Users vs Partners in Odoo: Who's Who?

🟣 What is a Partner (res.partner)?

In Odoo, a partner is any contact in your system:

• Customer
• Vendor
• Employee
• Or simply a contact person with an email address

It stores information about a person: name, phone, email, company, etc.

A partner is just a reference record.

It has no access to the system until you create a user for it.

📸 [Screenshot #1: Partner (contact) form in Odoo]

🟢 What is a User (res.users)?

A user in Odoo is:

• A person with a login and password
• Linked to a specific partner
• Has access to the system, modules, menus, and documents
• Can create, edit, and view records

Every user is linked to a partner

But not every partner is a user

 📸 Screenshot #2: User form in Odoo: Settings→Users & Companies→Users

❓ What happens if you only create a partner, order, or invoice?

A user is not created automatically.

Even if you:

• Manually create a partner
• Issue them an invoice or order
• Send a link to a document

👉 Your contact won't be able to see these documents until you explicitly grant them portal access or create a user for them.

✅ How to properly create a user from an existing partner?

1. Go to Contacts
2. Find the relevant partner
3. Open their card
4. In the top-right menu, click "Actions" → "Grant portal access"

🔧 This triggers a server action that:

• Creates a new user
• Links it to the selected partner
• Sends an invitation with a login link

📸 [Screenshot #4: "Grant portal access" button in the "Actions" menu on the partner form]

📸 [Screenshot #5: Invitation email received by the user]

Conclusion

• Creating a partner ≠ creating a user
• If you want a contact to be able to see documents → grant access
• Use the "Grant portal access" button so everything happens automatically and correctly