How to Manage Project/task, Project Forecast, Invoicing Project and Project Privacy with Odoo 13 Project Management

In Odoo V13, Project Management Module is a fast user interface designed for modern project management and manages tasks for customer projects as well as our support issues in real-time, agile, and flexible ways. Project Management Module in Odoo V13  gives you a flexible workflow which helps you to plan and organize tasks, analyze time plans, assign tasks to prioritize tasks, structure your projects into different invoicing and managing contracts.

Under the Project Management module in Odoo V13, can design various ways to meet your needs: The Gantt chart view allows you to easily manage your resources and plans by simple drag & drop; The Calendar view also helps you map your deadlines and tasks needing the most attention; to analyze the progress of your tasks in the Graph view; Create specific stages per project and work on tasks and issues using the kanban view. Check project status in kanban state: Gray indicates the default situation; Red indicates a blockage in the progress of the tasks; Green indicates is the tasks are ready to be run to the next stage.

In this Blog, you are going to discuss “How to Manage Project/task, Project Forecast, Invoicing Project and Project Privacy with Odoo 13 Project Management”.

First of all, you can install the Project Module, Timesheet  Module and Sales Module in your database.

In the Project Module now you can create the new project or select existing project

Now go to Project module -> click on the Create button to creating the new project.

Whenever you want to create new projects so you can click on the create button to create the new project and fill all the required fields like Project Name, Planning, Timesheets, Bill from tasks and after a click on the create button. 

Once creating the new project, now you can add new columns for various stages for the tasks. After your column is added successfully at that time, you can add the task title and assigned to the task for an individual. 

When you creating the new project now you can fill all the required fields like

>>Task title
>>Name of the project to which task belongs
>> Project team member to whom the task is allocated
>>Deadline of the task
>>Description of the task
>>Name of the customer

Now you can add the descriptions, timesheets and extra information in the project module.

Once clicking on the Timesheet button now you can fill the required fields like planned hours, progress, and click on the Add a line button to fill the various fields like Date, Employee, 
Description, and duration hours.

Once clicking on the Extra info button now you can fill all the required fields like Customer name, Sales Order Item, Company, Start Date, and End Date.  

Project Forecast in Odoo 13

The purpose of forecasting is to give managers insight into how profitable projects are likely to be in the future. Under the Project Management module in Odoo v12, can design various ways to meet your needs: The Gantt chart view allows you to easily manage your resources and plans by simple drag & drop; The Calendar view also helps you map your deadlines and tasks needing the most attention; to analyze the progress of your tasks in the Graph view; Create specific stages per project and work on tasks and issues using the kanban view. 

First, you have to enable the Project Forecast option in your database.

Go to  Project -> Configuration -> Settings, tick the checkbox of Forecasts option and click on Save button. 

Now you have to create a new project and select the Allow forecast option. You’ll see the Forecast option appearing in the top menu.

Go to project module > Configuration > projects > create

In the project app, you can create new tasks and can also forecast these tasks by click on the Forecast button situated in the menu on the top. Whenever you want to forecast the tasks, now click on the Add a line button.

The Forecast interface will fill in the following detail like name of the Project, task, assign to.  You can create 3 tasks and just need to add the dates and the time the task should take.

Go to the Project -> Configuration -> settings, you can set the forecast option. 

You can set the forecast option hours for each day. Another can also set a forecast option relying on weeks and months.

Now you can click on the plus button,  you can view all information aggregated in the particular cell. From these records, you can manage the three task forecasting. Planned hours mean the forecasted hours of the task. The “Effective hours” field appears only if you have the Timesheet app installed on your database.  %Time is the percentage of working time. 

Now you can click on the plus button,  you can view all information aggregated in the particular cell. From these records, you can manage the three task forecasting. Planned hours mean the forecasted hours of the task. The “Effective hours” field appears only if you have the Timesheet app installed on your database.  %Time is the percentage of working time. 

 Now you can view the project forecasts at a different point of view: 

In the Project app menu, you have a Forecast menu. There will be different points of view: By Employee and By projects.

