Projects, Timesheets and Helpdesk in Odoo 16

Project and task management, time tracking and invoicing, employee workload planning, and support ticket handling. Here are 49 Binovo video tutorials (5 h 11 min) organized into 7 sections. Each video includes a summary and a step-by-step description of what is shown.

Odoo 16 · Updated on October 13, 2026 · See all areas

Concepts and setup 9 videos

What is a project and what is a task?2:49

What a project is, what its associated tasks can be, and how to tell one from the other, for anyone starting to work with these concepts.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Planned content of the series: project and task setup, stages, tags, activity types, time tracking and reports
  • Integration with Sales and Invoicing: projects with timesheets billable at month-end and prepaid hours packages
  • The concept of project and task, using the example of painting a house: the project is painting the house
  • Tasks in the example: buying the paint and materials, taping, painting and cleaning up

How to create tags and assign them to projects5:57

Recommendations before creating tags, usage examples, and how to assign them to projects and tasks.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Recommendation to define tags beforehand (less is more) and to have only a few people create projects and tags, to avoid duplicates and errors
  • Project > Configuration > Tags: creating a tag with its name and color in the same step, and deleting it from the Action button
  • Usage examples: internal or external project, technology (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) and service line (training, consulting)
  • Assigning tags in the Tags field of the project and the task, with as many tags as you want, each with its own color
  • Suggestion to use a prefix (P or T) if you use different tags for projects and tasks, and not to create them on the fly from the field itself

Creating stages and assigning them to projects4:29

Stages define the custom workflow that projects go through: how to create them from the configuration table, how to assign them to projects, and which views to use to review the information.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project > Configuration > Project Stages: list of stages showing the kanban folded indicator and the export, archive, unarchive and delete actions
  • Checking a project’s stage: the form’s top bar, the Stage column in list view, and filtering or grouping by stage in list and kanban views
  • Creating a new stage (for example “Testing”), moving it to the desired position and deciding whether it is folded in kanban
  • Changing the stage from the project’s top bar, with the change logged in the history, or by dragging the card in the kanban grouped by stage
  • The stage cannot be changed from the list view

Different ways to create a custom stage workflow for tasks8:07

Three methods for creating the stage workflows that a project’s tasks will go through.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Preliminary recommendation: plan the project types and the stages for each one in a spreadsheet before creating them in Odoo
  • First method: Configuration > Task Stages, create each stage and assign it to the project in the projects field
  • In the project’s task view, stages are reordered by dragging and are edited or deleted from the settings gear
  • For a new project, simply add it to the stages that already exist in the configuration table
  • Second method: in a project without stages, “See examples” and “Use this for my project” generate the workflow suggested for a project type
  • Options for each stage from the kanban: fold, edit, delete, archive or unarchive
  • Third method: type and add the stages one by one in the project’s task kanban view
  • Adding a stage later (for example “Specification”) and assigning it to several projects at once using “Search More”

How to set up and identify stages for each project type4:53

How to name and identify stages when there are several project types with different workflows, so you can assign the right workflow to each project without mistakes.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project > Configuration > Task Stages > New: a prefix is added to the name (for example “PF-”) to tell apart the stages of each project type
  • Stage fields: email template that notifies the customer when the stage changes, sequence, kanban folding and assigned projects
  • Creating five stages with sequence 1 to 5 assigned to the Training Project, chaining the creations from the form itself
  • In the project, the task view shows the stages in the defined order
  • In My Tasks, the list view shows the Stage column, and from the task form you change the stage within the workflow of its project

Managing personal stages and planning tasks in Odoo2:38

Creating and editing personal stages to plan tasks, and how to move tasks between stages once the workflow is defined.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Personal stages have no configuration table: they are managed in My Tasks using the kanban view and do not appear in the list view
  • Creating a new personal stage by entering its name and then dragging it to the desired position in the workflow
  • The stage’s settings gear: fold, delete or edit (name, kanban folding, sequence and description)
  • New tasks arrive in the inbox and are dragged to the appropriate stage, for example Today or This Week

