Part 7 · Platform, hosting and artificial intelligence

Settings and brand identity

Symbifox general settings, users and access rights, companies, languages, brand identity, and how to install applications.

Symbifox 18.0 (September 2026 catalogue) · Modules: Onboarding Foundation, Branding, Operations Pack, Productivity Pack · Base applications: Base, Initial Setup Tools · Revised 2026-09-12

The Settings application is the Symbifox administrator's control centre. You set the options of each installed application there, create your colleagues' accounts and decide what each person sees. It is also where the organization sets its visual identity: logo, colours, font and email footer. The Apps application installs the applications and modules that are not there yet.

Overview#

Symbifox is built on Odoo 18 Community, and the Settings application is Odoo's, extended by Symbifox modules. It opens on the General Settings page, a long page of settings divided into sections. The left column lists one entry per installed application (Atelier éditorial, CRM, Calendar, Gen, Rendez-vous, Invoicing, Project and so on), and each entry scrolls the page to that application's settings. Symbifox modules add their own sections, including Recherche universelle (universal search) and Identité de marque (brand identity).

Here is the General Settings page on the Boréal demo, with its first sections.

Four concepts structure this application.

• User: a person who signs in. An internal user works in the applications; a portal user sees only their own documents (see Helpdesk (tickets) and Secure transfers).
• Group: a set of rights. Each application defines its groups (user, administrator, and so on), and a user's form sums up their groups as one list of choices per application.
• Company: the legal entity whose name, address and logo appear on documents. Symbifox ties the brand identity to the company: a database with several companies carries several identities.
• Language: the language of the interface and of documents. The Boréal demo runs in Canadian French.

The Technical submenu appears only in developer mode. It gives access to Odoo's inner workings (scheduled actions, sequences, system parameters). A non-technical administrator has no day-to-day reason to go there; this chapter sums it up in one section in The menus, one by one.

Configuration#

Access and permissions#

A user's form offers two levels of administration, in the Administration choice of the Access Rights tab.

On the demo, the Administrateur Symbifox account holds the Settings level. Keep this level for one or two people: it lets them change everyone's rights, including their own.

Settings#

All settings are made in Settings › General Settings. Every change requires Save at the top of the page; Discard abandons unsaved changes. The Symbifox sections on this page are the following.

• Recherche universelle: checking Ctrl+K ouvre la recherche universelle (Ctrl+K opens universal search) turns the command palette into a search across all applications. Each person can choose otherwise in their preferences.
• Identité de marque: logo, favicon, colours, font and email styling (see Set up the brand identity).
• One section per installed Symbifox application, described in that application's chapter.

Base data#

Before opening Symbifox to the team, the administrator completes three things: the company record (name, address, tax numbers, logo), the working language, and the user accounts with their rights. The Getting started section follows this order.

Getting started#

This walkthrough prepares the Boréal demo for a new colleague, Anouk Lemieux, and sets the firm's visual identity.

1. Go to Settings › General Settings.
2. In the Companies section, select Manage Companies, then open Boréal Services-conseils inc..
3. In the General Information tab, review the address, the Phone, the Website and the Currency, then upload the logo by selecting the image at the top right of the form.
4. Return to General Settings and scroll down to the Identité de marque section.
5. Enter the firm's accent colour in Couleur primaire (marque) (primary brand colour) and upload a square 512-pixel Favicon.
6. In the Users section, enter “a.lemieux@boreal.example” in Invite New Users and select Invite.
7. Select Save.

The page reloads with the firm's colour in the top bar, and Anouk appears in Pending Invitations until her first sign-in.

Common tasks#

Invite a user#

The invitation creates the account and sends a welcome email with a link to choose a password.

1. Go to Settings › General Settings.
2. In the Users section, enter the person's email address in Invite New Users.
3. Select Invite.
4. Select Save.

The user name appears in Pending Invitations. The Active Users counter shows how many accounts take up a place on the instance (see Seats).

Set a user's access rights#

Rights are set application by application, on the user's form.

1. Go to Settings › Users & Companies › Users.
2. Open the user.
3. In the Access Rights tab, choose a level for each application (for example Administrator under Timesheets).
4. If the person must administer accounts, choose a level in Administration.
5. Select Save.

The choices are grouped by family: Sales, Accounting, Website, Human Resources, Services, Inventory, Marketing, Productivity. An empty level means no access to the application. The demo administrator's form illustrates this grid.

Reset a user's password#

When someone has lost their password, the administrator sends them a reset link rather than a password in plain text.

1. Go to Settings › Users & Companies › Users.
2. Open the user.
3. Select Send Password Reset Instructions.

An email goes to the address on the form. The status indicator changes from Never Connected to Confirmed at the first successful sign-in.

Deactivate a user#

An account is deactivated, not deleted: the history of documents stays linked to the person.

1. Go to Settings › Users & Companies › Users.
2. Check the user in the list.
3. Select Actions › Archive.
4. Confirm.

The user disappears from the list and can no longer sign in. The Archived search filter finds them again, and Actions › Unarchive reactivates them.

