Honest Review:

Odoo Timesheet

Unlike most other ERP and CRM solutions, Odoo does not base its pricing on curated feature suites but instead prices its plans based on the apps included in the plan, of which Odoo Timesheets is one.

Now, the first plan is the One App Free, which as its name suggests is free, and only contains one app — this could be Odoo Timesheet, for example. However, if the chosen app depends on other apps, account holders will also get the dependencies along with the chosen app for free. This plan is hosted on the Odoo Online cloud infrastructure.

Second on the list is the Standard Plan, which is intended for managing a single company on a single database. This plan starts at a discounted price of $24.90 per user per month for the first 12 months when billed annually, or $31.10 when billed monthly. The standard plan allows users to enjoy all the Odoo apps for sales, marketing, signing, website, accounting, CRM, inventory, HR, project, POS, services, and more — including Odoo Timesheet. Like the One App Free plan, this plan is also hosted on Odoo Online.

Third is the Custom Plan, which is designed for managing multiple companies on a single database, and for customizing through Odoo Studio, custom developments, or the API. Unlike the previous plans, this plan can be hosted on Odoo.sh or on-premise using Odoo Enterprise. It also allows users to enjoy all Odoo apps, including Odoo Timesheet. This plan starts at a discounted price of $37.40 per user per month for the first 12 months when billed annually, or $46.70 when billed monthly.

1. Time Tracking

As I’ve previously discussed, Odoo Timesheet is designed as the time tracking module of the Odoo ERP and CRM software suite. It allows users to track time automatically with one-click timers and manually by entering time logs either on desktop or mobile.

First, the lay of the land: the timesheets on Odoo timesheets can be viewed in a list view or a grid view. The list view shows rows of neatly labeled projects against columns labeled by day and date that can be customized to show daily, weekly, and monthly logs.

To track time using the automatic timer, users only need to click the start button located near the top left corner of the page. This will start the timer immediately. Users can then type in a very brief description of the task being performed on the input box to its right, select a project from the drop-down next to it, and select a task from the drop-down beside that. They can then go about their work, and then click stop after they’re done which will stop the timer and automatically record the time elapsed against the chosen project and task on the current day.

To add time manually or edit logs on the current day or previous days, users can hover on any time entry, click the magnifying glass that appears to the left of the time, and put in the hours they wish to log on the resulting page. They can modify the description, project, and task on the same page as well.

Alternatively, users can also use hotkeys assigned to the projects that appear to the left of their respective lines on the project column. That will start the timer on the chosen project, and an optional description can be added to the input box similar to the previous method.

Another method is to use the Awesome Timesheets app, which is quite helpful when on the go. To do this, users only need to click the icon to the right of the address bar and then click the start button on the pop-up. This will immediately begin the timer and it won’t require users to specify the task or project until they hit stop, after which they can choose the project and task they wish to record the elapsed time for from drop-down menus. They can then add an optional task summary to detail what happened during the session, or even edit the amount of hours spent on the task right on the pop-up. Once they’ve logged their time, the task will appear in the quick list along with the time elapsed, which they can add to by hovering over the item and clicking the play button that appears. They can also use the plus and minus buttons on either side of the recorded time to add or subtract from it. The time logged using the Awesome Timesheets app will appear in the timesheet just like how entries added using Odoo Timesheet would.

Odoo Timesheet on mobile has a similar layout and functionality to the Awesome Timesheets app, and users can log time manually or record time as work happens using the same procedure. They would also appear on the timesheet like the entries logged using the previously discussed methods. However, time tracking on the mobile app may not be as smooth as the desktop experience, as the mobile apps can present some bugs and glitches that affect the sensitivity of the buttons.

But on to the brighter side: while Odoo Timesheet works best with a stable internet connection, it can also work offline. Tasks will keep running even in environments with low to no internet connection, and the time recorded offline will be synced to users’ accounts once they are reconnected to the internet.

2. Employee Management

Odoo Timesheet allows businesses to manage their employees using an array of features aimed at organizing and monitoring their tasks and activities. With this tool, managers can create and assign projects, see what employees are working on and evaluate their performances for each project and task, send email reminders for timesheet submission, approve timesheets, grant or restrict backend access, and restrict the visibility of timesheets from certain employees.

To create a project in Odoo Timesheet, managers need to navigate to the project module by selecting the project tab from the menu bar on the leftmost side of the dashboard. They can then click the create button near the top left of the Kanban board and input the required details. After that, they can add project stages to keep things streamlined and compartmentalized. Returning to the projects kanban board, they can click on the three dots that appear on the project tile when hovering the cursor over it, and then click edit which will give them the option to modify the details of the project and assign a member of the team as a project manager.

Adding tasks on Odoo Timesheet works similarly, only that this time, after navigating to the project tab, they need to select a project and only then click the create button or the plus sign beside the title of any project stage column. In the pop-up box, specific team members can be added as assignees, and other details can be added or modified as well. Once published, the activity will automatically appear in the assignee’s to-do list.

Team members can also be assigned activities straight from the Odoo Timesheet projects Kanban board by hovering over the project tile and clicking on the clock icon, clicking schedule activity on the pop-up that appears, specifying the due date, and selecting team members to assign the activity.

