Odoo 18 continues to strengthen its financial capabilities, and one of its most powerful features is Analytic Accounting. This tool allows businesses to track and analyze costs and revenues not just by account, but by dimension, such as projects, departments, cost centers, and more. With its modular and flexible setup, analytic accounting in Odoo 18 provides valuable insights for strategic financial decision-making.
In this blog, we’ll explore the key components and practical uses of Analytic Accounting in Odoo 18, including:
- Analytic Plans
- Analytic Accounts
- Analytic Distribution Models
- Usage in Invoices, Bills, Stock Journal Entries, Assets, Budgets
- Analytic Items
- Analytic Reports
Enable Analytic Accounting from Accounting configuration settings.
1. Analytic Plans
Analytic Plans allow you to define multiple dimensions for analytic accounting. For example, a company may want to track expenses by Project, Department, and Region. In Odoo 18, you can enable multiple plans from Accounting > Configuration > Analytic Accounting > Analytic Plans.
Each plan represents a dimension in your cost analysis and allows users to assign multiple analytic accounts to a single transaction. This adds granularity to your financial analysis.
2. Analytic Accounts
An Analytic Account works like a virtual cost center or profit center. While your chart of accounts captures legal accounting, analytic accounts help track internal financial data.
You can create analytic accounts from:
Accounting > Configuration > Analytic Accounting > Analytic Accounts
Each account can represent a:
- Project
- Department
- Customer account
- Marketing campaign
- Event, etc.
These accounts can be used across various documents—like invoices, bills, or stock movements—to monitor their associated revenues and expenses.
3. Analytic Distribution Models
Odoo 18 enhances control over how costs are distributed with Analytic Distribution Models. These allow splitting a transaction's analytic value among multiple analytic accounts, either by fixed percentages or dynamic formulas.
Example:
An employee's salary can be distributed 50% to Project A and 50% to Project B.
Configure this from:
Accounting > Configuration > Analytic Accounting > Distribution Models
This is especially useful when a single cost should be shared across multiple departments or projects.
4. Usage of Analytic Accounting in Key Areas
Analytic accounting is tightly integrated into various Odoo modules:
Invoices & Bills
When creating customer invoices or vendor bills, you can assign analytic accounts directly on each line item. This helps in associating income or expenses with the right project or department.
Path:
Accounting > Customer/Vendor > Invoices/Bills
Enable the “Analytic Account” field on lines via Developer Mode if it is not visible.
Stock Journal Entries
Odoo 18 allows analytic accounts to be used in stock valuation journal entries, especially for products with automated inventory valuation (real-time). This enables tracking inventory costs by project or warehouse.
For example:
A stock movement related to Project X can be recorded under its analytic account automatically via the linked sale/purchase order.
Assets
Assets such as machinery or equipment can be linked to an analytic account, so depreciation expenses are tracked accordingly.
Path:
Accounting > Accounting > Assets
Choose the analytic account when creating the asset.
Budgets
Analytic accounts are essential in Budget Management. You can create budgets per analytic account to monitor actual vs planned financial performance.
Path:
Accounting > Budgets > Budgets
- Define budgetary positions (linked to accounts)
- Assign budget lines to analytic accounts.
This provides control over how much each department or project can spend within a period.
5. Analytic Items
Each transaction linked to an analytic account creates an Analytic Item in the background. These are the building blocks of analytic reporting.
View all items at:
Accounting > Reporting > Analytic > Analytic Items
They include:
- Date
- Description
- Amount (positive for income, negative for expense)
- Analytic account(s)
- Source document
This is helpful for auditing and drilling down into cost/revenue origins.
6. Analytic Reports
Odoo provides powerful analytic reports to track financial performance per analytic dimension. Some of the key reports include:
- Profitability by Analytic Account
Quickly compare revenues and costs per project or department.
- Budget vs Actual (Analytic)
Analyze whether teams are operating within budget.
- Analytic Distribution Report
Visualize how costs are shared among various analytic accounts.
Access reports from:
Accounting > Reporting > Analytic Reports
Advanced filters allow breakdowns by date, partner, journal, product, etc., giving in-depth insight into your business operations.
Conclusion
Analytic Accounting in Odoo 18 empowers organizations to go beyond traditional financial accounting. Whether you're managing multiple projects, departments, or regions, analytic accounts, distribution models, and reports provide the clarity needed to control and optimize your costs.
When used effectively, Analytic Accounting becomes an indispensable part of strategic financial management in Odoo.
To read more about Analytic Accounting In Odoo 18 Accounting Module, refer to our blog Analytic Accounting In Odoo 18 Accounting Module