Odoo for Cosmetics: Formulation BoMs, Batch Scaling and Work Orders Explained

The chemist's formula says 0.5% preservative. The floor needs to know how many grams go into today's 340 kg batch, in which step, and after which phase is heated. In many plants, that conversion happens on a calculator next to the vessel.

Odoo manufacturing can do that work for you. This guide shows how to turn a cosmetic formulation into an Odoo bill of materials (BoM). It then covers scaling from lab batch to production batch, and running it through Odoo work orders. It also shows where standard Odoo 19 stops and a small customisation helps.

Key Takeaways

• Write each formulation BoM for a 100 kg base batch, so every line in kg equals its percentage.
• Odoo scales the BoM to any batch size. Kilograms and litres do not convert on their own, so set a unit per material for liquids bought by volume.
• Link each ingredient to the operation that consumes it, so the floor follows phase order.
• Record actual quantities when the batch closes. Odoo has no yield percentage field, so yield needs a small custom report.

If you are still deciding whether Odoo fits a process plant at all, start with our guide to Odoo MRP for process manufacturers.

Why a Cosmetic Formulation Is Not a Normal Bill of Materials

A normal bill of materials lists parts: four legs, one top, sixteen screws. A cosmetic formulation is different in five ways.

• It is written in percentages. Chemists think in % w/w. The floor needs kilograms.
• It runs in phases. The water phase and oil phase are weighed and heated apart, then combined. Order matters.
• Materials arrive in different units. Glycerin may be bought by the litre but dosed by the kilogram.
• Losses are normal. Some cream stays in the vessel and some jars are overfilled.
• Bulk is not the product you sell. One batch of bulk cream becomes 50ml jars, 100ml tubes and sachets.

Without an ERP, these gaps are covered by spreadsheets and memory. A wrong formula version, a decimal slip when scaling or a skipped phase can cost a whole batch.

Setting Up an Odoo Bill of Materials for a Cosmetic Formula, Step by Step

Step 1: Create the bulk product

Create the bulk, such as "Cream Base", as its own product with kg as its unit. Keep it separate from the finished SKUs. Bulk is what the vessel makes, and finished goods are what the filling line makes.

Step 2: Write the BoM for a 100 kg base batch

Odoo BoM lines hold quantities, not percentages. Set the BoM quantity to 100 kg. Each line in kg then reads as its percentage of the formula.

Check that the lines add up to the base quantity. Odoo does not check this for you.

Step 3: Add operations for each phase

Enable Work Orders in the Odoo manufacturing module settings to manage production through a sequence of defined operations. Next, configure the required operations in the Bill of Materials (BoM), such as raw material mixing, batch preparation, and quality inspection. Assign each operation to the appropriate work centre to track production activities, monitor progress, and manage operations at each stage of the manufacturing process. For more information on configuring BoM fields and operations, refer to the official Odoo 19 Bill of Materials documentation.

Step 4: Link each ingredient to its operation

On each BoM component line, configure the Consumed in Operation field to specify the production operation in which the material should be consumed. For example, assign the preservative to the cool-down operation rather than consuming it at the beginning of production. This ensures that materials are consumed at the appropriate stage of the manufacturing process, while operators can easily identify the components required for their respective operations.

Step 5: Keep one active formula

When a product formula changes, archive the existing Bill of Materials (BoM) and create a new one to maintain a clear record of the updated formulation. Alternatively, use the Reference field to include a version number or revision note for easy identification. Standard Odoo maintains the current BoM configuration but does not provide a dedicated change history for individual BoM lines. For more structured formula version control, including engineering change orders, revision tracking, and approval workflows, you can use the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) app available in Odoo Enterprise.

Scaling a 10 kg Lab Batch to a 500 kg Production Batch

The scaling ratio

When you create a manufacturing order, Odoo divides the order quantity by the BoM quantity and scales every line. A 10 kg lab batch on a 100 kg BoM uses one tenth of each line. A 500 kg batch uses five times each line.

Units of measure and density

A no-code workaround is to create a custom unit of measure for the specific material. For example, create a unit named "L Glycerin" and configure its conversion relative to kilograms using glycerin's approximate density of 1.26 kg/L. You can then purchase glycerin in litres and consume it in kilograms during manufacturing. Odoo will apply the configured conversion factor to calculate the equivalent quantity, simplifying material purchasing and consumption without requiring custom development.

Rounding

In Odoo 19, unit-of-measure rounding precision is controlled by the Product Unit decimal accuracy setting. If the precision is too coarse, small ingredient quantities may be rounded incorrectly, potentially affecting the accuracy of a manufacturing batch. For example, a preservative requirement of 0.05 kg could be rounded up to 0.10 kg, effectively doubling the intended dose.

To avoid this issue, configure sufficient decimal precision to support the smallest ingredient quantities used in production. Alternatively, measure minor ingredients, such as fragrances and preservatives, in grams rather than kilograms. This approach improves measurement accuracy, reduces rounding errors, and helps maintain consistent product formulations across manufacturing batches.

Phase order

In Odoo 19, manufacturing operations are listed in sequence, but by default, work orders can start independently without waiting for previous operations to finish. When a production process requires specific steps to be completed before others can begin, enable Operation Dependencies in the Bill of Materials (BoM). Then, define the dependencies between operations to ensure the correct production sequence. For example, if two ingredients must be heated separately, configure the combining operation to start only after both heating operations are completed. This helps enforce the intended manufacturing workflow, prevents premature processing, and ensures that each operation begins only when its prerequisites are satisfied.

