Skip to content

Personal Equipment Requests

Last Updated: March 2026 Target Audience: All Employees, HR

Overview

The Personal Equipment Request module lets employees request work-related personal equipment (uniforms, PPE, tools, etc.) through a formal approval workflow. Employees create a request, list the items they need, and HR reviews and approves or cancels it. Once approved, HR validates and tracks each individual equipment allocation through its full lifecycle -- from issuance to expiration.

The module is provided by the OCA (Odoo Community Association) and lives under Employees > Personal Equipment in the main menu.

How It Works at a Glance

There are two connected records in this system:

  1. Equipment Request -- The container submitted by an employee. It holds one or more equipment line items and goes through a simple Draft / Accepted / Cancelled workflow.
  2. Equipment Allocation -- Each individual line item within a request. Allocations have a more detailed lifecycle: Draft > Accepted > Valid > Expired.

When HR accepts a request, all of its line items move to "Accepted" at the same time. From there, HR validates each allocation individually (marking it as issued) and can later expire it when the item is returned or no longer valid.

Navigate to: Employees > Personal Equipment

Under that menu you will find two sub-items:

Menu Item What It Shows
Personal Equipment Request All equipment requests (defaults to showing Draft and Accepted)
Allocations All individual equipment allocations (defaults to showing Valid items)

Setting Up Products as Personal Equipment

Before anyone can request equipment, the products must be flagged in the system.

  1. Go to Inventory > Products > Products (or wherever products are managed).
  2. Open the product you want to make available for equipment requests.
  3. Check the Is Employee Personal Equipment checkbox (appears near the "Can be Sold" / "Can be Purchased" checkboxes).
  4. Save the product.

Once checked, the product becomes selectable in equipment request line items. A new tab called Employee Personal Equipment also appears on the product form for future extensibility.

Tip

Only products with the "Is Employee Personal Equipment" flag will appear in the product dropdown when creating equipment request lines. If you cannot find a product, go back to the product form and enable this checkbox.

Equipment Request Fields

The request form is the main record an employee fills out.

Field What It Means Example
Employee The employee making the request. Defaults to the current user. HR users can change this to submit on behalf of someone else. John Smith
State Current status of the request: Draft, Accepted, or Cancelled. Draft
Observations Free-text notes visible only to HR users. Use this for internal comments about the request. "Rush -- starts Monday"
Allocations (count) Stat button showing how many line items are on the request. Click to view them. 3
Personal Equipment (lines) The embedded list of equipment items being requested. See table below

Equipment Line Item Fields (within a request)

Each line in the "Personal Equipment" tab represents one item being requested.

Field What It Means Example
Product The equipment item. Only products flagged as personal equipment appear here. Safety Glasses
Quantity How many of this item are needed. Defaults to 1. 2
Unit of Measure Auto-filled from the product. Can be changed to another UoM in the same category. Units
Start Date When the allocation begins. Only visible to HR users. Can be set manually or auto-filled when validated. 03/03/2026
State Current status of this individual allocation. Read-only on the request form. Draft

Equipment Allocation Fields

When you open an allocation record directly (from the Allocations menu or the stat button), you see the full form.

Field What It Means Example
Employee Inherited from the parent request. Read-only. John Smith
Product The equipment item. Steel-Toe Boots
Quantity Number of items allocated. 1
Unit of Measure UoM for the product. Pair
Equipment Request Link back to the parent request record. Personal Equipment Request by John Smith
Start Date Date the allocation becomes active. Auto-set to today when validated (if not already set). 03/03/2026
Expiry Date Date the allocation expired. Only visible once the allocation is in "Expired" state. Auto-set to today if not already set when expired. 09/03/2026
State Full lifecycle status: Draft, Accepted, Valid, or Expired. Valid

Request Workflow

States

State Color in List Meaning
Draft Default (no color) Request has been created but not yet reviewed by HR
Accepted Green HR has approved the request; allocations are ready to be validated
Cancelled Gray (muted) Request was declined or withdrawn

Workflow Diagram

Draft  ──>  Accepted
  │
  └──>  Cancelled

Actions

Action Who Can Do It When Available What Happens
Accept HR users only Request is in Draft Request moves to Accepted; all line items also move to Accepted
Cancel Any user Request is in Draft Request moves to Cancelled; all line items also move to Cancelled

Warning

Cancelling a request cancels all equipment lines on it at once. There is no way to cancel individual lines from the request level -- you would need to manage allocations individually after acceptance.

Allocation Workflow

States

State Color in List Meaning
Draft Default (no color) Part of a request that has not been accepted yet
Accepted Blue Request was accepted; allocation is awaiting validation (physical handoff)
Valid Green Equipment has been issued to the employee and is currently active
Expired Red Equipment has been returned, worn out, or is no longer valid
Cancelled Gray (muted) Allocation was cancelled along with its parent request

Workflow Diagram

Draft  ──>  Accepted  ──>  Valid  ──>  Expired
  │
  └──>  Cancelled (via request cancellation)

Actions

Action Who Can Do It When Available What Happens
Validate HR users only Allocation is in Accepted Moves to Valid; sets Start Date to today if not already set
Expire HR users only Allocation is in Valid Moves to Expired; sets Expiry Date to today if not already set

Note

Allocations cannot be created directly -- they are always created as line items within an Equipment Request. The allocation list view has create="0" enforced.

Common Tasks

Requesting Equipment (Employee)

  1. Go to Employees > Personal Equipment > Personal Equipment Request.
  2. Click New.
  3. The Employee field defaults to your own record. Leave it as-is.
  4. In the Personal Equipment tab, click Add a line.
  5. Select the product from the dropdown, set the quantity, and adjust the unit of measure if needed.
  6. Repeat for additional items.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Your request is now in Draft and waiting for HR review.

