In Productive, you’ll collaborate with different types of people: Employees, Contractors, Clients, and Contacts.
Each type comes with different access levels and billing implications.
📌 Important:
Only Users (Employees, Contractors, Clients) can log into Productive.
Employees and Contractors count as paid seats on your subscription.
Clients and Contacts do not count as paid seats.
Contacts are non-users who cannot log in, but they can be converted into Users at any time.
These distinctions help you manage roles, permissions, and billing more accurately.
Employees
Employees are integral to your organization, using Productive to track time and work, request time off, and deliver projects.
Their permissions, which determine what they can see and do within Productive, can be adjusted using system permissions or custom permission sets for greater flexibility.
Manage and add employees in Settings > Users or Resourcing > Employees.
Contractors
Contractors work with your organization but may be employed elsewhere. While they are not part of your company, they have login access and can collaborate on projects and manage tasks. Contractors are also considered paid seats.
Similar to employees, manage and add contractors in Settings > Users or Resourcing > Employees.
Clients
Clients are individuals you invite to Productive to collaborate on specific projects. They have limited visibility, primarily tied to the projects and companies you set up in Productive. Client permissions are divided into:
Client Staff: Can view and collaborate on tasks and projects.
Client Managers: Have access to budgets and basic financial data.
Custom client permissions can also be created for more tailored access.
Manage and add clients in Settings > Users or CRM > Contacts.
Contacts
Contacts serve as repositories for information such as notes, contact details, and emails.
They do not have login access but can be linked to specific companies within Productive.
Contacts can be converted to Users (Employees, Contractors, or Clients) at any time.
Find, add, and manage all your contact information in CRM > Contacts.
Profile Page Tabs
The profile pages for these individuals offer different tabs depending on their role.
Contacts
Have Info, and Activity tabs (the Activity tab has a Feed and an Emails section).
Employees, Contractors, and Clients
Depending on their permissions and usage, they may have the following tabs:
Info Tab: Contains essential information about the person, including their employee details (job title, workplace, permission set, manager, assigned service types, teams, tags, and information about automatic time tracking) and any employee fields they have been assigned.
Time: Contains the Overview and Time entries sections, offering a snapshot of the user’s capacity, availability, bookings, and logged time.
Absence: Displays all assigned absence allocations (time off and remote work), alongside requested and past time off.
Activity: Consists of three sections: Work Log, Feed, and Emails.
Work Log: Tracks any activity the user performs in Productive.
Feed: Contains updates such as comments, attachments, and changes made to the user's profile.
Emails: Displays emails associated with the user, including:
Emails BCC’d to the user or contact in Productive
Emails sent or received via the Gmail Inbox integration
Org Chart: Displays the user's position in the organizational hierarchy.
Projects: Lists all projects accessible to the person.
Cost Rates: An overview of the user’s current and past cost rates (salary), visible to admins only.
