The margin of every services project, while there is still time to correct it
I implement time, rates, progress billing and project profitability tracking, with Odoo or another platform if your case calls for it.
35questions, 8 minutes and your level across six dimensions at the end
Signs your services firm needs PSA
- Time is logged late or not at all
- Less is billed than the work done
- Client or project profitability is known only at the end
- Nobody knows each person's workload for next week
- Effort estimates are never compared with actuals
- Deliverables are tracked in emails
The cost of not measuring time and margin
Hours never billed
Hours rebuilt from memory at month end and unrecorded scope changes come straight out of margin.
Margin known too late
If margin is calculated at project close, the overrun cannot be corrected and the next quote repeats the mistake.
Overloaded team
Without seeing each person’s load, the firm accepts projects that delay one another.
PSA: who it serves and when it does not fit
Who it serves
- Consultancies, engineering and architecture firms, agencies, and law or accounting firms selling hours or projects
- Partners and managers who need each project’s margin before it closes
- Teams billing by milestones, hour banks or monthly retainers
- Internal teams charging their services to other departments or group companies
When it does not fit
- If your projects are construction jobs with cost items and valuations: construction control fits better.
- If you only plan internal tasks without billing or costing hours: project management is enough.
- If the team is two or three people with one customer: a shared timesheet may be enough.
How I assess PSA in four steps
Before configuring Odoo I set the rate and cost per role, because without them margin cannot be calculated. The deliverables are the role table, the project cycle, the approved pilot and the margin dashboard.
I define roles, rates and costs
Sell rate and cost per hour of each role: the two figures without which there is no margin.
I design the project cycle
From approved proposal to a project with budget, weekly hours, approval and invoice.
I configure and pilot
One real project runs the whole cycle before the rest of the team joins.
I measure margin and utilisation
Weekly dashboard of margin by project and billable utilisation per person.
Inputs from your firm for PSA
Cost per hour is the slowest data to obtain. Ask accounting for it on day one.
- Data
- Hours logged last quarter, even in spreadsheets, and the proposals for projects in progress.
- Master data
- Roles with sale rate and hourly cost, customers with payment terms, and the catalogue of services you quote.
- Access
- An Odoo administrator user, or read access to your accounting system if accounting stays elsewhere.
- People
- A partner who sets rates, a project manager for the pilot and someone from invoicing.
From time logging to the margin dashboard
I implement this type of system
Profitability assessment
Where billable hours leak and which data is missing to calculate margin.
PSA implementation
Projects, timesheets, planning and milestone billing in Odoo, with a manual per role.
Margin dashboard
Margin by project and client, and utilisation per person, from the same source.
Selection, if not Odoo
If your case calls for another platform, I compare options against your requirements.
Diego Muñoz. I implement PSA with Odoo: Project, Timesheets, Planning and milestone billing. If your case calls for another platform, I compare options such as Kantata, Certinia or Scoro and help you choose.
PSA platforms and Odoo
PSA platforms differ in the billing models they support and whether accounting lives on the same database. The list is in no order of preference.
Odoo Project, Timesheets and Planning
With Project, Timesheets, Planning and milestone billing, Odoo covers the full services project cycle on the same database as accounting. It is the option I implement.
Other PSA platforms I assess
- Kantata (Mavenlink)
- Certinia (FinancialForce)
- Planview
- Harvest
- Scoro
Limits of standard Odoo for PSA
- Hourly cost comes from the employee record; if it varies by project, it is handled with role rates on the sales order.
- Retainers with hours carried over between months need billing rules I define and test in the pilot.
- If accounting stays in another system, margin in Odoo depends on integrating invoices and costs.
Criteria for choosing the PSA platform
- Billing model: fixed price, hourly, milestones or retainer
- Simple time entry for the team, also from the phone
- Workload planning per person
- Invoicing and accounting on the same database, with SUNAT e-invoicing
- Three-year cost per user
PSA integrations
Project and portfolio management
Project tasks, milestones and progress feed hours and billing.
See the systemCustomer relationship management
The won proposal creates the project with its hours and amounts budget.
See the systemAccounting and financial ERP
Approved hours and costs reach analytic accounting by project.
See the systemHelp desk and customer support
Post-project support draws down hours from the contracted bank.
See the systemBusiness intelligence and data warehouse
Margin and utilisation are combined with sales and collections in a management dashboard.
See the system35 questions on your project margins, in 8 minutes
The analysis measures how your firm estimates, logs, approves and bills the hours of its service contracts. The questions describe concrete practices of partners, project leads, consultants and finance.
Scored dimensions
- Estimate and contracted scope. Looks at whether effort is estimated by phase and role before quoting, whether scope changes are approved and whether the project survives its manager leaving.
- Rates and cost per role. Looks at whether each role has a recorded sale rate and hourly cost, with client exceptions documented.
- Timesheets and staffing. Looks at whether hours are logged per project and on time, and whether consultant staffing is planned for the coming weeks.
- From contract to invoice. Looks at whether the won proposal creates the project with its budget, whether the invoice amount comes from the contract and whether unbilled work is controlled.
- Margin and billable utilization. Looks at when each project's margin is known and how the share of the team's available time that is billed is measured.
- Approval and client sign-off. Looks at who approves hours before billing, how client acceptance of a deliverable is recorded and how the agreed service level is tracked.
What you receive
When you finish you receive your level in six professional services dimensions and the gaps ranked by weight. Each gap points to a first action for the next billing close.
18 scored questions and 12 context questions (type of operation, size, current system). Context questions are not scored: they let us read the result against similar operations.
Free of charge. Only Diego Muñoz sees your answers.
It is a known PSA risk. I reduce it by explaining what hours are used for, asking for weekly rather than daily entry, and showing the team its own workload and project status.
Yes. On fixed price, hours are not billed, but they are the cost: without them you cannot tell whether the project makes or loses money, or how to quote the next one.
If your accounting runs on Odoo, everything sits on the same database. If it runs elsewhere, I integrate invoices and journal entries; the scope of that integration is set in the scope review.
The online assessment and the 30-minute review with me are free and carry no commitment.
Only I, Diego Muñoz, read them, to prepare the review. I do not share them with third parties or use them for bulk mailings.
Review your project margins with Diego
Twenty minutes with a closed project and its actual hours. I reply in person, on Lima time.
WhatsApp +51 919 488 260 · damunoz@dmunozgroup.com