Job management software built on Odoo for London and UK service businesses. Softomate configures Odoo to manage the full job lifecycle - quoting, scheduling, work order management, mobile timesheet and parts capture, job costing, subcontractor purchase orders, automated invoicing and profitability reporting. See every live job, its current cost and its margin in real time. From £5,000 one-time with no per-user monthly licence. Suitable for trades contractors, professional services firms, facilities management and any service business managing discrete jobs with labour and materials costs.
Softomate builds job management software on Odoo for London and UK service businesses. The system covers every stage from the initial job enquiry to the paid invoice, with job costing built in so you can see the profit on every job in real time rather than discovering whether the month was profitable at the end of the quarter. For trades businesses with engineers or technicians in the field, see our field service management software page which includes the mobile job card and compliance form features. Related services include full Odoo ERP implementation, custom Odoo module development and bespoke CRM development.
01. Key Benefits
Most job management platforms track what happened on a job - who did it, what materials were used, when it was done. Odoo tracks what the job costs against what it earns, in real time. Labour hours times wage rate plus materials at purchase price plus subcontractor costs equals actual job cost. Revenue is the quoted amount. Gross margin per job, per job type and per customer is visible on the Odoo job dashboard without any manual spreadsheet calculation. Jobs running over budget get flagged automatically. This is the data most service business owners never had before - and it transforms how they price future work.
When a job is marked complete in Odoo, the invoice is generated automatically using the recorded hours, materials used and agreed pricing. No re-keying data from a job sheet into accounting software. No delay between job completion and invoice sending. Customers receive invoices the same day the job is done rather than in a monthly batch. Average debtor days consistently fall after implementing Odoo job management because the invoicing happens while the job is still fresh in the customer's mind.
Service businesses that use subcontractors on jobs need to track the subcontractor cost against the job. Odoo links purchase orders to jobs so the subcontractor invoice cost is captured in the job margin calculation automatically. Subcontractor purchase orders go through an approval workflow before being issued. When the subcontractor's invoice arrives, it is matched against the purchase order and the job record. This three-way link (job quote, purchase order, supplier invoice) prevents overpayment and ensures the job margin calculation reflects the true subcontractor cost.
Operatives and engineers record time against jobs from the Odoo mobile app on their iOS or Android phone. Start time, end time, travel time and break time are captured per job. The timesheet syncs to the Odoo job record automatically. Managers see real-time progress on all live jobs without calling operatives. The timesheet data flows into the job cost calculation and into payroll without manual re-entry. Operatives who currently fill in weekly paper timesheets or WhatsApp hours to an office team save approximately two hours per week on administrative overhead.
The Odoo scheduling calendar shows all operatives' allocated jobs side by side for the day, week and month. New jobs are dragged and dropped onto an operative's calendar. Double-booking alerts flag conflicts automatically. Operatives with capacity for additional work are visible at a glance without counting through paper diaries or spreadsheet bookings. For businesses with recurring scheduled maintenance or service contracts, recurring job entries are created automatically on the defined frequency without any manual scheduling effort.
Job management SaaS platforms charge per user per month. Every new operative or office team member you add increases your monthly bill. Odoo Job Management is implemented at a one-time project cost starting at £5,000. When you hire your 11th or 20th operative, the system cost stays the same. For growing service businesses, the total cost of ownership of Odoo versus SaaS improves every year as headcount grows. The only ongoing costs are hosting and optional support from Softomate from £300 per month.
02. What We Build
Softomate configures Odoo to create jobs from CRM opportunities, customer emails, web form enquiries or manual entry by the office team. Job quotes include labour, materials, subcontractor costs and markup with a configurable approval workflow before quotes are sent to customers. Accepted quotes convert to confirmed jobs automatically. Job templates for common job types pre-fill the expected labour hours and materials, reducing quote creation time for routine work. Quote-to-job conversion rates are tracked in the Odoo reporting dashboard so sales conversion performance is visible by job type and team member.
Softomate configures the Odoo job costing module to capture all cost components against each job - operative labour at cost (hours x wage rate), materials and parts at purchase price, subcontractor purchase orders, equipment hire, vehicle mileage and any other direct job costs defined during discovery. Cost rates for each operative are configured in Odoo so timesheet hours automatically calculate to a labour cost without manual calculation. The job profitability dashboard is configured to show gross margin per job, per job type, per operative and per customer. Budget vs actual variance alerts are configured to notify managers when a job cost exceeds the budgeted amount by a defined percentage.
