Odoo in Arabic: Bilingual Invoices, RTL Screens and Reports for UAE Companies

Why Arabic in Odoo often looks half-finished

Arabic support in Odoo is spread across three layers, and most problems come from setting up one layer and assuming the rest follows:

• The language: installed once, then chosen per user (for screens) and per customer (for documents).
• The invoice format: a company setting that prints Arabic beside English on tax invoices.
• The data: product names, payment terms and your own email wording, which nobody translates for you.

Quick diagnosis: if screens are in Arabic but invoices are not, the customer language or invoice format is wrong. If invoices show Arabic labels but English product names, the products were never translated. If a custom quotation or delivery note prints left to right, it was built before Arabic was considered and needs a template change.

What standard Odoo already does in Arabic

Before paying anyone to customise, check what ships with Odoo 19:

• Right-to-left by default. Odoo's language data defines Arabic (code ar_001) with a Right-to-Left direction (Odoo source, language list), so screens flip when a user switches to Arabic.
• Per-customer document language. Set a language on a customer and all documents for that customer are generated in it (Odoo UAE localisation).
• Bilingual tax invoices. At company level, Arabic can be added as a secondary language on tax invoices and point of sale receipts by enabling the Gulf Cooperation Council format (Odoo UAE localisation). The module behind it covers invoices, credit notes, debit notes, vendor bills and refunds (l10n_gcc_invoice).
• Amount in words in Arabic and English on the GCC invoice layout when the company shows the total in words (GCC invoice template).
• The right invoice title. For a UAE company, the invoice is titled Tax Invoice for a company customer and Simplified Tax Invoice for an individual (l10n_ae source).
• Mixed text handling. Product names that put a number next to Arabic text get extra spacing so they do not run together when printed (GCC product model).
• Translated email templates for every installed language (Odoo email templates).

Step 1: Install Arabic and decide who sees it

1. Add the language from the Settings app, Languages section, or from a user profile (Odoo language settings).
2. Set each user's language in Settings, Manage Users, Preferences tab. Give Arabic to the people who asked for it, not to everyone; a finance team that reports to English-speaking auditors may prefer English screens.
3. Set the language on customers and suppliers who should receive Arabic documents. Do it in bulk from a list view filtered by country or customer group.
4. Check a list view, a form and a report for each user who switches.

Switching a user's language changes their screens and the language of documents Odoo sends to that user. It does not translate your products, payment terms or custom fields.

Step 2: Turn on bilingual UAE tax invoices

1. Install the UAE localisation if it is not already there, and record the company TRN. In Odoo's code, the UAE invoice layout applies to a company with a TRN set.
2. Enable the Gulf Cooperation Council format in Accounting settings so tax invoices print Arabic as the secondary language.
3. Turn on the total amount in words if your customers expect it; the GCC layout prints it in both languages.
4. Translate payment terms and their invoice wording. Both the payment term name and its description are translatable fields in Odoo 19.
5. Print one invoice for a company customer and one for an individual, and check the Tax Invoice and Simplified Tax Invoice titles, TRNs and VAT totals.

Point of sale receipts have their own Arabic setting in Point of Sale settings, so test a receipt separately if you run shops.

Step 3: Translate the data your customers read

Odoo translates its own labels. Your data is your job. The product name field is translatable in Odoo 19 (Odoo product source), which means each product can hold an English and an Arabic name, and the invoice uses the one that matches the customer.

• Start with what prints: product and service names, units shown on invoices, payment terms and your invoice footer text.
• Use a glossary. Agree one Arabic term per product family before anyone translates, or the same item appears under three names.
• Get a human translator for customer-facing text. Machine translation is a first draft; a wrong Arabic product name on a tax invoice is a customer service problem.
• For large catalogues, translate in bulk on a staging copy, check a sample of invoices, then repeat on the live database.

Customer names are a separate decision. One sensible rule: keep the legal name exactly as registered and translate only what your business writes itself.

Step 4: Arabic emails, portal and website

Email templates are translated automatically for installed languages. To change the Arabic wording, enter developer mode, open the template and use the language button, which appears only when more than one language is active (Odoo email templates). Check every template your customers receive: quotation, invoice, payment reminder and portal invitation.

If you run an Odoo website, install the language on the database, add it to the website, then switch to it and use Edit, Translate to translate each page; the language appears as a prefix in the URL (Odoo website translation). Odoo's language list gives Arabic the URL code "ar". A bilingual site needs its own Arabic copy written for UAE readers, not a word-for-word conversion of the English pages.

What needs a partner: reports, fonts and layouts

The GCC format covers invoices and bills. Everything else you print was designed left to right, and that is where most Arabic requests turn into work:

Report edits in Studio need Odoo's Custom plan (Odoo pricing); on Standard, a template change is done in a small custom module. Fonts are the other common issue: if Arabic letters print disconnected or as boxes, the report font lacks Arabic glyphs. See our guide to Odoo customisation with Studio or custom modules for the trade-offs.

Arabic, VAT and e-invoicing: what changes in 2027

Whether your UAE tax invoices must carry Arabic is a question for your tax adviser; we did not find a primary FTA source that settles it, and we will not guess. Printing both languages on every invoice is the simplest way to avoid the question with customers.

E-invoicing changes what the "invoice" is. From 2027, business invoices are exchanged as structured data through Accredited Service Providers (KPMG), and the PDF becomes a human-readable copy. The Arabic layout still matters to your customer, but the data your ASP receives must be correct on its own terms. Read how Odoo connects to a UAE ASP and the UAE e-invoicing deadlines.

How to check your Arabic setup works

1. Print a tax invoice for a company customer set to Arabic: Arabic and English labels, translated product names, Arabic amount in words, correct title and TRNs.
2. Print a simplified tax invoice for an individual customer.
3. Send the invoice email and check subject, body and attachment name in Arabic.
4. Open the customer portal as that customer and check the invoice list.
5. Print a quotation and a delivery note and decide whether they need a bilingual template.
6. Log in as an Arabic-language user and check the main list views, forms and the dashboard for clipped text.
7. Count untranslated products on invoices issued last month; that number should fall to zero.

Mistakes UAE companies make with Odoo in Arabic

• Switching every user to Arabic, then finding that half the finance team and the auditors work in English.
• Translating products with a spreadsheet formula and no review.
• Building a bilingual invoice from scratch in Studio when the GCC format already provides one.
• Forgetting payment terms and invoice footers, so a fully Arabic invoice ends with English text.
• Testing only on screen instead of in the PDF.
• Leaving email templates in English while invoices go out in Arabic.

Where Devvista fits

Devvista is an official Odoo partner that configures Arabic and bilingual Odoo for UAE companies: language and user setup, GCC tax invoice format, translated products and payment terms, Arabic email templates and bilingual custom reports for quotations, delivery notes and statements. We work remotely in hours that overlap the UAE business day; we ask for an Arabic speaker on your side to approve customer-facing translations, and our Odoo projects are under NDA, so we share sanitised examples only.

Good fit: companies already on Odoo, or implementing it, that need Arabic done once and properly. If Arabic is part of a wider rollout, see Odoo implementation for UAE businesses, our Odoo implementation service, the Odoo pricing guide and the UAE hub. Property companies printing bilingual owner statements should also read our real estate ERP guide.