Migration · Excel to Odoo
From spreadsheets to Odoo, starting with books you can trust
When the books are in spreadsheets, there is no trial balance to agree to. Someone has to build one first. As an accountancy practice we do that part ourselves, then move the business into Odoo on top of it.
What moves from Excel
No.ItemWhat it means in practice
01A chart of accountsSet up for your business and your tax obligations, not a generic template.
02Opening balances, builtBank, cash, receivables, payables, stock and fixed assets worked out from statements, lists and counts, then posted.
03Customers and suppliersCollected from the sheets, invoices and phone lists into one clean contact list.
04Products and stockItem lists cleaned and loaded, with a stock count at cut-over.
05Open invoicesWhat customers owe and what you owe suppliers, listed and agreed before go-live.
06The reports you rebuild by handThe monthly sheets somebody puts together by hand, rebuilt in Odoo so they come from the live data.
Where Excel moves go wrong
No.TrapWhat it means in practice
01No single version of the truthSeveral sheets usually disagree. We agree the figures with you before anything is loaded.
02Cash and bank mixedPersonal and business money often sit in the same sheet. They are separated at the opening balance, not later.
03Stock never countedA physical count at cut-over is the only reliable opening stock. We plan for it.
04Tax registered but not recordedSales tax charged but not tracked has to be reconciled to returns filed before the new system starts.
How we do it
No.StepWhat it means in practice
01Read the books firstYour last trial balance, tax returns and bank reconciliations, before we touch Odoo. The move is planned from those, not from a file export.
02Build in a test databaseChart, taxes, contacts, products and balances loaded into a separate Odoo database. You keep working in your current system.
03Agree it, line by lineTrial balance, receivables, payables, stock and bank agreed to the old system. Differences are explained, never posted to a suspense account.
04Parallel runOne period posted in both systems and compared. This is where tax-code mistakes show up.
05Go live and stayWe are there for the first month-end close, when the real questions arrive.
Why an accountancy practice
We prepare accounts and tax returns for clients as well as building software. A migration is judged at the first tax return and the first audit, not on go-live day, so it is planned by people who have to sign off those numbers.
Questions people ask
01
Our books are behind. Can you still help?
Yes. Catching up the books is accountancy work we do every day. We bring them up to date, then move them.02
Is Odoo too big for a small business?
Not usually. You switch on only the apps you need, and Odoo Community has no licence fee when we host it for you.03
Will our staff manage it?
We train the people who will use it, and stay for the first month-end close.Book a meeting
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