Timesheets that don’t
feel like timesheets.
A 60-person services firm was losing 4-6% of billable hours to unfilled timesheets and end-of-week guessing. We rebuilt the entry flow around how consultants actually work.
The brief
Standard Odoo timesheets work, but they live in their own corner of the app — consultants would forget, then reconstruct a week from calendar entries on Friday evening. The numbers were close, but never quite right. Invoicing took longer than it should and disputes over hours were quietly eating margin.
What we built
A lightweight timesheet layer on top of Odoo, designed for the moment of capture rather than the moment of admin.
- One-tap entry from the calendar — every meeting becomes a draft timesheet line.
- Per-project budget visibility live in the entry screen, so writing time also triggers a check on remaining budget.
- Mobile-first interface that works on the train, between calls, or right after a site visit.
- Manager dashboard showing missing entries by Friday noon, with one-click reminders.
- Direct push to invoicing once the week is locked — no double entry.
What it changed
Hours got captured closer to when the work happened, which improved accuracy and ended the Friday-evening reconstruction ritual.
- +4.2% recovered billable hours
- −3 days shorter invoicing cycle
- 94% on-time submission
Under the hood
Custom Odoo module in Python, OWL frontend widgets for the entry screen, calendar-API bridge to Outlook + Google. The client owns the code; we maintain it on a retainer.
Have a timesheet pain like this?
A 30-minute scan tells you whether a custom flow is worth the effort, or whether you can fix it with a tighter standard-Odoo setup.