Odoo 18 is an ERP system that allows businesses to manage their projects efficiently. One of its key features is the ability to configure billable tasks, which ensures that businesses can charge clients for specific work done. This blog discusses how to configure a billable task in Odoo 18, ensuring accurate invoicing and efficient project management.
Billable tasks allow companies to track project work and bill customers accordingly. This feature is particularly useful for service-based industries, such as consulting, IT services, and construction. By setting up billable tasks, businesses can:
* Ensure accurate tracking of billable hours and deliverables.
* Generate invoices directly from projects.
* Improve transparency in customer billing.
* Automate invoicing based on time spent and tasks completed.
Before configuring billable tasks in Odoo 18, ensure that the Project, Timesheets, and Sales modules are installed. Also, make sure that the Timesheets option is enabled from the configuration settings of the Project module.
Now to see how to configure a billable task in Odoo, first, a project has to be created. Navigate to the project module, from the dashboard all the projects that currently exist can be viewed. To create a new project, click on the New button, and a modal window called Create a Project appears.
Here the name of the project can be provided in the Name field, Next, since the timesheet module has been installed there is an option to log time spent on the tasks on the timesheet by enabling the Timesheets option. Next, a billable field is available. So to configure a billable task, this feature must be enabled. When the option is enabled it allows the user to invoice the time and materials to the customers, so when a project is created by enabling this option, the time spent and the products used can be invoiced to the customer. Also, there is a field to add the Customer so that the project can be billed to that customer. If an email alias has to be provided so that the tasks are created when an email is sent to that email alias it can be provided in the Create tasks by sending an email to field. Click on the Create project button, and a project will be created.
Once the project has been created configure the stages for the project.
For that, get into the project, click on the +Stage, and add different stages to the project.
After the stages have been added, let's see how a task can be configured as billable. There are different invoicing policies with which a Task can be billed to a customer. Let's look into it in detail.
1. Invoicing policy Based on timesheet
If the invoicing policy is set based on a timesheet, customers can be billed for the time that has been spent on the task. In the timesheet tab of the task, the time that was spent by the employee on that task can be logged and the customers can be billed based on that.
To check that, go to the sales module create a Service product and set the Invoicing Policy to Based on Timesheets. Also on the Create on Order field set it as Task. When it has been set as a task an extra field for the project appears where the earlier created project can be added so that the task will be created under that project when a sales order is confirmed with this product.
Go to Quotations and click on New to create a new quotation. Add the customer, product, and other relevant details.
Then click on Confirm. Once the order is confirmed the smart tab for Task, Project, and the Recorded Hours appears.
Click on the Tasks smart tab to go to the detailed view of the task created. From there the Assignee, Tags, Deadline, etc can be added to the task. The Customer, Sales Order Item, and Allocated Time have been auto-populated according to the data provided in the sale order.
In the Timesheets tab of the Project, the time that has been spent on the project can be logged and then for the logged amount of time, the invoice can be generated.
Here the time logged is given as 3 hours but the allocated time is 5 hours, so the time remaining time can be seen as 2 hours. Also in the Sale Order Item field, a sale order has been associated indicating that the task is billable. Now go to the sale order through the smart tab in the project.
Here the delivered quantity is given as the quantity that has been logged in the timesheet. Now click on the Create Invoice button to create the invoice. Here the invoice has been created for the delivered quantity, that is the time that has been logged in the task.
The above screenshot shows the draft invoice that has been created, click on the confirm button to confirm the invoice. And then the payment can be made. This is how a task can be billed with the invoicing policy based on timesheet.
2. Invoicing policy Based on Milestone
When the invoicing policy has been set based on milestones the customers can be invoiced based on the milestones achieved. That is different milestones can be set for the project and when that milestone has been achieved the customers can be billed for that. To bill a project based on milestones create a service product with the invoicing policy set as Based on Milestones. Set the Create On Order field as Task and also mention the project under which the task must be created.
Now create a sale order with this product and upon confirmation, a task will be created. And also a Milestones smart tab also appears.
