A project is work, and work consumes time. Connecting the Project app to Timesheets links the work to the time spent on it. This piece is about that connection and why it is valuable.
What the connection links
The Project app organises work into projects and tasks. Timesheets is about recording the time people spend. Connecting Project to Timesheets links the two: the time people spend is recorded against the project tasks it was spent on. So a project, with its tasks, becomes connected to the genuine time that went into it. The project is not just a record of the work; with the connection, it is also a record of the time the work consumed.
Why the time matters
The time spent on a project matters because, for project and service work, time is the main resource consumed and the main cost incurred. People's hours are what the work takes. So knowing the time spent on a project is knowing, in large part, what the project genuinely cost in effort. Connecting Project to Timesheets is what makes that knowable: the time recorded against the project's tasks is the record of the effort the project consumed.
What the connection enables: profitability
The most important thing the connection enables is project profitability. The cost of a project is, substantially, the cost of the time spent on it. When time is recorded against project tasks, that time, and the cost it represents, can be set against the revenue from the project, and the business can see whether the project genuinely made money. Without the connection between Project and Timesheets, the time spent on a project is not captured, and project profitability cannot genuinely be known. With it, profitability becomes visible. For a service business, this is the central value of the connection.
What the connection enables: time-based billing
The connection also enables time-based billing. Where a project is billed for the time it consumes, time and material, the billing has to be based on the genuine time spent, and the genuine time spent is what the connection to Timesheets captures, time recorded against the project's tasks. So connecting Project to Timesheets is what makes accurate time-based billing of a project possible: the customer is billed for the time genuinely recorded against the work.
The connection depends on time being recorded
An honest note. The connection between Project and Timesheets delivers its value only if the time is genuinely recorded, recorded by the people doing the work, against the right tasks, honestly and promptly. The profitability picture and the time-based billing are only as good as the time data behind them. So connecting Project to Timesheets is half the matter; the other half is the discipline of the time genuinely being recorded. A business that connects the two and ensures time is faithfully recorded gets genuine project profitability and accurate time-based billing.
The takeaway
Connecting Odoo Project to Timesheets links project tasks to the time spent on them, so a project becomes a record not just of the work but of the time the work consumed. This matters because, for project work, time is the main resource and cost. The connection enables project profitability, the time and its cost set against the revenue, and time-based billing, billing for the genuine time recorded. The connection's value depends on the time being faithfully recorded. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.