Frequently asked questions

Yes, and this is usually the single biggest change contractors notice. Odoo Analytic Accounting posts every timesheet hour, purchase order, supplier invoice and customer application to the project it belongs to. That means certified value, committed cost, actual cost and forecast cost to complete all sit on one view, updated as the work happens. Directors see margin by project and across the portfolio without anyone building a spreadsheet first, because a report that takes three days to assemble is a report about the past.

Most construction clients go live in 8 to 12 weeks, depending on how many projects are running, how much history has to migrate and how much of the process needs tailoring. The approach is designed to avoid a hard stop: we work in phases, keep your current way of working running while the new system is prepared, and only switch once your own team has run a live project through it and is comfortable.

Yes. Odoo supports multiple companies, multiple stock locations and multiple currencies as standard, so each site holds its own materials and each entity keeps its own books while ownership sees one consolidated position. Approval limits by value and role, standard project templates and standard cost heads are defined once at business level, so a manager moving between sites finds the same rules. That consistency is also what makes projects genuinely comparable.

Usually, yes. Banking feeds, payroll providers, estimating and takeoff software, scheduling tools, CAD and document systems and client portals can all be integrated so information flows once rather than being typed twice. We will also tell you honestly where an integration genuinely earns its place and where the cost of building and maintaining it outweighs the benefit.

By refusing to keep the programme and the money apart. The estimate becomes the budget, and every purchase order, subcontract package and labour booking reports against it. Commitment shows the moment an order is raised rather than when the invoice arrives, so cost to complete is a live figure and a slipping task carries its cost with it.

The best fit is the one that survives your worst site conditions, so judge candidates on offline capture and sync, how they handle drawings, and whether your measurement rules need configuration or real development. Cloud suits contractors because the business is not in the office. The honest limitations are connectivity, heavy document handling, and bespoke measurement, and we will tell you plainly when the fit is poor.