Opening Problem Statement
Meet Alex Mason, the sales operations manager at Innovative Solutions Inc. Every week, Alex spends hours manually compiling sales opportunity data from their Odoo ERP sales module to update his team. Sorting through complex sales status, customer details, and expected revenues is time-consuming and prone to errors. Important insights, like which deals are won or pending, get buried in endless tables and reports.
Alex’s frustration is real: wasting up to 5 hours each week updating sales pipelines and communicating actionable summaries to his team. Money and opportunities slip away because decision-makers don’t have easy access to concise, accurate sales insights. Imagine if this entire process could be automated, and Alex could instead focus on closing deals, not gathering data.
What This Automation Does
This unique n8n workflow leverages the power of AI and Odoo ERP integrations to automate sales data summarization and interactive querying via a chatbot interface. Specifically, when activated, this workflow:
- Automatically triggers on a schedule to fetch all sales opportunities from Odoo’s sales module.
- Consolidates and merges all opportunity data including won status, descriptions, contacts, and expected revenues.
- Uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo model to generate a concise, human-friendly summary of all current sales opportunities.
- Saves this sales summary as a file for persistent storage and quick retrieval.
- Enables an AI-powered chatbot interface where users can ask real-time questions about sales opportunities and get insightful, context-aware responses.
- Maintains conversational memory with Window Buffer Memory to keep interactions contextually relevant across sessions.
By automating these tasks, Alex saves roughly 5 hours weekly and drastically reduces human errors in sales reporting, empowering faster sales decisions.
Prerequisites ⚙️
- Odoo ERP account and API credentials to access sales opportunity data.
- OpenAI account with API key for GPT-4 Turbo model usage.
- n8n automation platform account (cloud or self-hosted) to run the workflow.
- Basic understanding of node-based workflow configuration in n8n.
- Optional: Self-hosting options to run n8n for extended control and privacy — see Hostinger Guide.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Setup Odoo Credentials
Log in to your n8n dashboard. Navigate to Credentials → New → Odoo API. Enter your Odoo server URL, username, and API key. Save the credentials as “Odoo account” to be used in the workflow.
You should see your credentials listed under Odoo when configuring nodes that require it.
Common mistake: Using incorrect API endpoint or outdated keys will cause connection failures.
Step 2: Setup OpenAI Credentials
Similarly, go to Credentials → New → OpenAI API. Enter your API key from the OpenAI dashboard. Label it e.g. “OpenAi account.” Save it.
This credential will power language models in the workflow nodes.
Common mistake: Copying expired or wrong keys; verify key validity on OpenAI.
Step 3: Understand the Schedule Trigger Node
The workflow uses the Schedule Trigger node to automatically start the flow based on a timer. By default, it triggers every hour—but you can customize the interval.
Go to the node and click Edit → Rule → Interval. Set your desired frequency (e.g., every day at 9 AM).
This ensures sales data stays fresh without manual intervention.
Step 4: Fetch Sales Opportunities with Odoo Node
The Get All Opportunities from Odoo node connects to your Odoo account and retrieves all sales opportunities. It is configured to fetch the fields: won status, description, email, contact name, and expected revenue.
Simply ensure it uses your Odoo credentials. After the Schedule Trigger fires, you can check the output to see all opportunity data.
Common mistake: Not returning all data due to pagination limits; ensure “Return All” is enabled.
Step 5: Merge Opportunities Data
The Merge Opportunities node aggregates multiple opportunities into a single data object for summarization.
You don’t need to modify its default settings for this workflow.
Step 6: Generate Summary with Langchain OpenAI Summarization Model
Configure the OpenAI Summarization Model node to use “gpt-4-turbo” model. It processes the merged data and prepares it for the Summarize Opportunities chain.
The chain uses a custom prompt to ask for a concise summary highlighting won status and expected revenue for each opportunity.
Tip: You can tailor prompts in the Summarize Opportunities node’s parameters for custom outputs.
Step 7: Convert Summary to Text File
Next, the Convert to File node turns the AI-generated summary into a text file format.
This prepares it for storage and reuse in subsequent chatbot queries.
Step 8: Save Summary to Local File
The Save Summary to File node writes the summary text into “cache.txt” on your server or cloud environment.
This file acts as a persistent cache so the chatbot can quickly access recent sales insights.
