Learn how to add and configure services in your deals in Productive. Services define the work you’ll deliver, how it will be tracked, and how it will be billed. They also let you estimate pricing, track potential revenue, and prepare for time and expense tracking.
📌 Note: The screenshots in this article show the deal service view and service editor. Many of the linked articles include screenshots from the budget editor, but don’t worry—the functionality is the same for deals. For step-by-step setup instructions (editor/setup view), follow the linked articles in each section.
What are Services?
Services represent the types of work you deliver (e.g., Design, Development, Consulting) and connect deal management, budgets, resourcing, and future invoicing workflows.
If the deal is won, services in the deal can form the foundation of the associated budget and invoices. Services in deals help you:
Track time and expenses accurately
Monitor deal revenue potential
Prepare for invoicing once the deal is won
Allocate resources in the Resource Planner
👉 Learn more in What Are Services?
📌 You can’t invoice a deal until it’s marked as Won. Any time or expenses tracked on an open deal generate cost only, not revenue.
Once won, you can move tracked time, expenses, and bookings to the new budget and then proceed with invoicing.
Service Names vs. Service Sections
Service names specify what you’re billing for, while sections help you group related services for a clearer deal structure. When exporting a deal proposal, sections and services are included, so clients see a structured breakdown of work and pricing.
👉 Learn more in Service Names, Sections, and Descriptions
Service Types
Service types categorize services for reporting, profitability tracking, and internal analysis (e.g., Strategy, Engineering, QA).
Service name: what you’re offering to the client
Service type: how your company groups or analyzes that work internally
👉 Learn more in Service Types
Billing Types
In the Billing type column, choose between:
Fixed – Bill a set amount regardless of hours or expenses tracked.
Time and Materials – Bill based on actual time, expenses, or both.
Non-billable – Track time or expenses without invoicing the client.
These choices determine how time and expenses are tracked, how people are booked, and how the client will be invoiced after the deal is won.
👉 Learn more in Billing Types
📌 Note: Until a deal is marked as Won, tracked time and expenses count as internal costs only.
Tracking Unit
Choose the tracking unit for each service: Hour, Day, or Piece.
Hour/Day – Enables time tracking and resourcing for the service. Define "person-day" duration in Settings > General > Work Time.
Piece – Use for flat-fee deliverables or expense-only services.
👉 Learn more in Tracking Units: Hours, Days, or Pieces.
Tracking Options
Control whether time tracking, expense tracking, and booking are enabled for each service, depending on the billing type and unit.
👉 Learn more in Managing Tracking Options.
👉 Bonus: Learn how to enable or disable time tracking and expense logging based on the deal stage in How to Disable Tracking Time and Expenses on Deals.
Estimated Time
The Estimate column lets you input an approximation of hours, days, or pieces. Estimates help plan workloads, resource allocation, and set deal totals.
For Time and Materials, estimates auto-adjust based on the quantity.
For Fixed services, you can manually enter estimates to guide resource planning.
👉 Learn more in Setting Service Estimates
Quantity, Price, Discounts, and Markups
Set service quantities and prices, then adjust with discounts or markups if needed.
👉 Learn more in Quantity, Price, Discounts, and Markups
Guaranteed Maximum Price
For Time and Materials services, you can define a fixed cap for maximum billable amounts.
👉 Learn more in Guaranteed Maximum Price.
Duplicating Services and Sections
To speed up your setup, you can duplicate both individual services and entire service sections.
To duplicate a single service, open the three-dot menu next to the service line item and select Duplicate.
To duplicate a whole service section, open the three-dot menu next to the section name and select Duplicate. This will create a new section below the original, copying all its services, settings, and section name.
Saving Changes
Once you are done adjusting the services within the deal, select "Save changes" in the upper-right corner.
Moving Services Between Deals and Budgets
Services can be moved between deals and budgets without recreating them. This preserves time entries, expenses, and bookings, ensuring financial accuracy.
👉 Learn more in Moving Services Between Deals and Budgets
