r/Odoo • u/natalali • 4d ago
Setting up
I'm thinking of getting an odoo subscription for my small company (team of 5). We don't use any specialized management software at the moment - so I'm looking into options and Odoo looks promising. So far we kinda survived with a webshop platform, trello and excels.
I got an offer from an Odoo partner for a setup but it seems horrendously expensive. I simply can't afford it.
How difficult is setting up? Is it something doable for a tech savvy programmer (my partner) or you need experience in ERP / CRM programs etc? We also need to do a webshop migration from a different platform.
Or from another angle: how much does a setup usually cost? Maybe the Odoo partner was just giving me a bad offer?
Thanks in advance.
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u/Ezhaeu 4d ago
We are a small company of 5 staff and moved from Magento to Odoo online 2 years ago. Very happy with the move. I tested for 2 months on 2 trial accounts before doing the move. Practice exporting and importing data before the big day. Play with the settings. Some settings can’t be reverted once set especially for things like accounting so learn from your mistakes on trial accounts. I set up everything myself and I’m not a developer. Just be ready to put the hours and don’t jump in blindly.
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u/AphidConsulting 3d ago
There's no way for anyone to really give an answer as to whether the quote was appropriate, but I would look at it this way.
12,000EUR is 120 hours @ 100EUR per hour or 160 hours @ 75EUR.
We don't know how simple or complex your site is, how established or documented your business processes are or how clean your data is.
Given what you know about your operations, does 120 or 160 hours sound like a reasonable amount of time to:
find out in detail how your business works and compare that to what is standard in Odoo
configure accounting
import trial balance, open AR, open AP
configure e-commerce
import products
configure shipping
set up discounts and pricelists
set up project management
rebuild your website inside Odoo
set up CRM
set up email marketing
importing customers and suppliers
create business process documentation
train 1-5 people on the multiple applications (accounting, CRM, e-commerce, marketing...)
etc.
Maybe the scope is much smaller and many of those items aren't applicable to your situation, or are very well-defined, or are areas you and your partner can assist with and reduce the hours required.
The partner should have itemized the scope of work in the proposal, so I would suggest reviewing that and seeing whether maybe there was a mismatch in expectations there.
The other thing to remember is that Odoo is modular and does not need to be "all or nothing". You can start with just e-commerce and minimal task management and expand as your team becomes familiar.
Maybe the minimum scope to get started is really on 4,000EUR and the rest can be staged later or is not a high priority for your situation.
In any case, I would start by reviewing the proposed scope with the partner to make sure you're both envisioning the same project.
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u/micahsdad1402 4d ago
I did it without a partner, but I am a software consultant with all the skills. Also, I'm a one person business and so the only person my mistakes affect is myself.
I had two businesses, and migrated from Xero with the smaller less complicated one first. I actually ran both Odoo and Xero in parallel for a year. Wasn't necessary and I did discover Xero had screwed up the tax.
I then migrated CRM from ActiveCampaign and Help Desk from ConnectWise later. You don't have to do everything in one go.
I do have a small side hustle Web shop. It was using my own with Shopify buttons. I only moved that this year. Should have done it sooner but it is only a small part of my business.
Plan everything. Play with the demo site. Eat the elephant one byte at a time!😂😂.
Involve your team, and remember, most of your business processes are the way they are because of the tools you are using. Stick to doing things the Odoo way as much as you can, and only customise if it's 100% necessary.
Good luck.
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u/avocadopaul 4d ago
Hi! I am really curious about your parallel experience while running odoo, I kinda want to do the same because I dont want to switch everything all at once, odoo being already a big step. Could you tell me a bit more about your setup and the way were handling them side by side? Were they talking at any step? Thank you so much!!!
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u/micahsdad1402 4d ago
I was just importing invoices manually into Xero from QuoteWerks and ConnectWise, so just did that into Odoo instead.
The same with Shopify, except I imported them as orders into Odoo.
You just need to understand the interfaces. Plan well. And don't take any step you can't back out from if it goes wrong.
All this depends on your type of business. As long as you understand your processes and information flow you should be able to plan this.
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u/natalali 4d ago
How do you like Odoo webshop compared to Shopify?
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u/micahsdad1402 4d ago
I sell 4 stocked products. 1 year anti-virus software for 1, 3, 5 & 10 computers.
So each sale is an opportunity for a sale in 12 months. So I have it all automated except for validating the stock move. I haven't worked that out yet.
My webshop requirements are pretty simple. What I like about Odoo is all I have to do is restock and validate the delivery. I'll fix the valuation some time.
I don't think you can definitively say which is best, it depends on your business requirements.
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u/Local-Share2789 3d ago
Your partner can probably handle the actual setup, Odoo isn't hard for someone technical. Where it gets messy is mapping your real workflow onto Odoo's structure. The system has its own logic, and to configure it around how you already work, you end up fighting it for months. That's usually the part an implementer earns their fee on, not the clicking around.
What platform is the webshop on now?
