Download and install

Download the services module from the Odoo app Store.

Use the Odoo way to install the module. The services modules runs on Odoo CE version 16.0 and Odoo EE version 16.0.

General Odoo setup

Define user rights

For a user to be able to work with the services module you need to give the user the correct credentials. Go to the user settings and select the correct level in the section "Other / IT services".

Setup Odoo HR

You need to setup the Odoo HR with all your employees from which hours should be registered. Also define the correct hierarchy. This is important because the services module uses a 3 level hour validation. An employee submits his/her hours, a manager validates or rejects submitted hours. The last validation is done in your settlement by your customer. More about this in the "Create settlement" section.

Sales configuration

In your Sales configuration enable "Units of Measure", "Quotation Templates". Create a default template containing 3 sections:

• The following products are part of this offer:
• The following hours are included in this offer:
• The following services are part of this offer:

Services configuration

In your Services configuration define some "Task stages" like this:

• New
• Standby
• In Progress
• Testing
• Done

Tasks in the services module are needed for field services management. When you create a task like "Router installation", your engineer can book used products which he used installing the hardware. Those booked products will be invoiced in the settlement to the customer.

Define the hour rates you offer

Create for each employee function a product of type "Hours". Like "Engineer" with a sales price of 50,- and "Architect" with sales price of 60,-, etc. Also set the correct "Unit of Measure" to "Hours"

Define the subscriptions you offer

Create for each subscription you offer a product of type "Subscription". In the tab "Subscriptions" of the product you can define the duration off the subscription in months.

When you have subscriptions containing hardware which are part of the subscription select the type "Subscription BOM" and create a BOM of type kit for this subscription. When you are selling this subscription, a delivery is made but no invoice is created for the Sale. Invoicing is done by the subscription each month.

Create quotation/order

Create your quotation. When selling hours you need to select how the hours are invoiced (prepaid or afterwards by a settlement). Also a short description is required. This short description returns in all other parts of the services module. Use descriptions like "Rollout Odoo", "Support Odoo", "Support VPS", etc.

Select your "Quotation Template" which you defined in your Sales configuration. Move the products you are using in your quotation to the correct section. Doing this, the services module will recognize which section contains subscriptions and will use the label "Total per month" on the PDF and portal view for the customer.

Also note that subscription products are not part of the total amount of your quotation/order. 

When confirming the quotation, depending which products are present, the services module will create SP's (Service Project), Subscriptions, Delivery. When using prepaid and/or normal products, you need to create the invoice for the order as you always do in Odoo.

When you have both hours and subscriptions in your quotation, the services module creates 2 SP's. One SP for the subscriptions and one for the hours.

Start your projects

To use your project and start writing hours you need to start the project. Before starting a project you need to select a "Resp. Extern" (your external contact person for this project).

You have some other options you need to look to, like the surcharges when hours are made in the weekend, after working hours etc. You define the surcharges in the tab "More" of your project.

You also have the option to work with categories when writing hours. This can be handy when your customer want's a report per location or sub project. To use the categories activate the field "Use categories" and define some categories you want to work with in the tab "Categories" in your project.

Write your hours

Hit the button "Write hours" on your project and enter all the data. Time is rounded on 15 minutes interval. You need to submit your hours. You can do this in the hour form or using the tree view from the "My Hour reg." menu or hit "Hour reg." in the main menu. When using the tree, select the hours you want to submit, select action and then "Submit".

When you are a manager you need to approve or reject submitted hours. To see which hours you need to approve select "Hour reg" from the "Services -> Hours" menu. Here you select the hours you want to approve or reject (use action -> approve/reject). When rejecting you need to enter a reason why rejecting.

Rejected hours are red marked for the employees, indicating they need to look at it. When everything is ok the rejected hour needs to be submitted again.

Create a settlement

When you approve hours, the hours are automatically placed in a settlement. A settlement contains always the hours from 1 specific project. As long as a settlement is in concept mode, new approved hours are added. When you hit "Progress Settlement", new approved hours are added to a new settlement.

This way you are able to send your customer a report for the hours in the settlement. When your customer accepts the settlement you hit "Create Invoice". It is possible to mark hours in the settlement as "To discuss", when creating an invoice those hours are skipped. When the "To discuss" hours are accepted, you create another invoice by hitting "Create Invoice" again, this invoice will only contain the hours not invoiced yet. When everything is invoiced you can close the settlement by hitting "Close Settlement".

Please note that invoices are only created for hours in a project based on hours (Invoicing afterwards). Nevertheless settlements are created for not invoicable hours. This is handy when you need to report your customer for those projects.

Manage your subscriptions

By default the subscriptions created when the order was confirmed are not running (inactive). To activate a subscription you need to enter a starting date. This starting date is also used for the first invoice for the subscription. 

Invoices are created by a scheduled action called "Services: Invoice Subscriptions". If you want to overrule you can hit the "Create invoice" in your subscription. Only invoices are created for the periods where the field "Create invoice On" <= Today.

When a customer has multiple subscriptions, the invoicing is bundled in 1 invoice for the customer.

You can always change the "Create invoice On" values for pending periods. If you want to increase/decrease the qty or change the amount for pending periods, select "+/-" for changing the qty and "Indexing" for changing the amount from the Action button in your subscription.

For both changes a history is maintained which you find in the corresponding tabs in the subscription.

When you want to extend, you hit the extend button in the subscription. A new quotation is created which you can send to your customer. When you confirm the quotation this subscription is extended (new periods are added).

You can always cancel an active subscription. When canceled no more invoices are created.