First question: what are your books in today?
| If your books are in… | What that means | What we suggest |
|---|---|---|
| Odoo already | You're who this page is for. | Start with a Health Check, then clean-up or catch-up if needed, then monthly bookkeeping in Odoo. |
| Xero or MYOB, and it's straining | The system is the problem before the books are. | Talk to WAO Group about Odoo first. We clean up your Xero or MYOB data before it moves, then keep the books in Odoo. |
| Xero or MYOB, and it's working | You probably don't need us yet. | Stay where you are. Come back when the business outgrows it. |
What does Odoo bookkeeping actually mean?
Odoo bookkeeping means the books are kept inside your Odoo database, using Odoo's own accounting workflows, rather than exported to a separate bookkeeping tool. The bank feed is reconciled in Odoo. Supplier bills go through the purchase and receipt workflow. Month-end journals are posted with Odoo's own tools, so the audit trail stays in one place.
Because Odoo also runs your sales, stock, projects and payroll, accounting touches every module. Stock valuation and cost of goods sold come from inventory. Job costing comes from timesheets and projects. A bookkeeper who understands those modules can trace a number back to the operation that created it.
What changes at month-end and BAS time when the books live in your operating system?
Month-end gets shorter because nothing has to be re-entered or reconciled between two systems. Sales, purchases and stock movements are already in the ledger when they happen. Month-end becomes review and adjustment, not data collection.
At BAS time, GST is coded on each transaction as it's entered, so the figures your BAS agent works from come straight from the ledger. They don't have to be reconstructed from a spreadsheet.
What does it cost to keep your books in a separate tool?
Keeping books in a separate tool costs you in three ways: double handling, reconciliation between systems, and numbers you can't trace. Every invoice, bill and stock movement exists twice and has to agree. When they don't, someone spends time finding out why. And when a margin looks wrong, there's no direct line from the ledger back to the order, receipt or timesheet behind it.
Do you need this if you're already on Odoo?
Yes, if your Odoo accounting isn't being kept by someone who knows Odoo. Common signs:
- Bank reconciliation is weeks or months behind.
- The bookkeeper exports to a spreadsheet, or to another package, to do the work.
- Suspense or clearing accounts keep growing.
- Stock valuation in the balance sheet doesn't match the stock report.
- GST codes were set up at go-live and nobody has checked them since.
If none of these apply and month-end is on time, you may not need us. The Health Check will tell you either way.
What if you're not on Odoo yet?
If you're on Xero or MYOB and it's straining, the system comes first and the books second. WAO Group implements Odoo; once you're running in it, WAO Business takes on the books, with a clean-up of the migrated data as the first step. If your current system is working, stay on it.
What is an Odoo clean-up?
An Odoo clean-up puts an existing Odoo ledger back into a state you can rely on. It typically covers:
- unreconciled bank lines and unmatched payments;
- suspense, clearing and opening-balance accounts left over from go-live or migration;
- duplicate customers, suppliers and products;
- GST and tax-code mapping;
- stock valuation that doesn't agree with the stock on hand;
- the chart of accounts, where it has drifted from how the business actually reports.
The result is a ledger that agrees with the bank, the stock and the tax codes, with each correction documented.
What is Odoo catch-up bookkeeping?
Catch-up bookkeeping brings a ledger that is months behind up to date: bank feeds reconciled, bills and invoices posted, and month-end closed for each period in order. Once it's current, it can move straight into monthly bookkeeping.
Clean-up before migrating, and before AI
- Before migrating to Odoo: moving messy data into a new system moves the mess with it. Cleaning first makes the opening balances in Odoo worth trusting.
- Before AI: AI is only as good as the books under it. Forecasting, reporting or automation built on an unreconciled ledger produces confident wrong answers. Clean, current books come first.
How it works
- Finance Health Check. Recommended, and where most clients start: a fixed-price, read-only review of your Odoo accounting, from $995, with a written report in five business days. It tells you what's wrong, what it's costing you and what to fix first. See the Finance Health Check
- Clean-up or catch-up, if needed. Quoted from the Health Check findings, so the scope is fixed before work starts.
- Monthly bookkeeping in Odoo. Ongoing bookkeeping through BookSmart, on fixed monthly tiers.
If your books are already clean and current, you can go straight to monthly bookkeeping after a free discovery call.
Why the team that builds the system should keep the books
WAO Business is part of WAO Group, the Odoo implementation partner. The group builds the system, WAO Business keeps the books inside it, and the group builds what comes next on top of those numbers. When a problem in the books is really a problem in the configuration, the same group can fix both.
WAO Group: Winner, Odoo Customer Choice Award (ANZ) 2026 · Odoo Gold Partner in 2025 and 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work inside our existing Odoo database?
Yes. We work in your Odoo instance with the user access you grant. Nothing is exported to another bookkeeping package.
Which versions of Odoo do you work with?
Odoo Enterprise, whether it's hosted on Odoo Online, Odoo.sh or your own servers. If you run Odoo Community, we'll tell you after a Health Check whether we can take it on.
Do you lodge our BAS?
No. Lodgement stays with you or your registered BAS agent. We keep the GST coding in the ledger accurate so the figures they work from are right.
How long does a clean-up take?
It depends on how far behind the ledger is and what the Health Check finds. The clean-up is quoted with a fixed scope before any work starts.
We use Xero. Can you still help?
If Xero is working for you, you probably don't need us yet. If it's straining, the first step is the system: WAO Group moves you to Odoo, we clean up your Xero data before it's migrated, and then we keep the books in Odoo.
Is this the same team that implemented our Odoo?
WAO Business is part of WAO Group, the Odoo implementation partner. If your system was implemented by another partner, we can still keep the books in it.
What does this have to do with AI?
AI tools for finance read your ledger. If the ledger is wrong or out of date, so are their answers. Clean, current books in Odoo are the starting point for any AI work.