Creating a project in Productive can be done through various methods, allowing flexibility depending on your workflow needs. Below are the steps to create a new project.
Creating a Project by Winning a Sales Deal
A deal in Productive refers to a potential project that is still in the sales phase. Once you mark a deal as won, you have several options.
1) Create a new project from this deal: this option also allows you to create a budget based on the services defined in the deal.
2) Add the deal's budget to an existing project.
3) Create a budget from a deal without a project.
4) Don't create a project or a budget, just mark the deal as won.
Choosing the first option (Create a new project) lets you set up your budget and project details. You can create the project from scratch, copy an existing project and use it as a template, or use a project template.
When creating from scratch, you'll need to fill in project details like the project name, project manager, and preferred workflow.
You also need to select the initial Tabs that will be added to the navigation.
When copying an existing project or using a template, you'll also be able to decide what to duplicate and include from the templates.
📌 Note: You can assign a color to your project next to its name. This color will be used to highlight bookings in the Resource Planner when Project colors are selected, making it easier to visualize time allocation for this project across your team.
Directly from the Projects Tab
You can create a project without having a deal by following these steps:
Access the Projects Tab
Go to Project management > Projects.
Initiate Project Creation
Click the "+ Project" button to open the Project wizard.
Step One
Decide if the project is for a client or internal use.
Step Two
Choose how to create the project: from scratch, by using a project template, or by having AI generate it from a prompt.
Step Three
Add project details like project name, project manager, and workflow.
When creating a client project, you'll need to select the client company from the dropdown menu.
If it hasn't been added to Productive yet, you can quickly create it while setting up a project. This allows you to fill in only the essential details at the time of budget creation and complete the rest later.
📌 The quick add option is only available if no required company custom fields exist. If you’ve created a company custom field and marked it as required, the quick add button will not appear in the deal creation wizard. Any optional custom fields will not block the quick add.
Step Four
Decide on the initial Tabs to be added to your navigation bar.
📌 You can also apply tabs from a project template to a project after it's created — useful if you want to carry over a tab setup, such as a specific dashboard configuration.
Step Five
Add a person, team, or group to your project to give them immediate access.
📌 For more details on assigning people to projects, see the article Sharing Options for Projects.
Step Six
Optionally, add a budget to the project, which can also be done later, and select "Create project" to finalize the build.
Creating a Project with AI (Beta)
If you choose to create a project with AI in the second step, you'll be prompted to describe your project in the prompt field. The more detail you provide, the better the generated project structure will be — including initial tasks, task lists, and other relevant content to get you started.
For example, if you're starting a website redesign project, you could describe the project scope, key milestones such as design handoff and launch date, and the team involved — including the design team, developers, and a project manager — and the Assistant will set up the initial task structure so you can jump straight into the work instead of building it from scratch.
📌 Use @ to mention people, projects, companies, deals, or budgets.
You can type your own description or choose from predefined options such as Website Redesign, Client Onboarding, or Software Development Sprint. Selecting one will pre-fill the prompt field with a basic template.
If using a predefined option, you'll need to fill in the placeholders it includes — such as project name, client company, project manager, and workflow — directly in the prompt before continuing.
Once your prompt is ready, click Create with AI.
This will open the Assistant in the sidebar, which may ask a few follow-up questions if any key details weren't specified — for example, whether the project should be a client or internal project.
Once it has enough context, it will generate the project based on the parameters you provided and give you a direct link to it.
📌 You can also create a project by describing it directly in the AI Assistant, without opening the project wizard. For more information, see Productive's AI Assistant.
Using the Quick Add Feature
You can add a project from anywhere in the app using the Quick Add feature:
Select the "+" Icon
In the upper-right corner, navigate to Projects to create a new one.
Follow the Steps
Complete the steps described above to finalize creating your project.