Project is one of the core applications in Odoo, used to plan, run, and track work that is organised as projects and tasks. This guide explains what the Odoo Project application does and how it fits with the rest of the system.
Projects and tasks
The Odoo Project application is built on two simple structures: the project and the task. A project is a body of work, a client engagement, an internal initiative, a delivery, and within it the work is broken into tasks. A task is a discrete unit of work with an owner, and tasks carry the detail: who is responsible, what stage it is at, what has been discussed, what is attached. This project-and-task structure is deliberately straightforward, because it has to fit a wide range of work, from a software delivery to an internal improvement effort.
Stages and the task lifecycle
Tasks in Odoo move through stages, the steps of the workflow, and the stages are configurable so they match how a particular team actually works. The most common way to see and manage this is the Kanban view, where tasks are cards and stages are columns, and work is moved along by dragging it from one stage to the next. Odoo also offers other views of the same work, list, calendar, and reporting views, so a project can be seen the way a given moment calls for.
Milestones and project updates
Beyond individual tasks, Odoo Project supports milestones, defined points that mark meaningful progress in a project, so a project can be tracked against the things that matter and not only against a list of tasks. Project updates give a way to record and communicate the status of a project at a point in time, so progress and health are visible rather than implicit.
Recurring tasks and templates
Some project work repeats, and Odoo supports recurring tasks, so work that happens on a regular cycle does not have to be created by hand each time. Odoo also provides project templates, so a project that follows a familiar shape can be created from a defined starting point rather than built from scratch, which is useful for a business that runs many similar projects.
Project sharing with clients
Odoo Project supports sharing a project with people outside the business through the portal, so a client can be given visibility of the project that concerns them. This lets a service business keep a client informed within the same system the work is run in, rather than maintaining a separate status report.
The link to sales and timesheets
The real strength of Odoo Project, as with every Odoo application, is connection. Project connects to Sales, so that selling a service can create the project and tasks to deliver it, and it connects to Timesheets, so that the time spent on tasks is recorded against the work. That connection enables something important for service businesses: profitability visibility. Because the revenue from the sale, and the time and cost of delivering it, are in one connected system, a business can see whether a project is actually profitable, not just whether it is finished. Different billing approaches, fixed price, billing by time, billing against milestones, are supported, so the commercial side of project work fits how the business actually charges.
Who Odoo Project suits
Odoo Project suits any business that organises work as projects and tasks, and it is particularly valuable for service businesses, where the connection between selling work, delivering it, recording time, and seeing profitability is exactly what is usually missing when project work, sales, and finance live in separate tools. For a manufacturer, Project is also relevant to engineer-to-order work, where an order is run as a project.
The takeaway
The Odoo Project application organises work as projects and tasks, moves tasks through configurable stages, tracks progress through milestones and updates, supports recurring tasks, templates, and client sharing, and connects to Sales and Timesheets so a business can see project profitability. Its value is that project work is part of one connected system. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.