Real-Time Project Cost Control for One Sixty One Interiors

The challenge

Project costs lived in spreadsheets kept by different teams, which created these problems:

• Management saw cost overruns only after month-end, when it was too late to act.
• Purchase approvals moved by email and often stalled for days.
• Subcontractor payments were delayed because certified progress and invoices did not match.

Our solution

ExtraMile deployed its construction management solution on Odoo and adapted it to One Sixty One Interiors's project structure. Each project starts from a Bill of Quantities and budget, and every cost is posted against it. Key components:

• A custom BOQ and budget module with cost-to-complete tracking per project.
• Approval workflows for purchase orders, replacing email chains.
• Site stock and material issue tracking linked to project costs.
• Subcontractor progress billing that ties certified work to payments.

How we delivered it

• Phase 1 (6 weeks): chart of accounts, projects, BOQ and budget structure.
• Phase 2 (8 weeks): procurement workflows, site stock and approvals.
• Phase 3 (6 weeks): subcontractor billing, dashboards, training and go-live.

Project team: 1 project manager, 2 implementers and 3 developers.

Results

Compared with the previous spreadsheet-based process: cost visibility moved from monthly (after close) to real time, the procurement approval cycle fell from about six days to two, budget overruns are flagged three to four weeks earlier, and monthly project reporting effort dropped from about 40 hours to 8.

Measurable results

We used to find out about cost overruns when it was too late to act. Now the project managers see the numbers while the work is still running.

Finance Director, One Sixty One Interiors