Odoo Project Management: Complete Setup Guide

Project Module Overview

Odoo Project provides: kanban task management, Gantt scheduling (Enterprise), timesheets, milestones, sub-tasks, customer portal, and integration with Sales for billable projects. It is designed for teams that track tasks, log time, and bill clients.

Setup Steps

1. Create Project

# Project → Create
# Name: "Website Redesign — Acme Corp"
# Customer: Acme Corp
# Tags: Internal / Client / Maintenance

# Project settings:
# - Timesheets: enable for billable projects
# - Rating: enable for customer satisfaction
# - Subtasks: enable for task decomposition
# - Documents: enable for file sharing

2. Task Stages

# Kanban columns (stages):
# New → In Progress → Review → Done

# Or more detailed:
# Backlog → To Do → In Progress → Code Review → QA → Done

# Project → Configuration → Stages
# Stages can be shared across projects or project-specific

3. Tasks

# Create tasks with:
# - Title: descriptive action item
# - Assignees: one or more team members
# - Deadline: due date
# - Priority: normal, important, urgent
# - Tags: frontend, backend, design, bug
# - Description: detailed requirements
# - Subtasks: break down into smaller items
# - Chatter: discussion thread per task

Views

Kanban (Default)

Drag-and-drop cards across columns. Visual progress tracking. Color-coded by priority or tag. Quick create from any column.

List

Spreadsheet-style view with sorting, filtering, and grouping. Good for bulk operations and reporting.

Gantt (Enterprise)

Timeline view showing task durations and dependencies. Drag to reschedule. See resource allocation across projects.

Calendar

Tasks plotted on a calendar by deadline. See who is working on what each day.

Timesheets

# Enable timesheets on the project:
# Project Settings → Timesheets = True

# Logging time:
# Open task → Timesheets tab → Add a line
# Date, Employee, Description, Hours

# Or use the Timesheet module:
# My Timesheets → weekly/daily grid view
# Log hours per project/task per day

# Timer: click Start/Stop for automatic time tracking

Milestones

# Milestones mark project checkpoints:
# Project → Milestones
# - Milestone: "Design Approved" — March 30
# - Milestone: "Development Complete" — April 30
# - Milestone: "Launch" — May 15

# Link tasks to milestones for progress tracking
# Dashboard shows: milestone status, tasks remaining

Billing Integration

# Two billing models:

# 1. Time & Materials:
# Sales Order → Service product (Timesheet billing)
# Employees log timesheets on SO tasks
# Create Invoice → bills actual hours logged

# 2. Fixed Price:
# Sales Order → milestone-based invoicing
# Invoice at each milestone
# Track hours internally for profitability

Customer Portal

• Client can view project tasks and status
• Client can add comments on tasks
• Client can rate completed tasks
• Client cannot edit tasks or see internal notes
• Client sees milestones and progress

Best Practices

• One project per client engagement — for clear profitability tracking
• Always set deadlines — tasks without deadlines never get done
• Use subtasks — break large tasks into 2-4 hour subtasks
• Log timesheets daily — retrospective time tracking is inaccurate
• Review boards weekly — move stale tasks, reprioritize, assign blockers

DeployMonkey + Projects

Deploy Odoo Project on DeployMonkey. The AI agent configures task stages, timesheet billing, milestones, and team workflows. Start managing projects and tracking time immediately.