Implementing Company-Specific Sequences in Odoo 19: A Complete Developer Guide
By Braincuber Team
Published on December 14, 2025
When managing multiple companies in Odoo 19, maintaining separate and organized numbering systems for documents like invoices, sales orders, and purchase orders is crucial. This tutorial provides a comprehensive guide to implementing company-specific sequences that ensure each business entity has its own independent numbering scheme.
Why Company-Wise Sequences Matter
In a multi-company Odoo environment, having distinct sequences for each company helps with:
- Clear identification - Instantly know which company a document belongs to
- Regulatory compliance - Meet legal requirements for separate numbering
- Audit trails - Maintain clean, company-specific document histories
- Avoiding conflicts - Prevent duplicate numbers across companies
Step 1: Define the Model
First, create your model with a field that will store the sequence number and link it to a company:
from odoo import models, fields, api
class CompanyDocument(models.Model):
_name = 'company.document'
_description = 'Company Document with Sequence'
name = fields.Char(
string='Reference',
required=True,
copy=False,
readonly=True,
default='New'
)
company_id = fields.Many2one(
'res.company',
string='Company',
required=True,
default=lambda self: self.env.company
)
description = fields.Text('Description')
date = fields.Date('Date', default=fields.Date.today)
@api.model
def create(self, vals):
if vals.get('name', 'New') == 'New':
company_id = vals.get('company_id') or self.env.company.id
vals['name'] = self.env['ir.sequence'].with_company(
company_id
).next_by_code('company.document') or 'New'
return super().create(vals)Step 2: Define the Sequence in XML
Create the sequence definition in your module's data file. The key is setting company_id to False initially, then creating company-specific sequences:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<odoo>
<data noupdate="1">
<!-- Base sequence (template) -->
<record id="seq_company_document" model="ir.sequence">
<field name="name">Company Document Sequence</field>
<field name="code">company.document</field>
<field name="prefix">DOC/%(year)s/</field>
<field name="padding">5</field>
<field name="company_id" eval="False"/>
</record>
<!-- Company A specific sequence -->
<record id="seq_company_document_company_a" model="ir.sequence">
<field name="name">Company A Document Sequence</field>
<field name="code">company.document</field>
<field name="prefix">COMP-A/%(year)s/</field>
<field name="padding">5</field>
<field name="company_id" ref="base.main_company"/>
</record>
</data>
</odoo>Step 3: Using with_company() Method
The with_company() method is crucial for fetching the correct sequence:
# Get sequence for specific company
sequence = self.env['ir.sequence'].with_company(company_id).next_by_code('company.document')
# Or use the current user's company
sequence = self.env['ir.sequence'].next_by_code('company.document')Best Practices
- Use meaningful prefixes - Include company codes or abbreviations in prefixes
- Include year/month in sequences - Helps with document organization
- Set appropriate padding - Ensure enough digits for your volume
- Test with multiple companies - Verify sequences work correctly across all companies
- Handle edge cases - What happens when company_id is not set?
Conclusion
Implementing company-wise sequences in Odoo 19 is straightforward once you understand the pattern. By using the with_company() method and properly configuring your sequences, you can maintain clean, organized numbering across all your business entities.
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