Accounting Taught on Odoo at EPHEC for Over 10 Years

For more than a decade, Odoo has been a key tool in teaching accounting at EPHEC, a university college in Belgium. Fabienne Bauduin, a professor at the Louvain-la-Neuve campus, explains how this initially bold decision has proven to be an excellent choice, adding a more practical and professional dimension to the courses.

Discover Odoo and the Education Program

In 2013, EPHEC’s accounting professors decided to adopt a broader view of business management by integrating ERP systems into their curriculum. Their focus turned to Odoo, a software that was still developing at the time. Despite mixed reviews, the professors believed that Odoo was perfectly suited for their target audience: students aiming to work primarily in small businesses, such as accounting firms or SMEs, which form the backbone of the Belgian economy.

Convinced of its potential, they took the bold step of incorporating Odoo into their program. This led to the introduction of a new course titled Introduction to Integrated Management Software, initially offered only to third-year students who had chosen the Management Skills Enhancement specialization.

Three years ago, EPHEC professors noticed that Odoo was gaining ground in the accounting sector, including within fiduciary firms. The software's accounting module had undergone significant improvements, making it more efficient and better adapted to the industry needs. This trend was evident as more and more students doing internships and alumni encountered Odoo in their daily work.

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We noticed that Odoo was making its way into the fiduciary sector, and it became clear that the course shouldn’t only target students envisioning careers as in-house accountants but also those aiming to work in fiduciary firms.

 Fabienne Bauduin - Accounting Teacher at EPHEC 

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In response, EPHEC professors revised their educational approach and created a new course mandatory for all third-year Accounting students: Reporting and Dashboards. This course is divided into 2 parts:

The course begins with a visit to Odoo’s offices in Louvain-la-Neuve. Students attend a lecture and meet EPHEC alumni now working at Odoo, who share their professional experiences. They also explore the LabOdoo, a truck converted into a mini-enterprise, offering an interactive immersion into the professional world.

The rest of the course is highly autonomous, with a one-hour session per week. After an initial introduction by the professor, students watch videos on managing purchases, sales, and their accounting implications. Later, a video conference session with the professor allows students to ask questions and clarify doubts.

2. Focus on Accounting and Reporting

The second part of the course follows a more traditional approach, starting with Power BI training for dashboard creation and then transitioning to Odoo as an accounting tool.

To make the sessions as realistic as possible, professors received training at Odoo and at its official partner, Idealys. They also collaborated with an Odoo Business Analyst to design an educational database representing a fictious company specializing in bike sales and repairs. This database includes two years of accounting records. Thanks to the database sharing tool, the database is copied each year by the students so that they can work in a personal environment.

During practical exercises, students upload invoices to Odoo and observe how AI handles new invoice entries. They gain hands-on experience in general and analytical accounting while learning to build accounting reports using Odoo’s integrated spreadsheet tools.

Create My Own Educational Database

The original course, Introduction to Integrated Management Software, remains available but has been adjusted to avoid overlap with the common course. Students who have chosen the Management Skills Enhancement now focus on production management in Odoo.

The pedagogy of this course reaches its peak in the final session, which consists of a complete role-playing exercise. Each student group assumes a specific role (e.g., seller, buyer, stock manager) within a fictional company. Spread across different rooms, they must collaborate to ensure the business runs smoothly. This exercise highlights the importance of communication and coordination in organizational success.

Professors express great satisfaction with Odoo, praising its user-friendliness and ease of use for students. They believe that combining traditional accounting software training with ERP exposure provides students with a well-rounded and ideal education​. Fabienne proudly notes that these young graduates enter the workforce equipped with the skills to transform the fiduciary sector.

Students, for their part, recognize that Odoo adds a new dimension to management and reporting compared to traditional accounting software. They also observe that more clients, eager to leverage Odoo for various functions, encourage their accountants to adopt it. This confirms the importance of mastering a broader perspective on accounting.

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