To log expenses in Productive, whether billable to a client or not, you first need to set up a corresponding service line item in your budget.
This service will allow team members to select the appropriate category when logging expenses and ensure those entries are tracked and billed correctly, depending on the setup.
📌 Keep in mind: If a budget isn’t shared with someone, they won’t see the expense service when logging an expense—even if everything is set up correctly. Make sure the budget is shared with everyone who needs to log expenses.
Intro to Expense Service Line Items
An expense service line item is simply a service created specifically to track billable or non-billable expenses in your budgets. To work properly, the tracking unit must be set to Piece—this is what allows Productive to register expense entries against it.
This service helps your team select the right category when logging expenses and ensures those costs are tracked and billed correctly, based on your setup.
To set one up, open the budget, click Edit, and add a new line item.
👉 For more on adding services to budgets, see Adding Services to a Budget.
Setting Up Expense Line Items
1. Billing Type: Time and Materials
This billing type lets you bill the client exactly for what has been logged—nothing more, nothing less.
In your budget, add a service where:
Billing type = Time and materials
Tracking unit = Piece
Expense tracking = Enabled (the expense icon is violet)
Name the service clearly (e.g. Travel Expenses, Stock Purchases) so team members recognize it easily when logging an expense.
📌 If your organization uses expense approvals, the budget owner will need to approve the expense before it can be billed to the client.
2. Billing Type: Fixed
Fixed services allow you to bill a defined amount upfront, regardless of how much time or how many expenses are logged.
In your budget, add a service where:
Billing type = Fixed
Tracking unit = Piece
Expense tracking = Enabled (the expense icon is violet)
Name the service clearly (e.g. Travel Expenses, Stock Purchases) so team members recognize it easily when logging an expense.
📌 If your organization uses expense approvals, the budget owner will need to approve the expense before it can be billed to the client.
Although it’s possible to log time against Fixed Piece services, we don’t recommend it.
When you track time against a Fixed Piece service, those time entries won’t contribute to revenue recognition.
Time entries won’t transfer any revenue to the service. This prevents tracking revenue over time using time logs, which is often essential for financial reporting.
For Fixed services, only the tracking unit determines what generates revenue:
Hour/Day: Time entries and bookings generate revenue.
Piece: Only expenses generate revenue.
Because of this, use Fixed Piece services primarily for tracking expenses—not time.
3. Billing Type: Non-billable
You can also track expenses that are not intended to be billed to the client, but are still important to record for internal tracking and reporting.
In your budget, add a service where:
Billing type = Non-billable
Tracking unit = Piece
Expense tracking = Enabled (the expense icon is violet)
These expenses will generate costs only, not revenue. They're useful for understanding true project profitability or tracking internal spending.
Examples:
Office Supplies (Non-billable)
Client Gifts (Not Charged)
Internal Event Catering
Make sure the name of the service clearly communicates that it’s not billable.
4. Tracking Expenses in Internal Budgets
You can also track internal expenses using internal budgets in internal projects, such as those for overhead or internal initiatives.
All services in internal budgets are inherently non-billable, so simply:
Add a new service
Set the tracking unit to Piece
Make sure the expense icon is violet (enabled)
These expenses will generate costs only, contributing to overhead without impacting any client-facing revenue.
Examples:
Team Building Activities
Training Materials
Software Subscriptions (Internal Use)
Final Step: Share the Budget
To log an expense, users must have access to the budget that includes the expense-related service line item.
If the budget isn’t shared with them, they won’t see the service in the dropdown when logging their expense.
📌 Note on the "Users with access to all budgets" group:
This dynamic group can’t be removed from the budget’s sharing settings. It’s there to indicate that certain users—such as Admins, unrestricted Managers, or unrestricted Profitability Managers—have access to the budget based on their permissions. These users can log expenses even if they haven’t been explicitly added to the budget.
Additional Admin Settings
If your team needs to track the expense payment status or request reimbursements when logging expenses, make sure those options are enabled in your account settings.
👉 Learn how to set this up in the Expenses: Admin Overview article.
Having Trouble Logging an Expense?
If you've followed the steps above but still can't see the service when logging an expense, there may be other setup issues to check.
👉 For a full list of potential causes and how to resolve them, head over to our Can’t Log an Expense? article.