Activity types and planning in Project10:28

Activity types in projects and tasks: how to create them, how they are displayed depending on the active view, and how to schedule the associated activities.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project > Configuration > Activity Types: predefined types and a recommendation that one or two people be in charge of maintaining them
  • Activity icons on the kanban cards in My Tasks, color-coded by due date: red when overdue, orange for today and green for the future
  • Next activity column in the list view and the Activity view, which shows the pending activities of each type for every task
  • Activity type form: name, action (open calendar for calls and meetings, upload document, or none), default user, notes and icon
  • Chaining activities: suggesting or automatically triggering the next one when one is completed, for example a meeting after a call
  • Scheduling an activity from the card’s clock icon or from the task or project: type, summary, due date, assigned user and note
  • Marking as done with a comment, with the option to schedule the next activity, and the action logged in the task’s history
  • Meeting-type activity: opens the calendar to set the day, time, duration, location, reminders and attendees, who receive the invitation

What are Project templates in Odoo and the benefits of using them5:22

Project templates: how to create and identify them, their benefits and the uses they support.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Template filter in the project list and the template checkbox on the form, which is what distinguishes a template from a real project
  • Predefined content: tags, project manager, allocated hours, description and visibility settings, all editable afterwards in the real project
  • On the service product, the “Create on order” option so that confirming the order generates a project from the specified template
  • When the quotation is confirmed, the project is created, renamed with the order sequence, with its customer and analytic account, and accessible from the order
  • Template button to create a project manually: it generates a copy whose name and required details are then changed

Different viewing options for managing projects and tasks4:17

View modes that Odoo offers for working with projects, tasks and their associated items.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project list view: columns for customer, dates, allocated hours, project manager, progress, status and stage, plus optional columns such as the analytic account
  • Action button when selecting records in the list: export, archive, unarchive, delete, share or send an email
  • Project kanban view: card with customer, tags, access to tasks, wiki pages, hours, activities and project manager, and grouping by stage
  • My Tasks in kanban by personal stages, dragging tasks between columns, and in list view with bulk actions on several records
  • Other views: calendar, pivot table for extracting reports, graph and activity

Project management 11 videos

How to create a project manually in Odoo14:00

Creating a project manually: configuration options, what each one involves, and key aspects for planning and tracking it.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project > New: project name, favorite flag, name of the tasks, customer (created beforehand in Contacts) and classification tags
  • Template checkbox left unticked, project manager and employee categories, which come from the tags configured in the Employees module
  • Planned date, allocated hours (prepaid hours package) and free-text description; the greyed-out fields update automatically as tasks progress
  • Settings tab: analytic account that links the project to orders and invoices, and visibility (invited users, internal users or the customer as well)
  • Task options in Settings: recurring tasks, an option tied to milestone invoicing, and time management for logging hours on tasks
  • Project stages (pending, in progress, testing, done, cancelled) and a history record of who changes the stage and when
  • History: send message (reaches the customer and followers) versus log note (internal), activities, attachments and follower management
  • Project shortcuts: status updates, wiki pages, tasks, sales invoices and purchases with their invoices

Tips for tracking a project’s progress in Odoo8:40

Tracking a project’s progress and its financial performance based on revenue, expenses, purchases and labor costs (if you work with analytics), and how to document progress between phases or issues.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project progress calculated from hours logged versus hours estimated on its tasks (3.15 of 13 hours, 25%)
  • Status button at the top of the project (for example, At Risk), which opens the project updates
  • Right-hand panel with links to sales orders, tasks, invoices, vendor bills and the burn-down chart
  • Financial performance based on revenue and expenses, and on the cost of logged hours if employees have an hourly cost
  • New update: name, date, status (on track, at risk, off track, on hold), progress and a free-text assessment
  • The status of the latest update is reflected on the project; it also serves to document issues with the customer
  • In the kanban view, the project’s three-dot menu gives access to tasks, timesheets, sales orders, updates, reports, color and settings

Recording and categorizing project knowledge4:41

Recording knowledge associated with the project. It requires the Odoo Knowledge module and gives access to the records in both directions.