Edit the company record#

The company record feeds document headers, email footers and the contact details shown on the portal.

1. Go to Settings › Users & Companies › Companies.
2. Open the company.
3. In the General Information tab, correct the address, the Phone, the Email, the Website or the tax numbers.
4. To change the logo, select the image at the top right and upload the new file.
5. Select Save.

The chatter, the message thread at the bottom of the form, keeps a record of every change. On the demo, for instance, it shows the change from “My Company” to “Boréal Services-conseils inc.”.

Set up the brand identity#

The Identité de marque section dresses the interface, the public pages, the PDF reports and the emails in the organization's colours. It requires the brand identity module (see Modules that extend this application).

1. Go to Settings › General Settings.
2. Select Identité de marque in the left column.
3. Under Couleurs de marque (interface et courriels) (brand colours, interface and emails), enter Couleur primaire (marque) and Couleur foncée (marque) (dark brand colour).
4. Under Logo sur fond foncé (logo on a dark background), upload a light version of the logo for the dark banners of emails and public pages.
5. Under Identité visuelle (visual identity) and Typographie (typography), review the logo, the Favicon and the font.
6. Under Courriels brandés (branded emails), enter if needed Tagline de marque (courriels) (brand tagline for emails), Signature par défaut (courriels) (default email signature) and the links to the privacy policy and the terms.
7. Select Save.

The top bar, the buttons and the links take on the primary colour when the page reloads, and the next outgoing email carries the new styling. The Couleurs des rapports PDF (PDF report colours) section uses Odoo's native colours for the layout of documents: they are separate from the interface colours.

Add a language#

A language is turned on once for the whole database; each user then chooses their own in their preferences.

1. Go to Settings › General Settings.
2. In the Languages section, select Add Languages.
3. Choose the language and confirm.

The language appears in Settings › Translations › Languages with the Active toggle. On a language form, Activate and Translate reloads the translations of the installed modules.

Turn on an external sign-in provider#

An OAuth provider lets a person sign in with an external account (an Odoo.com account, for example) instead of a password specific to Symbifox.

1. Go to Settings › Users & Companies › OAuth Providers.
2. Open the provider.
3. Check Allowed.
4. Review the Client ID supplied by the external service and the Login button label.
5. Select Save.

A button carrying this label appears on the sign-in page. The demo has three preconfigured providers.

Install an application#

The Apps application lists the applications and modules available on the server, installed or not.

1. Go to Apps › Apps › Main Apps.
2. In the search, remove the Apps filter to also see the modules that extend an existing application.
3. Enter the name you are looking for.
4. On the module's card, select Activate.

Installation takes from a few seconds to a few minutes, and the page reloads with the new application in the main menu. A module missing from the list has just been placed on the server: select Apps › Update Apps List, then search again.

Turn on developer mode#

Developer mode reveals the Technical submenu and information about each field. It changes nothing in how Symbifox works.

1. Go to Settings › General Settings.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
3. Select Activate the developer mode.

The Technical submenu appears in the menu bar of the Settings application. To go back, select Deactivate the developer mode in the same place.

The menus, one by one#

Without developer mode, the menu bar of the Settings application shows General Settings, Users & Companies and Postes SIP provisionnés (provisioned SIP extensions). The other submenus appear in developer mode.

General#

• Settings › General Settings: the settings page described in Overview, with one section per installed application. It is the only screen to visit for most settings.

Users and companies#

• Settings › Users & Companies › Users: the list of accounts (28 on the demo), with the list view by default and a kanban view. The Internal Users and Portal Users filters separate the two populations. New creates an account without going through an invitation.
• Settings › Users & Companies › Groups: the 142 access groups defined by the installed applications. A group form, for example User types / Internal User, lists its members in the Users tab with the latest authentication date and the account status. The Inherited, Menus, Views, Access Rights and Record Rules tabs describe what the group opens.

• Settings › Users & Companies › Companies: the company or companies of the database (only one on the demo). The form carries the contact details, the logo, the Canadian tax numbers (GST/HST number, PST Number), the Currency and a Reçus de dons (bienfaisance) (donation receipts, charities) section brought by the Donations and fundraising application.
• Settings › Users & Companies › OAuth Providers: the external sign-in services (three on the demo), described in Turn on an external sign-in provider.

Translations#

• Settings › Translations › Languages: the 92 languages known to the system, active or not. The Active filter shows those offered to users.
• Settings › Translations › Import / Export › Import Translation: loads a translation file for one language. Meant for organizations that maintain their own translations.
• Settings › Translations › Import / Export › Export Translation: produces the file of terms of one or more modules, to translate them outside Symbifox.
• Settings › Translations › Application Terms: a grouping menu with no screen of its own.

Gamification tools#

These menus belong to the Fox Quest (gamification) application, which documents them. They sit under Settings because they configure the game rather than take part in it.

• Settings › Gamification Tools › Challenges: the current challenges (nine on the demo), in kanban view.