Approving a Request (HR)

  1. Go to Employees > Personal Equipment > Personal Equipment Request.
  2. The list defaults to showing Draft and Accepted requests.
  3. Open the request you want to review.
  4. Optionally add notes in the Observations tab.
  5. Click Accept in the header.
  6. Confirm the dialog prompt.
  7. The request and all its line items move to Accepted.

Validating an Allocation (HR)

After a request is accepted, each allocation must be validated individually to confirm the equipment has been physically issued.

  1. Open the accepted request.
  2. Click the Allocations stat button (or go to Employees > Personal Equipment > Allocations).
  3. Open an allocation in Accepted state.
  4. Optionally set a Start Date (if left blank, today's date is used automatically).
  5. Click Validate.
  6. The allocation moves to Valid.

Expiring an Allocation (HR)

When equipment is returned, worn out, or needs to be replaced:

  1. Go to Employees > Personal Equipment > Allocations.
  2. Filter to Valid allocations (this is the default filter).
  3. Open the allocation you want to expire.
  4. Click Expire.
  5. The allocation moves to Expired and the Expiry Date is set to today (if not already set).

Cancelling a Request

  1. Open the request while it is still in Draft.
  2. Click Cancel.
  3. Confirm the dialog prompt.
  4. The request and all its line items move to Cancelled.

Tip

Only Draft requests can be cancelled. Once a request has been accepted, you cannot cancel it from the request level. Instead, manage individual allocations by expiring them.

Employee Profile Integration

The module adds two stat buttons to the Employee form (visible when the employee has relevant records):

Button Label What It Shows
PE Request Count of equipment requests Opens a list of all equipment requests for that employee, grouped by state
PE Count of active personal equipment Opens a list of all personal equipment allocations for that employee (excludes Draft and Cancelled), grouped by state

To view an employee's equipment:

  1. Go to Employees > Employees.
  2. Open the employee record.
  3. Look for the PE Request or PE stat buttons in the button box at the top.
  4. Click either button to see the relevant records.

Searching and Filtering

Request List Filters

Filter What It Shows
In Draft Requests waiting for HR review
Accepted Requests that have been approved

Both filters are enabled by default when you open the request list, so you see all active (non-cancelled) requests.

HR users can also search by Employee name.

Allocation List Filters

Filter What It Shows
In Draft Allocations not yet accepted
Accepted Allocations accepted but not yet validated
Valid Currently active allocations (default filter)
Expired Allocations that have been expired

Allocation Group By Options

Group By Description
State Groups allocations by their current status
Product Groups allocations by equipment item
Employee Groups allocations by the assigned employee

Security & Access

Record-Level Rules

Rule Applies To Effect
Self-access (Requests) All internal users (base.group_user) Employees can only see their own equipment requests
Full access (Requests) HR Officers (hr.group_hr_user) HR users can see all equipment requests from all employees
Self-access (Allocations) All internal users (base.group_user) Employees can only see allocations linked to their own requests
Full access (Allocations) HR Officers (hr.group_hr_user) HR users can see all allocations from all employees
Delete restriction Global (all users) Equipment allocations can only be deleted when in Draft state

Model-Level Permissions

Model Group Read Write Create Delete
Equipment Request HR Officers Yes Yes Yes No
Equipment Request Internal Users Yes Yes Yes No
Equipment Allocation HR Officers Yes Yes Yes Yes
Equipment Allocation Internal Users Yes Yes Yes Yes

Warning

Equipment requests cannot be deleted by anyone (no group has delete permission). If a request was created in error, cancel it instead. Equipment allocations can only be deleted while still in Draft state due to the global record rule.

Button Visibility

Certain actions are restricted in the UI based on user group:

Element Restricted To Notes
Accept button (request) HR Officers Only HR can approve requests
Validate button (allocation) HR Officers Only HR can confirm equipment was issued
Expire button (allocation) HR Officers Only HR can expire allocations
Employee field (request form) HR Officers Regular employees cannot change the employee field
Start Date column (request lines) HR Officers Only HR can set or see the start date on request line items
Observations tab HR Officers Internal notes are hidden from regular employees
Employee column (list views) HR Officers Employee column only appears for HR users (regular users only see their own records anyway)

Chatter & Activity Tracking

Both Equipment Requests and Equipment Allocations inherit from mail.thread and mail.activity.mixin, which means:

  • State changes are tracked -- Every status transition (Draft to Accepted, Valid to Expired, etc.) is logged in the chatter with a timestamp.
  • Followers -- Users can follow a request or allocation to receive notifications about changes.
  • Activities -- HR can schedule follow-up activities (reminders, to-dos) directly on any request or allocation.
  • Messages -- Internal notes and messages can be posted in the chatter for communication about specific requests.

Tips & Best Practices

Keep Products Organized

Create a product category like "Personal Equipment" and assign all equipment products to it. This makes it easier to manage which items are available for requests.

Use Observations for Context

HR users should use the Observations tab to note why a request was approved, any special sizing information, or delivery instructions. This creates a useful audit trail.

Track Expiry Proactively

For equipment with a known lifespan (safety gear certifications, uniform replacements), set the Start Date when validating and use scheduled activities to remind yourself to expire and reissue allocations on a regular cycle.

No Inventory Integration

This module tracks who has what equipment -- it does not manage inventory levels, purchasing, or stock movements. It is a personnel record-keeping tool, not a warehouse management tool.