Odoo with Multi-Branches

What are the usual requirements for a company with multi-branches operation?

Let say a company has 3 branches, branch A, B and C in 3 different physical location.

1) It is the same company (Registration of Company), but each branch to maintain separate Income, Cost and Profit in the P&L statement. In short, each branch act as independent profit and cost center.

2) User in the Branch A may not have access to the data from Branch B and C, such as customer, quotation, invoice, vendor bill, product, etc. One user may have access to one or more branches.

3) Each branch will have its own letterhead for the report, such as quotation, invoice, SOA, etc.

4) Each branch will have its own sequence for document running no, such as quotation, invoice, etc.

5) Each branch will access only it's relevant customer in the Partner Ageing report, Statement of Account, General Ledger, etc. On the other hand, top management may also wanted to see the financial reports as a single company.

What are the available options for multi-branches?

1) Multi-companies set up

This approach is to treat each branch as a different companies. See this link on how to set it up.

Pro:

a) Least customization and user will login to different company for each branch and automatically will inherit the separation of data, report, sequence, etc.

Cons:

a) It may not be easier to combine the view of the P&L, BS, Partner Ageing, etc, as a single company.

2) Analytic Tags as branches

This approach is using the analytic tags (Standard Accounting Function) as cost/profit center. However, high customization is necessary to add the analytic tags in the user set up and each module (sales order, invoice, lead, purchase order, partner, sequence, etc). Also required to customize the report pdf for the letterhead and add branch to sequence.

Pro:

a) In the financial perspective, it achieved the separation of P&L, BS, Partner Ageing (via Partner Tags), etc for each branch, and yet allow for a single company view of these financial reports.

Cons:

a) Highest customization.

3) Odoo App for multi-branch

There are a couple of Odoo Apps in the Odoo store.

Pro:

a) Support the set up of the user for branch and operation of the branches in CRM, Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Invoicing, etc.

Cons:

a) Not supporting the accounting report to have the individual branch P&L, BS, Partner Ageing, etc.