Services · Odoo · Profitability
Time is your stock: manage it like one
An unbilled day never comes back. Your ERP must show where time is lost while there is still time to act.
In a service company there is no warehouse. Your stock is your teams' time. Every hour logged, billed or forgotten shows directly in your results.
Odoo links timesheets, projects, invoicing and accounting. You know what each engagement earns, what remains to be billed and who is available tomorrow.
Where does a service company lose its margin?
Rarely on the hourly rate. More often in unlogged time, unreported overruns, milestones billed too late and consultants underused while others are overloaded.
These drifts show up at month end when data is scattered. They get corrected during the engagement when everyone looks at the same figures.
Before / After
- Before: time re-entered at month end from everyone's memory. After: simple daily entry, tied directly to the engagement.
- Before: billing decided by gut feeling. After: progress invoices based on work actually done.
- Before: profitability known after the engagement. After: tracking during the engagement, with an alert on drift.
Which functions run your service business?
Six levers to turn time into visible results.
Timesheets
Each team member logs time per engagement, per task, in a few taps, on computer or phone.
Progress billing
Bill by time spent, fixed price or milestone. Approved time feeds the invoice directly.
Profitability per engagement
Compare the price sold with the cost of time spent. You spot engagements that pay and those that cost.
Workload planning
See who is available, who is overloaded and what is coming. You staff before you run short.
Project tracking
Tasks, stages and deadlines stay visible to the team and to the customer.
Quotes and contracts
The signed quote creates the project and its planned billing. Nothing to copy between sales and delivery.
How do you go from sale to invoice without losing an hour?
The thread is continuous: an accepted quote opens a project, the project receives time, time feeds the invoice. Each step reuses the data of the previous one.
You avoid billing omissions, gaps between what was sold and what was done, and end-of-engagement discussions about hours nobody can trace.
How do we run your service project?
1
Clarify
We analyze your billing modes: time and materials, fixed price, subscription, milestones.
2
Configure
We set up projects, tasks, hourly costs and billing rules on the standard.
3
Migrate
We bring over customers, contracts and ongoing engagements with a statement of time already spent.
4
Support
We train your consultants in time entry and your managers in steering, then adjust.
What makes time entry sustainable?
- Short entry: a few lines a day, never a lengthy form.
- Visible feedback: everyone sees what their entries are used for.
- A gentle nudge: a simple reminder when a week stays empty.
- Managers who rely on the figures in their team reviews.
Which service companies benefit?
Four profiles that regain control of their time.
Consulting firms
Each engagement has its budget, tracking and profitability in plain view.
Agencies and studios
Creative projects stop overrunning without anyone noticing.
Software vendors and integrators
Time and materials, fixed price and maintenance live in the same steering.
Engineering offices
Workload planning avoids the peaks that exhaust teams.
Your questions about Odoo for service companies
Direct answers for managers and engagement lead text-centers.
Yes. Approved time on a project feeds the invoice, with the rates you set per customer or engagement.
Yes. You choose the billing mode per quote line and track real progress against the price sold.
By comparing the amount sold with the cost of time spent and other expenses tied to the engagement.
Yes. A workload plan shows availability and overloads so you can staff upcoming engagements.
Yes, but in a few taps. The shorter the entry and the closer to the work, the more reliable it is. Our training prepares your teams.
Yes. We bring over customers, contracts and time already consumed so tracking stays continuous from day one.
Ready to manage your time like a stock?
One conversation with our experts is enough to scope your billing and engagement tracking. The audit is free.