Setting Up
How Should I Set My Averaging Period?
There's no single right answer. Set it to cover the months where your time tracking is reliable. The projection counts back from the current month. For example, if your time tracking is reliable from April and it's now July, set it to 3 months, so the projection uses April, May, and June.
The setting applies to each new month, not the month that's already showing. To change the current month, open its panel.
👉 See Setting Up Overhead Cost.
What Is the Best Way to Set My Overhead Calculation Date?
The calculation date needs accurate data for the previous month. Choose a day by which everyone has tracked their time for that month. Otherwise, the calculation runs on incomplete hours.
👉 See Setting Up Overhead Cost.
Why Can't I Change My Calculation Date?
Productive limits the dates you can pick, so a month is never calculated twice or skipped. If this month has already been calculated, you can't pick a later day. If it hasn't, you can't pick a day that has already passed.
👉 See Setting Up Overhead Cost.
How Do I Calculate My Facility Costs?
Add up your steady monthly costs, such as software licences, utilities, and rent. Leave out salaries and costs you already log as expenses on internal budgets. Both are counted elsewhere, so adding them here would count them twice.
👉 See Setting Up Overhead Cost.
Understanding Your Numbers
Why Is My Overhead So High?
Usually because little time is tracked, or a lot of it is tracked on internal budgets. Internal costs are spread across client hours only, so fewer client hours raise the number. Check the Overhead history table, then open the month and check which components are turned on.
👉 See If the Number Looks Off.
Why Is My Overhead $0.00?
Overhead per hour is $0.00 when a month has no hours or no costs to divide. Check that hours are tracked for the period by people with overhead turned on, and that the month has costs, such as a facility cost.
If only Facility cost / hour is $0.00, the month has no facility cost. A turned-off month still shows its overhead per hour. Productive just doesn't add it to time entries and bookings.
👉 See Check Your Setup.
Changing Your Numbers
I Tracked Time in the Past. Can I Recalculate Overhead Values?
Yes. Open the month in the Overhead history table on the Overhead cost page and click Overhead (circular arrow). Productive recalculates it from the data tracked now, for example after late time entries.
If you also want to change the month, for example its facility cost or components, make the changes and click Save & Recalculate instead. It saves them and recalculates the month in one step. The circular arrow isn't available while changes are unsaved.
Can I Recalculate My Projection Data?
Not with the circular arrow, which is hidden for the current month. Open the current month's panel, change the averaging period or the toggles, and click Save & Recalculate. Productive recalculates the projection's averages from your past months.
Can I Leave a Cost Out of Overhead?
Yes. Open the month, turn off the component, and click Save & Recalculate. This leaves that component's whole amount out of the month's overhead.
If you change the current month, the components you turned on or off carry over to the following months. Changes to a past month apply to that month only.
If I Turn Off Overhead Cost, Will Past Costs, Budgets, and Profitability Be Recalculated Without Overhead?
No. Turning off overhead for your organization doesn't remove it from past time entries or data logged while it was on. Those keep their overhead calculations.
Overhead isn't applied to new time entries or other data logged after you turn it off.
📌 If a past time entry is edited or recalculated later, for example after a cost rate change, its cost is calculated without overhead.
Can I Turn Off Overhead for a Specific Team Member?
Yes. Leave the Overhead checkbox unchecked on their active cost rate (Cost Rates tab in their profile). Overhead isn't added to their cost per hour, even when overhead is turned on for the organization in Settings > Overhead cost.
The checkbox belongs to each cost rate. Changing it recalculates their time entries for the dates that cost rate covers, including past ones.
Subsidiaries
How Does Overhead per Subsidiary Affect My Cost Calculations?
With a per-subsidiary type, each subsidiary gets its own overhead per hour. An employee's time carries their home subsidiary's overhead rate, whichever budget they track on.
The calculation type decides which subsidiary's calculation the hours count toward:
By budget: Hours count toward the subsidiary that owns the budget. If an employee logs time on another subsidiary's budget, those hours count toward that subsidiary
By person: Hours count toward the employee's own subsidiary, even when they track on another subsidiary's budget
More client hours lower the per-hour overhead for the subsidiary they count toward.
👉 See Overhead Cost per Subsidiary.
Which Calculation Type Should I Choose?
Choose Per subsidiary (by budget) if each subsidiary sells and delivers its own client work. Choose Per subsidiary (by person) if employees often work on other subsidiaries' budgets, or one subsidiary supports the others. If you're not sure, compare all three types first.