Odoo Work Orders and Work Centres for Mixing, Heating, Filling and Packing

In Odoo 19, a Work Centre represents a specific production location, machine, or workstation, such as a mixing vessel, filling line, or packing table. Each work centre can be configured with an hourly operating cost, setup time, and cleanup time. You can also define production capacity based on the product, such as the maximum number of kilograms a mixing vessel can handle per batch. For a detailed explanation of the available settings, refer to the official Odoo 19 Work Centres documentation.

When a Manufacturing Order (MO) is confirmed, Odoo generates a work order for each operation defined in the Bill of Materials (BoM). Operators can start, pause, and complete individual work orders while Odoo tracks the actual time spent on each operation. By comparing actual production time with planned durations, you can gradually build a more accurate understanding of manufacturing performance, for example, how long it takes to complete a 500 kg batch. This information helps improve production planning, capacity utilization, operational efficiency, and manufacturing cost estimation.

Odoo Community runs work orders from the manufacturing order. The Shop Floor tablet view, Gantt planning and step-by-step quality checks are Odoo Enterprise.

For planning and replenishment, see our guide to Odoo MRP for process manufacturers.

Capturing Actual Quantities, Losses and Yield

No manufacturing batch follows the plan exactly. Actual material consumption, production losses, and output quantities can vary from the original estimates. In Odoo 19, you can track these variations in three ways:

• Actual consumption. When a manufacturing batch is completed, operators can record the actual quantities of materials consumed. In the Bill of Materials (BoM), configure the Consumption policy to allow deviations, allow them with a warning, or block them. The warning option alerts operators to consumption differences that must be reviewed before proceeding with completion.
• Scrap. When material is lost during a manufacturing operation, such as a spilled mixture or damaged ingredient, record it as scrap against the relevant work order. This helps maintain inventory accuracy, track production losses, and account for the associated costs.
• By-products. If a manufacturing process generates additional outputs alongside the main product, configure them as by-products in the BoM. You can assign a cost share to each by-product to distribute manufacturing costs appropriately across the resulting outputs.

Odoo records actual consumption, scrap, and production quantities, but it does not automatically calculate a dedicated yield percentage or provide a yield trend report by default. For example, if a planned 500 kg batch produces 488 kg of finished product, both quantities can be recorded, but the yield percentage of 97.6% is not automatically presented as a standard manufacturing KPI. A small custom report or dashboard can calculate yield percentages, compare planned versus actual output, and track yield trends across batches, products, and production periods.

For batch records, QC release and audit prints, see our guide to batch manufacturing records in Odoo.

Packaging BoMs: From Bulk to Finished SKU

In Odoo 19, cosmetic manufacturing can be managed using a two-stage Bill of Materials (BoM) structure. The first BoM defines the bulk manufacturing process for producing the cream base, while a separate BoM for each finished product SKU defines how the bulk cream is converted into a packaged, sale-ready product.

For example, a 50 ml face cream may require approximately 0.05 kg of cream base, along with a jar, cap, front label, carton, and a proportional share of a shipping carton. Each packaging component can be assigned to its respective operation in the BoM, such as consuming the jar during filling, the cap during capping, and the label during labelling. This provides better control over packaging material consumption at each stage of production.

A single bulk cream batch can supply multiple finished product sizes. You can create separate BoMs for a 50 ml jar, 100 ml tube, and 5 ml sachet, with each BoM consuming the same bulk cream product. If these sizes are configured as product variants, BoM components and operations can be restricted to the applicable variants where required.

For promotional bundles and gift sets, you can use a Kit BoM to group existing finished products for sale without creating a separate manufacturing order to assemble the kit. This approach simplifies product packaging management, supports multiple pack sizes, and improves visibility into bulk material consumption and finished-goods production.

Organise packaging with product categories, such as primary packaging, secondary packaging and sachets. Purchasing can then filter and reorder packaging separately from raw materials.

What Needs a Customisation

Standard Odoo 19 covers most of this. Four needs come up often in cosmetics plants.

These are small builds. They matter because they are what the chemist and production head use every day.

How 7Span Implements This

We begin with three of your actual product formulas, batch sizes, and packaging configurations to establish a practical manufacturing workflow in Odoo 19. Based on these requirements, we configure the bulk and packaging Bills of Materials (BoMs), define the appropriate units of measure for each material, and set up work centres to reflect your production processes.

Before go-live, we execute a complete manufacturing batch using a real-world scenario to validate material consumption, production operations, packaging, and finished product quantities. This helps identify gaps and ensures the workflow meets your operational requirements.

Where standard Odoo functionality does not fully meet your needs, such as percentage-based formula entry or a dedicated production yield report, we introduce small, targeted customizations rather than unnecessary development. As your Odoo implementation partner, we also provide post-go-live support and help refine and extend the solution as your product range, production volumes, and business requirements evolve.

For the full checklist on choosing a system, read our guide to cosmetics manufacturing software. To see how we set up Odoo for a cosmetics brand's distribution chain, read the Ruelia Professional case study.