• Settings › Gamification Tools › Goals: the individual goals generated by the challenges (none on the demo).
• Settings › Gamification Tools › Goal Definitions: the 19 measures a challenge can be based on.
• Settings › Gamification Tools › Badges: the nine badges that can be awarded.
• Settings › Gamification Tools › Ranks: the five ranks reached according to karma.
• Settings › Gamification Tools › Karma Tracking: the log of karma changes.

Other entries#

• Settings › Custom Shortcuts: a grouping menu with no screen of its own.
• Settings › Postes SIP provisionnés: the list of provisioned phone extensions (four on the demo). This menu belongs to the SMS, calls and SIP phone chapter.

Technical#

The Technical submenu, visible in developer mode, exposes the inner workings of Odoo and of the modules.

• Discuss: messages, notifications, followers, address blacklist.
• Activities: overview, activity types and activity plans.
• Email: outgoing emails, incoming and outgoing mail servers, templates, aliases, channels, digests, and the Importer .eml dialog, which imports .eml files and is described in Email.
• Phone / SMS, Email Marketing, Actions and IAP.
• Database Structure, Automation (automation rules and scheduled actions) and User Interface (menu items, views, filters, guided tours).
• Reporting (paper formats and reports), Sequences & Identifiers and Parameters (system parameters).
• Security (rules, access rights, devices), Privacy, Calendar and Resource (working schedules).
• Plages horaires (time slots), LLM Providers (the artificial intelligence providers, described in Gen, the assistant), Digest quotidien (daily digest) and the two Nextcloud synchronizations, for calendars and for contacts (see Nextcloud and Collabora).

A non-technical administrator goes there on instruction, for one precise setting, and leaves again.

Apps#

• Apps › Apps › Main Apps: the catalogue of the 857 modules known to the server, as cards. The Apps filter is on by default; remove it to see the modules that extend an application.
• Apps › Apps › Theme Store and Third-Party Apps: two links to the Odoo website. Symbifox modules are not found there.
• Apps › Update Apps List: rereads the modules present on the server so that a recently added module appears.
• Apps › Apply Scheduled Upgrades: runs the module updates marked for installation. On a hosted instance, this operation is the host's responsibility.
• Apps › Import Module: uploads a module as an archive. Only for modules without server code.

Reference#

Fields of the User form#

Fields of the Company form#

Fields of the Identité de marque form#

Fields of the Language form#

Reports and exports#

The application produces no report. Two exports exist: Export Translation (under Translations) and the export of any list with Actions › Export, described in Common actions in every application.

Automations#

• When a page reloads, the interface takes on the colours of the active company. Changing company in the switcher at the top changes the styling on the next page.
• Quotations, invoices and contracts sent from the composer go out in the branded layout; internal notifications keep the standard layout.
• The email templates for payment follow-ups, contracts, helpdesk, surveys and calendar are rewritten in the company's colours when the brand identity module is installed, in each active language.
• Any trace of Odoo's historical purple in an outgoing email is replaced by the company's primary colour.
• The favicon feeds the browser tab, the iOS icon and the icon of the installed application. An application already installed on a phone picks up the new icon within the day.
• Each Symbifox module that offers an onboarding path shows it as a panel of steps at the top of its main screen; the administrator closes the panel when the steps are done.

Public pages and portal#

Each company's logo is served at a public address (/brand/logo/…) so that emails and pages without sign-in can display it, including for a secondary company of a multi-company database. No other public page belongs to this application.

Modules that extend this application#

This is the only module in this chapter that no pack installs.

It installs automatically with the first module that depends on it.

Uninstalling it does not remove the modules it installed.

Understanding#

Why the brand lives on the company. Symbifox reads the colours, the logo and the font each time it displays a page or sends an email, from the active company or from the document's company. A database with two companies therefore renders each in its own identity, with no recompilation and no technical work. That is also why a change in Identité de marque only shows on the next page reload.

Why the logo goes through a public address. Emails and pages without sign-in are read by people who have no account. Odoo serves an anonymous reader only the logo of its website's company, so a secondary company's logo disappeared from emails while staying correct in PDFs. The public logo address closes this gap, and accepts only a few named variants: nothing else on the company record can be read without an account.

Why two sets of colours. The brand colours dress the screen and the emails; the Couleurs des rapports PDF are Odoo's own, for the layout of printed documents. Both coexist so that a PDF designed with the native colours does not change template when the interface changes accent.

Why the packs. Both packs are modules that do nothing but install a list of modules. They shorten the setup of a new instance. The productivity pack does not include the brand identity because the two modules are not under the same licence: the pack stays installable without accepting the other's terms.

Why developer mode. The Technical submenu lets you change views, security rules and scheduled actions. Hiding it by default prevents a change made in error. To add a field or a filter without going there, the Forge (no-code customization) application offers a guided path.

Troubleshooting#

See also#

• Signing in and finding your way
• Common actions in every application
• Seats
• Gen, the assistant
• Forge (no-code customization)
• Email
• Mobile apps and browser extension
• Fox Quest (gamification)