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An agency, a consultancy, an engineering office or a maintenance company does not manage stock. They sell time and deliverables, and their question is not “what must we deliver?” but “is this project still profitable?”. Often the answer comes at the end, once the project is invoiced and the hours added up in a spreadsheet.
In short
The signed quote creates the project, with its budget in hours or amount.
Time is logged on the project, through the week.
The invoice goes out as fixed price, by progress or on time spent.
Profitability is read during the project, no longer only at the end.
A CRM and an invoicing tool are enough as long as these three flows stay simple.
The path of a project
- The quote
Service lines, fixed price or time and materials, budget in hours.
- The project
Created at signature, with its tasks and budget.
- Time
Everyone logs their hours on the project’s tasks.
- Invoicing
According to the mode set in the quote, without manual recalculation.
- The review
Time spent versus time sold, real margin.
Odoo natively links sales, projects, timesheets and invoicing. Odoo’s project documentation describes these links. Dolibarr also offers projects, time spent and invoicing from time, for simpler needs.
The three billing modes
Fixed price and progress
A price set in the quote
Invoiced by milestones or percentage of progress
The overrun risk is yours
Time spent
An hourly or daily rate
Invoiced from approved timesheets
The customer sees the detail of hours
Many companies mix both: a fixed price for the project, then time spent for out-of-scope requests. The ERP handles both on the same project, provided the quote plans for it.
Profitability along the way
This is the real gain. Halfway through a project, leadership sees that 70% of the hour budget is consumed for 40% progress: there is still time to react, renegotiate or reorganise. Without an ERP, this finding arrives at the close, when it is too late. The same logic applies per customer and per type of service, and it tells you which offers really pay.
Timesheets
They are the base data, and the most fragile. A weekly entry, at the end of the week, on the project’s tasks, approved by the project manager, is the minimum. Entered at the end of the month from memory, they become approximate and distort profitability. Entry from a phone, or a timer started on the task, helps a lot.
When a CRM and an invoicing tool are enough
As long as projects are few, simple fixed-price, and leadership knows each of them, a CRM, an invoicing tool and time tracking are enough. The ERP is justified when projects multiply, progress billing becomes heavy and nobody knows any more which projects are overrunning. The line is detailed in ERP or CRM: the real difference.
Re-invoiced purchases
A services company buys too: subcontracting, licences, travel, to be re-invoiced or not. The ERP attaches each purchase to the project, so it enters the margin and, if planned, the customer invoice. See Purchasing in an ERP.
Where to start
Start by linking quotes, projects and invoicing, with weekly timesheets. Once logging is in place, add profitability views per project and per customer. The complete ERP guide gives the order of steps, and our CRM and ERP offer proposes this scope in the Dolibarr and Odoo tiers, at a fixed price.
Frequently asked questions
Will consultants agree to log their time?
More easily if logging is quick, on the phone or with a timer, and if it serves something they see: fewer questions about progress, better-priced projects next time. A weekly entry approved by the project manager sets the habit within a few weeks, especially if leadership does it too and shows how it uses it.
Can you invoice automatically from time?
Yes, for time-spent projects: the ERP proposes the invoice from the approved time over the period, with the detail if the customer asks. A review is still advised before sending, to remove time logged by mistake or add a commercial gesture.
Does an ERP replace a project management tool?
For tracking tasks, budget and time, often yes. For very collaborative project management with many exchanges between teams, some companies keep their project tool and connect it to the ERP, which remains the reference for time, invoicing and the margin of each project.
Sources
Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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