Contact Info
Odoo Projects in Belgium
How can a Belgian firm use Odoo Projects?
A Belgian engineering office, IT consultancy or installer can use Odoo Projects so the offer, the hours and the invoice stay connected: lump-sum, stage-based and per-hour services each billed by their own rule, timesheets with cost rates from social secretariat figures, and invoices that Odoo Accounting may exchange over Peppol. I plan this remotely; which apps need Enterprise is confirmed in writing by Odoo or your implementer.
Last reviewed by Vikas Saroj
Belgian engineering offices, IT consultancies, installers and specialist contractors often run projects in one tool, hours in another and invoicing in the accounting package, with a spreadsheet stitching them together at month-end. Work slips through unbilled, and nobody knows a project's margin until it closes.
Odoo Projects, combined with Sales, Timesheets and Accounting, can connect those steps. Accepting an offer opens the job, staff book their time to it, and billing happens on the trigger written into the offer, in the customer's language and with the identifiers a structured invoice needs.
I work remotely and independently, with your project leads and finance team. I hold no Odoo partnership and take no fee from implementers, so I can say where Odoo Projects suits your model and where it does not.
What I Do
Every item is run through to a draft invoice in a test database before the live rollout.
Fixed price, milestone, hourly and prepaid hour services set up as products with the right invoicing behavior, and mixed offers split into lines that each bill on their own trigger.
Hourly cost per employee derived from payroll data your social secretariat provides, maintained by finance on an agreed schedule, so project margins reflect real labor cost.
Freelance consultants and specialist firms who invoice through their own companies, linked to projects through purchase orders and bills so their cost appears once and on the right job.
A trial of Odoo Field Service for installers and technicians, covering planning, worksheets, materials from van stock and customer signature, with the edition it requires.
A list of Belgian construction topics, such as reverse charge VAT and site registration duties, with how Odoo supports each and what your accountant must confirm.
Customer records with enterprise number, VAT number and order references, and project invoices in French, Dutch or German, ready for the Peppol route Odoo Accounting uses.
How I Work
How projects are sold and billed
Offer types collected
Billing triggers listed
Hour logging habits seen
Subcontractor use mapped
Products, projects and analytics
Service products built
Cost rates agreed
Analytic plans set
Edition gaps written
Routine that keeps billing current
Active projects moved
Training per role
Unbilled work reviewed
Margins discussed monthly
Belgian service firms rarely sell on a single basis. A stability engineering office may quote a fixed fee for a design phase and bill site follow-up by the hour. An IT firm can combine a lump-sum rollout, a prepaid support bundle and consultants on day rates placed through a framework contract with a ministry, a region or a large corporate.
In Odoo, the service product determines what happens on confirmation and when an invoice can be raised. Fixed fees invoice on ordered quantity, hourly work invoices on validated timesheet hours, and milestone services invoice when a milestone is marked as reached. Confirmation can create a project, add a task to an existing project or start from a template. I map every offer type you use to a product, then run each one through to a draft invoice in a test database.
Mixed offers are split into separate lines, so a fixed design fee and hourly extra work each bill on their own trigger. Retainers and recurring support usually call for the Subscriptions app, which has generally been part of Enterprise; Odoo or your implementer should confirm it for your version. Offers and invoices follow the language on the customer contact, using wording that your French and Dutch speakers have prepared. The Odoo Projects page explains the product model in general.
Belgian employers mostly leave payroll to a social secretariat rather than running it in the ERP. That matters for projects, because realistic margins need an hourly cost per employee, and that figure comes from payroll data the secretariat produces. I agree with your finance team how the cost rate is calculated, who updates it in Odoo and how often, so project reports do not rely on rates set years ago.
Timesheet discipline comes next. I write a one-page policy: what to log against, which work is billable, how internal and pre-sales time is recorded, and the weekly deadline before invoicing. Approval of hours by managers, and the weekly grid for entering them, have usually belonged to Enterprise, so your edition decides whether sign-off happens inside Odoo.
Many Belgian consultancies also work with freelancers who invoice through their own management companies. Their cost enters through purchase orders and supplier bills linked to the project, not through timesheets, so it is counted once. If they also log hours for client reporting, I make sure those hours are excluded from internal cost. Margins then come from the project's analytic account, alongside how Odoo Accounting in Belgium books payroll journals from the secretariat. A short monthly review of margin and unbilled work keeps the data honest. See project costing for the general method.