What you’ll see in the video
  • The Knowledge module must be installed; its categories, hierarchical or not, can be viewed under Pages > Categories
  • Wiki Pages button at the top of the project, which shows only the records linked to that project
  • Creating a page: name, text with optional URLs, mandatory category (Search More shows the hierarchy) and the project suggested by default
  • List view with author, category and creation date, and a category side panel for filtering
  • A record created from the project also appears in the Knowledge module: the relationship is bidirectional

Managing followers and notifications from the project5:16

The types of notifications managed from the project, followers and individual preferences, so that each person receives only the alerts they care about.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Viewing the project’s followers from the icon at the top right
  • Using the pencil to edit the notifications each follower receives (notes, project stage changes), independently for each user
  • Adding followers by searching for one or more contacts, with a notification message that can be customized
  • Send message: it reaches the followers and the project’s customer, and supports additional recipients and attachments; the red envelope indicates an error when sending the email
  • Log note: internal communication with a subject and attachments that is kept in the history and notifies the followers who have it enabled

How to attach different file types to a project0:54

Attaching files of different types (images, Word, PDF, Excel…) to a project, to manage its documentation or record relevant details.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Attaching a file from the paperclip at the top right of the project
  • The paperclip shows the number of attachments and lets you view, download or delete each document

Options for moving a project to another stage2:35

The two ways to move a project to another stage once the workflow has been defined.

What you’ll see in the video
  • In the project configuration, the top bar shows the stages and highlights the current one; clicking another stage changes it, and who made the change and when is recorded
  • The project list view only shows each project’s stage; it doesn’t allow changing it
  • In the kanban view grouped by stage, you drag the project from one column to another; the Done and Cancelled stages appear collapsed
  • The colored bar on each column reflects the status of the projects it contains (for example, on track or on hold)

How to configure a project so it can be shared with the customer3:35

Configuring the project to share it with the customer, and the options available for doing so.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Creating a new project in Projects with a name, customer and tags
  • Settings tab, visibility: invited users, all internal users, or invited portal users and all internal users
  • To share it with the customer, choose the option for invited portal users and all internal users
  • After saving, it can be shared as read-only or editable: a wizard with the link, recipients and a note; the email sent is recorded in the chatter
  • A red envelope if the outgoing mail server fails and a grey one if the email is sent correctly; it can also be shared from the projects kanban view

How to link expenses to a project3:09

With analytic accounting enabled, this add-on links related expenses (a business trip, a working lunch) to the project so that margin control is reliable.

What you’ll see in the video
  • A module that isn’t always installed and only makes sense if you work with analytic accounting
  • In the project status, the profitability section includes purchase orders, sales orders and the cost of the hours logged by the team
  • In Expenses, an expense is created (customer visit, mileage category, 100 km) specifying the project’s analytic account
  • The expense report is created, sent to the manager and approved, the journal entries are posted and the payment is registered
  • When the project is refreshed, an Expenses line appears in the profitability section, which affects the margin and gives access to the expenses charged

Workflow example: Manual project from a template3:34

Manually creating a project from an already configured template, which carries over default fields and settings. Useful when there are several service lines or project types.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Predefined “Templates” filter in Projects to find the templates, for example one per project type
  • The template provides tags, description, settings (recurring tasks, milestones, timesheets, billable) and task stages
  • “Create project from template” button: Odoo duplicates the project
  • It is renamed and anything that needs to change is adjusted; the project and task stages are kept

Creating projects from the sales order4:32

Automatic creation of the project from the sales order using a template, with the configuration needed for the process to work.

What you’ll see in the video
  • The project template must have the Billable checkbox ticked in the Settings tab, otherwise it can’t be selected on the product
  • On the product, in the General Information tab, the Create on Order field offers Nothing, Task, Project & Task or Project
  • When Project is selected, the Project Template field appears, where the template is chosen (Training workshop)
  • When a quotation with that product is confirmed, a link to the generated project appears on the order, also visible from the Projects module
  • The project takes the order number, the customer and the analytic account, and the name and any necessary parameters are adjusted

