Odoo BPMN Glossary:
Business Process Model & Notation Terms Explained for Odoo Workflows

Why BPMN Matters When You Implement Odoo

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.0 is the ISO-standard visual language for documenting business processes. When you map your operations before configuring Odoo, you avoid the most common implementation mistake: building software around assumptions instead of documented workflows. Every Odoo module—Sales, Inventory, Manufacturing, Accounting—implements BPMN concepts whether the team realizes it or not. Kanban stages are activities. Automated actions are events. Approval rules are gateways.

This glossary defines the core BPMN 2.0 terms and maps each one to its Odoo equivalent. Use it as a reference when designing workflows with your implementation partner, writing functional specifications, or auditing an existing Odoo deployment. Each term is phrased as a question to help you find exactly the definition you need.

What Are Flow Objects in BPMN and Odoo?

Flow objects are the three core building blocks of any BPMN diagram: Events, Activities, and Gateways. Every business process—from a simple sales order confirmation to a multi-step manufacturing workflow—is modeled using combinations of these three elements.

In Odoo, flow objects appear everywhere. A quotation being confirmed is an event. The "Validate" action on a delivery order is an activity. An approval rule that routes purchase orders above $10,000 to a manager is a gateway. Understanding flow objects gives you the vocabulary to describe what your Odoo system should do before you start configuring it.

What Is a BPMN Event and How Does Odoo Handle Events?

A BPMN event is something that happens during a business process. Events are drawn as circles and come in three positions: Start (thin border), Intermediate (double border), and End (thick border). They can be triggered by messages, timers, errors, signals, or conditions.

Start Event

A start event initiates a process instance. In Odoo, creating a new sales order, receiving an inbound email that generates a lead in CRM, or a customer submitting a website form are all start events. Every record creation in Odoo is functionally a start event for the workflow attached to that model.

Intermediate Event

An intermediate event occurs between the start and end of a process. In Odoo, this maps to scheduled actions (cron jobs) that fire at intervals, mail.activity reminders that prompt users to take action, or webhook callbacks from external systems. A timer intermediate event in BPMN corresponds to Odoo’s ir.cron records that trigger logic on a schedule.

End Event

An end event marks the completion of a process path. In Odoo, this includes confirming a payment, marking a manufacturing order as done, closing a helpdesk ticket, or moving a CRM opportunity to "Won" or "Lost." The end event often triggers downstream processes—for example, confirming a delivery order (end event for picking) triggers the creation of a customer invoice (start event for billing).

Message Event

A message event is triggered by communication between participants. Odoo’s mail gateway (fetchmail) handles this natively: incoming emails create or update records, and outgoing emails notify external parties. The mail.thread mixin that powers Odoo’s chatter is essentially a message event handler built into every model that inherits it.

Timer Event

A timer event fires after a duration or at a specific date. Odoo implements timer events through scheduled actions (ir.cron) and automated actions with time-based triggers. For example, sending a follow-up email 3 days after an invoice is overdue, or auto-archiving stale leads after 90 days of inactivity.

What Is a BPMN Activity and What Are Activities in Odoo?

A BPMN activity is a unit of work performed within a process. Activities are drawn as rounded rectangles and come in two main types: Tasks (atomic) and Sub-Processes (compound). Activities can be manual (performed by a person) or automated (performed by a system).

Task

A task is an atomic activity that cannot be broken down further within the process. In Odoo, tasks appear as stages in Kanban views (CRM stages, project task stages, helpdesk stages), individual server actions, or button clicks like "Confirm Order," "Validate," or "Register Payment." Each of these represents a single unit of work that moves the process forward.

User Task vs. Service Task

BPMN distinguishes between user tasks (requiring human interaction) and service tasks (automated by a system). Odoo mirrors this distinction. A user task is any action that requires a person to click a button or fill in a form—like approving a purchase order. A service task maps to Odoo automated actions (base.automation), server actions, or scheduled actions that execute without human intervention.

Sub-Process

A sub-process is a compound activity that encapsulates a set of tasks. In Odoo, a sub-process corresponds to an entire module workflow embedded within a larger process. For example, the procurement sub-process within a sales order: confirming a sales order (parent process) triggers a purchase order creation, vendor confirmation, receipt, and quality check (sub-process) before the sales delivery can proceed.

Call Activity

A call activity invokes a globally defined process. In Odoo, this concept maps to reusable server actions or automated action templates that are triggered from multiple models. For instance, the same "Send Email Notification" server action can be called from Sales, Purchase, and Helpdesk modules—it is a shared, reusable process definition.