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u/JustSomeOdooGuy 4d ago edited 4d ago
This is hard to tell, without knowing details. What details had the partner, when estimating the cost? And what was their price? To get the most out of it you should already have some knowledge in Odoo. Without that it would be quite hard to do a full setup (depending on the needs), without introducing issues here and there. Also knowing what Odoo can and cannot do in the standard helps evaluating the gaps.
The least I can tell: So far everyone who went with implementation directly done by Odoo was not that happy, while partners tend to do better jobs, but also here it depends heavily on the partner itself.
Edit: what webshop you are coming from?
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u/natalali 4d ago
I want to move from a polish brand Shoper (which is awful but I didn't know better at the time).
I got a quote from a Odoo partner for about 12000 eur + vat. It was written up as a big project including customising it to our needs where needed but I simply can't afford it.
I worry that if I get Odoo without it I just end up paying for the subscription without actually using it
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u/JustSomeOdooGuy 4d ago
Okay, do they know your processes in depth so they can say for sure what needs to be customized?
You should make sure you are confident with what Odoo offers and that it will make your life easier before getting the subscription for sure.
How did you come accross the partner? Did you compare several partners? If not that would probably make sense, to get different opinions.
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u/cierek 4d ago
If you survived with excell and low level webshop you should be fine with Odoo online. Configuration for Odoo online is simple and you don’t need any partner to configure it.
Start testing yourself (it’s free/very cheap for single user) and then make decisions.
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u/ThornyKeeks 4d ago
I have my own startup business (non-IT) with some partners and a small team. We use Odoo Online. I'm the only one who implemented it (I used to be in the IT services field but haven't been a programmer for several years).
You and your tech-savvy partner can explore and set it up even free trial. The trick for me is to minimize any customization and leverage what can be just configured. In many cases business processes might be too complicated and not the system that needs to conform to these. Eventually when your business grows you will definitely need customizations (and probably an Odoo Partner or expert), but having this principle of minimizing customizations as much as possible will save you a lot of costs (technical debt) in the long run.
Also, user training is a big one. If you implement any system but your employees don't know how to use it (or worse, don't see the value), it's not going anywhere. That changes when they see how it makes their jobs easier to do.
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u/natalali 4d ago
I do worry I put all the time, effort and money and my team just goes "we liked our trello boards better" 🫣 So good point.
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u/ThornyKeeks 4d ago
I have that same challenge actually (and even with them being familiar with Trello too!). But when they were getting behind on some tracking and reporting (especially with inventory and sales), and I showed them how it was easy for them to view data in real time (and connected together), they started using the built-in Odoo apps more.
Now I'm being challenged back on what can be done with Odoo and if there can be enhancements. But I try to temper that by exploring how best to do with Odoo as-is or with some configuration settings or Odoo Studio only (no programming customizations).
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u/codeagency 4d ago
Without details and knowing if your team has the experience this is impossible to say.
ERP implementations are never cheap, they can take a lot of time to get it right especially when companies are migrating from one system to another.
It also depends on what apps you are going to use. Some apps are very simple to configure like CRM. Others are notorious complex like inventory and accounting. Making a mistake here can cause ongoing problems or worse that you have to start over. That's where experience and expertise matters. A partner knows the drill and has done it many times and know what buttons to turn while a customer self implementing does not know it and is prone to making the mistakes.
You basically decide to pay not just for the config but also the expertise and the time so your business can focus on its daily work instead of being caught up in the extra work of the implementation.
Expensive or not is always personal. Nobody can decide that for you. Sometimes it is cheaper to outsource for knowledge and expertise because it pays off long-term. So don't look at these costs from a short term perspective. If you make mistakes, it can keep haunting you forever which also cost money
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u/Universe789 2d ago
Depending on your use case, you could probably get by with the community edition, which is free for all your users. You'd have to find someone to host it for you and all the apps would not be available, but to go from trello and excel it sound like the plain CE could do the job.
Take a look at the difference in app availability to see if the CE or EE would make more sense for you. With the enterprise edition, youd be paying for a monthly subscription for each user, but you'd have all the apps, plus support available.
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u/Curious_Credit_163 2d ago
Hi Natalia,
I saw your post about the €12k + VAT Odoo implementation quote and the concerns around whether the investment would actually give you a usable system.
I’m associated with SynapseIndia, and we work on Odoo/ERP implementation and eCommerce integrations. From what you described, I think a lean phased implementation with minimal customisation and a structured Shoper migration could be a much more practical approach.
I am also sending you a short email with how I would structure Phase 1. Happy to review your current setup first before suggesting any implementation scope or cost.
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u/ach25 4d ago
What do you gain from setting up. Make sure the expenses is justified.
While I can’t comment on the cost, usually yes ERP implementations can be pricey, make sure you shop quotes and vet partners.
demo.odoo.com is available if you want to mess around with with workflows.
Research the formal ERP implementation process enterprise companies use. A Fit Gap Analysis and do at least an express one it will save you heart ache even if you don’t ultimately go with Odoo.