Control policies for visitors, attendance, invoices, inspections, documents, announcements, and more.
Overview
Settings centralize policy and behavior for every area of the system—automation, limits, validations, notifications, and defaults. Tuning these options lets you align the product to your hostel’s rules and risk tolerance, without custom code.
- Policy enforcement: Document requirements, visitor approvals, attendance logic, inspection cadence.
- Finance rules: Rent generation day, late penalty type/value, payment options.
- Communications: Announcement broadcasts, email/SMS toggles, escalation notices.
How It Works
- Each area has on/off toggles and numeric rules.
- Changes apply system‑wide after saving.
Step‑by‑Step Guide
- Go to Odoo → Settings (app) → General Settings.
- Scroll to the Hostel Management section.
- Update relevant sections (Dashboard, Visitors, Student Attendance, Fee Management & Penalties, Room Allocation, Maintenance, Complaints, Mess / Food, Laundry, Room Inspections, Notice Board / Announcements, Document Management, Security & Portals, Communication, Reporting, Mobile/API).
- Save settings.
Where you’ll find these settings in Odoo (exact mapping)
These options are configured in Settings → General Settings under the Hostel Management section. They are system-wide (apply to the whole database) after you click Save.
- Dashboard: Default dashboard days, expiry highlights, auto-refresh interval.
- Visitors: Approval required, max visitors/day, overstay minutes, email/SMS notify toggles.
- Student Attendance: Source (Manual/Check‑In/Out/Mixed), late grace minutes, guardian absence notify.
- Fee Management & Penalties: Rent invoice day, reminder days, late penalty type/value, payment gateway toggle.
- Room Allocation: Enable allocation requests, allocation strategy, allow mixed-gender buildings.
- Maintenance: Default priority, auto-assign, notify requester.
- Complaints & Grievances: Allow anonymous, escalation days, notify student/manager.
- Mess / Food: Meal booking cutoff hours, meal charges enabled.
- Laundry: Default fees (wash/iron/wash+iron/dry clean), max items per request.
- Room Inspections: Default frequency (days), auto-schedule toggle.
- Notice Board / Announcements: Default target, email broadcast.
- Document Management: Expiry warning days, require documents on check‑in.
- Security & Portals: Enable student portal, enable staff portal.
- Communication (Email & SMS): Enable SMS, default email templates (Contract / Visitor).
- Reporting & Export: Enable advanced reports, default export format (PDF/XLSX).
- Mobile & API: Enable REST API, mobile app base URL.
If you cannot see Settings or the Hostel Management section, ask an admin to grant you Settings access (Administration rights) and refresh (log out/in).
All Hostel Management settings (detailed)
This is the full list of fields you will see in Settings → General Settings → Hostel Management.
| Section | Setting (label in Odoo) | What it controls | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Dashboard |
Hostel dashboard default days |
Default date range used by the hostel dashboard (From = To − N days). |
30 |
Dashboard |
Show expiry highlights on dashboard |
Shows expiry highlight cards (contracts expiring soon) on the dashboard. |
Enabled |
Dashboard |
Dashboard auto-refresh interval (minutes) |
If greater than 0, enables auto-refresh every N minutes. |
0 (Off) |
Visitors |
Require visitor approval |
If disabled, visitor requests can be auto-approved when created. |
Enabled |
Visitors |
Max visitors per student per day |
Soft limit for number of visitors per student per day. |
0 (No limit) |
Visitors |
Visitor overstay threshold (minutes) |
Minutes beyond expected duration after which a visitor is considered overdue. |
0 (Disabled) |
Visitors |
Email student on visitor approval/rejection |
Email notification when visitor request is approved/rejected. |
Disabled |
Visitors |
SMS student on visitor approval/rejection |
SMS notification when visitor request is approved/rejected. |
Disabled |
Student Attendance |
Attendance source |
How attendance is computed: Manual / From Check‑In/Out / Mixed. |
Manual |
Student Attendance |
Late entry grace minutes |
Grace time after official time before marking a student late. |
0 (No grace) |
Student Attendance |
Notify guardian on absence |
If enabled, guardians can be notified when a student is absent. |
Disabled |
Fee Management & Penalties |