What Is a BPMN Gateway in Odoo?

A BPMN gateway is a decision point that controls how process flows diverge (split) or converge (merge). Gateways are drawn as diamonds and determine which path(s) the process follows based on conditions, events, or parallel execution requirements.

Exclusive Gateway (XOR)

An exclusive gateway routes the process along exactly one path based on a condition. In Odoo, this is the most common gateway type. Examples include: purchase approval rules that route orders to different approvers based on amount thresholds; inventory route rules that choose between "Buy," "Manufacture," or "Dropship" based on product configuration; and CRM lead assignment rules that direct leads to different sales teams based on geography or industry.

Parallel Gateway (AND)

A parallel gateway splits the process into multiple simultaneous paths that all execute concurrently. In Odoo, this appears when confirming a sales order triggers both a delivery order and a down-payment invoice simultaneously. Manufacturing provides another example: a Bill of Materials with multiple work centers creates parallel work orders that can proceed independently until a synchronization point.

Inclusive Gateway (OR)

An inclusive gateway activates one or more paths based on conditions. In Odoo, this maps to scenarios where a single event triggers multiple optional downstream actions. For example, confirming a purchase order might trigger a quality check (if the product requires inspection), update the inventory forecast (always), and send a vendor rating request (if enabled)—any combination of these paths can be active.

Event-Based Gateway

An event-based gateway waits for one of several possible events and routes based on which event occurs first. In Odoo, this corresponds to scenarios like: a quotation is sent and the system waits for either (a) the customer accepts online, (b) the salesperson marks it as won after a phone call, or (c) a scheduled action auto-expires the quotation after 30 days. Whichever happens first determines the next step.

What Are Sequence Flows and Message Flows in BPMN?

Connecting objects are the arrows and lines that link flow objects together. They define the order of execution and the communication between participants.

What Is a Sequence Flow?

A sequence flow is a solid arrow showing the order in which activities are performed within a single process. In Odoo, sequence flows are the status transitions that move a record through its lifecycle. A sales order flowing from "Quotation" to "Sales Order" to "Locked" follows a defined sequence flow. Warehouse operations follow sequence flows through "Draft" → "Waiting" → "Ready" → "Done." These transitions are enforced by Odoo’s state or status fields and their associated business logic.

What Is a Conditional Sequence Flow?

A conditional sequence flow has a guard condition—a diamond marker on the arrow—that must evaluate to true before the flow proceeds. In Odoo, this maps to domain filters on automated actions. For example, an automated action that only triggers when amount_total > 5000 is a conditional sequence flow: the process only continues down that path when the condition is met.

What Is a Message Flow?

A message flow is a dashed arrow showing communication between two separate participants (pools). In Odoo, message flows represent interactions between your organization and external parties: sending a quotation PDF to a customer via email, receiving a vendor bill through EDI, a customer portal user approving a quotation online, or an e-commerce order arriving from the website. The key distinction from sequence flows is that message flows cross organizational boundaries.

What Is an Association?

An association is a dotted line that links an artifact (like a text annotation or data object) to a flow object. In Odoo, associations correspond to chatter notes, attached documents, and log notes that provide context to a record without affecting the process flow. They are informational, not directional.

What Are Pools and Lanes in BPMN and How Do They Map to Odoo?

Swimlanes organize activities by who performs them. They are the horizontal or vertical bands that partition a BPMN diagram into responsibility zones.

What Is a Pool?

A pool represents a participant in a process—typically an organization or a major system. In Odoo, a pool corresponds to a company in a multi-company setup. Each company has its own chart of accounts, warehouses, employees, and process rules. Inter-company transactions (automated invoicing between entities) are message flows between pools. A pool can also represent an external participant: "Customer," "Vendor," or "Bank" are pools that interact with your Odoo instance via portals, EDI, or API calls.

What Is a Lane?

A lane is a sub-partition within a pool that represents a specific role, department, or system. In Odoo, lanes map to user groups and access rights. The Sales Team lane contains activities that only users in the sales_team.group_sale_salesman group can perform. The Accounting lane contains activities restricted to account.group_account_invoice. Odoo’s record rules and group-based access control enforce lane boundaries—users cannot perform activities outside their assigned lane without the proper permissions.

What Are BPMN Artifacts and How Are They Used in Odoo?

Artifacts provide additional information about a process without affecting its flow. BPMN defines three standard artifacts: Data Objects, Groups, and Text Annotations.

