Real work hours go unbilled because they are logged on paper or in scattered spreadsheets.
Each employee logs timesheets by project, task and activity type, and a Sales Invoice is created directly from them while billed hours update automatically.
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ERPNext for the Services Industry
ERPNext for service companies: manage contracts, timesheets, projects and automated billing with clear profitability insights. Request a free demo today.
Opportunities and quotations for serviERPNext 16 · Operion Theme
Contracts and scope of workNo license fees
ERPNext · Services
ERP for Service Companies: ERPNext for Contracts, Projects, Timesheets and Billing
ERPNext gives service companies one platform to run the business from first quotation to final collection: customers and opportunities, contracts, projects and tasks, team timesheets, billing, and support with service level agreements. Because everything is tied to accounting in a single database, you see the profitability of every project and every client in real time instead of waiting for month-end close.
Whether you run a consultancy, an IT firm, an advertising agency, an accounting practice or a facility management company, ERPNext as professional services ERP lets your team log hours against projects and turn them straight into invoices, bill fixed-fee contracts and monthly retainers automatically, and sell services as non-stock items with no warehouses or delivery notes.
Operion, an official Frappe ERPNext partner in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, implements ERPNext for service companies with a methodology that starts from your billing model, whether hourly, milestone or subscription, and ends with a live system and a trained team, including e-invoicing localization for Egypt's ETA and Saudi ZATCA.
Every billable hour becomes revenue
Billable hours flow from timesheets straight into invoices with no re-keying.
Profit by project and client
Revenue, labor cost, purchases and expenses roll up to each project to show its real margin.
Automatic recurring billing
Monthly contracts and subscriptions are invoiced on schedule without manual follow-up.
Service delivered on time
Support tickets run against service level agreements that track response and resolution times.
Challenges & solutions
Service company challenges ERPNext solves
What we hear most from service firms before go-live, and how the system fixes it.
Management cannot tell which projects or clients actually make money and which drain the team.
Activity Cost sets each employee's costing rate, and with sales, purchases and expenses linked to the project you get its gross margin and a Profitability Analysis by project.
Monthly contract and retainer invoices are forgotten or late, so collections slip.
Subscriptions and Auto Repeat generate invoices on schedule, backed by payment reminders and periodic statements of account.
Client tickets get lost in email with no commitment to agreed response times.
The Support module turns emails into Issues and applies a Service Level Agreement by customer and priority, showing the response and resolution due time on every ticket, with configurable notifications.
Agreed scope is not documented, so tasks expand without extra billing.
Contracts and Sales Orders capture scope, value and payment terms, while the project and its tasks track delivery against what was agreed.
Separate systems for sales, accounting and operations cause errors and double entry.
One database links the opportunity to the contract, project, timesheets, invoice and ledger entry in a single document flow.
Capabilities
ERPNext features for service companies
Real ERPNext v16 screens in Operion Theme showing the workflow of a service business.
01
Opportunities and quotations for services
Follow leads and opportunities on a Kanban board by sales stage, from prospecting to negotiation, with expected value and probability. An opportunity becomes a quotation for priced non-stock service items, then a sales order without re-keying, and all emails and interactions stay linked to the customer.
- Kanban board by sales stage
- Expected value and probability
- Opportunity to quotation in one click
- Communication history per customer
02
Contracts and scope of work
Record every client agreement in a Contract: parties, validity period, terms from a template, signature status and signee details. Status moves automatically between Unsigned, Active and Inactive based on dates, and agreed fulfilment terms can be tracked line by line.
- Reusable terms templates
- Signature status and validity
- Fulfilment terms tracking
- Customer and supplier contracts
03
Service sales orders without warehouses or delivery notes
Set up services as non-stock items and use the Maintenance order type with Skip Delivery Note, so the order completes automatically once fully invoiced. Define payment terms by advance and milestones, and link the order to its project so revenue appears in project profitability.
- Services as non-stock items
- Skip Delivery Note
- Milestone payment terms
- Linked directly to the project
04
Projects with costing and gross margin
A project holds everything about delivery: customer, tasks, completion, dates and team, and automatically rolls up labor cost from timesheets, purchase cost, expenses and billed amounts. Gross margin and its percentage appear on the project itself, and a project budget can be validated on every expense.
- Completion based on task progress
- Labor, purchase and expense cost
- Gross margin per project
- Project-level budgets
05
Tasks, Gantt view and delivery tracking
Break a project into tasks and sub-tasks with expected dates, dependencies and owners, and follow them in Gantt, Kanban or list view. Project completion updates from task progress, the Delayed Task Summary shows what is overdue, and clients can follow their project through the customer portal.
- Sub-tasks and dependencies
- Gantt and Kanban views
- Overdue task reporting
- Customer project portal
06
Timesheets and time tracking
Each employee logs hours against a project, task and activity type, manually or with the start/stop timer, flagging whether each entry is billable. Billing and costing rates come from each employee's Activity Cost, so billing value and project cost are calculated automatically.
- Hours by project and task
- Built-in timer
- Billable and non-billable time
- Billing and costing rates per employee
07
Sales invoice from timesheets
Once a timesheet is submitted, a Sales Invoice is created from it directly, pulling in billable hours, amounts and the project, with tax applied from the tax template. On submission, billed hours and amounts update on the timesheet, and the invoice is sent electronically to ETA or ZATCA through Operion's localization.
- Bill hours without re-keying
- Combine several timesheets
- Billed hours update automatically
- Compliant e-invoice
08
Subscriptions and monthly retainers
For managed services, maintenance, hosting and monthly retainers, Subscriptions generate recurring invoices automatically from the plan and billing interval, at the start or end of each period as you choose. The system tracks subscription status and invoice history, and Auto Repeat covers any other recurring invoice.
