1. Company profile
"Patel Group" (fictional):
- Patel Manufacturing Pvt Ltd (India, INR): factory.
- Patel Trading LLP (India, a different GSTIN): domestic distribution.
- Patel Global FZE (UAE, AED): export sales to GCC. Products flow Manufacturing → Trading / Global. The owners want consolidated reporting.
2. Requirements
Inter-company SO/PO automatically mirrored; invoices ↔ bills automatically; transfer pricing; consolidated P&L in INR; shared master data where possible; users who work for several companies.
3. Plan and apps
Custom plan (multi-company). All core apps + Consolidation reporting.
4. Design decisions
| Topic | Decision |
|---|---|
| Companies | 3 companies in one database; each with its own localisation (India / UAE CoA) |
| Branches vs companies | Branches (same legal entity, different GSTIN/locations) when it is the same legal entity; separate companies for separate legal entities |
| Shared master data | Products shared (company field empty); contacts shared; accounts can be shared across companies in v18+ where charts match |
| Inter-company rules | On each company: Inter-company transactions: Synchronize SO/PO (create SO from PO), Generate Bills and Refunds |
| Transfer pricing | Inter-company pricelist (cost + 8 %) set on the partner record of each company |
| Stock | Each company its own warehouse; v20: resupply one company from another via routes, deliver an SO from another company's warehouse, valuation transferred correctly |
| Consolidation | Accounting consolidation (multi-ledger), currency translation (v20 CTA line for audits) |
| Users | Allowed companies per user; company switcher; record rules by company |
5. Configuration steps
- Settings > Companies: create the 3 companies, set the parent company for branches if used.
- Install localisations per company (India, UAE).
- Each company's partner (res.partner) used as customer/vendor in the others.
- Settings > Inter-company transactions (per company): enable, choose the rule and the responsible user/warehouse.
- Test: Trading creates a PO to Manufacturing → an SO auto-appears in Manufacturing → delivery → invoice → bill auto-created in Trading.
- Consolidation: chart mapping, period, currency rates, eliminations.
6. Pitfalls
- Tax setup per company must be complete, or inter-company documents fail.
- Users acting across companies: double-check document company before confirming.
- Odoo 20: the Custom plan price rose (~20 % EU, ~30 % US list). Budget for it.
7. Version notes
| v18 | v19 | v20 |
|---|---|---|
| Branches, shared accounts across companies | Multi-company dashboards | Inter-company resupply routes with cost transfer, synced bill ↔ PO auto-matching, multi-ledger consolidation, CTA line |