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Multi-Branch Setup

YGC's multi-branch deployments use Odoo's multi-company feature with parent/child company hierarchy. Each branch is a child company of the holding entity. This page documents the target architecture; see the migration runbooks for the path from current to target state at Baywaters.

Architecture​

Parent Company (e.g., Baywaters Corp.)
├── Branch 1 (e.g., Shawarma Shacks (Petron))
├── Branch 2 (e.g., Potato Corner (Caltex))
├── ...
└── Branch N

Set via res_company.parent_id. Users can be assigned to multiple companies; their active company determines which records they see by default.

Journal isolation per branch​

Each branch gets its own journal set. Sharing journals across branches causes:

  • Sequence collisions when multiple branches post on the same date
  • Date/sequence validation errors when drafts persist across months
  • Reporting ambiguity (which branch did this entry belong to?)

Journal codes​

Odoo 17's account.journal.code is varchar(5) (silently truncates past 5 chars). Use a 2-letter prefix + 3-letter suffix with no separator:

<XX>INV    (Customer Invoices)
<XX>BIL    (Vendor Bills)
<XX>MSC    (Miscellaneous)
<XX>CSH    (Cash)
<XX>BNK    (Bank — only if branch has dedicated bank account)

Where <XX> is the 2-letter branch code (e.g., PC for Potato Corner Caltex). The parent company keeps INV, BILL, MISC, etc.

Move naming follows automatically​

With code = 'PCMSC', posted entries are named PCMSC/2026/04/0001 automatically. No manual sequence configuration needed.

Chart of accounts: shared, not duplicated​

YGC uses a single shared CoA across the parent and all branches. Branch-specific differentiation goes through:

  1. Analytic accounts per branch — preferred for revenue/expense splits
  2. Sub-accounts for physically branch-specific cash/bank/receivable/payable accounts (e.g., 1010-PC Cash on Hand – Potato Corner)

Avoid duplicating the entire CoA per branch — it makes consolidated financial statements painful and breaks the OCA reconciliation modules used elsewhere in YGC.

Security: hide parent journals from branch users​

Once branch journals exist, restrict branch accounting users so they don't see the parent's journals:

# Verify Odoo's built-in ir.rule on account.journal already filters by company:
SELECT name, model_id, domain_force FROM ir_rule
WHERE model_id IN (SELECT id FROM ir_model WHERE model = 'account.journal');

If journal.company_id = branch_company_id, the built-in multi-company rule handles isolation. No custom rules needed.

User assignments​

For each accounting user:

  • Allowed Companies = the branches they handle (could be multiple)
  • Default Company = their primary branch

Branch managers may have access to all child companies; the parent's accounting team has access to everything.

Reports across branches​

YGC reports must filter on company_id. The standard Odoo financial reports respect the active company; consolidated reports across branches use the multi-company filter at the top of the screen.

For custom reports in red17_base_accounting or per-company addons, ensure all queries include:

domain += [('company_id', 'in', self.env.companies.ids)]

When NOT to use this pattern​

  • Single legal entity with departments — use analytic accounts only, not multi-company
  • Branches that share VAT/BIR registration — multi-company with the same VAT may complicate BIR reporting; consult tax advisor
  • Very small branch counts (1–2) — overhead may not be worth it; analytic accounts could be enough