- Automatic recurring invoices
- Priced subscription plans
- Bill at period start or end
- Invoice history and status
09
Support desk and Service Level Agreements
Client emails become support Issues automatically, and the right Service Level Agreement is applied by customer, customer group and priority, with response and resolution times that respect working hours and holidays. Your team sees the agreement status on every ticket, and support reports measure team performance.
- Tickets from email
- SLAs by customer and priority
- Defined response and resolution times
- Automatic assignment to the team
10
Profitability analysis by project and client
The Profitability Analysis report shows income, expense and gross profit or loss for each project or cost center, so you spot projects whose cost is overtaking their value early. With accounting dimensions you can also analyze profitability by branch or service line.
- Income, expense and profit per project
- Catch loss-making projects early
- Analysis by cost center
- Dimensions for branches and service lines
How the work flows
The service business workflow in ERPNext
From opportunity to cash in linked documents, with data entered only once.
- Opportunity & QuoteOpportunity & Quote
- Contract & OrderContract & Order
- Project & TasksProject & Tasks
- TimesheetsTimesheets
- InvoicingInvoicing
- CollectionCollection
Reports & KPIs
Service company reports and KPIs
Standard ERPNext reports that answer management's questions on utilization, profitability and cash.
Profitability Analysis by Project
Income, expense and net profit for each project or cost center.
Timesheet Billing Summary
Worked hours, billable hours and billing amount per employee or project.
Daily Timesheet Summary
Who logged time today, on which project and activity.
Project Summary
Status, completion, cost and billed amount of each project.
Delayed Task Summary
Tasks past their due date and by how many days.
Accounts Receivable Ageing
What each client owes and how overdue it is.
Issue Analytics and First Response Time
Ticket volume and average response time by priority and customer.
Sales Analytics
Revenue by customer, service type and period.
Case studies
All case studiesSuccess stories from our clients
Real projects delivered by the Operion team and documented as case studies.
Why Operion
How Operion implements ERPNext in your service company
Hands-on ERPNext implementations for IT, advertising, accounting, facility management and energy services firms.
1
Billing model analysis
We define how each service is billed, hourly, by milestone, fixed fee or subscription, then design items, contracts and projects to match.
2
Data migration and setup
We migrate customers, active contracts and opening balances, and set up activity types and team cost rates before go-live.
3
Customization and localization
Custom apps on the Frappe Framework for your specific needs, and e-invoicing integration with ETA in Egypt and ZATCA in Saudi Arabia.
4
Training, support and hosting
Role-based training for project managers, staff and finance, post-go-live support, hosting on Frappe Cloud or on-premise, and Smart Go for logging work on mobile.
Core ERPNext covers selling, projects, timesheets, support and accounting for service companies; payroll and HR run on the separate Frappe HR app, which Operion implements alongside ERPNext when needed.
Guide
Learn more in the official ERPNext documentation
Step-by-step documentation for the features on this page.
Related pages
More ERPNext modules
Projects
Project plans, tasks, costs and delivery stages.
CRM
Customers, opportunities, quotations and communication.
Sales
From quotation to delivery, with collections tracking.
Accounting
Invoices, payments, financial transactions and accurate reporting.
Support
Customer issues, SLAs, warranty and maintenance.
HR & Payroll
Employee records, attendance, leave and payroll.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Didn’t find your answer? Our team replies within one business day.
What is a good ERP for service and consulting companies?
ERPNext suits service firms because it brings customers, contracts, projects, timesheets, billing and accounting into one open-source system with no per-user license fees. Operion adds local e-invoicing compliance for Egypt and Saudi Arabia, plus training and support in Arabic.
Can I invoice clients directly from timesheets?
Yes. Once a timesheet is submitted, you can create a Sales Invoice from it and the billable hours and amounts are pulled in automatically. After the invoice is submitted, the timesheet is updated with billed hours, billed amount and billing percentage.
Do I need warehouses or delivery notes to sell services in ERPNext?
No. Services are set up as non-stock items, and a Sales Order can use the Maintenance order type with Skip Delivery Note so it completes once fully invoiced. Warehouses remain available if you also sell physical products.
How do I see the profitability of each project or client?
Each employee's costing rate comes from Activity Cost, and sales invoices, purchases and expense claims are linked to the project, so the project shows total cost, billed amount and gross margin. The Profitability Analysis report also shows income and expense by project.
Does ERPNext handle contracts and monthly retainers?
Yes. The Contract document records parties, period, terms and signature status, while Subscriptions generate recurring invoices automatically based on the plan and billing interval. Auto Repeat can also be used for any recurring invoice or sales order.
How long does an ERPNext implementation take for a service company?
It depends on the size of the organization and the number of modules required. It typically takes 8 to 16 weeks, covering analysis, setup, training and go-live.
Is my client and contract data secure?
Yes. Data is hosted on secure cloud servers in accredited data centers or on your own servers, with daily backups, fully encrypted connections (SSL/TLS 1.3) and granular permissions controlling what each user can see.
Does the system support e-invoicing and work on mobile?
Yes. Operion provides integration with Egypt's e-invoicing system (ETA) and Saudi Arabia's FATOORA platform (ZATCA). The system runs in any browser with a responsive Arabic and English interface, plus Operion's Smart Go mobile app.
Ready to switch to ERPNext?
See how ERPNext can make your business more efficient and cut costs, with Operion beside you from analysis to go-live and support.
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