Softomate configures Odoo invoicing to generate invoices automatically from completed jobs using the recorded labour, materials and any fixed-price elements defined in the job quote. Invoice generation is triggered by job completion status or by a manager approval action, depending on the client's billing review preferences. Invoices are emailed to the customer with any job completion documentation attached. For clients using Xero or Sage, a bi-directional accounting integration pushes confirmed invoices from Odoo to the external accounting system and pulls bank transaction data back to Odoo for payment matching. For clients moving to Odoo Accounting, the full accounting setup including VAT, MTD and bank feeds is included in the implementation scope.
Softomate configures management reporting dashboards covering the KPIs that matter to service business operators: job volume by week and month, revenue and gross margin by job type and customer, operative utilisation rates (billable hours as a percentage of available hours), average job value and margin trends, outstanding jobs by age and status, and cash flow from completed but unpaid invoices. Scheduled weekly and monthly PDF reports are emailed to management. Custom Odoo reporting can be built for specific reporting requirements identified during discovery - for example, customer profitability analysis, job type margin comparison or team performance leaderboards.
03. Why Choose Us
Most job management platforms focus on scheduling and invoicing. Job costing - comparing actual cost to quoted revenue to calculate margin - is often either absent or requires an expensive add-on module. Softomate configures Odoo so job costing is built into every job from day one. Labour, materials, subcontractors and overheads all flow into the job cost calculation automatically. Real-time job margins are visible on the dashboard without any manual reconciliation.
SaaS job management platforms have fixed job stages, fixed invoice templates and fixed approval flows. If your business has a stage or a workflow requirement the platform does not support, you adapt your business to the software. Odoo is customised to match your exact workflow - your job stages, your approval chains, your invoice format, your customer portal requirements, your compliance form fields. If the standard Odoo configuration does not cover your requirement, Softomate builds a custom Python module to add it.
simPRO starts at £65 per user per month. BigChange at £70 per user per month. A 15-person service business pays £11,700 to £12,600 per year in software licences alone - and the cost increases every time headcount grows. Softomate's Odoo implementation starts at £5,000 one-time. At 10 months you have paid less than one year of simPRO licences. After that the system is yours. From year 2, the money stays in the business.
Softomate migrates existing job history, customer records, operative records, materials catalogue and open jobs from your current system to Odoo as part of the implementation. No loss of historical job data. The new system launches with the full customer history and job archive accessible to all users from day one. Migration scripts are tested against a copy of your live data before go-live to verify accuracy.
04. Use Cases
London IT MSPs use Odoo as a PSA (professional services automation) platform to manage helpdesk tickets, project jobs, remote support timesheets, hardware procurement orders and client invoicing. Tickets from the helpdesk module convert to jobs when they require billable work. Support hours per client are tracked against SLA contract hours. Monthly recurring billing for managed service contracts runs automatically from Odoo. Profitability per client account is visible in real time for account management decisions.
London construction contractors and commercial fit-out companies use Odoo to manage project phases, subcontractor purchase orders, materials procurement, labour tracking and progress invoicing (applications for payment). Job cost reports show cost-to-complete forecasts for each project phase. Retention calculations are handled in Odoo Accounting with retention release triggered by job milestone completion. Subcontractor application and certification workflows manage the CIS deductions and payment chain.
London creative and marketing agencies use Odoo for project management, team timesheet capture, freelancer purchase orders and client billing. Project budgets are set by phase and discipline. Timesheet capture against project tasks gives account managers real-time visibility of hours consumed versus budget. Freelancer purchase orders are linked to the project so all third-party costs are included in the profitability calculation. Monthly retainer billing runs automatically. Project profitability reports by client and by campaign type inform future pricing decisions.
London FM contractors managing reactive maintenance and planned preventative maintenance across commercial property portfolios use Odoo for job scheduling, subcontractor dispatch, purchase order approval, compliance document capture and client reporting. Client SLAs are tracked per job type with SLA breach alerts when response or completion times are at risk. Monthly client reports showing PPM completion rates, reactive job volumes and cost per site are generated automatically from Odoo data.
Why Softomate
IT MSP case study: Odoo job costing revealed that one client account was consuming 40% more support hours than billed. Contract was repriced within 2 months of go-live. Margin improved by £28K in year 1.
For a 10-person service business, simPRO at £65 per user per month = £7,800 per year. Odoo at £5,000 one-time = break-even at 7.7 months. Years 2 onwards: £7,800 saved annually.
