Scenarios in Productive allow you to explore "what-if" situations without affecting your live budget or deal data.
By creating a scenario, you can test various budget and deal plans, as well as allocate resources to optimize outcomes and improve decision-making.
This guide will walk you through the process of creating your first scenario, using key features like the Scenario Builder, service configuration, timeline adjustments, and more.
Creating Your First Scenario
Follow these steps to create your first scenario in Productive:
1) Go to the Scenarios Section
Open a budget or deal and navigate to the Scenarios tab. You can access the Scenario Builder even before adding services to your budget or deal.
2) Create a New Scenario
Click Add Scenario or select + Scenario in the upper-right corner.
Name your scenario (e.g., "Scenario A: Initial Plan").
If services are already set up in the deal or budget, tick the Copy services from deal/budget option to include them. If starting fresh, add services manually in the next step.
Click Create Scenario to proceed.
4) Define Service Details
In the Scenario Builder, define details for each service:
Choose a billing type.
Assign a service type, unit (e.g., hour, day, piece), and Price per Unit (e.g., $100/hour).
Pro Tip: Click the coin icon in the Price per Unit field to add a markup or discount.
To organize services:
Add new services via + Add Service.
Add services from a rate card using + Add From Rate Card.
Create service sections for easier organization with + Add Section.
4) Add Teammates and Define Hours
Assign teammates (or placeholders) to services:
Click the + sign next to the service name to expand details.
Use + Add Item to assign team members, placeholders, or even create a temporary placeholder.
Good to Know:Placeholders set up in Settings > Resourcing > Placeholders are available both in Scenario Builder and for resourcing when applying the scenario.
Temporary placeholders created directly in a scenario only exist within that scenario and must be assigned to a user when applying the scenario.
You can easily create temporary placeholders in Scenario Builder by typing their name, defining their hourly cost, and assigning their hours.
Define the hours each person is expected to work.
Example: Alex Taylor is assigned 5 hours for a Design service. The system calculates the cost and revenue based on the hours ("Used Quantity") and Alex's cost rates ("Cost per Unit").
As you input data, observe real-time updates on budget usage, revenue, cost, and profit margins.
Once you are all done with the scenario setup, select Save in the upper right.
The Timeline View
The Timeline View helps visualize and manage scenario bookings against live data.
Choose a view: All People, People Assigned to Deal/Budget, or People Assigned to This Scenario. Create and save a custom view if needed.
Add or edit scenario bookings directly on the timeline (shown in purple).
Hours update in real-time. Total hours update dynamically as you add or adjust bookings.
Check out the numbers in the upper left to see how they correlate with the profitability, revenue, and costs of your scenario or switch back to the list overview for a more detailed service overview.
The timeline also highlights live data (e.g., time off or budget bookings) alongside scenario data for easy comparison.
Tip: The timeline view clearly differentiates between live budget or time-off data and scenario bookings (shown in purple). Click on the bookings to see the booking labels.
To add bookings in the List View, click the Expand button next to the teammate, and select + Add Booking to input data directly.
Important to Note:
While building your scenario, you can add team members and book them for services even if they haven’t been previously added to the deal or budget sharing options. However, these team members won’t be able to track time against those services until they are added to the deal or budget after the scenario is applied.
Example:
In a scenario, Eugene Lewis was assigned to the Acme Deal and booked for a service. After applying the scenario, the booking was added to the Resource Planner, but his time allocation still shows "0 days." To finalize the booking and enable Eugene to track his time for the deal, you’ll need to manually add him to the deal.
Comparing Scenarios
Once you've created and saved multiple scenarios for your deal or budget, you can compare them side by side in the Scenarios tab. This view provides key details such as:
Scenario name
Creator
Creation date
Expected profit margin (based on the parameters set in each scenario)
To access a scenario, click directly on its name. Use the three-dot menu to the right and select Edit if you need to rename it.
To delete a scenario, open the three-dot menu and select Delete.
You can also duplicate your scenario by selecting Duplicate, which will also copy over any allocated resources and bookings to the new scenario.
Key Tips for Working with Scenarios
Use placeholders for unassigned team members.
Duplicate your scenarios. This way, you can quickly make small adjustments without needing to re-add all team members and their bookings.
Save and rename scenario versions to track changes (e.g., Scenario 1.1).
Compare live and scenario data regularly to make informed decisions.
Wrap-Up
You’ve now mastered the basics of creating scenarios in Productive!
With scenarios, you can test plans, budgets, and resource allocations safely and effectively.
Next Steps: Explore managing and applying scenarios to your deals and budgets in our next article.