Belgian installation companies working on HVAC, electrical systems, solar panels, heat pumps, security or fire protection send technicians to sites every day. The office has to plan who goes where by skill, the technician fills in a report at the address, parts come off the van, and the client's signature is what allows billing.
Field Service adds those pieces to Odoo's projects and tasks, and the result flows into invoicing. It is normally licensed with Enterprise and changes from version to version; after the implementer states its scope for you, I trial it on genuine jobs of yours, including a multi-visit job and one with extra materials. Your own staff word the worksheets for French and Dutch-speaking clients.
Van stock connects to Odoo Inventory in Belgium, where each van can be a location that materials are drawn from. That is useful only when technicians record usage reliably, so I check whether the effort pays off at your volume.
Maintenance contracts with recurring visits, service levels and installed assets need more design and sometimes a specialist tool. The field service page discusses that choice, and MEP contractors gives the industry view.
Belgian construction and installation work brings rules that a general project tool does not manage alone. Certain construction services between contractors may fall under a VAT reverse charge, presence on construction sites may need to be registered with the authorities, and hiring subcontractors can carry withholding or liability duties in some situations. Your accountant or lawyer decides which of them touch your business.
I check what the Belgian localization in your Odoo version provides with Odoo or your implementer. Taxes and invoice mentions for reverse charge can usually be configured with fiscal positions set up by your accountant. Site registration and subcontractor checks are usually handled in government portals or specialist tools, and I define which project data Odoo holds to support them and who is responsible for each step.
Belgian rules are also moving business invoicing to structured electronic formats over Peppol. The invoice for a project is issued from Odoo Accounting, and newer releases can hand it to Peppol, subject to conditions on edition and hosting; the scope and timing of your duty is your accountant's call. I make sure each customer carries an enterprise number, VAT number and purchase order reference before the project's first invoice. Progress billing against a bill of quantities with retention usually needs customization or a construction ERP; see construction for that comparison.
Community already covers projects, tasks, stages and simple hour entry. Anything involving on-site jobs, resource planning, support tickets, recurring contracts, hour approval or Gantt charts has usually required Enterprise. For a small consultancy billing hours, Community may be enough; for an installer that needs field service and planning, it usually is not. I write down what each edition gives you, verified by Odoo or your implementer for the version you plan to deploy. Hosting matters as well, since any custom module, for example a construction-specific report, rules out Odoo Online.
Bring over only what is live. Bill and close completed jobs where they are, and transfer running projects, open tasks and the unbilled amounts finance agrees. Detailed historic hours can stay behind.
Odoo Projects is not the best answer for every Belgian firm. General contractors with formal estimates, cost codes, progress statements and retention at the center of their business usually need a construction ERP. Architecture and engineering practices that only want resource planning may prefer a dedicated tool. And firms that only track tasks have no reason to adopt an ERP for it. I say so before you commit. My Belgian Odoo consulting page deals with editions and implementers, and ERP options for service firms compares the alternatives.
Tell me about your business and current systems. I’ll suggest the most sensible first step.
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FAQ
Not automatically. Odoo needs an hourly cost per employee, which your finance team derives from the payroll data the social secretariat provides. I agree how the rate is calculated, who updates it in Odoo and how often, so project margins reflect current labor cost.
They are issued from Odoo Accounting, and newer releases can pass them to Peppol. Edition and hosting conditions apply, which Odoo or your implementer should spell out, while your accountant states what you are obliged to do. Before the first project invoice, I check every customer identifier is filled in.
Taxes and invoice mentions for reverse charge can usually be configured through fiscal positions that your accountant defines. Whether the reverse charge applies to a given job is your accountant's decision. Site registration and subcontractor checks are usually handled outside Odoo, with project data supporting them.
Often, when you need technician scheduling, reports filled in at the address, parts taken from vans and signed jobs that turn into invoices. It is normally an Enterprise app whose scope moves between versions, so the implementer confirms it and we trial one of your real jobs first.
Freelancers who invoice through their own companies are linked to projects through purchase orders and supplier bills, so their cost lands once on the right project. If they also log hours for client reporting, those hours are kept out of internal cost to avoid double counting.
Every business is different. Share where you are today and what you want to fix, and I’ll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
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