Construction, fit-out and manufacturing, costed per project

Progress billing is the hard part, not the estimate

Most construction projects can be quoted in a spreadsheet. What a spreadsheet cannot hold is the month after: certified percentages, retention held per contract, variation orders approved at different rates, and an invoice that has to reconcile to all three. In Odoo this runs on the project and its analytic account, so a certificate raised against completion writes to the same cost object the purchase orders and timesheets already post to. The invoice stops being a re-keying exercise.

Committed cost is what tells you the margin, and it is the number nobody has

Actual cost arrives late, when the supplier invoice does. Committed cost, the value of purchase orders raised but not yet invoiced, is what tells you where a project is heading while you can still act. Odoo shows both against budget on the same project, which is usually the first time a commercial team sees a live margin rather than one assembled after close.

In-house manufacturing has to answer to the project, not the warehouse

Joinery, metalwork and fit-out production create a second planning problem: work orders that exist because a project needs them on a date. Running MRP against project demand rather than replenishment stock keeps that link, so a slipped site date reschedules the shop floor instead of quietly building inventory nobody asked for.

Does Odoo handle progress billing and retention?

Yes. Invoices can be raised on percentage of completion against a project, with retention held per contract terms and released on the schedule the contract sets. Because the project carries an analytic account, the certificate reconciles against the costs already posted to it rather than being assembled separately.

How are variation orders handled?

As additions to the project scope carrying their own approval and their own rate, so the original contract value and the approved variations stay separately visible. The distinction matters at final account, which is exactly when a system that merged them becomes a problem.

Can manufacturing and project delivery run on the same database?

Yes, and for fit-out contractors it is usually the reason to move. MRP work orders can be driven by project demand rather than stock replenishment, so production is scheduled against site dates and the same cost lands on the same project.

What about subcontractor certificates and back-to-back terms?

Subcontractor commitments are purchase orders against the project, so their certified values and retentions sit beside the client-side ones on the same margin view. That is what makes back-to-back terms checkable rather than a matter of trust.