The ERP of service companies, from the quote to the actual margin
Most service companies know if the year has been good. Much fewer know which missions actually made money, and they learn it at the closing, when it is too late to act.
Talk to our expertsDiscover the testimonials of our clients in the B2B service
Nalios in numbers
Four professions, one business model
You are not selling a product, you are selling time and expertise. Everything hinges on three figures: how many hours have been sold, how many have been consumed, and how many have been invoiced.
Why you do not know your margin before closing
Time is recorded in one tool, expenses in a second, invoices in a third. The income statement of a project is only consolidated at the end of the month, sometimes at the end of the quarter. At that point, the project is finished and discussing an overrun no longer makes sense.
In an integrated system, the signed order creates the project with its budget of sold hours. Each hour recorded and each expense incurred are charged against it. The margin is visible during the project, allowing time to do what matters: renegotiate an amendment, reallocate a resource, or stop the expenses.
Two decisions determine the reliability of all this, and we systematically frame them in advance. The hourly rate retained by profile, employer cost alone or increased by a share of overhead. And what is allocated to a project rather than to overhead, particularly pre-sales and internal meetings. These two choices change your margins from simple to double.
Time sheets, and the only indicator that matters
Without time entered correctly, nothing works: neither the margin, nor the actual billing, nor the forecast workload.
Odoo allows entry on computer, mobile, and stopwatch, with a distinction between billable and non-billable hours, and validation by the manager. Technically, the subject has been settled for a long time.
The real issue is elsewhere, and that's where projects fail. An entry made on Friday evening produces unusable figures. And if the definition of what is billable varies from one project manager to another, your occupancy rate will be challenged at every management meeting, so it will be of no use.
What we impose: a written and unique definition of billable, an entry that takes less than a minute per day, and visible feedback for the person entering. A consultant who sees their occupancy rate enters. A consultant who feeds a dashboard they will never see stops after three weeks.
The details of the configuration are on our page project management.
Billing at a flat rate, by time spent, by milestones, or recurring
Odoo covers the four models and especially their combination on the same client, which corresponds to reality: a scoping flat rate, days billed by time spent, a monthly maintenance contract, and re-invoiced expenses.
Two points that we frame at the start because they are costly afterwards. The re-invoicing of expenses : with margin, without margin, or absorbed. And the treatment of work in progress, that is to say hours worked but not yet invoiced, which shifts your revenue and your cash flow if no one follows it.
The accounting aspect is detailed on our page accounting, and financial management on our page ERP finance.
Recurring and project, the complete view of a client
Maintenance contracts are often managed as recurring invoices in one tool, projects by time spent in another, and subscriptions in a third. As a result, it takes a month to know what your activity consists of, and a client who does not renew is noticed after the due date.
In Odoo, the same client record carries both: recurring revenue and project revenue, with renewals and price changes tracked in the same place.
You already have Odoo and your figures are not reliable
What we almost always find: projects created manually with no link to orders, a time entry rate below half, billing rules that no longer match signed contracts, and a tracking spreadsheet that remains the true reference.
Our assessment focuses on three points: the actual entry rate, the gap between billed missions and missions tracked in the tool, and the reliability of the hourly cost used. Problems are rarely technical. They stem from the project model and billing rules.
On this type of project, we are first asked for a dashboard. We start with the definition of billable. An indicator built on fuzzy rules will be contested at the first meeting where it causes trouble, and it will never be used again. A written, shared, and applied definition is worth more than ten graphs.
Integrate and automate all your processes with Odoo ERP for B2B services
Optimize the management of your B2B business operations. Easily track activity flows, automate essential processes and efficiently manage customer relationships.
Specifically designed to automate sales processes, this application enables you to create quotations, manage orders and track contracts. It is integrated with Odoo CRM to provide a unified view of sales activities. This integration facilitates the management of recurring orders and contract negotiation, while offering advanced features such as electronic signature to speed up sales closing.
This application is essential for managing interactions with customers and prospects. It enables you to track sales opportunities, organize marketing campaigns, and maintain strong customer relationships. Odoo CRM also helps to analyze sales performance, optimize sales processes, and improve customer satisfaction.
This application is crucial for efficient inventory management in a B2B context. It features warehouse management, lot and serial number traceability, and shipping management tools. Odoo Inventaire is designed to optimize stock levels, reduce inventory costs and improve the efficiency of logistics operations.
Optimize your B2B activity with Odoo and Nalios
With Odoo ERP, you can manage your projects efficiently using advanced planning and task tracking tools. You can assign responsibilities, monitor progress in real time and ensure that projects stay on time and on budget. Project management features include Gantt charts, kanban views and detailed performance reports.
Odoo integrator for over 450 ambitious companies.
Our clients talk about Odoo
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions about Odoo in the B2B services sector:
Yes, provided that two things have been decided at the start: the hourly rate by profile and what is allocated to the project rather than overhead costs. These two decisions determine the reliability of all your margins.
Each entry is marked billable or not, feeds the occupancy rate and the billing of missions based on time spent. The critical point is not technical: it is to have a unique definition of billable, written and applied by all project managers.
Yes, on the same client file, which provides a complete view of an account, including recurring revenue and project revenue, with renewals tracked in the same place.
Yes, on mobile and with a timer, validated by the manager. The difficulty is adoption, not the tool.
Yes. A consultant from one entity assigned to a mission sold by another generates an internal re-invoicing, provided that the rules were defined at the start rather than at the end of the fiscal year.
Yes, and it is common. The audit focuses on the entry rate, the project model, and the billing rules. Problems are rarely technical.
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