I would like to know how is supposed to be managed an intangible product (for exemple a Digital license for Windows). Which type of product it is? This product is never coming by a shipment, but I’m not sure if it should be managed as a service?
For me it should be an asset.
But as we do not diferenciate between tangible and intangible assets you will be able to add it to stock moves.
Well it depends what is your products. Is it an asset or a goods/services that your are selling?
I do not think it is good to use assets for intangible. For now you can use a service and defer the cost over the validity of the license for example.
But for the rare intangible assets that must be deprecated over a “flexible” period (with the account_asset module). I think it will be good to have a product type like assets but which is not allowed to use on stock move.
This is how we are currently managing it, but as we don’t want to manage moves that in reality doesn’t exist I think that we are going to define it as a service just like Cedric says.
Thanks to both of you.
And what for goods? Can’t them be treated the same way? Perhaps it is better a check intangible for both goods and assets. It would allow managing, for example, sold licenses of a software product.
What is an “intangible goods” if it is not a “service”?
Can I assign a serial number to a service?
I guess you mean the “Stock Lot” but it requires a stock move which is precisely what we want to avoid.
So, if I send a software license to a customer and I want to register which one is (identified by a serial number / lot) the product has to be a good. Right?
Series Numbers / lots are only used to track goods.
I do not think it makes sense to force the usage of goods for software licenses because they are not phisically stored any where. So for your case I will use a new model to register the licenses that have been sold to a customer and using an intangible asset product.
sorry to be late on this, but for your example of windows digital licences, there are indeed regular stock moves.
Granted, it is mostly virtual nowadays, but it is still stock. You receive them via email and you have to somehow store them, or they are credited in your portfolio at your supplier until you actually sell them to your customer, but there are stock moves: somewhere somehow you do have X windows licences available for selling.
Continuing with microsoft products, the situation is different for Office365 licences, which are not perpetual. But you still order them, receive and somehow store them, and then resell them to customers. There are also the monthly subscriptions, which are automatic and can be handled like a service, but it’s still possible (and sometimes useful, to track the quantities) to track them with regular stock moves (you are invoiced for a bunch of seats which you invoice to your clients).
The same can be said for most commodity software: resellers order them, store them (even if it’s electronically), and then sell them.
Good day,
I have a similar question regarding intangible products, a company that sells services, how can you keep track of service outputs and inputs?
By using sale and purchase documents to track that a service has been sold/purchased.