Odoo and Google Workspace

What is native, verified

Checked against the Odoo 19 addons rather than from memory, because this has changed:

• google_calendar, in Community. Two-way meeting sync.
• google_gmail, in Community. OAuth authentication for outgoing mail.
• google_drive, absent in v19, both editions.
• google_spreadsheet, absent in v19, both editions.

Those last two matter. Older Odoo versions had Drive and Spreadsheet modules, and a lot of published guidance still assumes them. Planning a v19 project around a Drive module means planning around something that is not there.

Calendar

The most used of the group, and it works well once configured.

Setup is OAuth: create credentials in Google Cloud, authorise Odoo, and each user connects their own account. That per-user step is the part that gets missed in rollouts, because an administrator configuring it once sees it working and assumes everyone is done.

Two behaviours worth knowing before you promise anything. Sync is per user, so an event created by someone who has not connected their account does not appear in Google. And it syncs meetings, not everything: Odoo activities, which are the to-do reminders on records, are a different concept and do not become calendar events.

Gmail and outgoing mail

google_gmail exists because Google restricted basic password authentication for most accounts. It authenticates via OAuth instead of a stored password.

Practical notes that save time. Sending through a personal Gmail account carries Google's sending limits, which are low for anything resembling a campaign, so transactional mail is fine and bulk mail is not. And deliverability still depends on the usual DNS records being correct for the sending domain, which the module does not do for you.

For anything at volume, a dedicated mail service is the right answer regardless of Workspace.

Drive and Sheets, now that the modules are gone

If document storage in Drive is a requirement, the options in v19 are Odoo's own attachments, Enterprise Documents, or a third-party connector from the Apps Store.

Before choosing, ask what the requirement actually is. "We keep files in Drive" is often habit rather than need, and files attached to the record they relate to, which is what Odoo attachments give you, is usually better than files in a folder structure someone has to maintain.

For Sheets, the honest question is what the spreadsheet is doing. Most Odoo-to-Sheets requests are reporting, and reporting is better served by Odoo's pivot and list views, or by a proper BI tool if the data needs combining with other sources. Exporting to a spreadsheet so somebody can pivot it is a pattern worth challenging rather than automating.

Where a genuine Sheets workflow exists, an export or a small custom integration against the Sheets API is the route, and it is a build rather than a setting.

Single sign-on

Odoo supports OAuth authentication, so users can sign in with their Google account rather than a separate password.

Worth enabling for the ordinary reasons: one fewer credential, and access revocation actually works, because disabling the Google account closes the Odoo door too. On any deployment where staff turnover matters, that second point is the real argument.

Scope the credentials narrowly

Whatever you connect gets an OAuth grant, and grants persist until revoked.

Request the minimum scopes each integration needs, and keep them separate rather than creating one credential with every permission because it was convenient. A calendar integration does not need mail access, and an integration compromise is bounded by whatever you granted it, which is the general principle in integration mistakes.

The equivalent Microsoft setup is covered in Odoo and Microsoft 365, and it maps closely.