In Productive, setting up services is the cornerstone of creating a successful budget or sales deal. These services act as building blocks that define the scope of work, prepare for accurate tracking once the deal is won, and ultimately facilitate invoicing your client.

Services help in tracking time and expenses, monitoring deal projected revenue, and customizing your billing approach to meet client needs, whether through fixed pricing, time and materials, or non-billable work.

Moreover, services are crucial for scheduling resources in Productive’s Resourcing module, making it essential to set them up meticulously.

After creating the deal, select "+ Add services" to start adding services to your deal.
You can manually add the service or copy a predefined service set from a rate card.

Once you add a service from a rate card, you are welcome to further modify it without affecting the information in the rate card.

Service types play a key part in determining your deal and services. They are the foundation of your financial structure once configured in the settings.
In other words, these types represent your profit centers, covering the full range of services you provide as an agency.
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When added to deals and budgets, they provide clarity on what you're offering to your clients and guide your team's time-tracking efforts.
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After customizing your service types in the settings, select them from the drop-down menu while setting up your deal services.

The distinction between service name and service type is based on functionality.

The service name provides flexibility, allowing you to label services as you see fit, as well as versatility by assigning different names to each service.

On the other hand, the service type functions as a categorization tool, allowing you to organize services in a systematic manner for efficient tracking and company-wide analysis.

After defining the service types crucial for monitoring profitability, the next step involves configuring the billing type associated with each service.

The "Billing type" column offers three distinct options: Fixed, Time and materials, and Non-billable, which you can select by directly clicking on the column .

These three are designed to help you track time and expenses, book people for services and ultimately, after the deal has been won and work on the services finished, invoice your client according to your and your client's needs and arrangements.

Fixed billing type

This option ensures that services are billed at a predetermined fixed rate, regardless of the actual hours worked.

It allows for accurate time tracking and estimation, enabling you to analyze profitability trends over time and efficiently schedule resources in the Resourcing module.

Whether you log fewer or more hours than estimated, the invoiced amount remains consistent with the fixed rate you've set!

Time and materials billing type

With this option, you can add rates and services, but invoicing can occur only after hours, days, or expenses have been logged against the service.

This approach enables progressive invoicing as work on the budget unfolds, facilitating efficient invoicing in stages.

Non-billable billing type

As the name suggests, this option is reserved for tracking work or expenses that won't be invoiced to the client.

It's useful for tracking preparatory or administrative tasks associated with client projects, providing valuable insights to optimize resource allocation in the future.

In the Unit field, you can select how you want to charge and monitor the service: by hour, day, or piece.

Opting for Hours or Days enables time tracking and resource scheduling in Resourcing for the services. Note that you can define how many hours there are within a "Day" (person-day) in Settings > General > Work time.

On the other hand, selecting Piece is more suitable for expense tracking or situations where you don't need to book people or track time against the service.

The tracking options available depend on the combination of the previously set billing type and unit.
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You can enable or disable expense and time tracking, as well as the option to book people for the selected service in Resourcing.
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For example, if you select "Time and materials" as the billing type, paired with "Hour" as the tracking unit, you'll be able to switch off or on time tracking and booking options.
Similarly, if you choose "Piece" as the tracking unit, you'll only be able to log expenses there.

To ensure all necessary options are enabled, hover over the time-tracking, expense-tracking, and booking icons and make sure they are violet (enabled) if you want them on.
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The Estimate column lets you input an approximation of hours, days, or pieces (matching the billing units), helping set budget totals and monitor progress against these estimates as the project progresses.
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It's crucial to note that the estimated hours/days directly impact Resourcing, influencing your resource allocation based on precise service and budget specifications.

When working with Fixed or Time and materials billing types, you can specify the quantity (hours, person-days, or pieces) you intend to sell to the client, along with the corresponding price per hour/day/piece established for the service.

Non-billable services, not intended for client invoicing, do not affect the budget total. Therefore, inputting quantity and price values is not applicable for such services.

Tracking time or logging expenses against non-billable services incurs costs, which are reflected in the Profitability section of the budget.

If you want to add a discount to your services, you can add it by clicking on the Show discount option in the three-dot menu located to the right of the service section name.

Once you click on it, a new Discount column will be visible and you will be able to set up a different discount for every billable service.

The total amount changes accordingly once the discount is added to the service.

If you want to add a markup to your services, you can add it by clicking on the Show markup option in the three-dot menu located to the right of the service section name.

Once you click on it, a new Markup column will be visible and you will be able to set up a different markup for every billable service.

The total amount changes accordingly once the markup is added to the service.

For services that are defined as Time and materials, you can define a fixed cap which will then determine the maximum price that can be charged to the client, regardless of the hours put in.

To set it up, first, select Time and materials as the billing type and define the price and the quantity. From the three-dot menu to the right of the service section name, select "Show fixed cap".

Then, click on the padlock (🔒) icon to set a fixed cap. You'll know the fixed cap has been activated when the padlock turns violet.

To add a description to your services, select the Show description option in the three-dot menu located to the right of the service section name.

The description you add there will later be visible in the reports!
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Once you are done adjusting the services within the deal, select "Save changes" in the upper-right corner.
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​Tip: the three-dot menu allows you to duplicate or delete a service line item!

When a service needs to be reallocated—whether to adjust invoicing, refine a budget, or group work under a different deal—you don’t have to recreate it from scratch.

Instead, you can move it between deals and budgets while keeping all related time entries, expenses, and bookings intact.

This ensures financial accuracy and saves time. Learn more about how to move services between deals and budgets here.