Managing internal projects to record employee time5:39

Internal company projects used to measure and analyze labor costs and the hours spent on each one.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Internal projects are identified by a tag (internal) or by the company itself as the customer, and are found using custom filters
  • The “Marketing and communication” project is created with the company as the customer, the internal tag, a project manager, an employee category and a description
  • In Settings, visibility is defined for internal users, Billable is unticked and an analytic account is assigned
  • In Configuration > Task Stages, the project is added to the existing stages so the workflow can be reused
  • Tasks are created and each person logs their time in the timesheet so the hours spent on internal projects can be analyzed

Tasks 8 videos

Task views and access points to suit our needs8:03

An overview of the available task views: what is shown and which actions can be performed in each one, how to access them, and what Odoo displays by default depending on the environment.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Accessing the tasks of a single project from its tasks button, in kanban view with the workflow stages defined for that project
  • List view with configurable optional columns: removing the ID or adding the customer and progress in hours
  • The My Tasks menu with default filters and personal stages, independent of the project stages
  • Grouping by project, customer or kanban status (blocked, ready, in progress), with their red, green and grey colors
  • When the My Tasks filter is removed, the tasks of all employees and all projects are shown
  • In list view, selecting records to print timesheets and the Action menu: export, archive, unarchive, delete or send by email
  • Sending by email is only enabled for tasks in projects whose visibility is open to the customer
  • In kanban you can see priority, activities, tags, customer, assignees and remaining or exceeded hours; search by project or by customer

How to create tasks linked to a project10:21

Creating a task directly from the project, which allows some of its fields to be inherited automatically.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Accessing the tasks from the project button, the New button, the task title and the Edit option to complete the form (the task is already created)
  • Project and customer inherited automatically, workflow stage bar, a button to assign the task to yourself and star-based priority
  • Project employee categories (consulting, development) that limit the users available in Assignees
  • Kanban status: in progress (grey), ready (green) or blocked, with a note explaining the reason for the block
  • Planned dates, deadline, tags shared across projects and tasks, and a free-text description field
  • Timesheets tab: the allocated hours (10) are added to the project’s planned hours, which go from 21 to 31 upon saving
  • Recurrent and Extra Info tabs: the project’s analytic account, email cc, cover image and assignment date
  • Chatter on the right side of the form with a record of all the changes made to the task

How to create a task from scratch3:01

Creating a task from scratch, filling in each field by hand instead of inheriting them from the project.

What you’ll see in the video
  • Project > My Tasks > New opens the full task form directly, without the quick title card
  • With no project selected, the task is private and shows the personal stages instead of the project stages
  • When a project is chosen, the stages change to the project’s stages and the associated customer is loaded
  • Employee categories are limited to those of the project and filter the people the task can be assigned to
  • Recommendation to limit who can create tasks and tags so that later filters return all records

How to create recurring tasks in Odoo5:09

Recurring tasks: they save time by generating routine daily, weekly or monthly tasks automatically, and they let you plan the work for a given period.

What the video covers
  • Creating the task from an internal project: name in the quick-create card and the Edit button to fill in priority and assignee
  • Recurrent tab: ticking the checkbox lets you set the task to repeat every X days, weeks, months or years, the days of the week and the end date
  • Odoo shows the upcoming creation dates and generates each task automatically when its date arrives
  • Create Recurrences button to generate them all at once, useful for planning although it fills up the My Tasks inbox
  • When editing a recurring task, you choose whether the change applies only to that task, to that task and the following ones, or to all of them

Options for moving a task to another stage2:44

Two ways to move a task to another stage: from the stage bar on the task form or by dragging it in the kanban view grouped by stage.

What the video covers
  • Task stages are defined in Settings, with the recommendation to standardize a single general workflow for all projects
  • Changing the stage from the task itself by clicking the target stage in the top bar, with a record in the history of who made the change and when
  • In My Tasks, the kanban view shows personal stages, so you need to filter by project and group by stage to see the project workflow
  • Changing the stage by dragging the card to another kanban column and checking both changes in the task history

Managing followers and notifications from tasks5:36

Follower and notification options from tasks, which work the same way as in the project.

