Odoo Accounting Software: Pros & Cons, Pricing, Core Features, & Case Study In Australia

Due to its cost-effectiveness and scalability, Odoo Accounting software is widely used by small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. Specifically for the Australian market, the system aligns with local businesses by making a huge effort to fulfil local compliance needs through GST, BAS, or Peppol e-invoicing capabilities.

In this article, we'll explore Odoo Accounting's core features, strengths and weaknesses, and demonstrate a real-world case study in the Australian market.

What Is Odoo Accounting Software?

Odoo Accounting is a centralised module to manage and optimise your accounting operations, from invoicing and billing to bank reconciliation and financial reporting. The module allows businesses to automate financial processes, increasing operational efficiency, reducing manual efforts and maintaining regulatory compliance. You can watch the video below to understand how Odoo Accounting simplifies financial management procedures.

Moreover, Odoo also developed other specialised modules to enhance further accounting workflows, such as Odoo Invoicing, Expenses, Documents and Sign. The combination of Odoo Accounting with this suite of tools creates a more comprehensive solution for businesses aiming to optimise their financial operations. The illustration below shows the five essential Odoo modules for accounting management:

Largely, businesses of any type can build an integrated financial accounting system through the integration of Odoo Accounting with other specialised financial modules. Nevertheless, users need to grasp both the strengths and weaknesses of Odoo Accounting to decide if the solution will meet their financial control requirements.

What Are The Pros & Cons Of Odoo Accounting?

Odoo Accounting offers a cost-effective, fully integrated, but highly scalable solution for small to medium firms. However, new users might find it difficult to set up and configure the system due to its unfamiliar interface. In this case, the Havi team offers extensive Odoo Accounting support and training which equips you to get used to the platform more efficiently.

Specifically, we gained this balanced perspective by overseeing user reviews on G2 and TrustRadius within the last year, gathering insights from managers, accountants, senior executives, and other professionals across various industries. The following table summarises the most frequently cited advantages and disadvantages of Odoo Accounting by its current users:

Beyond the advantages and limitations of Odoo Accounting, you also need to evaluate another key factor - the system’s pricing.

How Much Is Odoo Accounting Software?

The Odoo Accounting module is available only in the Odoo Enterprise edition and its cost depends on your user count, country or operating region, and the pricing package chosen (with flexible feature offerings). In the Odoo Enterprise edition, the vendor also provides a free plan but companies that require advanced features should consider the paid plans.

You can explore the two key pricing options below:

1. Option 1 - The One-App Free Plan

The One-App Free plan allows you to use Odoo Accounting as the only app for free with unlimited users.

However, there is an exception if you choose apps that require the use of others. For example, in the screenshot below, a user chooses Odoo Accounting and Invoicing, and the notice still says “Free, with unlimited users, forever”. This is because these modules are interdependent, meaning that it allows you to use these two apps together under the Free plan. An important note is that you can only experience limited features in this plan.

Source: Odoo

2. Option 2 - The Paid Plans​

The Paid Plans, you pay a monthly or annual fee to use Odoo Accounting software along with any other apps you need. Odoo pricing depends on three key criteria, including:

• (1) the number of users added,
• (2) your country or operating region,
• (3) the pricing package you go for - which includes a specific set of features (i.e. deployment model, customisation features, and APIs).

Advanced features like on-premise hosting, online store integrations, invoicing custom fields, or API access are only available in the Custom plan. The following screenshot shows the current three Odoo pricing options in Australia for Odoo Enterprise:

Overall, Odoo offers very simple and transparent pricing and features. A growing business with non-complex accounting workflows could work with Odoo Standard. However, if your organisation requires advanced accounting features, consider using Odoo Custom with additional functionalities such as Odoo.sh or external APIs for complex integrations and development.

While understanding Odoo Accounting's pricing structure is essential, it’s also critical to explore the core features and what they offer for key financial management aspects.

6+ Best Features Of Odoo Accounting Software

Odoo Accounting offers robust features to improve accounting efficiency and precision, enabling users to optimise their procedures through invoicing, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting. The following list highlights the best features of Odoo Accounting software:

1. Effortless Invoicing & Bill Management

Odoo Accounting software simplifies your financial procedures from professional invoice creation to customer payments management. The below image shows how an invoice document is easily customised inside Odoo Accounting software:

Here are the feature highlights:

• Design professional invoices with pre-built templates; create invoices automatically based on sales orders, subscriptions, or timesheets.
• Leverage Odoo AI to encode your scanned invoices (PDF or image).
• Provide your customers with many payment options such as Stripe and Paypal gateways.
• Generate credit notes, create limits for sales credit, and automate payment follow-ups.
  