Rent invoice generation day |
Day of month when monthly rent invoices are generated. |
1 |
Fee Management & Penalties |
Payment reminder days before due |
Days before due date to trigger payment reminders. |
0 (Disabled) |
Fee Management & Penalties |
Late payment penalty type |
No penalty / Fixed amount / Percentage of due amount. |
No penalty |
Fee Management & Penalties |
Late payment penalty value |
Fixed amount or percentage value depending on the penalty type. |
— |
Fee Management & Penalties |
Enable payment gateway integration |
Enables payment gateway-related behaviour/options. |
Disabled |
Room Allocation |
Enable allocation requests |
Enables a room allocation request workflow. |
Disabled |
Room Allocation |
Default allocation strategy |
Default strategy used for allocation: First free bed / Balanced across buildings / Preference based. |
First free bed |
Room Allocation |
Allow mixed-gender buildings |
If enabled, allocation can ignore strict gender separation by building. |
Disabled |
Maintenance |
Default maintenance priority |
Default priority for new maintenance requests. |
Medium |
Maintenance |
Auto-assign maintenance requests |
If enabled, new maintenance requests can be auto-assigned. |
Disabled |
Maintenance |
Notify requester on maintenance updates |
If enabled, requester is notified when maintenance request is updated. |
Disabled |
Complaints & Grievances |
Allow anonymous complaints |
Allows complaints to be submitted anonymously. |
Disabled |
Complaints & Grievances |
Complaint escalation days |
Number of days after which unresolved complaints are escalated. |
0 (Disabled) |
Complaints & Grievances |
Notify student on complaint updates |
Notify the student when complaint status/notes change. |
Disabled |
Complaints & Grievances |
Notify hostel manager on complaint updates |
Notify the manager when complaint status/notes change. |
Disabled |
Mess / Food |
Meal booking cutoff (hours) |
Cutoff window for meal bookings (0 disables cutoff). |
0 (Disabled) |
Mess / Food |
Enable mess meal charges |
Enables meal charge behaviour. |
Disabled |
Laundry |
Default laundry fee (wash) |
Default fee applied for wash. |
— |
Laundry |
Default laundry fee (iron) |
Default fee applied for ironing. |
— |
Laundry |
Default laundry fee (wash & iron) |
Default fee applied for wash + iron service. |
– |
Laundry |
Default laundry fee (dry clean) |
Default fee applied for dry clean. |
– |
Laundry |
Max items per laundry request |
Soft limit for items per laundry request (0 = no limit). |
0 (No limit) |
Room Inspections |
Default inspection frequency (days) |
Default frequency used for auto-scheduling (0 disables). |
0 (Disabled) |
Room Inspections |
Enable auto-scheduling of inspections |
If enabled, inspections can be auto-scheduled using the frequency. |
Disabled |
Notice Board / Announcements |
Default announcement target |
Default target for announcements: All students or By building. |
All students |
Notice Board / Announcements |
Email announcements to students |
If enabled, announcements can be broadcast via email. |
Disabled |
Document Management |
Document expiry warning days |
Documents expiring within N days are flagged as “expiring soon”. |
30 |
Document Management |
Require key documents on check-in |
If enabled, check-in can be blocked when mandatory documents are missing or expired. |
Disabled |
Security & Portals |
Enable student portal features |
Enables student portal related features (if portal is used). |
Disabled |
Security & Portals |
Enable staff portal features |
Enables staff portal related features (if portal is used). |
Disabled |
Communication (Email & SMS) |
Enable hostel SMS notifications |
Enables SMS notifications for hostel workflows. |
Disabled |
Communication (Email & SMS) |
Default contract email template |
Template used by default when sending contract-related emails. |
— |
Communication (Email & SMS) |
Default visitor email template |
Template used by default when sending visitor-related emails. |
— |
Reporting & Export |
Enable advanced hostel reports |
Enables advanced reporting/export options. |
Disabled |
Mobile & API |
Enable hostel REST API |
Enables the Hostel REST API endpoints (for mobile/integrations). |
Disabled |
Mobile & API |
Mobile app base URL |
Base URL used when linking to/from the mobile app. |
— |
Tips
- Start with conservative limits, then relax when processes are stable.
Common Mistakes
- Turning on too many notifications can overwhelm students.