Managing a deal in Productive involves creating the deal, assigning team members, scheduling work, tracking time and expenses, and monitoring progress through notes, to-dos, and stages.

This article walks through each step so your deals stay organized and actionable.

1) Create a New Deal

Start by adding the deal details that define the work and client relationship. To create a deal:

Click +Deal in CRM > Deals.
Create a new deal from scratch, duplicate an existing one, or create one from a deal template.
Then, select the stage and pipeline (if multiple) and choose the client company.
Give the deal a descriptive name and select the currency — all financial info will display in this currency.
Select the subsidiary.
Assign the deal owner — this person is responsible for managing the deal, tracking progress, and ensuring follow-ups.
Pick the document template for proposals (can be changed later).
Add tags or custom fields to help identify or link the deal.
Click Create deal to save.

📌 Tip: You can edit general deal info (name, company, subsidiary, tags, owner) from the deal sidebar anytime.

2. Add Services to the Deal

Services define the work you’ll deliver, how it will be tracked, and how it will be billed. Adding services to a deal is essential for estimating pricing, monitoring revenue potential, preparing for invoicing, and allocating resources in the Resource Planner.

👉 Learn more in Adding Services to a Deal.

3. Add Deal Members

Assign team members who will track time, expenses, or make bookings for this deal.

Add members via the sharing options in the top-right corner. You can add individuals or whole teams.
Bulk-share is available to add users to multiple deals at once.
Click the eye 👁️ icon to watch a deal and receive notifications.

👉 For detailed sharing instructions, see Sharing Options for Deals.

4. Scheduling on Deals

Bookings on deals function like those on budgets.

You can create Tentative or Confirmed bookings.
When a deal is marked Won, you can transfer bookings to the new budget.

5. Logging Time on Deals

Track hours via the deal’s Time tab or the My Time tab. Every hour you log automatically adds to the deal’s overall cost, giving you a clear view of resource usage. Note that time tracked on a deal cannot generate revenue until the deal is won.

Once the deal is won, you can create a new budget and transfer the tracked time entries, making them recognized and billable. This process helps you monitor effort in real time, plan resources efficiently, and ensure invoicing reflects actual progress.

6. Feed

Notes

Keep your team updated using the notes and comments in the Feed tab.

Add notes, @mentions, links, or attachments.
Use formatting tools (bullets, quotes, strikethrough).
Deal members and mentioned users get notifications.

To-Dos

Use to-dos to define next steps and move deals through your pipeline. Assign them to yourself or team members (only deal members appear as assignees). Delete to-dos via the three-dot menu.

Permissions:

Only Managers, Profitability Managers, and Admins (default permission sets) can be assigned to sales to-dos.
Users with lower permission sets, such as Staff members, need to have two Deals permissions added to their custom permission set to be able to be assigned to to-dos. These are "View deals where user is a member" and "Add, edit, and delete deals".

📌 Two helpful fields are available to keep track of upcoming to-dos directly from the deal board or table layout in CRM > Deals:

Next to-do: Displays the description of the earliest to-do for the deal.
Next action: Shows the date of the earliest to-do.

7. Deal Sidebar

Click on a deal to open the sidebar, where you can edit important deal information:

Name of the deal
Client company
Subsidiary
Custom fields
Currency
Purchase order number
Proposal (PDF template)

This sidebar is your main control panel for updating the key details of a deal without leaving the page.

8. Projected Revenue Distribution

In the upper-right corner of the deal view, the projected revenue distribution shows how revenue and costs are distributed over the deal period. This helps you quickly understand timing and financial impact at a glance.