Recurring Budgets and Automatic Invoicing
Recurring budgets are used for work that happens on a regular schedule like retainers, monthly service packages, or ongoing projects. Instead of manually duplicating the same budget every month or quarter, you can mark a budget as recurring, and Productive will automatically create new versions of it based on the schedule you define.
To simplify the invoicing process, you also have the option to automatically create an invoice draft every time a new recurring budget is generated. That way, you don’t need to create invoices from scratch each time since your template takes care of it for you.
Use case example
You offer a monthly support retainer.
Each month, Productive creates a new recurring budget.
Now, it can also automatically generate an invoice draft for each one.
Enabling Automatic Invoicing
To use this option, follow these steps when converting a budget into a recurring one:
Go to your budget, open the Recurring tab, and click Create a recurring budget.
📌 Note: If you are enabling this feature for an already existing recurring budget, select Edit recurring.
In the setup modal, check the Create invoices automatically box and select Make recurring.
A new window will open where you’ll define the invoice template used to generate each invoice.
This template will be applied to all future budgets created based on this recurring setup.
Setting Up Your Invoice Draft Template
The invoice setup includes two parts: header details and line items.
1) Header details (non-editable fields)
The following fields are pulled from the budget and can’t be changed in the template:
PO number
Bill To (client information) / Bill From (your subsidiary informatin) / Pay To (your bank account information)
Subject
You can modify:
The invoice creation date, using a relative date (e.g. one day after budget start date), and whether to skip weekends
Any custom fields you've added
Invoice Creation Date Setup
When setting up your recurring invoice template, you can select when the invoice should be generated. This is a relative date based on the budget start or end date, and options include:
Exactly on the budget start or end date (add zero as the number of days)
Any number of days after or before the start or end date
The default setting is one day before the budget end date
Skip Weekends
Next to the date selection, there’s a Skip weekends option:
When enabled, weekends (Saturday and Sunday) are skipped, and the invoice is scheduled for the next available weekday.
If not enabled, the invoice can be created on a weekend.
Line Item Setup
In this section, you define how the invoice amount is calculated and structured.
To define how your line items will be displayed, click the Line item setup.
📌 For example:
Select the invoicing method: Invoice 50% of the total budget
Group line items by: Service
Click Submit. A green banner will confirm your setup and your selected logic will apply to all future drafts.
📌 You can’t manually add line items in this template. Only choose from the available invoicing and grouping methods. Once selected, the method, grouping logic, and document template will be stored and applied automatically when each new draft is created.
📌 There is no live preview of the line items during template setup. The draft will be created based on your selections once the trigger date is reached.
Saving Your Template
After configuring the line item rules, click Save in the upper right to finalize your template.
📌 Important:
If no line item setup is defined, you can still save the template, but a warning will appear.
If you proceed, a blank invoice draft will be created on the defined date. You'll see your chosen settings in the line items section.
Managing and Editing the Automation
Once automatic invoicing is enabled:
1) In the Recurring tab, you’ll see Automatic Invoice: Yes.
Click this label to disable the automation.
Use Edit Recurring to re-enable or change your setup.
Select Invoice setup to adjust the invoice template
2) In the Invoices tab, you’ll see when the next draft is scheduled. You can edit the invoice template from this tab as well.
📌 If you update the invoice template before the draft is generated, the new version will apply.
📌 If the draft is already created, changes won’t affect that invoice. Even if you stop the recurring setup entirely, the scheduled invoice will still be created if its creation date falls on or after the date recurrence was disabled.
Quick Recap
To automatically generate invoice drafts:
Mark your budget as recurring and enable Create invoices automatically
Set up your invoice template (document, creation date, skip weekends, custom fields)
Define line item logic (method and grouping)
Save your setup
Monitor and adjust from the Recurring or Invoices tabs
User Permissions
The permission required to access this setting is Add, edit and delete draft invoices. By default, it’s included in Admin, Profitability Manager, and Manager permission sets, but you can adjust this using the Permission Builder.
