This task is one section of Odoo administration: seven setup tasks for admins, with 6 related tasks on one page.
1. Choose a company or a branch
Use a company for a separate legal entity. Use a branch for an office or department under a parent company you have already created. Odoo says a parent cannot later be converted into a branch.
Create the parent first. Independent subsidiaries are additional companies, not branches.
2. Create the company record
Go to Settings → Users & Companies → Companies and click New. You can also open Settings, find the Companies section, and click Manage Companies.
Enter the name, address, currency, and tax ID your accountant expects, then save. General fields can vary with the fiscal localization.
3. Choose who can open it
Give each user only the companies they should see. Click the company selector at the top right, tick the companies to show, and click a name to make it the active company. The highlighted name is the active one.
Odoo 19 documents that enabling multi-company on an Online Standard plan can move that database to the Custom plan. Read the current pricing page before you enable it. The same page says this does not apply to the One-App Free plan.
4. See what is shared
Quotations, invoices, and vendor bills stay with the company stored on the document. Open that company to see them. New products and contacts are shared until you set the Company field.
A product can keep one sales price and still have a different cost in each company. Leave inter-company transactions off until the fiscal positions for both companies are set.
5. Frequently asked questions
Should a new shop be a company or a branch?
Use a company for a separate legal entity. Use a branch only under a parent company you have already created.
Will the second company see the first company’s invoices?
No. Open the company stored on the invoice. Those documents stay with that company.
Does a second company change the Odoo subscription?
Odoo 19 documents an upsell from the Online Standard plan to the Custom plan when multi-company is enabled. Check the current pricing page before you do it.
6. Related articles and next steps
Menu labels can vary with your Odoo version, installed apps, and permissions.
Odoo documents companies, the company selector, and the Standard-plan change in the Odoo 19 multi-company page.
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