By Employee : 

In this field, you can see various employees and their successive planned working hours. On the other hand, you can’t directly view the project related to an employee but you can view the details through click on the plus button.

By Employee: Gantt View

This option displays the Gantt chart with the people assigned. Odoo’s Gantt chart shows you who’s involved; it gives you the big picture of the project.  On the left side, on the first level, you can view which users are involved. At the same time, on the second level, you view which projects they are assigned to. On the third, you see which tasks they’re on.

Each task is represented by a colored rectangle. The top rectangle on the first level is the sum of all the tasks compiled from the third level. If it’s green, it means that the total time allocated to that user is less than 100%. When it’s red, it means that this user is assigned to multiple tasks which total more than 100% of his/her time.

Gantt View is a view in which a series of rectangles shows the %Time of the projects. It simply gives a big picture of the project. Gantt’s view is also used in two views: By Employee and By Project.

By Projects:

In this field, you can see various projects and their planned hours. Records can be filtered on the basis of Week, Month and Year. You can see the details by click on the plus button.

By Project: Gantt View

The Gantt Chart is the perfect view of a project to better understand the interactions between the tasks. You can avoid overlapping tasks or starting one too early if another one isn’t finished. Odoo Gantt chart is clear and helps you to coordinate tasks efficiently.

On the left side, on the first level, you can see the projects. At that time, on the second level, you see which users are assigned. On the third, you see which tasks they’re on.

Forecast Analysis:

It is used for comparison of the allocated time and effective hours. You can analyze the allocated time and effective hours using different measures.

Invoicing Process of Project in Odoo V13

Odoo Project Management Agile, social, flexible and real-time. Timesheets, Contracts & Invoices o Projects are automatically integrated with customer contracts allowing you to prepare an invoice based on time & materials and to record timesheets easily.

In the Odoo Project Management module Invoice is divided into three types:

>>Invoice Based on Time Sheet
>>Invoice based on Ordered Quantity
>>Invoice Based on Milestones

1. Invoice Based on Time Sheet

The Invoice based on Time Sheet is the customer can be invoiced based on total no. of hours your employees have worked for that Customer. The time-tracking configuration on the product is a key configuration when you would like to track the service given by your team through timesheet, or task and create an invoice based on the time reported by the team. Timesheet can be used to track actual no. of hours Employee has worked. For example, in the IT services domain, clients are billed based on a man-hour basis, where per hour billing cost is pre-determined.

In order to create an invoice based on the timesheet, Firstly, you install the following modules like sales, project, and hr_timesheet in the database. Once these modules get installed in the database, the end the user can navigate to the Projects menu and create your new project.

Configuration >Project

Projects > Configuration > Projects.

To keep track of progress in the project, you will need the Project app.

Suppose let us create a new project named Odoo Development

Now, open the project to create the sales order.

Under this field, you can see all the details of the project and creating the sales order. Upon clicking the button, a pop-up window will appear on this page.

Under the page, you can fill the following fields like the customer, the service, the unit price, and the billing type. By default, In Odoo Billing type is divided into two types: At employee rate and At project rate.

At employee rate: The bills are calculated based on timesheet cost of the employee

At Project rate: The cost amounts to the fixed cost of the project.

The following action is setting the invoicing policy as ‘Timesheet on task’ (shown below). 

After entering the details such as customer, service, unit price, the end-user needs to click the Create Sales Order button in the Wizard. 

It shows the delivered quantity i.e the worked hours of an employee on the project and the corresponding service rate. In case, if one needs to add more products in the invoice, there is an option in Odoo.

2. Invoice Based on Ordered Quantity:

Odoo supports both these policies by default, they are ‘Ordered quantities’ (Before processing the delivery) and ‘Delivered quantities’ (After finishing the delivery).

In most companies, salespeople create quotations that become sales orders once they are validated. Then, draft invoices are created based on the sales order. 