Construction contractor case study: custom progress invoicing with CIS deductions built into the job billing workflow. No other London job management platform could accommodate the application-for-payment billing structure.
iOS and Android. Works offline. Timesheets auto-sync to job cost calculation. Payroll export from confirmed timesheets. Training delivered in half a day.
Softomate adds AI quote generation to Odoo: email enquiry arrives, NLP classifies job type, standard rates are applied, draft quote is generated for manager review. First-draft quote time drops from 45 minutes to 90 seconds.
Case study outcomes from real Softomate job management projects. Client details anonymised per NDA.
05. FAQs
Job management software tracks jobs from initial enquiry through quoting, scheduling, work execution and invoicing, giving business owners visibility of all live jobs, job costs, team utilisation and profitability in real time. UK businesses that need job management software include trades contractors (plumbers, electricians, HVAC, builders), professional services firms (IT support, consultancies, creative agencies), facilities management companies, maintenance businesses and any service operation that manages discrete units of work (jobs, projects or work orders) with associated labour, parts and subcontractor costs. The core problem job management software solves is the profit leakage and chaos that occurs when jobs are tracked in WhatsApp, spreadsheets and a separate accounting system that cannot tell you whether last month was actually profitable at the job level. Softomate implements job management software on the Odoo platform for London and UK businesses from £5,000.
Job management software costs in the UK range from £15 to £75 per user per month for SaaS platforms such as Joblogic, simPRO, BigChange or Tradify, to a one-time implementation cost of £5,000 to £20,000 for an Odoo-based system with no ongoing per-user licence. For a 10-person service business, a SaaS job management system at £40 per user costs £4,800 per year. An Odoo implementation at £8,000 breaks even at 20 months and costs nothing in licence fees after that. Costs increase with complexity: adding custom job costing, subcontractor purchase order management, multi-project profitability reporting and accounting integration typically puts implementations in the £10,000 to £20,000 range. Softomate provides fixed-price quotes after a free discovery call that maps current job management processes, team size and required integrations.
For most UK trades businesses with 5 or more operatives, Odoo Project combined with Odoo Timesheets, Inventory and Accounting provides equivalent or superior functionality to simPRO, BigChange or Tradify, with the key advantage that Odoo can be customised to add workflows those platforms cannot accommodate. Odoo covers job quoting, work order creation, operative scheduling, timesheet capture (mobile app), materials and parts recording, subcontractor purchase order management, job completion sign-off and automated invoice generation. Features simPRO and BigChange charge extra for - such as customer portals, purchase approval workflows and management reporting - are included in Odoo. Where Odoo differs from specialised trade platforms is that it does not include industry-specific compliance form templates out of the box; Softomate builds these as custom form sections within the Odoo mobile job card during implementation.
Yes. Softomate configures Odoo job costing to track all cost components against each job: operative labour at cost (hours x wage rate), materials and parts (at purchase price or standard cost), subcontractor purchase orders, equipment hire and any other direct job costs. Job revenue is the quoted or invoiced amount. The Odoo job profitability dashboard shows gross margin per job, per job type and per operative. Jobs running over budget are flagged when the actual cost exceeds the budgeted cost by a configurable threshold. Management reports show the most and least profitable job types and customers over any date range. This visibility transforms how service businesses price future work - instead of pricing based on market rates or gut feel, managers can price based on what jobs of that type actually cost to deliver.
A core Odoo job management implementation covering job creation, operative scheduling, mobile timesheet capture, parts recording and automated invoicing typically takes three to five weeks from discovery sign-off. This includes configuration, data migration (existing jobs, customer records, product catalogue), mobile app setup and training. More complex implementations adding custom job costing reports, subcontractor purchase order approval workflows, integration with Xero or Sage accounting, and customer self-service portals typically take six to ten weeks. Softomate recommends a two-week parallel run where new jobs are logged in both the old system and Odoo before the old system is retired. This catches any configuration gaps from real-world usage before the team fully depends on the new system.
Odoo Accounting is a full double-entry accounting system that replaces Xero, Sage or QuickBooks for most service businesses. The advantage of using Odoo Accounting alongside Odoo Job Management is that job invoices are created, approved and emailed directly from the Odoo job record with no re-keying into a separate accounting system. Bank reconciliation, VAT returns and Making Tax Digital filing are handled within Odoo. For clients who prefer to continue using Xero or Sage, Softomate builds an accounting integration that pushes completed job invoices from Odoo to the existing accounting system automatically, avoiding duplicate data entry while keeping the job management and financial reporting in Odoo.
06. Related Services
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