Managing multiple businesses or legal entities separately can be complex and costly. Odoo offers a convenient solution — the multi-company feature. With a single system, you can manage all your companies without losing control or duplicating work. Here’s how it works and how many companies you can realistically manage in one system.
What Is Multi-Company in Odoo?
The multi-company feature in Odoo allows you to manage several legal entities within a single system. Each company maintains its own documents, accounts, customers, and settings, while still existing in one centralized database. At the same time, you can share certain data between companies while preserving their autonomy.
A centralized management system lets authorized users work across multiple companies at once, configure their own warehouses, customers, equipment, and contacts. It also generates consolidated reports without switching interfaces, simplifying daily tasks and streamlining overall business management.
How Many Companies Can You Manage in Odoo?
Odoo does not limit the number of companies you can manage in a single system. Technically, you can handle 2, 5, 10, or more — depending on your business needs, server capacity, and proper access configuration.
Important: The number of companies doesn’t affect Odoo’s core functionality but requires careful setup of the multi-company environment, especially if users work with multiple companies simultaneously.
How It Works
In a multi-company setup, each company has its own settings: accounts, taxes, journals, warehouses, documents, and more.
Users can work:
- In a single company only (if access is restricted),
- Or across multiple companies at once — for example, accountants or managers in a group of companies.
When switching between companies, the interface automatically pulls the relevant data. You can also set up shared directories (like products or contacts) if the companies are closely connected.
Who Benefits from Multi-Company in Odoo?
The multi-company feature is especially useful for organizations managing several business units. Common scenarios include:
- Accountants handle 3–5 companies in one database without switching between systems.
- Company groups with a shared product or customer catalog but separate reporting and accounts.
- Inter-company operations, such as one company selling products while another handles purchasing. Odoo automates these transactions.
This setup significantly simplifies management, especially when operations are centralized.
Conclusion
Odoo’s multi-company feature is a flexible tool for businesses managing multiple entities. It provides a single system for accounting, control, and analytics — without duplicating data or manually transferring information between databases.