What the video covers
  • Opening a task from My Tasks and checking its followers with the icon in the history panel on the right
  • Adding followers by searching for one or more contacts, with an optional invitation message, and automatic notification to the added user
  • Editing each follower’s preferences with the pencil icon: discussions, notes, task rating, blocked task or stage change
  • Logging a note is internal and notifies those following notes, whereas sending a message generates an email that the customer also receives
  • Expanded composer with subject and attachments, and a red envelope icon if the message is not sent because the outgoing mail server is not configured

How to attach files and work with them from tasks1:05

Attaching files in different formats to a task and working with them.

What the video covers
  • Paperclip icon on the task to upload PNG, JPG, Excel, Word or PDF files
  • Project attachments are not visible from the task, and task attachments are not visible from the project
  • Each attachment can be viewed on screen, downloaded or deleted

How to share tasks with customers or people outside the organization2:14

Depending on the visibility configured on the project, a task can be shared with the customer or with an external collaborator.

What the video covers
  • Action > Share on the task; if the project is private, Odoo warns that it cannot be shared
  • The project visibility must include invited portal users
  • With that configuration, Share generates a link that you can copy or send to the recipients with a note
  • The sending is recorded in the task history

Time tracking and invoicing 6 videos

How to review and print the timesheets associated with a project2:10

Ways to print the timesheet to send the customer a breakdown of the hours worked, common in hourly projects or projects with a prepaid hours package.

What the video covers
  • From the projects kanban view: the project’s three dots > Timesheets, with all the entries for any employee and task
  • Selecting all records or just some of them and clicking Print > Timesheets
  • From the list view: open the project and click Print > Timesheets, which prints all records without letting you select
  • PDF with the company and project details and, for each entry, the date, time spent, description and task

How to log hours from tasks4:51

Logging the time spent directly from the task.

What the video covers
  • Recommendation to log time at the end of each working day or, at most, on a weekly basis
  • From My Tasks, searching for the task and opening the Timesheets tab, which shows the allocated hours (10 in the example)
  • Adding a line with a date (which can be in the past), employee, description and hours, after which the progress and remaining hours are calculated
  • If the allocated hours are exceeded, progress stays at 100% and the extra time is displayed
  • The employee’s hourly cost, in the HR Settings tab of their record, is used to value the logged hours in the project’s profitability

How to log hours from the Timesheets app in Odoo3:15

Recording the time spent on each task from the Timesheets app, probably the quickest way.

What the video covers
  • Enabling timesheets in Project installs the Timesheets app, which shows the entries already logged from tasks
  • New record with date, task (which fills in the project automatically), description and time spent
  • Checking in the task’s Timesheets tab that the entry appears: the link between the two is bidirectional

Logging hours from Service Sheets in Odoo5:51

Service sheets, a feature of the Timesheets module: you create daily, weekly or monthly timesheets, record the time spent as you go and send them to the reviewer for approval.

What the video covers
  • After installing the additional module, the My Service Sheets menu appears, set up in the example as weekly sheets from Monday to Sunday
  • The list shows the period of each sheet and the total hours logged during the week
  • Summary tab with the hours per project and task and the total for each day of the week
  • Creating a new sheet and, in the Details tab, adding lines with date, project, task (only those of the selected project), description and time
  • The entry also appears on the task, and at the end of the period the sheet can be sent to the reviewer for approval

Managing and invoicing hourly projects11:48

Projects with a prepaid hours package or hourly support, invoiced as the hours are consumed and at the chosen frequency (weekly, monthly, etc.).

What the video covers
  • The project template must have Billable and Timesheets ticked in Settings, in addition to its task stages
  • On the employee record, in the HR Settings tab, the hourly cost is entered to calculate the project margin
  • On the service product, Create on Order is configured as: Project, the project template and the Hours unit of measure
  • A quotation for 100 hours at €65 is created and, once confirmed, the project is generated with the order reference and its analytic account
  • In the project, the name is changed and, under invoicing, the linked order is shown and the employee is added with their sales price and hourly cost
  • A task with 100 allocated hours is created and timesheet lines are logged; Odoo shows the remaining hours and the progress percentage
  • The project status panel shows the order, the hours delivered and invoiced, the cost of the logged time and the margin
  • From the order, Create Invoice lets you set the timesheet period and invoices only the 20 hours consumed; the project is updated

Managing reports linked to time tracking4:29

Reports from the Timesheets module: hours variance on a project, each employee’s time spent by task and project, the cost of their hours and the split between billable and non-billable hours.

