Odoo Timesheets and Project Billing Explained

For service companies, the ERP must answer one question: are we making money on this project? In Odoo that answer comes from linking sales, projects, timesheets and invoices.

The building blocks

• Service products define how work is sold and billed.
• Sales orders create projects or tasks automatically.
• Timesheets record hours against tasks.
• Invoices are created from the sales order based on the billing policy.

Billing models

Odoo service products support the main models:

Set the invoicing policy on the product so users do not need to choose each time.

From sale to project

When a sales order with a service product is confirmed, Odoo can create a project, a task in an existing project, or both. Every hour logged on that task is linked to the sales order line.

Logging time

Staff log time from the task, the timesheet app, the mobile app or a timer. Daily logging gives the most accurate data. Managers can validate timesheets before invoicing, so mistakes are corrected first.

Invoicing

When you create the invoice from the sales order, Odoo adds delivered quantities, such as validated hours, for time and materials lines. For fixed-price lines it uses ordered quantities or milestones.

Budgets and profitability

Each project has an analytic account. Timesheet costs are based on employee hourly cost, and expenses and purchases can be linked too. Project updates show:

• Revenue invoiced and to invoice
• Costs from timesheets, expenses and purchases
• Margin

Review these monthly. Projects drifting into loss are much easier to fix early.

Tips

• Set employee costs properly; profit reports are only as good as cost data.
• Use non-billable task types for internal work.
• Limit who can edit validated timesheets.

Read our Odoo for professional services guide or see our project management solution.