Odoo 18 records time against a project task, compares it with the hours that were planned, and turns the billable part into a quantity on the customer's sales order line. Logging time is free in Community through the Timesheets module; the weekly grid, the start-stop timer and the validation workflow come from the Enterprise Timesheets module.
Whether you're running a consulting firm, a creative agency, or a tech company, time is your most valuable resource. Proper time tracking helps businesses:
- Bill clients accurately
- Understand project costs
- Boost team productivity
- Improve resource planning
Odoo 18 makes timesheet management simple, seamless, and integrated into your daily workflows.
Overview of Odoo 18 Timesheets
Odoo Timesheets lets employees record the time they spend on different tasks, projects, or tickets. Managers can review timesheets, approve them, and use the data for billing, payroll, and reporting.
Highlights
- Log time manually or with timers
- Mobile app for timesheets on-the-go
- Timesheet submission and validation workflow
- Link time to sales orders for invoicing
Simple enough for small teams, powerful enough for enterprise-level tracking.
Easy Time Tracking for Employees
Odoo offers multiple ways for employees to track their time:
- Weekly grid view: Fill in time spent per task/project each day
- Timer mode: Start and stop a live timer when working on a task
- Mobile app: Log hours from anywhere — perfect for field teams
Tracking time shouldn't slow employees down — and with Odoo, it doesn't.
Managing Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours
Not all hours are created equal. Odoo lets you distinguish between billable (client-chargeable) and non-billable (internal) work easily.
Key Features
- Set billing rates by employee, project, or task
- Mark timesheet entries as billable/non-billable
- Generate invoices automatically from billable hours
This ensures you don't miss out on revenue — and helps you analyze profitability by client or project.
Linking Timesheets to Projects and Tasks
Odoo Timesheets integrate seamlessly with Odoo Projects. This means:
- Track time spent on each specific task
- Compare actual hours vs. planned hours
- Identify bottlenecks early
- Forecast project completion dates more accurately
Time tracking becomes a living part of project management, not an afterthought.
Timesheet Validation and Approval
For companies that require supervisor approval, Odoo supports timesheet validation workflows:
- Employees submit timesheets weekly or monthly
- Managers review and approve or reject entries
- Only approved timesheets trigger billing or payroll
This ensures data quality, client satisfaction, and clean financials.
Analyzing Work Hours and Productivity
Odoo 18 offers deep analytics on timesheet data:
- Track hours by employee, project, or task
- Monitor billable utilization rates
- Compare planned vs. actual time
- Analyze project profitability
Real-time insights allow you to improve workforce planning and optimize profitability.
Best Practices for Using Timesheets
- Encourage daily time entry — it's more accurate
- Keep tasks well-defined to avoid confusion
- Use timers for activities longer than 30 minutes
- Reward accurate and timely submission
- Review timesheet reports monthly for team insights
Conclusion
With Odoo 18, timesheet and billable hours tracking becomes effortless — and profitable. It's a vital tool for improving team productivity, optimizing project delivery, and maximizing client satisfaction.
Want to set up a complete time tracking and billing system with Odoo? Talk to our experts today!
Questions we get asked
Is Timesheets free in Odoo 18?
The hr_timesheet module is LGPL-3 and ships with Odoo 18 Community, so employees can log hours against project tasks and managers can report on them at no licence cost. The weekly grid view, the start-stop timer and timesheet validation come from the Enterprise Timesheets module, which is licensed OEEL-1 and needs a subscription.
How do billable hours become an invoice in Odoo 18?
You sell a service product whose invoicing policy is based on timesheets, and link that sales order line to a project or a task. Every hour logged there raises the delivered quantity on the line, and creating the invoice bills exactly those hours. Time logged on an internal project, or on a task with no order behind it, never reaches an invoice.
Can I compare planned hours with actual hours?
Yes. A project task in Odoo 18 carries an allocated time and shows the timesheet hours recorded against it, with the remaining time and a warning once it is over. Project reporting rolls the same figures up by task, project, employee or customer, so you can see which jobs are consuming more hours than they were sold for.
Does timesheet approval exist in Odoo 18?
Timesheet validation, where an employee's entries are locked once a manager approves them so that billing and payroll only ever see approved lines, is part of the Enterprise Timesheets module. On Community you can still control who edits what through access rights and project roles, but there is no built-in submit-and-approve cycle.
Can employees enter time from a phone?
Yes. The Odoo 18 web client is responsive and the Odoo mobile app wraps it, so an employee can open their task, log hours and add a description from a phone without a laptop. Entries made on the phone are the same records as those made in the office, so they appear immediately in project reporting and in the billable hours on the order.