2. Globalised Accounting & Multi-Currency Support

Odoo Accounting allows you to control your finances anywhere you are, optimising global accounting with pre-configured settings, centralised subsidiary and global transactions. For example, you can see the image below, describing a user selecting the currency from a global list in Invoices within Odoo Accounting:

Here are the feature highlights:

• Use Odoo Accounting with pre-configured tax, accounts chart, and legal document settings in multiple countries.
• Control every subsidiary in a single system, with integrated data and automated processes.
• Optimise global transactions with daily updates on exchange rates.

Odoo Accounting provides robust tools to help financial professionals with bank reconciliation automation, transaction imports, and invoice/payment syncing for financial professionals. This way, business can reconcile their bank accounts and control the cash flow more effectively. In the following image, Odoo suggests a matching invoice with a bank transaction, followed by pre-defined rules:

Here are the feature highlights:

• Integrate and import your bank statements in different formats (.OFX, .CSV, etc.); and import transactions automatically into Odoo.
• 95% of invoices and payments are automatically synced with Odoo.
• Track cash transactions quickly with starting and ending balances.

4. In-depth Reporting & Advanced Tax Management

Using Odoo Accounting, users can benefit from accurate financial statements for audits, tax calculations and returns automation, and cash reporting enhancements. In the following image, Odoo Accounting allows users to select tax groups when recording the same tax differently based on fiscal positions:

Here are the feature highlights:

• Create precise financial statements that enable in-depth audits. 
• Odoo performs a variety of tax calculations, produces tax returns that comply with national laws, and offers an audit trail for tax returns. 
• For taxation, report your income and spending based on cash flow.

5. Multi-dimensional Analytic Accounting & Budgeting

You can utilise Odoo Accounting’s capabilities in automated account organisation, invoice allocation, multi-budget analysis, and mass adjustments. See the image below to understand the basics of creating analytic plans in Odoo Accounting:

Here are the feature highlights:

• Automatically organise your analytics accounts regarding projects, divisions, and others.
• Leverage the Analytics JS widget to allocate revenue and expenses from invoices.
• Set budget goals, track performance and analyse results across multiple budgets.
• Adjust all analytic items in mass without having to open individual invoices.

6. Integration & Scalability

Beyond the five core features, accounting and financial professionals can also leverage Odoo’s apps ecosystem or integrate with their preferred solutions to scale their businesses.

• Full integrated Odoo core apps: When using Odoo, you can leverage a centralised management platform with fully integrated workflows between Odoo Accounting and other modules such as Invoicing, Expenses, Documents, or Sign.

• 3rd-party apps integration: Leverage the Odoo App Store with a variety of custom app providers for a higher customisation level.
• Simple import/export: Quickly and simply import/export large data volumes with built-in tools or Excel.

Overall, the finance operations of a business benefit from Odoo Accounting because of its extensive features and interconnected solutions. However, when it comes to the Australian market, companies must prioritise local regulatory requirements when choosing accounting software because these demands are critical factors for long-term growth.

What Are The Latest Odoo Accounting Localisation Features?

According to Odoo’s official article, the Accounting app has been updated with a range of specialised features for Australian businesses, including Peppol integration, standardised taxation, local fiscal configuration, and more. These updates help align the Odoo system with legal requirements and accelerate the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) standards compliance.

The illustration below lists Odoo’s latest updates in Accounting localisation for Australians:

Furthermore, Odoo has a huge commitment to launching more exciting features for the Australian market. An example can be converting Odoo into a PEPPOL access point and SMP, streamlining the reception of bank sync data via Open Banking standards.

Case Study Of An Australian Engineering Consultancy Utilising Odoo Accounting

Corematic is an Australian engineering firm that specialises in robotics and machine learning solutions. It had to face the traditional SME issues of resource restrictions and operational efficiency. Before Odoo, Corematic relied on several solutions for various functions, leading to inconsistent data and tedious workarounds, hindering financial tracking, project management, and productivity.

Why did Corematic go for Odoo Accounting?

Odoo Accounting software provided a single platform for all accounting activities, transforming the entire Corematic's financial administration operations.

Firstly, Corematic made major advancements by integrating Odoo Accounting with multiple modules, such as Odoo Project, Inventory, and CRM. In particular, Odoo Accounting provided an in-depth overview of the business's financial performance through the integration. The following image illustrates how Odoo Accounting’s integrated solution has enhanced Corematic’s finance performance in four key areas:

Can You Integrate Odoo Accounting With Existing Software?

Yes, Odoo Accounting is built upon an open-source architecture with high flexibility, enabling its integration capability with multiple third-party and industry-specific apps. However, to precisely determine how Odoo Accounting can be integrated with your preferred software, please consult with our Odoo specialists to examine and evaluate the integrability.

To conclude, with Odoo Accounting software, Aussie companies can manage their financial operations on a reliable and adaptable system. It can speed up procedures, increase accuracy, and improve overall financial management thanks to the extensive feature set, intuitive interface, and integration capabilities.

References:

• Odoo (2023). Odoo Localisation: New Accounting Features In Australia.
• G2. Odoo Accounting Reviews.
• TrustRadius. Odoo Accounting.