Consulting · October 2026 – January 2027
LabHacker Maceió: an own, open-source ERP
Implementation of an own, Portuguese-language, open-source ERP for a Brazilian digital-culture laboratory, plus fundraising consulting.
LabHacker is the Brazilian Laboratory of Digital Culture, a civil-society organisation working in digital culture. Its team runs projects, events, courses and a shop, and needed one place for minutes, approvals, reimbursements, contracts and fundraising, without paying per-user licences or depending on a proprietary vendor.
My proposal was an ERP of the organisation’s own, in Portuguese, on free software and its own server, built on Odoo Community and the Odoo Community Association (OCA) modules, with custom development only where nothing existed.
What the engagement covers
- Needs workshop and module map. Each need raised by the team was mapped to a native Odoo app, an OCA module, a custom module or a second phase, so that scope stayed honest about what the free edition does and does not include.
- Server and security. Odoo 19 in containers, automatic HTTPS, daily backups with retention, closed public sign-up, role-based access (board, coordination, finance, communication, staff, externals) and a closed, invitation-only sign-up.
- Brazilian non-profit accounting. A chart of accounts for non-profits following ITG 2002, with withholding-tax rules, bank reconciliation and fixed-asset depreciation from OCA.
- Custom modules, each built as a lean first version the team actually uses:
- Minutes: decisions become tasks with owner and deadline, and people are notified by e-mail and chat
- Approvals: a single queue for communication, purchases and contracts
- Batch expenses with OCR: upload receipts, review, send for approval
- Contracts with parties, value, term and expiry alerts
- Fundraising CRM: funder, amount requested, counterpart, deadlines, reporting duties
- Travel requests with compared quotes
- Attendance: time recording rules adapted for a non-profit team
- Documentation. A 41-page user manual inside the system’s own knowledge base, written for non-technical staff.
- Fundraising consulting, running alongside the implementation, so that the new CRM and the lab’s funding strategy are built together.
Approach
Open source by default, small increments, and documentation as a deliverable. The system is designed so that LabHacker can keep, host, audit and extend it without me.