Odoo Expenses Management: 6 Key Features & Real-World Case Study

Managing business expenses has become easier and more time-saving than ever with Odoo’s expense management module. This solution simplifies the entire process, from expense submission to reimbursement, ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow.

In this blog post, we’ll highlight six key features of Odoo expense management and show you how it can help streamline your financial operations. Let’s explore!

What Is The Odoo Expenses Management Module?

The Odoo Expense management module is a smart, intuitive solution that simplifies how you handle your company expenses. It allows employees to easily submit expenses through a user-friendly interface while giving managers the ability to review, approve, and track those expenses with ease.

As part of the Odoo ERP suite, the module integrates seamlessly with other Odoo modules, such as accounting, invoicing, and project management, offering a unified platform for managing all aspects of your operations. This module offers a number of benefits, including:

• Time and cost efficiency: Employees no longer need to manually fill out spreadsheets or chase approvals, while managers can quickly review and approve expenses with just a few clicks. Automation reduces administrative overhead, prevents errors, and ensures accurate, up-to-date records.
• Improved transparency: Managers can easily track the status of expense claims, see detailed reports, and access historical data at any time. This ensures every expense is accounted for, eliminates hidden costs or unauthorised spending
• Smart spending decisions: With Odoo’s real-time expense reporting and analytics tools, you can gain deeper insights into your spending patterns. This allows for better financial forecasting and budgeting, as managers can identify trends, track departmental costs, and allocate resources more effectively.

6 Key Features of Odoo Expenses Management

Odoo’s Expense management module is packed with powerful features designed to simplify submissions, speed up approvals, and give you better control over your business finances. From automated workflows to real-time analytics, these six standout features will transform how your organisation handles expenses, making the process faster, more transparent, and more efficient. Let’s dive into what makes Odoo the go-to solution for seamless expense management!

1. Simplified expense submission

Whether on the go or in the office, your employees can submit expenses through their mobile app, email, or by uploading receipts directly. This flexibility makes it easy for them to capture receipts instantly, avoiding forgotten expenses or missed submissions.

Besides, Odoo’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature automates data entry by extracting essential details like total cost, date, and vendor from uploaded receipts.

While Odoo provides a basic OCR solution, we’ve developed advanced OCR solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of your business. Our solution goes beyond automation - streamlining processes, eliminating manual errors, and boosting workflow efficiency - so your team can focus on driving growth and innovation.

2. Streamlined approval workflow

Odoo streamlines expense approvals, allowing managers to review and process claims effortlessly. Once an expense is submitted, managers can view all related expenses grouped by employee, project, or department in a clear dashboard. They can quickly approve, reject, or request more information, minimising delays and making the process efficient.

By grouping related expenses into one report, Odoo reduces the complexity of approving individual claims. This allows managers to handle expenses with just a few clicks, ensuring faster processing and reducing bottlenecks in the approval chain.

3. Expense categorisation

Odoo’s automatic categorisation feature helps your business stay organised by classifying each expense under predefined categories like travel, office supplies, or meals. This makes financial tracking easier and ensures that every expense is properly recorded for reporting or auditing purposes.

Plus, you can customise categories to suit your specific needs, providing flexibility for various types of expenses. Employees benefit from an intuitive system that reduces manual input, speeding up submissions and minimising errors. This organised approach supports better spending analysis and improved financial decision-making.

4. Reimbursement & re-invoicing

Employees no longer have to wait for manual reimbursement processes. Once expenses are approved, Odoo integrates directly with your accounting system, ensuring reimbursements are processed automatically and promptly. This saves time and keeps employees satisfied.

In cases where expenses are client-related, Odoo enables your company to re-invoice customers. Approved expenses are added to sales orders, making it easy to pass on certain costs to clients. This feature is crucial for service-based businesses that need to charge clients for specific expenses incurred during project work.

5. Expense reporting and analytics

With Odoo, you can generate comprehensive, customised reports to gain insights into your spending. It allows you to filter and group expenses by employee, category, date range, or project, providing a clear view of where money is being spent. These reports empower you to identify trends, optimize budgets, and control costs effectively.

