A new order arrives and the customer is waiting for a price. Sales knows the quantity, purchasing knows the material prices, and production knows the run time. But can you pull these figures together and know what the order costs without a round of calls and files?
Odoo can help you connect them. Before production, you review the expected cost from the bill of materials and operations. After consumption and run time are recorded, you compare it with the actual cost 3. You then understand why they differ, and you use that basis to price the next order.
How does Odoo calculate manufacturing cost?
Expected cost starts from the materials and operations defined for the product. Actual cost is shaped by the components consumed and by the recorded run time and its rates 3. If an operation takes longer than planned, you review its effect on the order’s cost instead of merely noticing that the order became more expensive. Finance then reviews the selling price and related expenses to analyse margin. That is how you separate the cost of manufacturing from the profit on an order.
To get to know the solution and the team’s services before going into detail, see how we implement Odoo for your business on the home page, then continue with what your factory needs from the production and costing cycle.
How does Odoo help management, finance and purchasing?
Once the cycle is connected around the way your factory works, each person benefits in a different way:
Production follow-up: how do you prioritise orders?
Before giving a customer new priority, you open the status of manufacturing orders and review component availability and remaining work with your team. The discussion becomes: what does moving this order forward do to the rest of the delivery dates? You decide on one piece of information everyone can see, so the conversation is about choosing the date and priority rather than collecting answers from each department.
Manufacturing cost: how do you explain the difference between two orders?
The manager asks why one order cost more than the previous one for the same product. You go back to the components consumed, the operation times and the work-centre rates, and show where the difference came from 3. You walk into the pricing meeting with a figure whose origin you know and can explain.
Factory purchasing: how do you decide which materials are needed?
Before sending a request, you review component requirements against stock and supplier lead times. You know what to follow up with suppliers and what to discuss with the factory. You base the purchase decision on a clear requirement, and you can tell the team why you are ordering this quantity at this time.
How does Odoo connect inventory, purchasing and quality to production?
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system brings these parts together in one database. According to the official Odoo 19 documentation 3, the functions a factory needs are available:
- Bills of materials and operations: define the components and stages each manufacturing order requires.
- Work centres and their rates: calculate the order’s cost from components and operations, and allow expected and actual figures to be compared.
- Lot and serial-number traceability: show which batch of materials a product came from and to whom it was sold.
- Quality control points: organise inspections at the stages you define and keep their results within the order’s cycle.
- Maintenance: records equipment and maintenance requests and follows them through to closure.
You will find an explanation of the parts of the solution in Odoo apps, and you can review the industries we serve if your business combines manufacturing with sales or services.
We arrange modules, permissions and data around your cycle, and your inventory policy decides when components are reserved. If part of the quantity is completed, the remainder stays visible for follow-up.
Odoo or accounting software? How do you choose a factory management system?
A fair comparison starts from one question: do you see materials, operations, order cost and quality together? Use the same order when reviewing each alternative.
| Alternative | What it offers the decision | What to review before choosing |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets and files linked by hand | Flexibility at the start and a limited cost of starting | Who collects and updates the copies as orders and branches grow? |
| Accounting and inventory software | Balances and financial and stock movements, depending on its scope | Does the quote include operation costing, manufacturing stages and the traceability you need? |
| Odoo with connected modules | Manufacturing, inventory, purchasing, quality, maintenance and accounting in one cycle that can scale | Define the modules and the setup that represent your factory’s process 3. |
| Industrial system with a broader scope | Specialised capabilities depending on the product and package | Compare factory scheduling, machine connectivity and data against the work you actually need. |
You can start in Odoo with inventory and manufacturing, for example, and add the other modules as your factory needs them. The order sales cares about becomes a requirement purchasing can see, a movement the warehouse can see and a cost finance can review.
What does a single order look like inside Odoo?
An illustrative example for a control-panel factory, starting with an order for 200 units.
Without a unified system, the supervisor phones the warehouse to ask about components, the buyer asks production for the date, and the quality file is opened by hand.
With Odoo, the manufacturing order is created and the components from the bill of materials appear. Purchasing reviews any shortage, and it becomes clear what can be allocated to the order. The order passes through work centres with a time and cost for each stage, and an inspection point appears before packaging. If 180 units are completed on the first day, 20 units stay visible for follow-up, and it is known what is done and what is waiting. After materials and time are recorded, the accountant reviews the order’s cost and compares it with the selling price 3.
When the customer asks about their date, the salesperson goes back to the status of the order and discusses it with the team. The reply is based on what has been done and what work remains. As orders grow, this shared picture remains the foundation for the factory’s expansion.
To see how the process moves between departments, try Odoo interactively. The experience is a guided simulation of a sales and inventory path with hypothetical data; your factory’s own manufacturing cycle is something we discuss on the basis of the materials, stages and costing you need.
Time savings in a factory: how do you value them by company size?
Monshaat 1 classifies an enterprise by its number of full-time employees and its annual revenue, and where the two criteria differ, the higher classification applies. There are four official categories: micro (1–5 employees, revenue up to SAR 3 million), small (6–49 employees, more than SAR 3 million up to SAR 40 million), medium (50–249 employees, more than SAR 40 million up to SAR 200 million) and large (250 employees or more, more than SAR 200 million).