Text Annotation

A text annotation adds a comment or note to a diagram element. In Odoo, text annotations correspond to internal notes on records (chatter log notes), field help text (the tooltip that appears when hovering over a field label), and activity notes that provide instructions to the next user in the workflow.

Group

A group visually clusters related elements without affecting semantics. In Odoo, groups map to notebook pages (tabs) on form views that organize related fields together, separator elements in views, or kanban column groupings that visually categorize records.

What Is a BPMN Token and How Does It Relate to Odoo Records?

A token is a theoretical concept in BPMN that represents a single instance of a process moving through the diagram. When a start event fires, a token is created. The token travels along sequence flows, pauses at activities, and is consumed at end events. Tokens are how BPMN explains parallel execution: a parallel gateway creates multiple tokens, one for each outgoing path.

In Odoo, a token is a record—or more precisely, the state of a record as it moves through its workflow. A sales order record is a token flowing through the sales process. When that sales order confirmation creates both a delivery order and an invoice, the original token has been split into two new tokens (two new records in different models) that proceed through their respective sub-processes independently.

Token Splitting and Merging

When Odoo confirms a manufacturing order with multiple work orders, it splits a token: one MO record spawns multiple work order records that execute in parallel across different work centers. When all work orders complete and the MO is marked as done, the tokens merge back. This is identical to a parallel gateway fork followed by a parallel gateway join in BPMN.

Token Consumption

A token is consumed when it reaches an end event. In Odoo, this means the record reaches a terminal state: a purchase order is "Locked," a delivery is "Done," a helpdesk ticket is "Solved," or a lead is "Won." Once consumed, the token (record) no longer actively participates in the process, though it remains in the database for reporting and audit purposes.

What Are BPMN Data Objects and Data Stores in Odoo?

Data Object

A data object represents information required or produced by an activity. It is drawn as a page icon with a folded corner. In Odoo, data objects are the field values on a record that activities read and write. When a salesperson fills in the quotation lines (data object), the "Confirm" activity consumes that data to create stock moves. Data objects can also be attachments—a signed PDF quotation returned by the customer is a data object consumed by the "Register Sale" activity.

Data Store

A data store represents persistent storage that outlives any single process instance. In Odoo, the data store is the PostgreSQL database itself. Every model (sale.order, stock.picking, account.move) is a data store that persists records across process instances. External data stores include connected systems like banks (via OFX/CAMT imports), e-commerce platforms (via API sync), and third-party EDI systems.

Advanced BPMN Concepts in Odoo Context

What Is a Compensation Event?

A compensation event undoes a completed activity when an error or cancellation occurs later in the process. In Odoo, compensation is handled through reverse operations: credit notes reverse invoices, return transfers reverse deliveries, and unbuild orders reverse manufacturing orders. Odoo does not delete the original record; it creates a new compensating record that offsets the original—maintaining a full audit trail.

What Is an Error Event?

An error event represents a business exception that interrupts normal flow. In Odoo, error events manifest as ValidationError exceptions raised by Python constraints, UserError messages that block a transition (e.g., "Cannot confirm order: insufficient stock"), and quality alert failures that prevent a manufacturing order from proceeding.

What Is an Escalation Event?

An escalation event signals a condition that requires attention from a higher level without stopping the process. In Odoo, escalation events map to activity escalations (overdue activities that get reassigned to a manager), helpdesk SLA violations that trigger supervisor notifications, and purchase approval escalations where orders above a threshold are routed to a higher authority.

What Is a Signal Event?

A signal event is a broadcast notification that can be caught by multiple listeners simultaneously. Unlike message events (point-to-point), signals are one-to-many. In Odoo, signal events map to the ORM write triggers used by automated actions: when a field value changes on any record matching a domain, all automated actions listening for that signal fire simultaneously. The Odoo bus (bus.bus) also implements broadcast signaling for real-time UI updates.

What Is a Transaction Sub-Process?

A transaction sub-process groups activities that must either all succeed or all be rolled back. In Odoo, this maps to database transactions managed by the ORM. When you confirm a sales order, Odoo creates the delivery, reserves stock, and updates the order state within a single database transaction. If any step fails, the entire operation is rolled back—you never end up with a confirmed order but no delivery.

What Is a Collaboration Diagram?

A collaboration diagram shows interactions between two or more participants (pools). In Odoo, collaboration diagrams describe inter-company workflows, customer portal interactions, vendor EDI exchanges, and third-party integrations. A typical Odoo collaboration diagram might show: Customer (Pool 1) places an order on the website → message flow → Your Company (Pool 2) processes the order → message flow → Dropship Vendor (Pool 3) ships directly to the customer.