To create milestones for the task and bill the customer based on that click on the smart tab and a new page for the milestones appears, click on the New button to create a new milestone.
Once the milestones have been added they can be marked as Reached when the milestone is achieved.
Once the milestone is reached the customers can be billed based on that milestone. So mark the milestone that has been achieved is Reached.
Here, the Quantity (%) has been given as 50% for each milestone, that is when a milestone is complete 50% of the task is over. Now go back to the sale order to invoice the customer.
In the sale order, the delivered quantity has been mentioned as 0.5 since only one milestone has been marked as achieved. Click on the Create Invoice button to create the draft invoice and then confirm it to make the payment.
3. Prepaid/Fixed Price Invoicing
In this invoicing type, the customers pay a fixed prepaid amount for the project. To manage this type of billing first create a service product with the invoicing policy set as Prepaid/ Fixed Price. Also, in the Create On Order field set it as Task and Project as the Project that was created earlier so that the task will be created under that Project.
Create a sale order with this product, and add all the relevant details including the quantity which is the allocated time for the completion of the task. Once the sale order is confirmed, the Create Invoice button instantly becomes active and the invoice can be created.
Here a fixed price can be paid by the customer for the already fixed allocated hours. Once the create invoice button is clicked a draft invoice is created and it can be confirmed to make the payment.
Once the create invoice button is clicked a draft invoice is created and it can be confirmed to make the payment.
4. Invoicing based on Delivered Quantity(Manual)
In some cases, the project is billed based on the delivered quantity, so that the customers have to pay only for the actual work completed or the services delivered. Create a service product with the invoicing policy set Based on Delivered Quantity (Manual). Also, set the Create On Order as Task and Project as the Project that was created earlier so that the task will be created under that Project.
Create a sale order for the product. Add the customer and other relevant details in the sale order and click on Confirm. Once the sale order has been confirmed the delivered quantity can be manually set based on the actual quantity that has been delivered.
Now click on the Create Invoice button to create a draft invoice for the delivered quantity.
Click on the Confirm button to confirm the draft invoice and then the payment can be made.
So these are the different ways in which the project can be billed to the customer. Now let's see the project dashboard to know the details about the Cost and Revenue of the project. Click on the three vertical dots on the project card and click on the dashboard.
In the dashboard, the complete details of the project can be viewed. The Tasks under the project, the Timesheet that has been recorded for the project, Invoices created for the Project, and also the Burndown chart. Also, the Milestones defined for the project can be viewed here. In the Profitability section, the Revenues and Costs incurred on the project are visible.
In the Revenues, all four invoices that were created for the project to bill the customer can be viewed, along with the Expected, To Invoice, and Invoiced. The Total Revenues can also be seen which is the sum of all the revenues. The Costs can also be seen from this dashboard, here, in this case, the cost of the Project is the cost that has to be paid for the employee for the time they have worked. Here the employee ‘Mitchel Admin’ has logged his time on the timesheet. He has spent 3 hours working on this task. So since the employee’s Hourly cost has been set as 100, the total amount that was spent on that employee is 300.
So here the Profitability can be calculated by subtracting the total costs from the total revenue.
Profitability = Total Revenue - Total Costs.
So here,
Total Revenue= 1250 and Total Costs= 300,
therefore Profitability= 1250-300=950.
And the Profitability % can be calculated as (Profitability/ Total Revenue) * 100,
That is, (950/1250) * 100 =76
Which can be seen from the project dashboard.
So by properly setting up billable tasks, companies can accurately track work hours, link them to specific projects, and generate invoices effortlessly. This ensures not only precise customer billing but also financial transparency within the organization. With Odoo 18’s intuitive project management and invoicing integration, businesses can eliminate manual billing errors. For service-based industries, implementing billable tasks in Odoo 18 is a game-changer, helping them optimize operations, increase revenue, and maintain strong client relationships through clear and transparent billing processes.
To read more about How Project Can Be Billed Based on Milestones in Odoo 18, refer to our blog How Project Can Be Billed Based on Milestones in Odoo 18.