Step 9: Setup Chatbot Trigger Node
The workflow includes a Chat Trigger node, which listens for incoming chat inputs from users. Make sure to toggle “Make Chat Publicly Available” in its settings if you want external access.
Once a user submits a question, this node activates the conversational AI sequence.
Step 10: Read Existing Summary Before Responding
The Read Summary From File node reads the “cache.txt” summary file when chatbot interactions start.
If the file exists, the If Summary Exists node branches the flow to extract text for conversation context.
Important: If the summary does not exist, the flow fetches fresh data from Odoo to regenerate it.
Step 11: Conversational AI Agent Setup
The AI Conversational Agent node uses Langchain’s conversational agent to answer user questions based on the cached summary and live sales data.
It integrates with the OpenAI Chat Model (GPT) and keeps dialogue context with Window Buffer Memory.
Tip: Customize prompts or add more tools to enrich the assistant’s capabilities.
Step 12: Calculator Tool Integration
The Calculator node allows the AI agent to perform basic calculations when needed during conversations (e.g., revenue summations).
This boosts accuracy and interactivity of the chatbot.
Customizations ✏️
- Change Summary Frequency: In the Schedule Trigger node, adjust the interval to run more or less frequently, depending on your sales update needs.
- Add More Fields: Modify the Odoo node’s fieldsList parameter to include more opportunity details like probability, stages, or customer segments for richer summaries.
- Customize AI Prompts: In the Summarize Opportunities and AI Conversational Agent nodes, tweak the prompt templates to include company-specific language or prioritization logic.
- Use External Storage: Swap the Read/Write File nodes to connect to cloud storage solutions if you want the summary file in services like AWS S3 or Google Drive.
- Enable Authentication: Secure the Chat Trigger’s public endpoint by integrating it with webhook authentication or API key validation supported by n8n.
Troubleshooting 🔧
Problem: “Could not connect to Odoo API”
Cause: Incorrect API credentials or URL configuration.
Solution: Go to Credentials → Odoo API and verify server URL, username, and API key. Test connection in credentials settings.
Problem: “OpenAI API Key Invalid”
Cause: Expired or wrong OpenAI API key.
Solution: Update OpenAI credentials with a valid API key obtained from your OpenAI dashboard.
Problem: “Summary file cache.txt not found”
Cause: Summary file was deleted or not created.
Solution: Run the Schedule Trigger manually to fetch and create the summary file or check file permissions in your n8n environment.
Pre-Production Checklist ✅
- Verify Odoo credentials and API connectivity.
- Confirm OpenAI API key validity in credentials.
- Run Schedule Trigger node manually and check if “cache.txt” is created with summary content.
- Simulate chat input via Chat Trigger node to confirm AI conversational responses.
- Backup your existing summary file before deploying updates.
Deployment Guide
Activate your workflow by toggling it to “Active” in n8n. Monitor executions and outputs in the workflow execution log.
Periodically check file storage for “cache.txt” and ensure your Odoo data syncs correctly on schedule.
For team usage, share the Chat Trigger webhook URL securely to authorized users.
FAQs
Can I use another AI provider instead of OpenAI?
Currently, this workflow is configured to use OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo, but with modifications and available nodes, you could adapt it to other AI services that n8n supports.
Does this workflow consume OpenAI API credits?
Yes, each AI call to GPT-4 Turbo counts towards your OpenAI API usage, so monitor your subscription limits.
Is the sales data in the chatbot secure?
You control access through n8n and Odoo API credentials. For public chat triggers, consider adding authentication to protect sensitive sales info.
Can it handle large volumes of sales opportunities?
Yes, designed to fetch all opportunities with pagination and summarize them efficiently. For very large datasets, ensure your OpenAI plan supports sufficient token limits.
Conclusion
By following this guide, you’ve set up a powerful n8n workflow that automates Odoo sales data fetching, summary generation, and interactive AI chatbot querying. Alex can now save hours every week, reduce reporting errors, and empower his sales team with instant, actionable insights.
Next steps could include extending chatbot capabilities to handle other ERP modules like inventory or finance, integrating notifications to Slack or email for new opportunity alerts, or adding custom analytics dashboards.
Feel encouraged to explore and customize the workflow further to perfectly fit your organization’s sales processes.