Moreover, Odoo’s robust analytics allow managers to monitor expenses instantly, quickly spotting discrepancies or irregularities. Favourite reports can also be saved for quick access, streamlining routine financial reviews and keeping key data at your fingertips.

6. Integration with accounting and other Odoo apps

Odoo’s expense module connects effortlessly with other Odoo apps, creating a unified financial management system. Integration with Odoo sales, payroll, and project management apps ensures a seamless workflow from expense approval to journal entry creation.

For instance, expenses linked to specific sales orders are automatically added to the order for proper invoicing and client reimbursement. This interconnected functionality eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and keeps financial records accurate and up to date.

Odoo Expenses' User: Explore A Real-World Story

Corematic, an Australian engineering consultancy specialising in innovative machine-learning and robotic solutions, was seeking a more efficient way to manage their employee expenses. By implementing Odoo, they transformed their expense management process, resulting in significant time savings and improved efficiency.

The challenge: Fragmented systems and slow expense management

Corematic’s previous financial system was inefficient and prone to errors. This led to slow reimbursement cycles, delayed approvals, and wasted time for employees and managers. The finance team also struggled with data consolidation, requiring significant manual effort to migrate information between systems.

• Manual processes: Employees had to submit receipts individually, causing delays in expense approvals and slow reimbursement cycles.
• Disconnected tools: Multiple financial management tools were not integrated, making it difficult to consolidate data across departments.
• Inefficiencies: The finance team spent considerable time manually migrating and updating information between systems, reducing productivity.
• Lack of visibility: The fragmented system hindered access to real-time financial insights, limiting decision-making efficiency.

The solution: Streamlined expense management with Odoo

Odoo’s expenses management module provided Corematic with an efficient, automated system for managing expenses. Employees could easily upload receipts through the Odoo app, and the OCR feature automatically extracted the necessary data, eliminating the need for manual entry. This significantly reduced the time spent on submitting and approving expenses.

Besides, Odoo’s integration with Corematic's accounting and other business operations ensured that once an expense was approved, it was immediately recorded in the financial system. This streamlined workflow gives Corematic’s leadership instant visibility into the company’s financials.

• In six months, Corematic’s finance team significantly improved in managing employee expenses and processing reimbursements.
• The company saw an increase in revenue, completing 50 projects annually, thanks to time saved on administrative tasks.
• Odoo’s scalable features support Corematic’s growth and expansion into new markets.

Get Ready With Odoo Expenses Management Today

From automated approvals to real-time insights, Odoo Expenses equips your business with the tools to save time, eliminate errors, and drive operational efficiency. Whether you’re streamlining workflows, integrating with existing systems, or scaling for future growth, Odoo has you covered.

Don’t let outdated processes hold your business back - empower your team with smarter expense management. Start your journey with Odoo today and experience the difference it makes in simplifying your operations and accelerating success.

Odoo Expenses Management - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is Odoo expenses management?

Odoo Expenses Management is a module within Odoo ERP that automates the tracking, approval, and reimbursement of employee expenses. It is fully integrated with other Odoo apps like accounting and project management and simplifies managing travel expenses, office supplies, and more.

2. How can I submit expenses in Odoo?

Submitting expenses in Odoo is straightforward. You can either use the Odoo mobile app or the web interface to submit your expenses. The process involves uploading receipts, entering the expense amount, and categorising the expense (e.g., travel, and office supplies). Once submitted, the expense is routed for approval according to the company’s predefined workflow.

3. How does Odoo’s OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature work?

Odoo’s OCR feature automates the extraction of data from scanned receipts and invoices. When an employee uploads an image of a receipt, Odoo uses OCR technology to recognise key information such as the date, total amount, and vendor details. This data is then automatically populated in the expense form, reducing manual data entry and improving accuracy.

4. How to record expenses in Odoo 17?

In Odoo 17, recording expenses is a straightforward process that begins with creating expense reports. Follow these steps to get started:

#1. Create an expense report

Go to the Expense Reports app and navigate to My Expenses. Select the expenses you want to include and click Create Report.

#2. Add missing expenses

If needed, click Add Row to add any missing expenses or create new ones by clicking New.

#3. Submit the report

After completing the report, go to My Reports, open the report, and click Submit to Manager for approval.