Initial setup of Odoo Accounting and Odoo Invoicing

When you first open your Odoo Accounting app, the Accounting Overview page welcomes you with a step-by-step onboarding banner, a wizard that helps you get started. This onboarding banner is displayed until you choose to close it.

The settings visible in the onboarding banner can still be modified later by going to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings.

Accounting onboarding banner

The step-by-step Accounting onboarding banner is composed of four steps:

1. Company Data

2. Bank Account

3. Accounting Periods

4. Chart of Accounts

Company Data

This menu allows you to add your company’s details such as the name, address, logo, website, phone number, email address, and Tax ID, or VAT number. These details are then displayed on your documents, such as on invoices.

Bank Account

Connect your bank account to your database and have your bank statements synced automatically. To do so, find your bank in the list, click on Connect, and follow the instructions on-screen.

If your Bank Institution can’t be synchronized automatically, or if you prefer not to sync it with your database, you may also configure your bank account manually by clicking on Create it, and filling out the form.

• Name: the bank account’s name, as displayed on Odoo.

• Account Number: your bank account number (IBAN in Europe).

• Bank: click on Create and Edit to configure the bank’s details. Add the bank institution’s name and its Identifier Code (BIC or SWIFT).

• Code: this code is your Journal’s Short Code, as displayed on Odoo. By default, Odoo creates a new Journal with this Short Code.

• Journal: This field is displayed if you have an existing Bank Journal that is not linked yet to a bank account. If so, then select the Journal you want to use to record the financial transactions linked to this bank account or create a new one by clicking on Create and Edit.

Accounting Periods

Define here your Fiscal Years’ opening and closing dates, which are used to generate reports automatically, and your Tax Return Periodicity, along with a reminder to never miss a tax return deadline.

By default, the opening date is set on the 1st of January and the closing date on the 31st of December, as this is the most common use.

Chart of Accounts

With this menu, you can add accounts to your Chart of Accounts and indicate their initial opening balances.

Basic settings are displayed on this page to help you review your Chart of Accounts. To access all the settings of an account, click on the double arrow button at the end of the line.

Invoicing onboarding banner

There is another step-by-step onboarding banner that helps you take advantage of your Odoo Invoicing and Accounting apps. The Invoicing onboarding banner is the one that welcomes you if you use the Invoicing app rather than the Accounting app.

If you have Odoo Accounting installed on your database, you can reach it by going to Accounting ‣ Customers ‣ Invoices.

The Invoicing onboarding banner is composed of four main steps:

1. Company Data

2. Invoice Layout

3. Payment Method

4. Sample Invoice

Company Data

This form is the same as the one presented in the Accounting onboarding banner.

Invoice Layout

With this tool, you can design the appearance of your documents by selecting which layout template, paper format, colors, font, and logo you want to use.

You can also add your Company Tagline and the content of the documents’ footer. Note that Odoo automatically adds the company’s phone number, email, website URL, and Tax ID (or VAT number) to the footer, according to the values you previously configured in the Company Data.

Payment Method

This menu helps you configure the payment methods with which your customers can pay you.

Sample Invoice

Send yourself a sample invoice by email to make sure everything is correctly configured.