Manufacturing Cost Control & Employee Shift Scheduler by LucidBrainz is the ultimate manufacturing cost accounting solution for Odoo 18 that combines comprehensive cost tracking with intelligent employee shift management. This powerful module helps you track and control every rupee spent in your manufacturing process by monitoring Direct Material Costs, Direct Labour Costs, and Manufacturing Overhead Costs in real-time. Say goodbye to cost overruns and budget surprises! The system automatically compares estimated vs actual costs at every stage, giving you instant visibility into variance analysis, cost savings opportunities, and areas of concern.

Perfect for manufacturing managers, production planners, cost accountants, CFOs and financial controllers, operations directors, plant managers, quality assurance teams, and any organization that needs accurate manufacturing costing, employee shift scheduling, labour cost tracking, material consumption monitoring, overhead cost allocation, budget vs actual analysis, or production cost optimization.

The module features an enhanced manufacturing order workflow (Draft → Planned → Confirmed → Progress → To Close → Done) with automatic cost tracking at each stage. It intelligently manages employee shifts with state transitions (Draft → Confirmed → Running → Done), prevents overlapping shift assignments, and ensures proper labour allocation to work centers. The system tracks nine critical cost metrics for each manufacturing order: (1) Estimated Direct Material, (2) Actual Direct Material, (3) Material Variance, (4) Estimated Direct Labour, (5) Actual Direct Labour, (6) Labour Variance, (7) Estimated Manufacturing Overhead, (8) Actual Manufacturing Overhead, and (9) Overhead Variance.

Key capabilities include: Employee shift scheduling by work center and branch, automatic cost calculations based on hourly rates and duration, material cost tracking with UOM conversions, overhead cost allocation by time spent, real-time variance analysis, work center-wise cost configuration, multi-branch support with access controls, seamless integration with Sales, Purchase, and Inventory modules, enhanced cost structure reports, validation at each workflow stage, and comprehensive audit trail via chatter integration.

The system provides complete visibility through: Labour cost tracking by employee and shift, material consumption monitoring from BOM to actual usage, overhead cost allocation across work centers, estimated vs actual cost comparison tables, color-coded variance indicators, cost breakdown by manufacturing order, and historical trend analysis. Ideal for businesses that want to reduce manufacturing costs by 15-25%, improve cost estimation accuracy, optimize resource utilization, control labour productivity, minimize material waste, allocate overhead costs fairly, track budget compliance, and make data-driven production decisions for continuous improvement!

• Employee Shift Management: Complete shift scheduling system with state workflow (Draft → Confirmed → Running → Done). Schedule employees to work centers with date/time ranges, branch-wise filtering, and automatic state transitions based on current datetime
• Shift Overlap Prevention: Built-in validation prevents creating multiple shifts for same work center and branch in overlapping time periods. Ensures single shift assignment per work center at any given time
• Direct Labour Cost Tracking: Track estimated vs actual employees assigned to work orders. Automatic cost calculation: Duration × (Total Cost Per Hour / 60). Links to employee shifts for actual assignments
• Direct Material Tracking: Monitor planned vs actual material consumption. Handles UOM conversions automatically. Calculates costs based on product standard price. Creates material records on MO confirmation and completion
• Manufacturing Overhead (MOH): Define overhead items at work center level (utilities, depreciation, rent, etc.). Products marked as "Can be MOH" represent overhead costs. Automatic MOH calculation based on duration
• Three-Way Variance Analysis: Comprehensive comparison of estimated vs actual costs across all three categories. Positive variance = cost savings, Negative variance = cost overrun. Visible in dedicated "Costing" tab when MO is done
• Enhanced MO Workflow: Extended state machine: Draft → Planned → Confirmed → Progress → To Close → Done. "Planned" state creates work orders and generates cost tracking lines. "Confirmed" validates shift assignments
• Work Center Configuration: Pre-configure employees, direct labour cost per hour, and overhead cost items at work center level. Auto-populates cost data when manufacturing orders are planned
• Employee Cost Management: HR employee extension with "Is Technical" flag, branch assignment, cost per hour, and employee code fields. Technical employees available for shift assignments and labour tracking
• Multi-Branch Support: Complete branch-wise segregation for shifts, employees, and work centers. Branch domain filtering ensures users only see relevant data. Default branch selection from user settings
• Security Groups: Three security groups for shift management - "Confirm" (confirm shifts), "Set To Draft" (reset shifts), "Done" (mark shifts complete). Role-based access control for sensitive operations
• Server Actions: "Confirm Shift" server action available on employee shift records. Accessible via Actions menu for batch confirmation. Group-restricted for security
• Automatic State Transitions: Employee shifts automatically transition from "Confirmed" to "Running" when date_from is reached. Auto-transition to "Done" when date_to passes and no work orders are running
• Validation at Each Stage: Can't confirm MO without valid shift assignments. Can't mark done without updating workorder quantities. Must set qty_producing > 0. All validations with user-friendly error messages
• Update MO & Workorder Quantity: Two-step completion process - "Update MO" validates all workorders are done, then "Update Workorder Quantity" propagates qty_producing to all workorders before final mark done
• Enhanced MO Form: Three new tabs - "Direct Labour Lines" (workorder-wise labour tracking), "MOH" (overhead costs), "Direct Material" (material consumption visible when done), "Costing" (variance analysis when done)
• Many2many Tags Display: Estimated and actual employees displayed as tags for easy visualization. MOH items shown as tags. Quick overview of resource assignments
• Cost Structure Report Enhancement: Modified mrp_account_enterprise cost structure report to include opcost (overhead cost) in total calculations. Shows accurate unit cost and total cost
• Sale Order Integration: HTML specifications field in sale orders. Automatically links to manufacturing orders via origin field. Specifications visible in MO "Specifications" tab
• Purchase & Picking Integration: Computed production_id field in purchase orders (via move chains). Computed production_id in stock pickings (via origin). Easy navigation between documents
• Product Template Enhancement: "Can be MOH" checkbox to mark products as manufacturing overhead items. Used for overhead cost tracking in MOH tab
• Stock Move Tracking: component_mrp flag for components added during MO execution. component_state tracks MO state for each component. Helps distinguish original BOM items from additional items
• Additional Product Handling: Extended mrp_workorder.additional.product wizard. Automatically marks additional components with component_mrp=True flag. Proper cost tracking for extra materials
• Backorder Support: Handles manufacturing order backorders with proper cost tracking. Backorder sequence tracking. Separate material cost records for original and backorder MOs
• Proper Cleanup on Cancel/Delete: Cascade deletion - deleting workorder removes labour and overhead lines. Canceling MO removes all cost tracking records. Unplanning MO removes labour and overhead lines
• Chatter Integration: Employee shift model inherits mail.thread and mail.activity.mixin. Full chatter support for messages, activities, and followers. Audit trail for shift changes
• Enhanced Search & Filters: Employee shift search with group by options (Work Center, Branch, Status, Date From, Date To). Employee search by name or code. Custom display_name for shifts
• Clean Code Architecture: Proper model separation (employee_shift, direct_labour_line, mrp_overhead_cost_line, direct_material, workcenter_overhead_cost_line). Well-documented methods with docstrings
• Computed Fields with Dependencies: All cost fields use @api.depends decorators. Automatic recalculation when dependencies change. Efficient ORM usage with mapped() and filtered()
• SQL Constraints: Unique constraint on employee_shift_line (employee_shift_id, employee_id). Name uniqueness per company on mrp.production. Prevents duplicate data