When creating an invoice in Productive, you might encounter negative line items labeled as Unrecognized. These represent time or expenses tracked beyond the budgeted amount.
Understanding how unrecognized time and expenses are handled helps you ensure accurate billing and transparency for both you and your clients.
The Budget Scenario
Let’s look at an example. Suppose you have a Fixed service called Development with 10 hours budgeted. However, the team ends up tracking 12 hours against this service.
Creating the Invoice
If you use the Uninvoiced Time and Expenses invoicing method for invoicing this budget, your invoice will show:
12 hours for Development
–2 hours for Development (Unrecognized)
The negative line item reflects the extra 2 hours tracked beyond the budgeted 10 hours. Productive automatically marks these additional hours as unrecognized.
Good to Know: Billing Logic
For fixed services (services with a fixed billing type), the invoice always reflects the budgeted amount—not the actual time tracked.
Any time or expense recorded beyond the budget is not billable and appears as an unrecognized (negative) line item to balance the total value billed.
Adjusting the Invoice Manually
Before sending the invoice, you can choose to remove or adjust the unrecognized (negative) value. However, be careful.
Removing unrecognized items means you’re invoicing more than the agreed budget. This could lead to overcharging and create confusion or disputes with your client.
