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Five Mistakes You Must Avoid While Upgrading Odoo (Even If You’re Working With Experts)


Ascetic Business Solution   

     

Dear Odooers,

Upgrading Odoo is not just about moving from an older version to a shiny new one. It is a business evolution process. When done right, the upgrade gives you better performance, new AI capabilities, smoother workflows, better UI, and more efficient teams.

But… When done wrong, it can bring frustration, data issues, and unexpected downtime.

Over the past years, working with companies across the USA, Europe, and India, we have noticed five common mistakes that organizations repeat during Odoo upgrades. If you avoid these, your journey becomes much smoother.

Let’s go through them.

1. Treating the Upgrade as a Technical Task Only

Many think:

“Upgrading is just updating the software.”

But an Odoo upgrade affects:

  • Processes
  • Workflows
  • User habits
  • Reporting format

If your team doesn’t adapt parallelly, the system will feel unfamiliar and confusing.

✅ Treat the upgrade as a business improvement project, not just an IT job.

✅ Update SOPs.

✅ Communicate the changes early.

2. Not Reviewing Existing Customization

Over the years, teams ask developers: “Can you customize this?” “Yes.” “Add another?” “Yes.”

Result? A customization web that no one remembers why.

During upgrade:

  • Many custom features are no longer needed.
  • Some are now already available in the new version as standard features.
  • Some are slowing down performance.

✅ Audit every customization

✅ Keep only what is still necessary

✅ Replace where Odoo now has a better standard alternative

This alone reduces upgrade complexity by 30-70 percent.

3. Not Involving End Users Early

Often leadership and technical teams manage the upgrade quietly. Then suddenly they announce:

“Team, from Monday we are on Odoo v19. Good luck!”

This is how you get:

  • User frustration
  • Resistance
  • Low adoption

✅ Involve users from Day 1

✅ Let them test early

✅ Ask feedback

✅ Train slowly

When users feel ownership, they become your biggest supporters.

4. Skipping Data Clean-Up Before Upgrade

Old data = Old mistakes If you carry it as-is into the new system, it comes back in a bigger shape.

Examples:

  • Duplicate customer entries
  • Unreconciled accounts
  • Open orders that are actually closed
  • Old master data never maintained

✅ Clean data before upgrade

✅ Validate master data

✅ Close irrelevant entries

Good data is half the upgrade success.

5. Not Testing Enough Before Go-Live

One of the biggest mistakes is rushing. Teams get excited, deadlines push forward, and testing becomes “we’ll check later.”

But later becomes too late.

✅ Create a real business test environment

✅ Test:

  • Workflows
  • Reports
  • Tax scenarios
  • Integrations
  • User roles & restrictions

Small things break workflows. Testing avoids disruptions.

Final Thoughts

Upgrading Odoo is an investment into your future efficiency. If you avoid these five mistakes, your upgrade becomes:

⭐ Faster

⭐ Smoother

⭐ Cost-efficient in long run

⭐ User-friendly

⭐ Ready for new AI capabilities in v19 and beyond

And remember: Upgrading Odoo means upgrading how your business works. Not just your software.

If you are planning to upgrade soon

We are always happy to guide you with:

  • Upgrade strategy
  • Customization audit
  • User training plan
  • Odoo.sh upgrade readiness
  • Testing & validation framework

See you in the next edition!