Cases
Import/export companies
Purchasing, inventory, logistics and currencies, calculated automatically.
- Purchasing
- Inventory
- Sales
- Accounting (multi-currency)
Example: a trading company importing goods from Asia
Trading company Maritiem Trade buys goods from suppliers in Asia, pays in dollars and sells in euros to European customers. Here's how Odoo automatically handles currency, freight and customs costs.
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1. Purchasing in foreign currency
The purchase order with the supplier in Asia is in dollars — Odoo automatically converts it at that day's exchange rate.
Item Qty Price (USD) Price (EUR, today) Office chair model X 500 $42.00 €38.64 Desk model Y 200 $68.00 €62.56 -
2. Freight and customs costs in the cost price
Freight costs and import duties are automatically spread across the received products through landed costs, so the real cost price per product is accurate — not just the purchase price.
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3. Receipt and stock
On arrival, the shipment is received into Inventory and immediately available for sale, with the correct cost price behind it.
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4. Selling in euros
Customers in Europe order and pay in euros — Odoo automatically tracks the margin, even if the dollar rate has moved since purchasing. Maritiem Trade also operates through two of its own legal entities — a purchasing entity in the Netherlands and a sales entity in Germany. Odoo handles the intercompany sale automatically: the purchase in one company's books and the sale in the other's are posted simultaneously, including the matching stock movement, with nobody entering it twice.
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5. Accounting and exchange differences
Exchange gains and losses are posted automatically in Accounting, with no manual currency calculations afterwards.
The result
Purchasing, freight and customs costs, inventory and sales all run through different currencies — and the margin per product still adds up. A link with a specific freight forwarder's system is a good fit for custom work.