Planning out a budget and understanding the profitability of a job can be complex and time-consuming.
To simplify this, the Scenario Builder allows you to quickly prototype different budget and deal scenarios and evaluate their costs, profitability, and resource needs.
With the Scenario Builder, you can:
Create multiple scenarios for a single deal or budget.
Adjust key details such as services, resources and bookings.
Compare and decide on the most profitable scenario.
Apply the chosen scenario to the actual budget or deal.
The Scenario Builder is available on the Ultimate subscription plan.
Why Use the Scenario Builder?
Currently, many teams rely on external tools (e.g., Excel) to plan and test project profitability. By introducing Scenario Builder directly into Productive, you can:
Speed up the prototyping process.
Eliminate the need for external tools.
Reduce manual work by reusing pre-defined services and configurations.
Make smarter decisions with real-time cost and profit calculations.
Problem Being Solved
The Scenario Builder solves key challenges for users in two major phases of agency workflow: Sales (Deals) and Production (Budgets).
Although the specific problems differ, the common thread in both phases is the ability to project profitability—estimating the potential profit at the end of a project if everything follows the selected scenario.
In the Sales Phase
During the sales (deal) phase, the focus is on creating accurate offers based on estimates. The Scenario Builder helps you determine:
Quantities: How much of each service is needed?
Price per Unit: What price will deliver competitive yet profitable offers?
Resources: Which team members could work on the deal if it is won?
This allows you to build a realistic and profitable proposal while keeping future resource needs in mind.
In the Production Phase
In the production (budget) phase, the assumption is that prices and quantities have already been defined. Here, the focus shifts to resourcing and fine-tuning profitability:
Determine who will work on each service.
Define when and how much they will work.
Optimize profitability based on available resources and actual workloads.
How the Scenario Builder Works
1. Accessing Scenario Builder
Navigate to the Scenarios tab available in Deals or Budgets.
Click + Scenario to create a new scenario.
For a detailed walkthrough, visit Getting Started with Budget and Deal Scenarios.
2. Building a Scenario
You can start with a blank scenario or copy services from the deal or budget.
Add services manually or select from pre-defined rate cards.
For each service, define:
Rates and quantities
Resource assignments (e.g., team members)
Service types (e.g., Billable, Non-billable, Fixed, Time & Materials)
Learn more about managing and applying scenarios in Managing and Applying Scenarios to Deals and Budgets.
3. Reviewing Scenario Metrics
The Scenario Builder calculates key metrics automatically, including:
Budget Total
Budget Used
Projected Revenue and Cost
Profit and Profit Margins
4. Comparing and Applying Scenarios
Once you finalize a scenario, you can apply it to the budget or deal using two options:
Override
This option will replace the existing services in a budget or deal with the services from the scenario you are applying.
All previous services in the budget or deal and associated time entries, expenses, and bookings will be deleted.
If no services currently exist in the budget or deal, only the new ones from the scenario will be added.
Update
This option will update the existing services in a budget/deal if previously copied and modified in the scenario.
Any newly added services in the scenario will also be added to the budget/deal.
5. Managing Bookings and Timelines
Use the scenario Timeline View to assign resources and define their working periods.
Add bookings for team members and view their availability (including time-off and existing bookings).
The hours you book your team for will dynamically translate into "Used Hours" and become part of the scenario outcome calculation.
Switch between Timeline View and List View to manage bookings seamlessly.
Tweaking Permissions
By default, users with the Profitability Manager and Admin permission sets have access to deal and budgets scenarios (they can view and manage scenarios).
If you are building a custom permission set, to ensure more granular access control, the Scenario Builder includes the following permissions:
For Deals:
View deal scenarios
Manage deal scenarios
For Budgets:
View budget scenarios
Manage budget scenarios
YouTube Video
Watch this short tutorial to see how the Scenario Builder works in action. It covers key features and steps to help you create and compare financial scenarios