The challenge
MechSoft's teams were running day-to-day operations on Odoo 11, but two capabilities they needed — the reworked HR Expense flow and the Holidays module — only shipped in Odoo 12. A full version upgrade purely for HR features was too disruptive. At the same time, reporting meant exporting data and rebuilding charts by hand outside Odoo.
- Odoo 12 HR Expense and Holidays features were unavailable on the company's Odoo 11 install.
- No native way to build branded, animated management dashboards inside Odoo 11.
- KPI tracking against targets and prior periods lived in spreadsheets, not the ERP.
Our approach
iVentureTeam split the engagement into a targeted back-port and a reusable analytics layer, keeping MechSoft's core system untouched.
Back-porting Odoo 12 HR to Odoo 11
- Ported the HR Expense and Holidays modules from Odoo 12 to run natively on Odoo 11.
- Adapted data models and views so existing employee records worked without remapping.
Highcharts dashboard engine
- Built a dashboard module with line, bar, pie, area, doughnut, polar-area, tile, and list-view items powered by Highcharts JS.
- Added KPI cards comparing two queries as sum, ratio, or percentage, with target and previous-period arrows.
- Delivered edit mode, drag-to-move and duplicate items, color-scheme switching, and sort/limit options per item.
Filters, security, and portability
- Date filters (last 7 days, last 90 days, custom ranges) and domain filters scoped to the logged-in user.
- Multi-company support plus full dashboard export/import between databases.
Outcomes
MechSoft gained the HR functionality it needed a version early and turned Odoo into its reporting front end instead of a data source for spreadsheets.
- Managers watch auto-refreshing KPIs against targets inside Odoo, on any device.
- Expense and leave workflows run natively in Odoo 11 with no upgrade downtime.
- Any chart exports to PNG, PDF, Excel, or CSV for board packs in seconds.
“The live dashboards changed our management meetings — KPIs on screen, not in exported spreadsheets. And we got the HR features we needed without a risky upgrade.”
General Manager · MechSoft