdown with explicit options:
- None— no inventory tracking. This is the explicit replacement for the unchecked checkbox. Instead of the absence of a checkmark implying “don’t track,” there’s now an actual value that says so.
- By Lot— track products in batches. Useful for items like food products, chemicals, or any goods where you need to trace a group of units back to a production run.
- By Unique Serial Number— track every individual unit. Essential for electronics, high-value equipment, or any product where each item has its own identity.
The decision happens once, in one place, with no hidden second step. You see the current setting without opening the form. You change it without enabling a prerequisite first.
The Ripple Effect Across Three Modules
This isn’t just an Inventory change. The unified tracking field updates the product form everywhere it appears — and product forms appear in a lot of places.
In Manufacturing, the tracking field directly affects how lot and serial number assignments work during production. When a product is tracked by serial number, each finished unit needs a unique identifier assigned during the manufacturing process. When tracked by lot, a batch of finished goods shares one identifier. When set to None, the manufacturing process skips serial/lot assignment entirely. The work order interface, the bill of materials configuration, and the production recording steps all reference this single field now.
In Purchase, the tracking setting influences how reordering rules behave. When a product runs low and the system generates a purchase suggestion, the tracking method determines whether the receiving process will require lot numbers, serial numbers, or neither. Temporary reordering rules — the one-time rules that handle exceptional procurement situations — also reference the new field.
And in Inventory, beyond the basic product form change, the expiration dates workflow now references the unified field. Products tracked by lot or serial number can have expiration dates; products set to None cannot. The logic is cleaner because there’s one field to check instead of a checkbox-then-dropdown combination.
Why Small UX Changes Like This Matter
There’s a category of software improvement that never makes it into a keynote presentation but disproportionately affects daily productivity. Replacing a two-control interaction with a one-control interaction doesn’t sound exciting. But when that interaction happens every time someone creates a product, modifies a bill of materials, or sets up a reordering rule, the cumulative time savings are real.
More importantly, the explicit “None” option eliminates an entire class of errors. In the old system, the absence of a checkmark was ambiguous: did someone deliberately turn off tracking, or did they just forget to turn it on? The new system makes the choice visible and intentional. When a product says “None,” that’s a decision, not an oversight.
For businesses managing thousands of products across warehouses, manufacturing lines, and purchase orders, that clarity is worth more than any checkbox ever was.