What the video covers
  • Timesheets > Reporting, with options by employee, by project, by task and by invoicing type
  • Pivot table by employee with the measures of hours spent, timesheet cost, billable hours and non-billable hours
  • Grouping by day, week, month, quarter or year, and additional breakdown by project and task
  • The cost comes from the hourly cost assigned to the employee on their record
  • Reports can be saved as favorites, added to the dashboard or exported to Excel
  • Review of employees’ service sheets, with the hours logged per week for each task and project

Profiles and permissions 2 videos

Project manager: Permissions in Odoo7:22

Minimum permissions a project manager needs to do their job in Odoo; they can be extended depending on each company’s level of transparency.

What the video covers
  • The Project module is related to Sales, Purchase, Invoicing, Timesheets and Knowledge, so the permissions must cover all of them
  • In Settings > Users, it is recommended to complete the contact generated with the user and to create the employee with their basic details
  • Permissions: Project and Timesheets as administrator, Sales with all documents, Accounting as read-only, Inventory and Purchase as user
  • In addition, Employees to manage all employees and Knowledge as manager, because of the wiki tab linked to projects
  • With that user, you can see and edit all projects and tasks, log time for other employees and access reports, configuration and timesheets

Project user: Basic access and viewing permissions5:36

Basic permissions for a project team member to manage their tasks, log their time and check their timesheets.

What the video covers
  • In Settings > Users, the user is reviewed; it is recommended to complete their contact and create the employee even if Human Resources is not used
  • Permissions: Sales with all documents, Accounting as read-only, Project and Timesheets as user, Attendances and Knowledge as editor
  • With that user, fewer apps are visible (no Inventory, Purchase or Settings) and projects can be viewed without being able to edit fields or settings
  • In tasks, they can only access their own: when the My Tasks filter is removed, their colleagues’ tasks are not shown
  • They cannot access the configuration of stages, tags and activities, and in timesheets and reports they only see their own entries

Planning and analysis 3 videos

Analyzing data linked to projects and tasks4:16

Reporting, analysis and data extraction for projects and tasks, with several visualization options.

What the video shows
  • Filters and groupings on projects and tasks, saved as favorites or as the default filter
  • Projects > Reporting > Tasks Analysis, with measures such as progress, planned hours and remaining hours
  • Display as a bar chart, line chart, pie chart or pivot table
  • Pivot table by customer, stage, creation date or assignee
  • Reports can be added to the dashboard or downloaded to Excel

Task planner – Capacity and availability9:39

Where the data used to analyze employee workload comes from. This feature is provided by an additional module.

What the video shows
  • The task planner developed by Binovo has three views: task details (the source of the data), the summary and employee workload
  • Accessed from Projects > Reporting > Task Details, in a list view grouped by calendar day
  • Columns for day, employee, project, task, planned task dates and assigned planned hours
  • The employee’s calendar hours and absence hours for that day, which do not depend on the task and are repeated on every line
  • Hours worked (the day’s timesheets), cumulative hours worked and hours remaining compared to what was planned
  • Planned hours per day: how a task’s hours are spread across the days of its period
  • Available hours and occupancy percentage, with the example of a day at 357% because of three simultaneous tasks
  • Useful for checking where a figure comes from when the planner shows unexpected occupancy

Task planner – Summary report and employee workload6:19

Reports and views for analyzing employees’ daily workload. This feature is provided by an additional module.

What the video shows
  • Summary report as a pivot table: by employee and day, with calendar, worked, planned and available hours, plus the occupancy percentage
  • Days with more planned hours than calendar hours show up as overloaded; weekends have no calendar or planned hours
  • Filters for this week, this month or this year, and totals per employee
  • Employee workload view by month, week or day: people with more planned hours than available hours appear in red
  • Double-clicking a task lets you change its planned dates and hours, and the workload is recalculated on reload

Helpdesk: support and tickets 10 videos

Setting up teams and stages19:36

The concepts of team and stage, and how to configure the emails sent to the customer when a ticket is created or changes stage.

