Product blocking flag, all the way to the delivery slip
The blocking warning on products was removed in version 19. We rebuilt the flag teams used every day, and the client chose to stop at the flag.
The need
The old software had a Blocked flag on products. Teams used it every day to spot the items they should no longer commit to, whether because of a supplier shortage, a quality dispute or an end-of-life product.
It is the kind of detail that never appears in a specification, yet it tips user buy-in on go-live day. Getting it back in Odoo was one of the conditions for accepting the new tool.
Carrying over a daily habit from the old software costs little and prevents users from rejecting the new tool. You still have to spot it during the analysis.
What Odoo does out of the box, and where it stops
The blocking mechanism disappeared in version 19
Product alerts became simple messages at the top of the screen, with no effect on data entry. The requested flag no longer exists at all.
Order lines reject the usual approaches
They are displayed by a special component that accepts neither conditional coloring rules nor a column inserted before the product.
Nothing carries through to the delivery slip
Yet that is the last useful moment to notice that a blocked item is about to ship to a customer.
What we built
A flag on the product form
Controlled by a checkbox, handy for bulk imports, and by a button in the header. Both act on the same data.
A clear alert banner
On the product form and on any order containing a blocked item, with wording that makes clear it is a flag and not a block.
A badge in the Kanban view
To spot the affected products without opening each record, on the screen buyers use most.
A column all the way to the delivery slip
On order lines and on the shipment, after ruling out, one by one, several display approaches the component would not accept.
What it looks like
The result, and the nuance that matters
A truly blocking mechanism was built and tested, refusing to add a blocked item to an order. Then it was turned off. The client decided they want the flag and not the block, because a sale can legitimately go out on a flagged item if the salesperson knows what they are doing.
So the feature deliberately stayed visual, and the labels were rewritten to leave no doubt about it. It is a deliberate decision, documented and reversible. The strict block exists and is on hold.
Changing your business management software?
Your teams' daily habits are not written down anywhere. Finding them is part of the analysis work, and it is often what decides whether people adopt the new tool.
Let's talk about your case