Connect Odoo to Power BI: real-time dashboards from your ERP.

Most companies on Odoo already have their numbers in one place. The question is where they look at them. Finance teams often build their reporting in Power BI, next to data from other systems, and Odoo has to feed it.

This post shows the routes from Odoo to Power BI, what each one needs, and when Odoo's own reporting is enough.

Start with what Odoo already reports.

Every Odoo app has reporting views with pivot tables and graphs. In Odoo Spreadsheet, you insert those pivots, graphs and lists into a spreadsheet. The data stays up to date with the database: reopening the spreadsheet reloads it.

For reporting on Odoo data alone, that is often enough. Power BI earns its place when you combine Odoo with other sources, or when your group already reports in Power BI.

Three routes from Odoo to Power BI.

1. Directly on the database.

Odoo stores its data in PostgreSQL, and Power BI has a standard PostgreSQL connector with two modes: Import and DirectQuery. With DirectQuery, Power BI queries the database live instead of importing a copy. That is the route to real-time dashboards. A connection from the Power BI service runs through an on-premises or virtual network data gateway.

This route needs access to the database itself, which you have when you host Odoo yourself. Give Power BI its own read-only database user.

2. Through the Odoo API.

Odoo's External API gives other systems access to Odoo data. On Odoo Online, the External API is part of the Custom plan, not of One App Free or Standard. Since Odoo 19, the JSON-2 API is the successor to the older XML-RPC and JSON-RPC endpoints, so a new connection best starts there.

Between the API and Power BI sits a connector: one of the third-party Power BI connectors on the Odoo Apps Store, or an extraction built for your setup. Power BI then refreshes the data on a schedule.

3. Through a data warehouse.

When Odoo is one of several sources, a data warehouse sits between them and Power BI. Odoo data lands there next to the data from your webshop, your production software or your other entities, and Power BI reports on the combined set.

Which route fits?

• Reporting on Odoo data alone: start with Odoo's own reporting views and Spreadsheet.

• Live dashboards, with Odoo hosted on your own servers: the database, with DirectQuery.

• Odoo Online: the External API on the Custom plan, with a scheduled refresh.

• Several systems or entities: a data warehouse.

Why Dynapps?

We connect Odoo to Power BI, PostgreSQL and data warehouses. We build those connections with Odoo's own API framework, so the data flows reliably instead of through fragile middleware. Custom connections follow Odoo best practices, so they keep working at the next version release. The people who build your integration also maintain it. As an Odoo Gold partner with 280+ Odoo experts, we start from the reports you need and work back to the route.