BIR rules for multi-branch businesses, and how Odoo handles branches

Opening a second branch doubles more than your sales. It brings a second registration, a second invoice series and often a second revenue district office. When each branch keeps its own spreadsheet, head office spends the first weeks of every quarter stitching them together. This guide sets out how the BIR treats branches and how Odoo keeps them in one database.

Registration: one TIN, many branches

• A COR for each site. RR 7-2024 says each head office, branch and facility is issued its own Certificate of Registration, displayed at that site.
• Branch codes. Branches use the company's nine-digit TIN plus a branch code. The head office code is all zeros. Older BIR systems used three digits; RMC 36-2026 (April 2026) widened the branch code to five digits on all tax returns in eBIRForms.
• Each branch has an RDO. A branch is registered with the RDO where it is located, and has its own branch account in ORUS, the BIR's Online Registration and Update System, to update its registration, apply for authority to print and register its books (RMC 10-2024).
• Moving a branch is done by filing BIR Form 1905 (RMC 91-2024).

Invoices per branch

Each branch issues invoices that show its own branch code and address. In practice the head office and each branch keep their own invoice serial numbers under their own authority to print; check the current requirement for your invoices with your RDO. Under the EOPT Act, VAT-registered sellers issue an invoice for every sale, and any converted official receipts may be used until they run out (RR 11-2024). Since RR 6-2026 (in force 16 October 2026), invoices must also show any creditable withholding tax as a separate item. For the full list of what an invoice must show, see EOPT invoice requirements.

Returns: what is consolidated and what is not

Since the EOPT Act (RR 4-2024) you can file and pay anywhere, whatever the RDO, and the old penalty for filing at the wrong venue is gone.

E-invoicing with branches

RMC 98-2026 says the head office and every branch of a covered taxpayer must issue e-invoices by 31 December 2026. The Permit to Issue (PTI) works like this, according to published summaries:

• Branches on the same invoicing system share the head office's PTI number.
• A branch on a different system needs a separate PTI.
• A new branch on an approved system needs no new PTI number, but you must notify the BIR.

One system across all branches is the simplest path. Read the full BIR e-invoicing guide for who is covered.

How Odoo handles branches

Odoo has a branches feature, set up on the parent company's record. According to Odoo's documentation:

• The parent's chart of accounts, currency and taxes apply to all branches, and branches always follow the parent's fiscal localisation.
• Each branch can have its own journals, so each can keep its own invoice series.
• Each branch carries its own legal details. In the Philippine localisation, the branch code comes from the last digits of the TIN, and the RDO code sits on the company record.
• A branch user sees only that branch. The parent sees all branches and gets consolidated reports.
• Branches inherit the parent's lock dates and can set earlier ones.

Odoo lets branches share the parent's VAT number or have their own, which gives a common or a separate VAT return. Because VAT is filed once for the company, set up the branches so the parent's 2550Q report covers all of them, and check it in a test run before your first quarter-end. Separate legal entities, such as a sister company with its own TIN, are set up as separate companies in the same database instead.

Setting it up

1. List every registered site with its branch code, RDO and COR.
2. Create a branch in Odoo per site, with its legal details.
3. Give each branch its own sales journal so its invoices run in their own series.
4. Set user access so branch staff work only in their branch.
5. Decide how you file withholding (per branch or consolidated) and set the reports to match.
6. Plan e-invoicing for all branches together, on one system.

You don't need to hire your own team. A TechNext adviser maps your branches and registrations first, then our team in Taguig City sets up Odoo so each branch invoices on its own and head office sees one set of numbers. See Odoo in the Philippines.

Sources

• RA 11976 (EOPT Act) and the Tax Code, Section 114
• Grant Thornton: registration under RR 7-2024 and RMC 91-2024
• Grant Thornton: invoicing under RR 7-2024 and RR 11-2024
• PwC: RMC 36-2026, five-digit branch codes and KPMG: RMC 10-2024, ORUS branch accounts
• BIR Form 1604-E instructions (separate or consolidated withholding returns)
• Grant Thornton: RMC 98-2026 and Reyes Tacandong: PTI rules for branches
• Odoo documentation: companies and branches, branch accounting, Philippine localisation

Common questions