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On version 6.1 one partner could have several addresses (invoicing, delivery). Is this feature still possible in version ? It does not seems possible so it looks like a big regression.

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In terms of features related to partners, nothing has been lost between v6.1 and v7. Not only the new model in version 7 allows to manage more business situations (B2C) but everything you could do with res.partner and res.partner.address in version 6.1 is still possible in version 7 with the unified table:

  • You can still have several addresses per companies
  • You still have the "address type" field on the address/contact (invoice, shipping, ...)
  • You can still have several contacts per company or address
  • You still have a tree hyerarchy between partners (subsidiaries)
  • You still have the exact same information on the Sale Order (ordering contact, delivery address, invoice address)
  • You still have the exact same information on the PO
  • You still have the exact same information on the invoice but with one field less [1]

You may have missed it because these features are not visible by default. To activate this feature, you have to activate the multi-address option:

  • Go to Settings / Configuration / Sales
  • Check the option: "Allow a different address for delivery and invoicing".

This will add more fields on documents (e.g. invoice and delivery address on sale oder) and some fields on a contact/address of a company (e.g. the address type)


The only regression introduced in version 7 is about the base_contact module that has been deprecated for different reasons:

  • this module did not worked correctly with the others modules of OpenERP which made it unuseable in a lot of apps
  • 80% of the companies who installed base_contact did not needed it. They installed it because they installed a module that depended on it (like event) or because they needed to manage contacts (people).
  • Only 20% of the companies who installed base_contact needed it's main feature: being able to manage one person that work for several companies.

For companies that used base_contact in production (including ourself), we noticed that even when we had the same people working for different companies, the users created several contacts mainly because they did not understood how to use base_contact efficiently. --> it was way to complex to work in the real life, with lambda users.

As usual, as part of our OpenERP Enterprise service, when there is a big regression, we try to find an alternative. So, for our customers that migrate from a v6.1 using base_contact to v7, we developed a base_contact adapted to v7. (with the same pros and cons that the one in v6.1)


In terms of business flows, it works more or less like in version 6.1:

  • I do a quotation for a contact, working for a company (B2B) or not (B2C)

    • OpenERP proposes an invoice address (another contact on this company)
    • OpenERP proposes a delivery address (another contact on this company)
  • The invoice is labelled at the name of the invoicing contact that could be the company itself or a specific contact working for this company, some example:

    • Accounting Dept, Company XYZ or
    • John Doe, Company XYZ
  • The journal entries are created at the name of the company, not the contact

We just noticed a bug in the journal items generated automatically from delivery orders that are labelled at the name of the delivery contact, not the related company. This should be fixed soon.


In terms of useability, the model introduced in version 7 is a strong improvement. In all the tests we did, lambda users and customers in production feel much more confortable with the version 7.

But there are a few drawbacks that we have to fix

  • It's not possible to create a company with different address directly from the company it self. The one2many_kanban only allows to create contacts having the same address than the company. So, you have to create several record to create one company with several address. We already started the task to improve this in version 8.
  • The search view is not simple for companies having a lot of addresses or contacts. If you search the name of a company, it shows you all companies matching your query as well as all contacts related to this company which gives too many records. We will change so that if you search for a company, it returns only this company and not all it's contacts (but there is an option in the search to get all contacts)

[1] In v6.1 you had res.partner and res.partner.address, in v7 you just have the equivalent of res.partner.address which is not a reduction of information as the res.partner was directly related to the res.partner.adress, so we removed something redundant which is good technically and in terms of useability)

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Think there is a regression with invoice in one field. If you want to have all invoice by partners, company invoice are separated between all contact assign on invoice.

So you can have 2 invoices for company A and 3 invoices for Mr X of company A ... Think it should be 5 invoices for company A in most of case.

One drawback is, contact (address type invoice) have not the same account payable and account receivable in accounting tab than parent partner by default.

So V7 improvement for partner are good but think missed some cleaner functionals tests for day to day use out of the box

I think that you miss a point in your response: you only speak about contacts / addresses on companies, but how-do-i-attach-different-addresses-on-a-individual-customer/ (still no response)?

Basic use case: Mr X usually uses his home address for invoicing but prefer to be delivered at his work address (or relay point, ...).

Mr X is not a company. How do I link the different addresses to Mr X?

Would be pleased to have your advices on that question. Thanks

It also have a problem with the new way. A customer has a visiting address. No problem, I add that to the customer and I check the option "Is a company". Now I need a postal address, or whatever address. I now need to enter a "Name". But there is no name, it is just an address. Also the newly created contact is directly also a customer. But it is just an address and no customer.

So, why is suddenly the "Name" a mandatory field and why is a contact, created under a company directly a customer?

I can't see the "Settings / Configuration / Sales: Allow a different address for delivery and invoicing" option. What module makes that available?

you should be able to add multiple addresses for one contact or company without the duplication. i fully agree.

@omar bajunaid: I'm not sure .. Mr X from MYcompany and MrX from SecondCompany are functionnaly no the same (see it as business card .. he have 2 business cards I think, so 2 res.partner occurence ..). It'is a complexe problem .. Think choice made by openERP is good but need some more clean setup (in filters, default document, group by filter etc ..)

I think it's different from addresse book in email software, because adresse book manage person, but you can only add one company to this person ...

I'm not bothered by this duplication neither, but I'm much more concerned by the way to link many addresses to an individual customer rather than a company for B2C.

In v6.1 there was a 1 to n relationship between partner and address. So 1 partner can have several addresses. This was insufficient, because in reality 1 address can have several partners (for instance the reception of a building where several companies have an office) In v7 partner and address have been put in 1 table. This is even worse, because now you have to create a new entry in table partner for every address... The correct solution is an n to n relationship. And such a relationship requires a third table connecting both the partner and address tables...

The same goes for partner and contact. One partner can have several contacts. But one contact can have several partners (1 person working for several companies)... So I think the v7 needs some serious rework !!

@Fabien: The journal entries are created at the name of the company, not the contact

  • Ok for this but you have to change all view that search for invoice to look on journal_id instead of partner_id. Ex: i want all invoices of Company XXX, you should search on journal_id and not on partner_id to have the correct grouped info.

I'm wrong ? I think this is the correct option in V7 to manage partner, but lots of screens, tree views and filter are not updated accourding to this change.

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After a gool deal of searching Q&A, this post seems to be the right place to have an answer.

Let's say you have a "big customer" (nike, amazon...but let's call it OpenErp) but different companies because you don't want the many contacts from OpenErp France or Spain to be messing around with the many contacts from OpenErp England or Italy. And you also want to be able to do sales stats and reports on each company/country separately.

Furthermore, let's say Invoicing for all companies is handled by OpenErp Germany.

If you create a "fictitious" contact for dealing with the invoice address, as it can only be attached to one company, you have to create as many contacts for all invoicing address ?!?!

Am I missing something ? How do you do handle this quite common B2B situation ?

Beacuse I'm a little confused here while reading possibilities ("tree hyerarchy between partners / subsidiaries") and drawbacks ("you have to create several record to create one company with several address").

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Looks to me like a case of violoation of Enstein's principle : Make it as simple as possible, but not more...

I think OpenERP got carried away in the effort of making the system foolproof and now it's lost some of its more powerful functionnality.

Maybe V8 will bring things back together.

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Also, it's not possible to setup a parent/child relation on partners. If you check 'is a company', the parent company field disappears.

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