Track staff advances and petty cash per employee, with real journal entries
Employee Custody is an Odoo 19 Enterprise app for staff custody and petty-cash advances, with a monthly custody record per employee and opening and closing balances. Every issue and return posts a real journal entry, and staff can pay expenses from their custody through a safe Expenses integration.
Petty cash and staff advances are easy to hand out and hard to account for. Without a proper record, nobody can say how much cash each employee still holds, returns and spending get booked late or not at all, and expenses paid from an advance end up mixed with normal reimbursements. Auditors then ask for a trail from the balance to each journal item that does not exist.
What it does
Monthly custody per employee
Keep one custody record per employee per month, with the opening balance carried forward and a closing balance.
Post controlled custody issues and cash returns as real accounting entries.
Use a shared custody account with partner-based separation on the journal items.
Expenses paid from custody
Let staff pay expenses from their custody through a custody-paid expense flow that keeps native company and reimbursable behaviour intact.
See the settled expenses read-only, linked to the posted expense records.
Accounts and dashboard
Set an optional custody account per partner, with a company-level default account as fallback.
See every employee's custody balance on a custody dashboard.
Traceability and security
Follow a clean audit trail from the custody balance to each journal item.
Control access with dedicated access groups and record rules, in multi-company databases too.
The custody dashboard with balances across employees. Illustration from the store listing.Custody transactions: issues, expenses and returns, each posted. Illustration from the store listing.
Who it is for
Finance teams that manage staff advances and petty cash.
Companies where employees spend from a standing custody or float.
Organisations that need clean accounting traceability for cash handed to staff.
Multi-company businesses with per-partner custody accounts.
Not a fit when:
Databases on Odoo Online (SaaS), which cannot install third-party apps.
Odoo Community: the app is built and tested for Odoo 19 Enterprise.
Buy Employee Custody on the Odoo Apps Store for Odoo 19.0.
Add the module to your Odoo.sh project or to the addons path of your on-premise server.
Update the apps list in Odoo and install Employee Custody. Employees, Expenses, Invoicing and Discuss are installed with it if they are missing.
Odoo Online (SaaS) does not allow third-party apps, so Employee Custody cannot be installed there. Use Odoo.sh or an on-premise Odoo 19 database.
Configure
Set the company-level default custody account.
Where an employee needs a separate account, set the optional custody account on that partner.
Give finance users the custody access groups they need.
Setting
What it does
Default custody account
Company-level account used for custody when no partner-specific account is set.
Partner custody account
Optional override on a partner, for an employee who needs their own custody account.
Access groups
Dedicated groups and record rules that control who can see and manage custody.
How to use it
Open the month
Create a custody record for the employee for the month.
Check the opening balance, carried forward from the previous month.
Issue, return and settle
Record a custody issue when cash is handed to the employee.
Record a cash return when the employee gives money back.
Settle expenses the employee paid from custody. Each of these steps posts a journal entry.
Close and carry forward
Review the closing balance on the custody dashboard.
Start the next month; the closing balance carries forward as its opening balance.
Limits
It is built and tested for Odoo 19 Enterprise and depends on Employees, Expenses and Invoicing.
It cannot be installed on Odoo Online (SaaS).
Settled expenses are shown read-only on the custody; they are managed in Expenses.
Frequently asked questions
How do I manage employee advances and petty cash in Odoo?
Employee Custody gives each employee a monthly custody record with opening and closing balances. You record custody issues and cash returns, each posting a journal entry, and the closing balance carries forward to the next month.
Can employees pay expenses from their custody in Odoo?
Yes. Employee Custody adds a custody-paid expense flow that keeps Odoo's native company and reimbursable logic intact, with read-only traceability to the posted expense.
How is each employee's custody kept separate?
Custody uses partner-based separation on the journal items of a shared custody account. You can also set a custody account per partner, with a company-level default as fallback.
Does Employee Custody post real accounting entries?
Yes. Every custody issue and cash return posts a journal entry, so you can trace each balance back to its journal items.
Is Employee Custody multi-company aware?
Yes. Custody accounts, sequences and records are multi-company aware, and access is controlled by dedicated groups and record rules.
Which Odoo versions and editions does Employee Custody support?
It is built and tested for Odoo 19 Enterprise, on-premise and on Odoo.sh. Odoo Online cannot install third-party apps. You pay once per Odoo major version and get 90 days of free support.
