When creating services in your budgets, you’ll need to choose a tracking unit.
The tracking unit determines how work or expenses are logged and how revenue is recognized. In Productive, there are three options: Hours, Days, and Pieces.
Hours
What it means: Used to log time against services. A service set up with this unit also allows people to be booked for the service in the Resource Planner.
Time tracking impact: Users log actual hours worked. Revenue is recognized as time entries are logged. Future bookings also contribute to scheduled revenue, letting you see projected earnings ahead of time.
When to use: Standard time tracking for hourly-based billing or internal time tracking.
Days
What it means: Represents a full working day (a “person-day”). A service set up with this unit also allows people to be booked for the service in the Resource Planner. The length of a day is defined in Settings > General > Work Time > Person Day (e.g., 8 hours).
Time tracking impact: Users track work in hour units, even though the service is measured in days. Revenue is recognized as time entries are logged. Future bookings also contribute to scheduled revenue, giving visibility into projected earnings.
When to use: Useful when billing or planning work per day instead of per hour, often in consulting or project-based engagements.
Pieces
What it means: A flexible unit for tracking items that are not tied to time (e.g., deliverables, licenses, or expenses).
Time tracking impact: Users do not log hours against a Piece service unless explicitly allowed, as this won’t generate revenue recognition. Revenue is tied to the number of pieces delivered or expenses logged.
When to use:
For deliverables sold as fixed quantities (e.g., 10 banners, 5 licenses).
For expenses, whether billable or non-billable.
For pro-bono or internal tracking that doesn’t involve hours or days.
👉 Learn more in How to Set Up an Expense Line Item in a Budget. This article shows how to correctly set up Piece-based services for expenses.
Choosing the Right Unit
Hours → Best for projects where work is billed or tracked by the hour.
Days → Best when engagements are contracted or billed in day blocks.
Pieces → Best for deliverables or expenses, not for time-based services.
📌 Keep in mind: For Fixed billing types, the chosen tracking unit determines how revenue is recognized:
Hours/Days → Revenue recognized as time entries/bookings are logged.
Pieces → Revenue recognized when expenses or pieces are logged.
How Units + Billing Types Work Together
The tracking unit doesn’t work in isolation, it combines with the billing type (Fixed, Time and Materials, or Non-billable) to define what can be logged and how revenue is recognized.
📌 Tracking options can also be manually disabled for each service if you want to limit what people log.
Time & Materials
Hour/Day: users can track time and be booked against such services. Revenue is recognized as time entries are logged and future bookings are made.
Piece: only expenses can be tracked and contribute to recognized revenue.
Fixed
Hour/Day: users can track time in hours and be booked. Revenue is distributed across logged time entries and future bookings. The remaining, untracked time is recognized based on the revenue recognition settings.
Piece: expenses, time, and bookings can all be tracked—but use with care, as time logs and bookings don’t drive revenue recognition, only expenses logged.
Non-billable
Hour/Day: users can track time and be booked.
Piece: expenses, time, and bookings can all be tracked.
Related Setup Options
When setting up services in Productive, you may also want to check:
Billing Types
Decide whether a service is billed at a fixed price, by time and materials, or tracked as non-billable.
👉 Learn more here.Managing Tracking Options for Budgets and Deals
Fine-tune whether users can track time, log expenses, or be booked for specific services in a budget.
👉 Learn more here.
What Are Services in Productive?
Understand the definition, purpose, and role of services across tracking, scheduling, and invoicing.
👉 Learn more here.
Service Names, Sections, and Descriptions
Give each service a clear label, add descriptions, and group them in sections for better visibility.
👉 Learn more here.