Invoice on ordered quantity: invoice the full order before triggering the delivery order

For most other use cases, it’s recommended to invoice manually. It allows the salesperson to trigger the invoice on-demand with options: invoice ready to invoice line, invoice a percentage (advance), invoice a fixed advance.  The invoice based on ordered quantity is determined on the basis of the ordered quantity by a customer, although if the ordered quantity is collected by the customer or not.

i.e if a customer ordered for 20 quantities and is collected with only 10, an invoice will be built for 10 quantity.

Select the Invoice policy on a product page:

From any products page, under the invoicing tab, you will find the invoicing policy and select the one you want. Firstly, you can select ‘ordered quantity’ in the invoicing tab then create a sale order. 

Product > Sales > Service Invoicing Policy

Once you confirm the Sale Order, you can view your delivered and invoiced quantities.  One needs to set the number of the ordered quantity you can invoice as soon as the sale is confirmed. 

3. Invoice Based on Milestones:

The Invoice based on Milestones can be used for valuable or large scale projects, with each milestone presenting a clear sequence of work that will incrementally build-up to the completion of the contract.

Milestone Invoicing can be used for you agree to a fixed bid for a project and the dates when you’re allowed to bill the client. The client knows what to expect, and you know when you’ll be paid, and both parties know the exact amount it will be. Often the terms of these fixed-price contracts are one-third up front, one-third in the middle, and one-third at the end. These kinds of deals are signed all the time. So Standard Time supports them with invoice milestones.

You set up the invoice milestones for a project in advance. You determine exactly how much each milestone is to be charged. You can also use milestones to invoice percentages of the entire project.

Configuration:

Under the sales application, firstly need to create a Sales Order and fill in the field of delivered quantity. Odoo supports both these policies by default, they are ‘Ordered quantities’ (Before processing the delivery) and ‘Delivered quantities’ (After finishing the delivery). Although creating the sales order of the project for the invoice, one must also fill up the ordered quantity and the delivered quantity.

You will be able to change the delivered quantities when the corresponding milestone has been achieved. Save the sales order and create the invoice. 

Click on Create Invoice and in the new window that pops up, select Validate the Invoice.

Select the Validate button.

You can view the delivered quantity in the project invoice and select for validating the invoice and registering the payment.

Project Privacy in Odoo 13

In the Odoo Project Management module, there is an interplay of different Internal users, Employees, and Customers. Project Privacy is always a sustained factor in project management. Project privacy plays a different role in the Odoo Project Management Module.

Project privacy in Odoo v12 is divided into three types, and they are as follow:

1. On Invitation only: visible in the portal if the customer is a follower

2. Visible by all employees: employees see all tasks or issues.

3. Visible by following customers: followers can only see the followed tasks or issues.

In this blog, you will see, how to set up Privacy in Odoo v12.
First, you have to create a new project and then set the privacy setting for that project.
Go to project module > configuration > projects > create

In the project form, we can set the project manager, privacy, and customer from the settings tab.

Now select the privacy setting of their own need:

1.) On invitation only:

Now select the project module, later select configuration > project > Create.

Now, if you select the option “On invitation only”, privacy would have change the corresponding internal users may only see the following project tasks and issues.

Remaining internal users who are not followers of the project “PC Snooper” do not have access to edit tasks and view forecast only the project users: Mitchell Admin, Nicole Ford, Joel Wills can edit the task and view its forecasts and timesheet.

2) Visible by all employees:

Now, if you select the option “Visible by all employees”, privacy would have to change the corresponding employees to see all tasks or issues. 

Here, any employees can view all tasks and issues, Marc Demo is an internal user, rather than they are followers of the project or not.

3) Visible by following customers:

Now, if you select the option “Visible by following customers”, employees see everything; if a website is activated portal users may see a project, task or issues followed by them or someone of their company.

The internal user is an Abigail and she is a follower of the project PC Snooper. Project dashboard view of Abigail as follows:

The internal user is a Marc Demo and he is not a follower of the project PC Snooper. Project dashboard view of Marc Demo as follows:

The portal user is a Joel Wills and he is a follower of that project PC Snooper. Project dashboard view of Joel Wills as follows: