When adding services to a budget or deal, you can control how progress is tracked. You can enable or disable:
Time tracking – logging hours worked against a service
Expense tracking – logging expenses against a service
Booking tracking – making a service available in the Resource Planner for future bookings
Managing these options ensures that time, expenses, and bookings are accurately tracked according to your needs.
Time Tracking
To enable or disable time tracking for a service, click the clock 🕑 icon while setting up or editing services in a budget or deal. Each newly added service (+ New item) inherits the time-tracking status of the previously added service
If time tracking is disabled, employees and contractors cannot log time for that service. The service dropdown menu will only show services with enabled time tracking.
📌 Note: If a timer is active when you disable time tracking, it will not stop automatically, as it was started before the option was disabled.
📌 By default, time tracking is enabled for Open Hours and disabled for Open Expenses. Learn more about Open Hours and Expenses here.
Expense Tracking
To enable or disable expense tracking, the service’s unit must be set to Piece. Click the receipt 📄 icon to toggle expense tracking on or off.
Each newly added service (+ New Item) inherits the expense tracking status of the previously added service.
When expense tracking is disabled, expenses cannot be logged, and the service dropdown will only show services with expense tracking enabled.
📌 By default, expense tracking is enabled for Open Expenses. Find out more about Open hours and expenses here.
Booking Tracking
To enable or disable booking tracking, click the calendar 📆 icon while editing the service.
When booking tracking is disabled, project managers and budget owners cannot create bookings in the Resource Planner for that service.
The service dropdown in the Resource Planner will only show services with booking tracking enabled.
Units and Tracking Options
The combination of billing type and tracking unit determines which tracking options are available.
Related Setup Options
When setting up services in Productive, you may also want to check:
Billing Types
Decide whether a service is billed at a fixed price, by time and materials, or tracked as non-billable.👉 Learn more here.
Tracking Units: Hours, Days, or Pieces
Understand how units define whether time, bookings, or expenses can be logged and how they affect revenue recognition.
👉 Learn more here.
What Are Services in Productive?
Understand the definition, purpose, and role of services across tracking, scheduling, and invoicing.
👉 Learn more here.
Service Names, Sections, and Descriptions
Give each service a clear label, add descriptions, and group them in sections for better visibility.
👉 Learn more here.
How to Set Up an Expense Line Item in a Budget
Set up Piece-based services to track billable or unbillable expenses correctly.
👉 Learn more here.