What the video shows
  • In Configuration > Teams, you create a team with a leader, email alias, default assignment, company, website submission and members
  • The alias accepts emails from everyone, authenticated companies, followers or authenticated employees; authenticated companies is recommended to avoid spam
  • In Configuration > Stages, each stage is marked as unattended (New) or closed (Done, Cancelled, Rejected), with an option to allow closing from the portal
  • Each stage can have an email template that is sent to the customer when the ticket enters it; it is optional and can be left blank if not needed
  • In version 16, the ticket received notification is not sent if the ticket arrives by email, although it is sent when the ticket is created manually or from the web portal
  • Solution: install Automated Action Rules, enable developer mode and duplicate a helpdesk template as “ticket created”
  • In Technical > Automated Actions, you create an action on Helpdesk Ticket with the On creation trigger, which sends the published template as a message
  • Requires outgoing and incoming email to be configured in Odoo, with the teams’ aliases linked to that account

Changing the appearance of automatic emails6:13

How to change the look and text of automatic customer emails when working in several languages.

What the video shows
  • In Settings > Technical > Email Templates, with only one language installed, templates offer no translation option
  • After adding a language in Settings (English), a language icon appears on the subject and body so you can edit the text and HTML for each one
  • In the template settings, the Language field must point to the partner’s language, which is defined on the contact record
  • Only headers and automatic messages are translated; anything written manually in the ticket must be written in the customer’s language
  • Works for any template (purchase order, sales order…) and can only be modified by an administrator user

How to create stages in our Helpdesk module3:51

How to create stages and what to keep in mind to define them properly.

What the video shows
  • From the kanban view, using Add a stage, you create “Waiting for customer”, drag it into position and decide whether it is shown folded
  • The alternative is Configuration > Stages, creating a new one with the same options
  • For each stage you indicate whether it is a closing or unattended stage; an intermediate stage such as “Waiting for customer” has neither flag
  • All teams share the same stages; having different stages per team would require custom development
  • You can link a stage-changed email template to notify the customer when the ticket enters that stage

Visual effects and dashboard views2:49

Recommended dashboard views and some visual effects.

What the video shows
  • On the dashboard, colors are assigned to the different teams so they can be identified at a glance
  • Tickets can be viewed in kanban, list or pivot table view
  • Example of a pivot table with the number of tickets per category; clicking a cell opens the tickets that make it up
  • The kanban view is recommended as the most convenient and visual option for users

Helpdesk ticket with time tracking3:32

Installing the module that lets you log planned and actual hours on a ticket linked to a project; they are saved as analytic lines and make it possible to know the cost of handling tickets.

What the video shows
  • A ticket is created with contact, category, tag, priority, assigned user and description, and it turns out not to allow logging hours
  • The helpdesk timesheet module is installed and the ticket shows a new Project field
  • When the ticket is linked to a project, the timesheet section appears, where you add lines with user, description and hours
  • Planned hours can be entered and a progress bar compares them with the logged hours; the ticket then moves to In Progress or Done

User profiles in Helpdesk20:03

The four Helpdesk user profiles, shown with four sample users to see what each one can see and do.

What the video shows
  • The profile is assigned in Settings > Users, in the Helpdesk section, and then the user is added as a member of the teams
  • User profile: sees the tickets of all teams, even if they are only a member of some, and can create tickets
  • The user can only assign tickets to themselves in the teams they belong to
  • Has access to tickets, timesheets and the dashboard, with list and kanban views, but not to reports or stage creation
  • Team Tickets profile: sees the groups but only the tickets of their own teams, and can only create tickets in them
  • If saving a ticket gives an error about the sender, it is because the user has no email address; this is fixed on their contact record
  • Personal Tickets Only profile: sees no tickets except their own, even if they belong to teams that have tickets
  • With that profile, creating a ticket in a team they do not belong to results in a security restriction error
  • Manager profile: sees everything, including reports and configuration (channels, categories, stages, teams), and can add stages from the kanban view
  • The manager creates tickets in any team even if not a member; not being a member only prevents tickets from that team from being assigned to them
  • Warning: the manager profile should be given to trained people, because their configuration changes affect everyone

Ticket management: what can you do?15:59

What you can do with a ticket and how to manage it. These are general guidelines; each company organizes and configures things in its own way.

