By default, revenue recognition for fixed price services follows your organization-level settings: either recognized on a single date or spread over time as work is tracked.
Custom revenue recognition lets you override this on individual budgets and define exactly when revenue is recognized, independent of time tracking activity.
📌 Custom revenue recognition applies to fixed price services only. Time & Materials services always recognize revenue when time and expenses are approved, regardless of this setting.
👉 Not sure how revenue recognition works in Productive? Start with Understanding Revenue Recognition in Productive.
Custom revenue recognition for budgets is available on the Ultimate subscription plan.
How to Set It Up
Open the budget sidebar, select the Settings tab and click Set custom revenue recognition under the Revenue recognition section.
This opens a modal where you choose between two methods: Even distribution and Manual distribution.
Even Distribution
Even distribution spreads the total fixed price revenue evenly across a date range you define. Revenue within the period is distributed proportionally across days.
To set it up:
Pick a start date and an end date for the distribution period.
Productive divides the total fixed price revenue evenly across all days in the range.
Manual Distribution
Manual distribution lets you define multiple periods and assign a specific portion of revenue to each.
This is useful when revenue should be weighted toward certain months. For example, if more work is delivered at the start or end of an engagement.
Setting Up Periods
Click + Add Distribution to add a distribution row. For each period, set:
Start and end date for the period
Either a percentage of total revenue or a revenue amount; the other field calculates automatically
At the top of the modal, you'll see:
Total revenue to distribute: the sum of all fixed price service values on the budget. Read-only.
Left to recognize: the portion of total revenue not yet assigned to any period. Read-only.
Percentage vs. Amount
Use the Distribute revenue by dropdown to choose your input method:
Percentage of total: enter percentages; amounts calculate automatically. If the budget total changes later, amounts adjust while percentages stay fixed.
Revenue amounts: enter amounts; percentages calculate automatically. If the budget total changes later, you'll see a warning to review and update the distribution.
📌 Example: Your budget total is $20,000. You set up two periods:
Distribution period | % of Total | Recognized revenue |
1 Jul – 30 Sep 2025 | 50% | $10,000.00 |
1 Oct – 31 Dec 2025 | 25% | $5,000.00 |
The remaining 25% ($5,000) shows as Left to recognize. Revenue not assigned to a period is not recognized anywhere until you add it to a period.
Validation
Productive allows both over- and under-recognition relative to the budget total.
Distribution periods don't need to match the budget's start and end dates. There's no warning if they don't overlap.
📌 Review your periods before saving to make sure the distribution is correct.
Where Revenue Appears
Once set, distributed revenue appears in:
Budget profitability view: per-period breakdown of recognized revenue
Financial Items report: distributed revenue appears as Revenue item type, one entry per period
👉 Learn more about the Revenue item type in the Productive Glossary.
If the Budget Total Changes
If you update a fixed price service value after setting up manual distribution:
Percentage-based distribution: amounts recalculate automatically based on the new total.
Amount-based distribution: percentages recalculate, but you'll see a warning to review: "Revenue for this budget changed. Check the custom revenue distribution and update accordingly."
If the Budget Is Delivered Early
Delivering a budget before the end of a distribution period does not affect revenue recognition. Revenue continues to be recognized according to the defined periods.
T&M Services on the Same Budget
If a budget includes both fixed price and Time & Materials services, manual revenue recognition applies to the fixed price services only. T&M services continue to recognize revenue as time and expenses are approved.