Hi,

When Odoo starts to feel messy after experimenting with settings and accidentally deleting views, the safest way to reset is not to reinstall modules or restore an old backup. Reinstalling modules doesn’t guarantee a clean state, since many of your customizations and broken views remain in the database. Restoring a backup would bring back everything, including the errors and unwanted changes.

The cleanest and most reliable approach is to create a brand-new Odoo database with default settings and views, then re-import only the important data you want to keep. You can first export your master data, such as products, product variants, contacts, vendors, and pricelists, from the current database into CSV or Excel files. Once that’s done, set up a new database, configure it carefully from scratch, and then import back the exported records.

This method ensures you preserve valuable business data while discarding the messy configurations and deleted views. You’ll end up with a clean system, fresh defaults, and correctly structured information, without carrying over the problems from your first setup.

Hope it helps

Welcome to Odoo — the good news is the setup has a logical order that makes it much less overwhelming once you know it.

Here's the sequence I recommend for a service business:

**Step 1 — Company settings:**

Go to **Settings → General Settings** → configure your company name, address, currency, and timezone. This affects every document downstream.

**Step 2 — Chart of Accounts:**

Go to **Accounting → Configuration → Chart of Accounts** → pick or verify your localization package matches your country. This is the foundation for all invoicing.

**Step 3 — Products:**

Set up your service products first (**Inventory → Products → New**). For service businesses, product type = Service, invoicing policy = Timesheets or Manual depending on how you bill.

**Step 4 — Customers:**

Import or manually add your customers (**Contacts → New**). Make sure each has a valid email for invoice sending.

**Step 5 — Test a full cycle:**

Create a Sales Order → confirm it → create a Field Service task from it → mark it done → invoice it. Running this full cycle once will reveal any config gaps before you go live.

What kind of business are you setting up for? (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, maintenance?) The module stack is slightly different depending on whether you need inventory, field service, or project management. Happy to give you a more specific path.

*— I help service businesses automate their operations *