What the video shows
  • Dashboard per team with the To Do and Unattended counters; a ticket is unattended if its stage (such as New) has that checkbox ticked
  • An email sent to the team alias creates the ticket automatically, with subject, content and attachments in the chatter, the contact filled in and no user assigned
  • Ticket classification: assigned user, star-based priority, category and color-coded tags, which are best agreed upon within the team
  • Stage changes from the form or by dragging in kanban, recorded in the history; kanban and list views
  • Send message sends an email to the customer with attachments and CC recipients; red indicates a delivery failure, and there is no way to know whether it has been read
  • Depending on the stage configuration, changing the stage sends an automatic email to the customer in their language; closed tickets drop out of the Open filter
  • Reassignment to another team member, who receives a notification, and internal notes that the customer neither receives nor sees
  • Scheduled activities (for example, a call with a date and an owner) that are marked as done, and followers who are notified of changes

Creating a ticket from scratch and logging it to a project3:32

Creating a ticket from scratch (for example, when it comes in by phone) and logging estimated and actual hours. Requires the timesheet module to be installed.

What the video shows
  • Creating a new ticket with contact, category, tag, priority, assigned user and description, which is mandatory
  • Without the timesheet module installed, the ticket offers no section for logging hours
  • After installing it, the Project field appears on the ticket; linking it to a project enables the Timesheets tab
  • In Timesheets you add lines with employee, description and hours; once planned hours are entered, a progress bar is displayed
  • The ticket is then moved to In Progress or Done

Ticketing reports: Pivot table18:06

Using pivot tables to obtain ticketing statistics.

What the video shows
  • Reporting > Tickets opens a pivot table that by default shows the ticket count by team and by creation month
  • Additional measures such as total hours, planned hours and remaining hours, which can be added, hidden and reordered, with totals at the top
  • Example of a top customers ranking: rows by company and a click on the Count header to sort from highest to lowest instead of by name
  • Table buttons: download to Excel, flip axes and expand all, which opens all the sublevels at once (user and company)
  • Favorites > Save current search, with the options to use it by default and share it with other users; you can save several
  • Other examples: tickets handled by user, tickets by user and stage, and unhandled tickets by combining the filter with the table
  • Custom groups to drill down to the ticket number; a favorite cannot be updated, so you have to delete it and save it again
  • If a field for grouping or measuring is missing, it would need to be built as a separate development

Reports: Report chart views7:36

Chart views of the ticket reports, from which you can drill down to the details of the tickets behind each data point.

What you can see in the video
  • Reports > Tickets in chart view: tickets by team as bars, in ascending or descending order, as lines or as a pie chart with percentages
  • Second grouping by assigned user, with the option to show stacked or unstacked bars
  • Line chart with a custom group by assignment date (by day) to see how the number of tickets or hours evolves
  • Selecting measures (count, total hours) and, new in version 16, disabling a series directly on the chart
  • Clicking a data point on the chart opens the filtered list of the tickets that make it up, which is useful for checking the summary

Frequently asked questions about projects and services in Odoo

Can projects be invoiced by the hour in Odoo?

Yes. Projects with a prepaid hours package or hourly support are invoiced based on the hours logged, at the frequency you choose.

How are hours logged?

From the task itself, from the timesheet, or with daily, weekly or monthly service sheets that the manager approves.

Can the customer see the project or its tasks?

Yes, if the project is set up as visible to portal users: you can share individual tasks or the entire project with the customer or with external collaborators.

Does Odoo manage support tickets?

Yes, with Helpdesk: teams, stages, automatic emails to the customer, time tracking on each ticket and activity reports.

Want to see how Odoo would work in your company?

At Binovo we implement Odoo, develop custom modules and train your team. We show you your own processes in a demo.

Contact Binovo Odoo ERP implementation · 943 569 206

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