Cases
Project-based professional services
Hours, projects, budgets and invoicing, visible per client at a glance.
- Sales
- Project
- Timesheets
- Invoicing
- Accounting
Example: a consultancy invoicing hours on client projects
Consultancy Pluspunt works for several clients at once, partly on an hourly rate and partly on a fixed project price. Here's how Odoo handles hours, projects and invoicing for both.
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1. The client agreement
The Sales app records whether a client is invoiced on an hourly rate or a fixed price.
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2. A project with tasks
On approval, Odoo automatically creates a Project; consultants log their hours per task through the Timesheets app.
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3. Watching the budget
The project manager sees in real time how many hours and how much budget have already been spent against what was agreed — well before a project runs over.
Project Budget Spent Status CRM overhaul — Client A 120 hrs 98 hrs Within budget Implementation Client B 80 hrs 84 hrs Over budget Advisory Client C 40 hrs 22 hrs Within budget -
4. Automatic invoicing of hours
For hourly-rate clients, Odoo automatically compiles the invoice from the logged, not-yet-invoiced hours — nobody has to retype a timesheet by hand.
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5. Profitability per client
Because hours, costs and revenue all live in the same system, profitability per client and per consultant can be read straight from the reports. Because every hour and every cost item is automatically linked to an analytic account per project, not just the revenue but also the real cost — including, say, travel expenses or a hired-in specialist — is directly visible per project, per client and per consultant.
Cost type Project Amount Consultant hours Client A €8,820 Travel expenses Client A €340 Hired-in specialist Client B €2,100
The result
Agreements, projects, hours and invoicing flow seamlessly into each other, with real-time budget tracking. An approval step before hours are invoiced is easy to add as an extra step.