many2one_account_account

The chart of accounts is a long list where every entry has a code and a name, and people search it both ways. Typing a code fragment is a numeric search that should offer to open the full list; typing a word is usually enough to find the account in the dropdown itself.

Odoo's standard relation picker does not know the difference, so it always shows a Search more entry at the bottom of the results. On the account column of an invoice line, where the dropdown is opened dozens of times a day, that extra row is noise most of the time.

This widget removes it selectively. It subclasses the autocomplete used by the relation picker and suppresses the Search more suggestion unless the typed text contains at least one digit. Everything else about the field, the search itself, the options, the saving, is the standard relation picker.

This is a small ergonomics change on the single most repeated interaction in accounting data entry. Encoding a bill means choosing an account per line, and every removed row in a dropdown is a fraction of a second and a fraction of a decision. Odoo made that change deliberately for one column, which is a good example of where interface work pays: not everywhere, but on the thing your team does a hundred times a day.

The second half is just as practical. When someone does type a code and wants the full list, the search dialog opens with the typed text already applied as a name filter, so the list is pre-narrowed instead of starting from the whole chart. That is the difference between a search dialog being a detour and being a shortcut.

The core usage, trimmed

<field name="account_id"
       widget="many2one_account_account"
       groups="account.group_account_readonly"
       options="{'no_quick_create': True, 'no_open': True}"
       required="display_type not in ('line_section', 'line_subsection', 'line_note')"/>

Creation from the dropdown is off, and so is opening the account record from the cell. Both are inherited many2one options.

Narrowing which accounts are offered

<field name="account_id" widget="many2one_account_account"
       domain="[('account_type', 'not in',
                 ('asset_receivable', 'liability_payable', 'off_balance'))]"/>

The domain is a plain field attribute; the widget does not touch it. Core also passes several search defaults through context so the dialog opens usefully filtered.

With a typeahead threshold

<field name="account_id" widget="many2one_account_account"
       options="{'search_threshold': 2, 'no_open': True}"/>

All the standard many2one options are available, since the widget is built from the shared description builder.

Three classes stacked on top of each other, each replacing one component in the one below. The autocomplete is subclassed to change two methods, the relation component is subclassed to use that autocomplete, and the field component is subclassed to use that relation component. The registration then wraps the field component in the shared many2one description, which is what supplies the option list and the extractor.

The first overridden method decides whether to add the Search more suggestion. It defers to the standard behavior when the request contains a digit and otherwise returns early, so the suggestion is skipped. The regular expression is a plain digit test, which means an account name containing a number, say a cost centre suffix, will bring the entry back.

The second overridden method is what happens when Search more is used. Instead of the default handling it sets a name search default into the context when the request is non-empty, builds a titled dialog and opens the select-or-create view. The practical result is the dialog opening with the typed text already applied rather than an unfiltered chart of accounts.

Nothing else is changed. Creation, opening, the domain, the barcode affordance and the typeahead threshold all behave exactly as they do on the plain relation picker, because they come from the shared description that the registration spreads.

Odoo 20 is expected at Odoo Experience in Brussels, 24 to 26 September 2026. The development branch is unstable and this can still change; we re-verify the page after release.

The widget is renamed. On the development branch the file, the folder and the registered name all change to a more general cell-oriented name, and the invoice line view is updated to use it. The two overridden autocomplete methods survive unchanged, so the digit rule and the seeded search dialog behave exactly as they do today.

Two things are added. A parent_field option, which names the relation the row belongs to, and a rule that suppresses the clickable link on the cell while the parent list is editable, so an account only renders as a link once the document is no longer being edited.

A view carrying the current widget name will not resolve on Odoo 20, so it falls back to the plain relation picker: the dropdown keeps working and the digit rule is silently lost. Search your custom views for this name before upgrading.