Different modules for sales/invoice management in OpenERP (Odoo)

Question

I am using openerp 7.0. It has many modules for sales and invoice management. There is a sale management module which also has invoices like draft quotations and sale orders. There are also other modules like e-invoicing,invoicing,Invoice Analysis per Company,eInvoicing & Payments etc. What is the difference between them. When should I use just sales management and when do I use e-invoicing or invoicing.
Since I dont have a business or management background I dont understand what is the use of these different modules when all they offer is invoicing or sales management. There is also a Point of sale module. I would really appreciate an answer for layman.

Answer 1

If you are doing the basic stuff (sale orders, purchase orders, financial accounting, invoicing) then go with the core modules of sales, purchase and account.

sales gives you sales orders, quotes etc. purchase gives you purchase orders etc. For accounting I would start with account, account_account and account_payment and see how you go as this gives you financial accounting, journals etc., plus invoicing/refunds etc.

Note these are the technical names. Click on Settings -> Installed Modules and the technical name is under the full name in the Kan ban view.

After these core modules, many of the others add specialist stuff

Start with these and see how you go with the core stuff first. One of the many cool things in OpenERP is how simple it is to try stuff. Backup your database (and test restoring it), install a new module and have a play. If you don't like it, just roll back to your backup.

At its core, OpenERP is a platform and the ERP is built on that platform using modules. Some modules are huge (account, sales) and some of the others are tiny and do a single small task.