Measuring a productivity gain: an example with published figures
In Deloitte’s 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey, participants reported an improvement in worker productivity in the range of 7–20% since implementing smart-manufacturing initiatives. The study covered 600 executives at large companies headquartered in or operating in the United States, and it addresses a programme that combines several processes and technologies 2. We take the low end of the range, 7%, as an assumption for an illustrative calculation, and then tie it to specific tasks in the factory.
Basis of the calculation: the headcounts and revenues in the table are illustrative assumptions within the official categories. Each member of the covered team has 1,000 hours a year in the targeted tasks, and an hour is valued at SAR 35. When the same work is completed with 7% higher productivity, the share of time available for other work is about 6.54%, that is 1 − 1 ÷ 1.07. The formula: team size × 1,000 × 35 × (1 − 1 ÷ 1.07), with values calculated before the percentage is rounded.
| Official category | Total employees in the scenario | Annual revenue in the scenario | Covered team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | 5 | SAR 1.2 million | 2 |
| Small | 25 | SAR 12 million | 15 |
| Medium | 120 | SAR 90 million | 80 |
| Large | 400 | SAR 300 million | 250 |
| Official category | Hours available annually for productive work | Estimated annual value | Monthly equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | 131 | SAR 4,579 | SAR 382 |
| Small | 981 | SAR 34,346 | SAR 2,862 |
| Medium | 5,234 | SAR 183,178 | SAR 15,265 |
| Large | 16,355 | SAR 572,430 | SAR 47,702 |
Read your category’s row as an example of the method, then replace the assumptions with your team size, working hours and hourly value. The result shows the value of time that may become available to your team; it is not an amount that comes off salaries automatically. In the small-enterprise scenario, for instance, there are about 981 hours a year which, if the improvement is achieved, could be directed to following up orders, reviewing data or planning. The monthly equivalent is the annual value divided by 12, and it helps in discussing the size of the opportunity.
The model measures the time of the targeted tasks only. Clarity of decisions, the quality of customer follow-up and confidence in the figures are gains we assess with you without adding them up financially in this model. The question your estimate starts from is: which repetitive tasks consume your team’s time today, and what work do you want the team to be freed up for?
You can now use the time, savings and Odoo cost calculators to organise your estimate around your own business data. The calculators are independent estimating tools, not an automatic repetition of the research example’s formula above.
How does the ToDoOps team implement an Odoo project for a factory?
We start by analysing your factory’s cycle as it works today, then define the scope: which cycle comes first and which modules serve it. After that we configure the system and prepare the core data of materials, products, bills of materials and work centres, then train each role on what concerns it, test a cycle that represents your business before the move, and then start operation and provide support within the agreed scope.
The start may be in order costing, in organising material requirements or in linking inspection to production. The modules expand afterwards according to what the work needs.
Questions about Odoo cost and implementation in factories
Is Odoo suitable for small factories?
It depends on the cycle you want to connect: materials, purchasing, production, costing and quality. A smaller factory can begin with a focused cycle and widen the modules as the business grows. We define with you the modules, data and training that this start requires.
How much does Odoo cost for factories in Saudi Arabia?
Cost is made up of licences, the installation service and what the project needs in data, integrations, training and support, and it varies with your factory’s cycle. You can find the components in our Odoo pricing guide, and then we discuss what applies to your project.
How long does an Odoo implementation take, and does the factory stop during the move?
The plan starts by defining the core cycle, the data and each team’s responsibility, then arranges testing, training and the move around your operation. Scope and data readiness determine the actual schedule, so we agree it after analysing your cycle.
How do you move material and balance data into Odoo?
We define with you the data the first cycle needs: products, materials, bills of materials, work centres, suppliers and balances. We review and organise it before loading, then test a complete cycle with it and reconcile the data the team will rely on.
Who is trained on Odoo, and when?
Each role is trained on what concerns it: the supervisor on the order and its stages, the warehouse on movements, finance on reviewing cost, and purchasing on requirements. Training and testing take place on a cycle that represents your business before operation, and support arrangements are set within the project scope.
Installing Odoo for factories: what is the first step?
When production, purchasing and finance see the same order with the same figures, your decisions become easier to explain and your team spends less time collecting answers. The first step is to decide which cycle your factory should connect first.
Talk to ToDoOps about what you want to see clearly in your factory: order cost, material requirements or quality follow-up. We discuss with you the way of working, the modules and the data the scope needs, so that you review the project proposal on the basis of a clear requirement. Discuss an Odoo project for your factory through the contact page and choose the way of getting in touch that suits you.
Explore the Odoo solution and ToDoOps services on the home page, or start from the calculators to estimate the impact and budget for your factory before discussing the implementation scope.
Sources and references
[1] Monshaat — classification of enterprises. Official page: the four categories, the full-time-employee and annual-revenue criteria, and the higher-classification rule.
[2] Deloitte — 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey. Original research, published 1 May 2025 and conducted August–September 2024 among 600 executives at companies with revenue of USD 500 million or more, more than 1,000 employees, and headquarters or operations in the United States. Section “Smart manufacturing’s value is emerging”: results on worker productivity, output and energy.
[3] Odoo — official documentation, version 19. Manufacturing sections (bills of materials, work centres, manufacturing orders), lot and serial-number traceability, quality control and maintenance.