Because many board questions reach outside Odoo. The warehouse holds Odoo's journal items, invoices and analytic accounts beside the systems Odoo does not run, the history from before Odoo, and a dated copy of each month as it was closed. Odoo is read each night with a dedicated user that has the least rights the reports need. On Odoo Online, the external interface this needs is part of the Custom plan, which the audit checks first.
Where Odoo's own reporting reaches its edge
Odoo's financial reports are computed from journal items, and its analytic accounting lets costs and revenue be tracked by project or department through analytic plans. For questions inside Odoo, that is a strong position to start from.
The edge comes from three directions. Some systems the business depends on are not in Odoo: a booking engine, a till, a payroll bureau, ad platforms, a bank feed handled elsewhere. Some history is not in Odoo, because it sat in the system used before. And unless a period has been locked, Odoo shows records as they are now, so a figure reported at month end can look different a few weeks later after a late adjustment.
Each of those ends in an export and a workbook. The work is careful, it is repeated every month, and the export itself can time out on a large selection, which Odoo's own guidance suggests handling in smaller batches.
Can your Odoo be read by other software? It depends on the plan
From Odoo's own documentation and pricing page. This is the first thing the audit checks, because it decides the route.
Odoo Online, Standard plan
Odoo states that its external interface is available only on Custom plans. On Standard, the only route is an export from list views using a saved template, run by hand, which defeats much of the point. The audit weighs that against moving to Custom, a decision between you and Odoo.
Odoo Online, Custom plan
The external interface is included, and it runs every call with the rights of the user behind it. Odoo recommends dedicated users with minimum rights for this, which is exactly the read-only user we ask for.
Odoo.sh
Odoo's platform for customised databases, which runs on the Custom plan and so includes the external interface. It also gives your partner a database shell, and daily backups that can be downloaded.
Several companies in one database
Odoo notes that switching on more than one company under a Standard plan moves the subscription to Custom, so a group running several companies in one database is already on the plan that includes the interface.
How Odoo is read, and the details that keep it working
The warehouse reads Odoo through its external interface with a dedicated user whose rights cover only what the reports need. Odoo applies that user's access rights and record rules to every call, so the user sees what you allow and cannot post anything.
Two details matter for keeping it running. Odoo's newer versions limit keys created by hand to three months, so the key is renewed on a schedule and a failed load is flagged to a named person rather than discovered in a meeting. And Odoo has announced that its older interfaces will be removed in a future version, so on the newest versions loads use the newer interface, and on older versions the previous one until Odoo retires it.
In the warehouse, journal items are read with their accounts, partners and analytic distribution, so the report lines you agree with your finance lead can be rebuilt and checked against Odoo's own Profit and Loss. Where Odoo holds financial budgets on the Profit and Loss or analytic budgets by plan, they are read too; where the budget lives in a workbook, that becomes an owned input.
History from the system used before Odoo is loaded from that system's own exports into the same warehouse, mapped to the same report lines, so a trend can run across the switch.
A hospitality group on Odoo with a booking engine beside it
A Maltese hospitality group runs accounting, purchasing and stock in Odoo. Rooms are sold through a separate booking engine, staff are paid through a payroll bureau, and several years of history sit in the accounting system it used before Odoo.
- Revenue per available room is worked out in a workbook from booking engine exports and the Odoo ledger.
- Year-on-year comparisons stop at the Odoo go-live date.
- Last month's margin changes when a late supplier invoice is posted into a period that was not locked, and nobody can say what the board was shown.
- Odoo, the booking engine and the payroll totals load overnight into a warehouse the group owns.
- The years before Odoo are loaded from the old system's exports and mapped to the same report lines.
- Each month is kept as it closed, beside the current view, so a late posting shows as a change rather than a mystery.
Odoo stayed the system the teams work in, supported by the same partner. The board pack stopped being rebuilt every month.
Before Odoo joins the warehouse: four things to check
Your plan and hosting
Odoo Online Standard or Custom, Odoo.sh, or installed on your own servers. It decides the route.
Your version
Odoo's interfaces changed in recent versions, and the audit records which one you run.
Who looks after it
If an Odoo partner customised your database, they should know which custom fields and models the reports will read.
Where the budget lives
In Odoo's budgets, or in a workbook beside it.
What we do not do
- We do not sell, license, implement or support Odoo. Your Odoo partner keeps doing that.
- We do not install Odoo modules, customise your database or write anything back into Odoo.
- We do not decide your Odoo plan. Where the route depends on it, the audit sets out the options and you choose.
- Your data stays in a warehouse under your own account, never one we hold.
How it works
- A strategy callThirty minutes with Glen, free, with no pitch deck. Bring the systems you run and the question none of them answers on its own. You leave knowing whether joining them is worth doing, and where to start.
- The data auditAbout three hours with your team, mapping where each figure comes from, which system holds it and which steps are done by hand. The audit confirms how each system can be read, and it ends with a quote.
- The buildThree to four weeks from an accepted quote to a live dashboard. Implementation is the first month. Your team agrees the definitions with us; we do the building.
- The fractional teamAn ongoing senior team keeps the loads running, follows changes made to your systems and connects the next source when the business needs it.
Glen Sultana founded 110 Analytics after a career built where the numbers move daily. Our people have run analytics for tier-one companies, S&P 500 firms and high-growth technology businesses. Glen is the person on the first call, and he runs every data audit himself.
- Built in your environment, under your account
- No lock-in: if we part company, it keeps running and stays yours
- Based in Malta
Straight answers
Do you replace Odoo?
No. Odoo stays the system your teams work in, and its own reports keep working. A copy of the records the reports need is read each night into your warehouse, next to the systems Odoo does not run.
Will this affect our Odoo partner or subscription?
Your subscription and partner stay as they are. On Odoo Online, the external interface is part of the Custom plan, so the audit checks your plan first and sets out the options. Anything needed from your partner is agreed through you.
How do you connect to Odoo?
Through Odoo's external interface, with a dedicated user that has the least rights the reports need and cannot post. Where the plan does not include the interface, saved export templates are the fallback, and the audit compares the two.
Our Odoo is customised. Does that matter?
Custom fields and models can be read like standard ones, as long as the reporting user has rights to them. Your Odoo partner tells us which ones the reports should use.
Can you bring in the years before we moved to Odoo?
Usually, yes, from the old system's own exports or a copy of its database. They are mapped to the same report lines as Odoo, so trends run across the switch.
Is Odoo's own Profit and Loss still right?
Yes. The warehouse is built from the same journal items, and the first report is checked against Odoo's own figures before anyone relies on it.
Terms on this page
- Journal item
- One line of an accounting entry in Odoo, held in the account.move.line model. Odoo's financial reports are computed from these.
- Analytic plan
- Odoo's way of grouping analytic accounts, for example by project or department, so costs and revenue can be tracked across them.
- External interface
- What Odoo calls its external API: the way other software reads Odoo. Odoo includes it on Custom plans.
- Month-end snapshot
- A dated copy of the figures as they stood when a month closed, kept in the warehouse beside the current view.
Where the product facts come from
Every product fact on this page comes from the vendor's own documentation, read on 8 October 2026. Vendors change their products, so the audit checks the version you run.
- Odoo documentation: external API (Custom plans, keys, access rights)
- Odoo documentation: external RPC API (deprecation notice)
- Odoo pricing: plans and the external API
- Odoo documentation: export and import data
- Odoo documentation: customise financial reports (journal items)
- Odoo documentation: analytic accounting
- Odoo documentation: budgets
- Odoo documentation: multi-company
- Odoo documentation: Odoo.sh branches (shell and backups)