Set a contact as a company or an individual in Odoo.

This guide shows how to mark a contact in Odoo as a company or as an individual, both on the contact form and in an import file, and explains why the option you expect may be missing. The short answer depends on your version. In Odoo 19 you pick Person or Company at the top of the contact form, and an import can set an Is a Company column. In Odoo 20, and in the 19.4 release used on Odoo Online, there is nothing to pick: Odoo sets the flag itself from two facts, whether the contact has a parent company and whether it has a real tax number.

It is for anyone who creates, imports or cleans up contacts, and was checked on Odoo 19, Odoo Online 19.4 and Odoo 20.

Before you start

• Find out which behaviour you have: open any contact. If a Person and Company choice sits above the name, you have the manual behaviour. If the empty name field reads Name (company or person) and there is no choice, Odoo calculates the flag. The calculated behaviour is in Odoo 20 and in Odoo Online 19.4. Online releases between 19.0 and 19.4 were not checked.
• Apps: Contacts. The same contact form also opens from Sales, CRM, Purchase and Accounting.
• Access rights: creating, editing and importing contacts needs edit rights on contacts. The Contact right set to Creation gives them. A user without that right, or a role from another app that grants it, can only read contacts.
• Terms used: the tax ID is the field for the contact's tax number. Odoo labels it after your company's country, for example VAT, TIN or GST/HST number. The parent company is the business a person is listed under. A localization is the country package that adds local tax and legal rules to Odoo.

Odoo 19: choose Person or Company

1. Open the Contacts app and click New, or open an existing contact.
2. Above the name, select Company or Person. For a person, a Company field appears where you pick the business they work for, along with a Job Position field.
3. Save the contact.

To set it in an import, add a column called Is a Company and fill it with True for businesses and False for people. To link people to their business, add a Related Company column holding the company's name exactly as it appears in Odoo. Import the companies first and the people in a second file, so that the company names already exist when Odoo looks them up.

Odoo 20: how Odoo decides for you

In Odoo 20 the Is a Company flag is calculated and read-only. A contact counts as a company only when both conditions hold:

• it has no parent company, so it sits at the top level;
• its tax ID holds a real number. An empty field, "/", "na" and "NA" all count as no tax ID.

Every other contact is treated as an individual. Because the flag is calculated, you cannot tick it on the form, and the import screen does not list an Is a Company field to match a column to. Odoo Online 19.4 uses the same rule.

Two side effects follow. First, a company and the people listed under it share one tax ID. Odoo copies the company's number down to its people, and a number typed on one of those people is copied up to the company, so the parent then counts as a company too. Second, a business with no tax ID cannot carry the flag in standard Odoo. It can still be the customer on a quotation, and a contact tag can mark it as a business.

Odoo 20: set a contact either way

1. Open the Contacts app and open the contact.
2. To make it a company, leave the parent company field empty. It is the field under the name that reads Company Employer when empty. Then enter the business's number in the tax ID field.
3. To make it an individual, either clear the tax ID or choose their employer in the Company Employer field.
4. Save the contact.

In an import file, give every business row its tax number and leave Related Company empty. Give every person row a Related Company and no tax number of their own, since Odoo copies the company's number to them. Drop any Is a Company column, because it has nothing to match.

Italian contacts follow the Codice Fiscale

Several country localizations in Odoo 20 apply their own legal definition of a company. Italy is one. For a contact whose country is Italy and whose tax ID is filled in, the flag comes from the Codice Fiscale field, the Italian tax code. An 11-character code, the business format, makes it a company. A 16-character personal code makes it an individual. If the Codice Fiscale is empty, the contact stays an individual even with a VAT number. Odoo Online 19.4 behaves the same way.

When you type a VAT number on an Italian contact in the form, Odoo fills Codice Fiscale from it. That only happens while you edit on screen, not during an import, so an imported Italian business with only a VAT number stays an individual. Add a Codice Fiscale column to the file and give each Italian business its 11-digit partita IVA, the Italian VAT number. Odoo checks every code and refuses one that is neither a valid personal code nor a valid partita IVA. On the form, Codice Fiscale only shows when your company's fiscal country is Italy, and it is hidden on contacts that have a parent company.

Check that it worked

1. Open the Contacts app and switch to the list view.
2. In Odoo 19, open the search options and apply the Companies filter, then the Persons filter. Each business should appear under Companies and each person under Persons.
3. In Odoo 20, open the search options, and in the Group By column choose Is a Company from the Custom Group list. Every business with a real tax number and no parent company should land in the company group.
4. If an Italian business is in the wrong group, open it and check that Codice Fiscale holds its 11-digit code.

Common mistakes to check first

• Using "/" as a tax number. Odoo reads "/" as no tax ID, so in Odoo 20 it never makes a business a company.
• Importing a business under a parent. The standard rule treats any contact with a parent company as an individual, whatever else is on the record.

Steps verified on Odoo 19 and 20. Menus and labels can differ on other versions.

Common questions

Why can I not tick Is a Company on a contact in Odoo 20?

In Odoo 20 the Is a Company flag is calculated and read-only. A contact is a company when it has no parent company and its tax ID holds a real number rather than being empty or a placeholder such as "/".

How do I import contacts as companies in Odoo 19?

Add an Is a Company column to the import file with True for businesses and False for people. Use a Related Company column to link people to a company that already exists in Odoo.

How do I import contacts as companies in Odoo 20?

Leave out the Is a Company column, because the import screen does not offer that field. Give each business its tax number and no Related Company, and Odoo flags it as a company on its own.

Why are Italian companies imported into Odoo shown as individuals?

For Italian contacts with a tax ID, Odoo sets the flag from the Codice Fiscale field: 11 characters means a company. The form copies the VAT number into Codice Fiscale while you type, but an import does not, so add a Codice Fiscale column to the file.

Can a business without a tax number be a company in Odoo 20?

Not in standard Odoo, because the calculated flag needs a real tax number. The business can still be chosen as a customer on quotations, and a contact tag can mark it as a business.