Every month in Overhead cost has its own panel. Open it to see how that month's overhead was calculated and choose what counts toward it, for any month, past or current.
đ You don't have to adjust anything. Productive calculates each month from your general settings. Open a month when a number looks off, or when you want to see what's behind it.
How to Review and Adjust a Month
In Projection for current month or the Overhead history table on the Overhead cost page, click the month name. A panel opens on the right.
Check Facility cost / hour, Internal cost / hour, and Overhead cost / hour at the top.
Use the toggles to include or leave out a component.
To change the month's facility cost, expand Facility cost, edit an item's cost, or click Add item or Add cost group.
In the current month's projection, you can also select a different Averaging period.
Click Save & Recalculate.
The panel lists six components: Facility cost, Time cost, Expense cost, Absence cost, Cost of hours over availability, and Cost of hours under availability. Below them, it lists the hours behind the calculation, such as Total hours, Capacity, and Client hours.
đ Turning a component off doesn't delete its amounts. The panel still shows them, but they stop counting toward the overhead per hour.
đ See what each component includes in How Overhead Cost Is Calculated.
Turn a Month Off or On
When a month is on, overhead is added to the cost of the time your team tracks that month. When it's off, Productive still calculates the number but doesn't add it.
To see which it is, check the Turned on or Turned off label at the top of the month's panel, or the Status column in the Overhead history table (scroll right).
To turn off overhead for a month, click Turn off in its panel. If you turn it off in the current month, this carries over to the next month Productive creates.
To turn it back on, open the month in the Overhead history table on the Overhead cost page and click Turn on. This doesn't add a facility cost, so if Facility cost / hour is $0.00, expand Facility cost, add one, and click Save & Recalculate.
Refresh a Past Month
To refresh a past month with the latest tracked data, for example after late time entries, open it and click Overhead (circular arrow).
Save your changes first, because the button isn't available while changes are unsaved.
What Carries Over to New Months
đ Changes to a month's facility cost and averaging period apply to that month only. New months start from your default settings.
Components you turn on or off, including Turn off, carry over to the next month Productive creates. Months that already exist keep their own settings.
For example, your default facility cost is $1,000 and you change September to $500. October still starts at $1,000. To use $500 in October, change it in October's panel. To use $500 in every new month, change the default in Settings > Overhead cost.
When to Turn a Component Off or On
Turning a component off leaves its whole amount out of that month's overhead. These are the cases where it fits:
Facility cost: Turn it off if you log all your running costs as expenses on internal budgets. If only some overlap, remove those items from the facility cost instead.
Time cost: Turn it off if most internal time is investment work you account for separately, such as your own product or R&D.
Expense cost: Turn it off if most internal expenses are billed back to clients.
Absence cost: Turn it off if your cost rates already cover paid leave.
Cost of hours under availability: Turn it on to count untracked paid time as overhead, once time tracking is consistent. Until then, missing hours make the number grow.
Cost of hours over availability: Turn it on if people on fixed salaries often track more than their availability. It lowers the overhead.
When Something Else Is the Better Fix
Busy and quiet months swing the number: Use a longer Averaging period.
One cost item is wrong or counted twice: Edit the facility cost items.
Some people shouldn't carry overhead: Clear the Overhead checkbox on their cost rate.
A whole month shouldn't have overhead: Click Turn off in that month's panel.
đ Learn more in Understanding and Setting Up Cost Rates in Productive.