Quick Answer
Openbravo's native quotation is retail-sales oriented and doesn't compute manufacturing cost structures out of the box. Odoo, through its Manufacturing (MRP) and Sales apps, can build a full cost-plus quotation directly from a Bill of Materials, but overhead and safety-margin allocation still typically need configuration to get exactly right.
Why Estimated Quotation Costing Is Different
A standard sales quotation just needs a sell price. An estimated quotation for made-to-order or manufactured goods needs to build that price up from real inputs: raw material cost, operation/labor cost, overhead, a safety margin, and the right currency, especially when materials are priced in one currency and the customer is quoted in another.
How Openbravo Handles It
Openbravo's Commerce Suite is built for retail and restaurant transactions, not job-costed manufacturing quotes. Its Sales Order/Quotation flow pulls from a price list rather than assembling a price from components.
- Raw materials: Not natively rolled up into a finished-item cost; the legacy Openbravo ERP had a basic discrete-manufacturing MRP module, not part of the modern Commerce Suite
- Operations/labor: No native operation-based costing engine
- Overhead: Not modeled; requires custom development
- Safety margin: The legacy MRP module has a Safety Lead Time (a scheduling buffer in days), not a cost/price margin
- Currency: Multi-currency price lists are supported for currency conversion on a fixed sell price
How Odoo Handles It
Odoo builds cost from the Bill of Materials (BOM), then feeds that into the Sales Quotation.
- Raw materials: Fully native, each BOM lists every component with quantity and unit cost, rolled up automatically
- Operations/labor: Native via Work Centers, cost-per-hour multiplied by operation duration
- Overhead: Bundled into the Work Center hourly rate by default; separating it into an explicit line requires configuration or a manufacturing costing extension
- Safety margin: Configurable via a percentage markup rule on the pricelist, or a dedicated field via light customization
- Currency: Native multi-currency company, price lists, and vendor bills, so materials in USD can be costed correctly while quoting customers in THB, BDT, or any currency
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Cost Element | Openbravo | Odoo |
|---|---|---|
| Raw material cost | Not rolled up automatically | Native, from Bill of Materials |
| Operation/labor cost | No native engine | Native, via Work Center rates |
| Overhead allocation | Not modeled | Blended into rate by default; separable with configuration |
| Safety margin | Lead-time buffer only, not cost | Configurable margin rule |
| Multi-currency | Native | Native |
| Best fit | Fixed-price retail/restaurant selling | Made-to-order, job-costed quoting |
Which Platform Should You Use?
If your business sells from a fixed catalog at set prices, Openbravo's quotation flow is simple and sufficient. If your quotations need to be built up from raw materials, labor, overhead, and a deliberate safety margin, as in jewelry, custom fabrication, or contract manufacturing, Odoo is the stronger native fit, and RAWN Technologies can extend it further with overhead-split costing and margin-rule configuration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Openbravo calculate a manufacturing cost-plus quotation?
Not natively in the current Commerce Suite; it's built around price-list selling.
Does Odoo separate overhead cost from labor cost automatically?
By default Odoo blends them into a single Work Center hourly rate; separating them requires configuration or a costing extension.
How does multi-currency work in an Odoo quotation built from a BOM?
Odoo can source materials priced in their purchase currency and still issue the final quotation in a different currency using configured exchange rates.
Is there a safety margin field in Odoo out of the box?
Not a dedicated one; the common approach is a percentage markup rule on the pricelist, which RAWN can configure to match your margin policy.
Need an estimated-quotation workflow that reflects your raw materials, labor, overhead, and margin in the right currency? Talk to RAWN Technologies.