Everything you need to know about Odoo Planning

Service scheduling looks different in every company:

A lift maintenance team needs to plan recurring visits. They have to allocate technicians by location to cut travel time and track the parts used on each job.

A consulting firm sells capacity months in advance. They must guarantee that the right people are available when delivery starts, often while juggling resources across several projects at once.

What these businesses do share is the pressure to keep their resources optimised. 

On top of that, if they bill on time and materials, it’s even more important that every logged hour and every used part matches against the right invoice.

Odoo Planning offers a single view for service teams to schedule on-site work and manage time and resources from the moment a service is sold to the day it’s invoiced.

Odoo Planning at a glance

Odoo Planning gives service teams a shared view of work

Odoo Planning was built to give service teams a shared view of team capacity, allocation, and resource optimisation in one place.

It connects scheduling directly to sales orders, field operations, and timesheets, so teams are not patching the gaps with spreadsheets and group messages.

Odoo Planning solves common problems for service teams:

Overview of available capacity → Planning shows the full team schedule in one calendar, so managers always know who is free before committing to a job.

Odoo Planning Gantt view sorted by Resources

Manage scheduling and field work in the same system → Planning covers both in one view, with Field Service tools built in.

Connect timesheets to the plan → Planning links directly to timesheets, so managers can compare scheduled hours against logged hours in the same view.

Odoo Planning Timesheets Analysis report

Shared view of the schedule → Shifts are published to a personal portal, which field workers can access without an Odoo user.

Automated shift assignments → The Auto Plan button fills open shifts automatically based on each employee's role, availability, and time off.

Odoo Planning assigns shifts and sales orders with Auto Plan

Shift swap requests in the same system → Employees can request to switch shifts with a colleague directly from their schedule.

Unified view across projects and sales orders → Admins can view the full schedule by Resource, Role, Project, or Sales Order.

Schedule views in Odoo Planning

Role tracking per role or skill → Roles carry custom property fields that appear on every related shift, covering certifications, work location, or language requirements.

Material and equipment assignment → Heavy equipment such as cranes or specialist tools can be assigned directly to a shift alongside the technicians, so the full resource picture is visible in one place.

Material and equipment assigned in Odoo Planning

Odoo Field Service is now in Odoo Planning

As of Odoo 19.2, the standalone Field Service app has been discontinued. Teams that previously used Field Service will find the same features in Odoo Planning, with several improvements.

Here is how the main features changed:

How different teams can use Odoo Planning

Odoo Planning structures work around shifts and roles. 

Managers block time for a specific person in a specific role, publish the schedule when confirmed, and employees see their upcoming work in a personal portal. 

Recurring shifts handle the repeating structure of most service businesses: weekly maintenance, monthly support windows, subscription contracts, etc.

Once finished, they link directly to your sales orders. Odoo handles the financial side automatically, no matter how you charge for your time:

• Time & materials: The exact number of hours worked or parts used during a shift automatically updates the sales order, ensuring the customer pays exactly for what has been delivered

• Pre-paid capacity & retainers: Scheduled shifts pull from the client’s prepaid balance in real time, giving managers a live view of consumption and project margins before the work even begins.

Here’s how different service teams put Odoo Planning workflows into practice.

Field service and maintenance

For teams dispatching technicians to customer sites, Planning handles scheduling, on-site sign-off, and billing in one flow:

1. A technician sees the job on their portal

2. They sign in on arrival with the location logged

3. The team completes the work and eventually takes pictures in Odoo if needed 

4. Engineers add any materials used on-site directly from their device

5. The customer signs off on-screen

6. Hours worked are automatically reflected on the invoice; materials are billed to the customer where applicable.

Consulting and software development

Consulting businesses sell capacity months in advance and deliver it week by week. Planning connects the hours sold on a sales order to the right people by role.

1. A project manager allocates time to the project based on what has been sold

2. Consultants are assigned to the project, either:

   1. Automatically via Auto Plan based on their role and availability

   2. Manually by marking their capacity directly in My Planning

3. Work is completed, and time is logged against the linked project

4. Hours feed directly into invoicing

5. If needed, timesheets can be consulted for a final review at any point in time.

Project managers have a live view of what has been sold and who in the team can cover it before it becomes a delivery problem for the client.

Odoo Planning adapts to more complex scheduling needs

Odoo Planning's standard features cover most service teams.

But if your workforce is highly specialised, you operate internationally, or customer relationships are a core part of your service delivery, you may need to go further:

• Allocate work based on skills, certifications, experience, or language

• Always send the technician a customer already knows

• Manage shifts across time zones for international teams

• Send satisfaction surveys automatically once a job is done.

Odoo can be further tailored to each of these use cases through standard configuration or expert customisation, without the need for a separate tool.

Some of our customers already manage their advanced planning and scheduling with Odoo.

Odoo 20 will close the gap between Planning, Projects, and Timesheets

Odoo 20 continues the direction set by the Field Service merger: fewer apps, more connected workflows.

The upcoming version will take the Field Service integration further, with Planning becoming the central resource management layer across the business.

• Unified resource management: All tasks and employees will be managed in one place, combining scheduling, field operations, and project resources into a single engine

• Gantt view upgrades: The Gantt view will integrate with MapBox to show precise travel times between jobs

• Map view upgrades: The Map view will integrate with MapBox to show smart routing optimisation, allowing dispatchers to easily plan the most efficient sequence for the day

• Technician tracking: A live map will show where technicians are in real time. Materials can also be assigned directly to employees within Planning

• Project profitability reports: New reports will show actual and projected margins per project, so managers can track financial health without leaving the app

• Smarter time tracking: A new built-in timer widget and a new AI assistant will suggest timesheet entries based on user activity, collected from time spent in the Project app, discussions, and pull requests.

• Customer history overview: Customer equipment and intervention history will be visible directly from Planning.

• Travel time invoicing: Travel time to a customer's location will be invoiceable as a fixed fee

• Website forms connected to Planning: Service requests will be collectable through a website form, without customers booking services directly.