Configuration
Every setting in Employee Document Expiry, and what each one changes.
Everything below is optional. The module works immediately after installation with the shipped document types.
1. Give people access
Settings → Users & Companies → Users → (a user) → Employee Documents
| Group | Can |
|---|---|
| (none) | Nothing. The menus are hidden and the models are unreadable. |
| User | See and record documents for themselves and their direct reports. Read the list of document types. Cannot delete. |
| Manager | Everything above, plus: every employee in their companies, document types, and deletion. |
Every existing HR Manager is granted Manager when the module is installed. New HR Managers are not — grant the group explicitly.
2. Review the document types
Employees → Documents → Document Types
Each type carries the settings that matter:
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Expires | Untick for documents that never lapse (a degree, a birth certificate). Those are recorded but never chased. |
| First Reminder (days before) | How much notice the responsible person needs to start the renewal. |
| Second Reminder (days before) | A closer nudge. Set to 0 for a single reminder. Must be smaller than the first. |
| Mandatory | Every employee is expected to hold this type. The form then shows a Missing count with a drill-down to the employees who have none. |
| Notify the Employee | Send the reminder to the employee as well as to the responsible person. |
Choosing lead times
Set the first reminder to how long the renewal actually takes in your country, plus a margin. A reminder that arrives after the renewal window has closed is the same as no reminder.
The shipped defaults are a starting point, not advice: passport and visa processing times vary enormously by jurisdiction. Check yours and adjust once — it takes five minutes and it is the single setting that decides whether this module is useful.
3. Settings
Settings → Employee Documents
| Setting | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Send Reminder Emails | On | Off means reminders exist only as Odoo activities. Activities are always created either way. |
| Default First Reminder | 60 days | Prefilled on new document types. Each type still overrides it. |
The same page shows how many types, expiring and expired documents currently exist, so you can see at a glance whether the module has anything to do.
4. The scheduled action
Settings → Technical → Automation → Scheduled Actions → Employee Documents: Check Expiry
Runs once a day. It recomputes every document's status and sends whatever reminders have become due. Running it more often changes nothing — a reminder is sent once and remembered.
If you disable it, statuses still recompute whenever a document is opened or edited, but nobody is told anything. Leave it on.
5. Who gets chased
Each document has a Responsible user. When you pick an employee on a new document, this defaults to that employee's manager, which is usually the right answer. Change it where it is not — for visas, it is often a single person in HR rather than the line manager.
Reminders go to the Responsible user's activity list. If a document has no Responsible, the reminder falls to whoever the cron runs as, which is not useful — set one.