In Productive, rounding billable time entries is a valuable feature that ensures consistent and accurate billing practices. Rounding adjusts the recorded time to a specified interval, simplifying the billing process.
Previously located within Time Tracking settings, the setting has been relocated to Budget settings. Additionally, rounding can be fine-tuned and tailored within individual budgets and deals, providing flexibility beyond the default global setting.
Here’s how to set it up and manage it effectively!
Rounding Options
You can set the rounding for billable time entries using four rules:
1) No Rounding (default)
Keeps the recorded time exactly as it is, ensuring every minute worked is billed accurately.
Example: A worked time entry of 13 minutes will remain 13 minutes of billable time.
2) Round to nearest
Rounds the recorded time to the nearest interval (6, 15, or 30 minutes). This offers a balanced approach, aligning billable time closely with worked time.
Example: With a 15-minute interval, a logged time of 13 minutes will be rounded to 15 minutes, and a logged time of 7 minutes will be rounded to 0 minutes.
3) Round up to
Rounds the recorded time up to the nearest interval. Useful for ensuring small increments of work are fully billed, maximizing billable hours.
Example: With a 15-minute interval, a logged time of 13 minutes will be rounded up to 15 minutes of billable time.
4) Round down to
Rounds the recorded time down to the nearest interval. This approach ensures billable time does not exceed certain thresholds, providing a conservative billing method.
Example: With a 6-minute interval, a logged time of 14 minutes will be rounded down to 12 minutes of billable time.
These rounding options can be set in intervals of 6, 15, or 30 minutes. Importantly, this setting will only affect billable time, not the actual worked time.
Setting Up Time Rounding
To set up default time rounding for billable entries:
Go to Settings > Budget > Time rounding.
Choose your preferred rounding rule and interval and save your changes.
Custom Settings
The rounding settings can be applied on a per-budget or per-deal basis. This means you can set different rounding rules for different budgets and deals, providing greater flexibility and control over how time is billed.
Default Organizational Setting
By default, the organizational setting will apply to all new budgets and deals created.
Custom Settings per Budget/Deal
You can override the default setting for specific budgets or deals by adjusting the rounding settings within the budget or deal itself.
To do so, open the budget sidebar, navigate to the settings tab (marked by the gear icon ⚙️), and adjust the time rounding settings for the budget or deal.
Example in Practice
If you have the default organizational setting to "round to nearest 15 minutes," any new budget or deal created will use this setting.
However, you can change the setting for a particular budget to "round up to 6 minutes," and it will apply only to that budget. Similarly, you can set a different rounding rule for a specific deal.