Using the planning feature on the project tab of Odoo Timesheet, managers can also allocate resources — meaning, team members — across projects and tasks in order to have more accurate deadline estimates. To do this, managers can simply activate the planning feature on the configuration tab of the projects module (if they haven’t yet), navigate to the projects dashboard, hover over the tile of the desired project and click the three dots, and then select planning on the pop-up. This will take them to the planning records grid which shows a column of employee names assigned to the project against a row of dates and their shifts. The dates can either be in weekly view or monthly view, depending on users’ preferences. To filter the grid so that it only shows specific employees and projects, managers can use the filter fields near the top right of the page and enter the project they wish to see in the project box, and the name of the employees on the resource box.

Assuming that there aren’t shifts stored on their Odoo Timesheet account yet, managers can assign them by simply hovering over any empty space on the grid and clicking the plus button that appears to create one. This will result in a pop-up where they can input the details of the shift such as its starting and ending time and date, what project and task it is for, the allocated time for it, and the team member to whom it is assigned. They can also add tags, choose to repeat them on chosen dates, and even save the shift as a template. Once done, the shift will appear on the grid in the proper position concerning the date and assignee.

Odoo Timesheet also allows managers to edit shifts easily by simply dragging and dropping. To edit any shift, managers can simply drag them around the grid to change dates, or expand and contract them by dragging the edges to modify duration. They can also duplicate shifts by pressing down CTRL or CMD and then dragging the shift to the desired date. Should any shift need more granular editing, managers can simply click on the target shift and modify the details in the pop-up.

Once done with the week or the month, managers can then send reminders through Odoo Timesheet to their team members’ emails to accomplish and submit their timesheets. This can be done manually, or better yet, automated for specific periods to save a significant amount of time and effort. They can then approve, edit, or reject the timesheets according to business needs.

3. Insightful Reporting

Odoo Timesheet provides valuable insights on key performance indicators and other important numbers, such as the comparison between planned hours and effective hours, between period-based metrics, and team performance. These are highly essential in ascertaining the health of projects, plotting the path of the future, and facilitating honest relations with clients and other stakeholders.

On the Odoo Timesheet reporting tab, analytics based on the time tracking data per employee, project, task, or billing type are displayed in various visuals. The big picture can also be shown using the timesheets versus planning analysis. Users can choose either a pivot chart or graph by toggling the pair of view buttons near the top right of the page. When in graph view, users can choose to see their data presented in bar, line, or pie charts. The bar and line charts can be further configured to show stacked or cumulative numbers, and in descending or ascending orders.

The search box at the top center part of the Odoo Timesheet reporting tab is a powerful tool to filter the analytics and make better sense of the numbers. Users can either type in the filter they wish to apply or choose from a dropdown by clicking the downward arrow on the side of the bar. They can choose from an infinite number of combinations to show data by timesheet, team, department, project, task, date, and billing type, and display either only approved or unapproved timesheets. They can also group by project, parent task, task, date, department, manager, employee, sales order, sales order item, invoice, and billing type. These choices can be saved and added to their favorites so that they won’t have to redo the filtering process for similar reporting needs in the future.

Now, as much as I love the engaging visuals and customizability of Odoo Timesheet reports, I can’t help but feel like it’s too complicated for practicality. There are so many hoops to jump through just to get the data I require, and that’s quite counterintuitive compared to having a library of report types that can be selected according to current needs, especially when a data presentation is required pronto. If a tech-savvy individual like me finds the process quite cumbersome, how much worse could it be for someone who’s not? That’s an important point to consider when using Odoo Timesheet.

4. Odoo Family Integrations

Since Odoo is a very comprehensive ERP and CRM solution, aside from Odoo Timesheet for time tracking, it also has a host of other apps grouped into several categories.

The services group is where Odoo Timesheets can be found, along with project, planning, field service, helpdesk, and appointments. The website group is a selection of apps that target various website needs, such as website building, blogs, forums, live chat, e-commerce, and e-learning. The sales selection includes POS, CRM, rentals, subscriptions, and sales. The finance apps include accounting, invoicing, expenses, documents, and e-signatures.

Odoo also offers apps for inventory and manufacturing which includes the titular inventory and manufacturing apps, plus product lifecycle management, purchase, maintenance, and quality. The marketing selection offers marketing automation, events, surveys, and email, SMS, and social marketing apps.

Equally important are the human resource apps which include employees, recruitment, time off, appraisals, referrals, and fleet modules. Last but definitely not least, the productivity apps include the discuss team communication module, approvals for employee request management, and VoIP for calls.

Most of these apps contain significant overlaps, and thus, may present features similar or identical to those of Odoo Timesheets. And as previously discussed in the Pricing section of this review, some apps are highly dependent on other apps, thus requiring the installation of apps from the Odoo family other than that which is specifically needed. When the apps add up, the Odoo system may prove to be quite heavy on the CPU.

5. Customization

Odoo Timesheet allows customization according to specific business needs. Admins can set custom alerts to help maintain the timely completion of tasks, define unique user roles to establish clear responsibilities and access levels, create custom workflows to streamline the work process according to teams’ working styles or match unique operational processes, and even add custom fields to forms.

All of these make it possible to adapt the system to various business needs, and this level of customization ensures that Odoo Timesheet integrates seamlessly with current business operations. A highly customized tool contributes to smoother and more efficient workflows and ensures that data is captured the way businesses need it to be.

Aside from the customizability of Odoo Timesheet, the Odoo ERP/CRM system takes customization one step further by allowing users to create their own custom apps for any business need using Odoo Studio. It’s built using drag-and-drop functionality, does not require coding from the user’s end, and can be scaled easily. Building a custom app also gives users a desktop and mobile app automatically, with everything — screen design, reports, automations, forms, icons, access rights, and all other features — curated to a T according to the builder’s taste and requirements.