Upgrading to Odoo 19 can bring real gains: faster performance, a cleaner interface, and deeper AI features across Sales, Accounting, and Inventory. But a migration that isn't planned properly can turn into days of firefighting instead of a smooth transition. Here's the checklist I walk clients through before any Odoo 19 upgrade. 1. Audit your current setup Before touching anything, get a full picture of what you're actually running. List every installed module, standard, third-party, and custom, and note which ones you actually still use. It's common to find modules that were installed once and forgotten. This is also the time to document your customizations and, importantly, why each one was made. That context matters later when deciding what's worth carrying forward. 2. Take a complete backup This step is non-negotiable. Create a full backup of your database and file store, and actually test that the restore works before you rely on it. A backup you've n...
Spreadsheets are great, until they're not. Most businesses start with a handful of Excel or Google Sheets files, and honestly, that's the right call early on. But there's a point where spreadsheets stop saving you time and start costing you money, mistakes, and hours you don't have. Here are five signs you've hit that point, and what to actually do about it. 1. You're copying the same data into multiple places If a new order means updating a sales sheet, then manually typing it into an invoicing tool, then updating a separate inventory list, you're not managing a business anymore. You're managing spreadsheets. Every manual re-entry is a chance for a typo, a missed update, or a number that doesn't match somewhere else. An ERP fixes this by connecting these functions. A confirmed sale in a tool like Odoo CRM can automatically update inventory and trigger an invoice, with zero re-typing. 2. Nobody's sure which version of the file is correc...