Most groups manage several subsidiaries under a holding company. Each subsidiary runs its own business activity but still forms part of the wider organisation.
Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) are different.
They are separate legal entities created for a single project or asset. Instead of operating as an ongoing business, an SPV acts as a container to hold risk, secure financing, or safeguard property.
This makes SPVs popular in real estate, investment, and intellectual property management. But it also makes them complex.
Each SPV requires its own accounting, compliance, and reporting setup. Managing one or two is easy; managing dozens or hundreds is not.
Odoo’s multi-company features turn this challenge into a structured process. New SPVs can be created with their own accounting and compliance settings while still being linked to the parent company for reporting and oversight.
Table of contents
Challenges in setting up and managing SPVs
Odoo’s multi-company features simplify implementing SPVs
Setting up and maintaining SPVs in Odoo
Standardise company templates to create SPVs in Odoo
Create SPVs manually or via automation in Odoo
3 examples of managing SPVs in Odoo
1. Consolidating accounting for real estate portfolios
2. Scaling in high-volume investment platforms (>1,000 SPVs)
What is an SPV?
An SPV is a legally separate entity created for a specific purpose.
It often holds assets, raises financing, or protects intellectual property. Unlike a normal subsidiary, an SPV usually has a narrow scope and may only exist for the duration of a single project.
For example, a real estate developer creates one SPV for each building. If one property faces legal or financial issues, the rest of the portfolio remains protected.
SPVs are widely used in real estate, investment funds, infrastructure projects, and intellectual property management.
They provide clarity and risk isolation, but they also create significant administrative overhead.
Challenges in setting up and managing SPVs
Creating an SPV is straightforward in theory, but difficult in practice. Companies face several recurring challenges:
Cost and complexity
Each SPV requires its own accounting, tax, and reporting setup. Scaling from a few entities to hundreds or thousands is expensive and error-prone.
Operational efficiency
As SPVs multiply, processes become fragmented. Coordinating activities across entities becomes harder and slows down growth.
Transparency
Without consolidation, it is difficult to give investors and stakeholders a clear view of performance. Disconnected systems delay reporting and complicate audits.
Compliance
Different jurisdictions bring different tax rules and filing obligations. Missing even small requirements exposes the group to fines and scrutiny.
Odoo’s multi-company features simplify implementing SPVs
Odoo provides a structured way to set up and manage SPVs at scale.
Each entity can be created as its own company with dedicated accounting and compliance settings, while remaining linked to the parent company.
With Odoo, companies can:
- Create new entities quickly without extensive manual setup
- Keep accounting separate while still consolidating results
- Keep risks separate while maintaining group control
- Use localisation packages for compliance with local tax rules
- Run inter-company transactions with automated reconciliation
- Produce consolidated group reports in real time.
This combination of financial separation and operational connection makes Odoo ideal for SPV strategies.
Setting up and maintaining SPVs in Odoo
For companies that manage many SPVs, the main challenge is consistency.
Each new entity must follow the same standards from day one. Manual setup is slow, prone to errors, and difficult to scale.
We developed a solution in Odoo that standardises and accelerates SPV creation.
Standardise company templates to create SPVs in Odoo
SPVs can be created from predefined templates. These templates include all essential accounting and localisation settings, such as:
- Odoo localisation package (basic accounting information based on country)
- Chart of accounts
- Taxes
- Tax positions
- Standard journals
- Payment terms
- Accounting configurations and settings
- Standard accounts.
This ensures every new SPV is aligned with group standards. The only manual steps are limited to essentials such as linking bank accounts.
Create SPVs manually or via automation in Odoo
There are two ways to create SPVs in Odoo using templates:
- Manual creation: Users enter master data, select a template, and configure bank accounts or approval flows
- Automated creation: For onboarding many SPVs, a script can import company data from Excel and apply templates automatically. Bank connectors and user access can then be activated step by step.
3 examples of managing SPVs in Odoo
SPVs take different shapes depending on the industry and purpose. In the following, we present examples from real projects that show how they are managed in practice.
1. Consolidating accounting for real estate portfolios
A property group needs to create one SPV per building.
Each asset is legally separate, so liabilities stay contained and co-ownership is clearly structured. At the same time, operating companies handle services like cleaning, rental management, and maintenance.
In Odoo, every property becomes its own company with localised accounting rules.
The parent company can still see the full portfolio through consolidated reports.
Inter-company features take care of charges for services, rents, and management fees across entities.
The result is a setup that works across borders and gives investors full transparency.
2. Scaling in high-volume investment platforms (>1,000 SPVs)
An investment platform needs to set up thousands of SPVs, one for each deal.
The model keeps every investment legally independent, but the administrative effort became overwhelming. Manual processes and outsourced accounting slowed everything down, raised costs, and blocked growth.
With Odoo, the platform brought everything into one central system.
New SPVs are generated automatically from templates, complete with tax rules and accounting settings.
Bank feeds flow directly into the system for real-time reconciliation.
Consolidated reporting keeps the big picture visible, while each entity remains compliant on its own.
This made it possible to scale without losing control.
3. Safekeeping intellectual property
Patents and trademarks are often a company’s most valuable assets.
But when they sit inside the operating business, they remain exposed to lawsuits or bankruptcy.
Many companies transfer them into SPVs to shield the IP, simplify licensing, and even secure financing.
Intel and Hewlett-Packard, for instance, created an SPV to hold the technology behind their IA-64 processors.
In Odoo, each IP SPV can be set up as its own company with dedicated asset accounts.
Licensing and royalty flows are managed through intercompany invoicing, while consolidated reports show the parent company the full picture of its IP’s value.
Audit or valuation data can be exported at any time, ensuring the assets stay protected and transparent.
Odoo makes SPV strategies standardised and scalable
SPVs are effective for isolating risk and structuring projects, but they introduce significant administrative effort.
Odoo reduces this effort by standardising creation, automating setup, and consolidating reporting.
What works for one SPV can be repeated for hundreds. Instead of slowing down growth, SPVs become a repeatable and scalable strategy supported by a single system.
Still got questions? Get in touch!
We’re an Odoo Gold Partner with experience in setting up multi-company environments for investment platforms, real estate portfolios, and intellectual property management.
If you’re creating new SPVs or need a centralised system to keep them aligned, our Odoo experts can support you.