Productive supports two types of deals:
One-off deal: For projects with a defined scope and end date. When won, creates a single, non-recurring budget.
Retainer deal: For ongoing work billed on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.). When won, creates a recurring budget with automatically repeating periods.
A retainer deal lets you represent an entire recurring contract, like monthly services, support, hosting, or campaign management as a single deal. You define how often the work repeats and for how many periods, and Productive handles the rest.
Setting Up a Retainer Deal
To set a deal as a Retainer, select Retainer from the Deal type field in Step 2 of the deal creation wizard (CRM > Deals > + Deal).
Once you select Retainer, two additional fields appear:
Period: how often the work repeats. Options: Week, Two weeks, Month, Quarter, Half-year, Year.
No. of periods: a whole number between 2 and 24.
For Deal value, you have two options at this stage:
Leave it empty and let the value be calculated from services you add later.
Enter it manually as a Total or Per period amount using the dropdown next to the field.
👉 Learn more about how deal value works for retainer deals in Deal Value.
Click Create deal. The deal header will show the value as per-period / periods (e.g., €6,000.00 / 6 months) and the auto-calculated date range.
The Deal Header
Once created, a retainer deal header shows:
Deal value: displayed as per-period amount / number of periods (e.g., $6,000.00/6 months)
Date range: auto-calculated from start date + period × number of periods. The end date is not editable directly: it updates automatically when the start date, period, or number of periods changes.
⚙️ Deal settings: where you manage deal type, period settings, and deal value source (see below).
📌 Projected revenue for retainer deals is always distributed as Even: the custom distribution option is not available.
👉 Learn more in Projected Revenue Distribution.
Viewing Services: Monthly vs. Total
Once services have been added, a Monthly / Total toggle appears in the Services tab:
Monthly: shows quantities, prices, and totals for a single period.
Total: shows cumulative values across all periods.
📌 The deal value in the header always reflects the total contract value regardless of which view is active.
Deal Settings
Click the ⚙️ icon in the deal header to open Deal settings. This is where you manage both the deal type and deal value source after the deal has been created.
Deal type
Switch between One-off and Retainer at any time: both directions are supported. When switching to Retainer, set the Period and No. of periods. When switching to One-off, the period settings are removed.
Deal value source
Switch between Calculated from services and Manual entry:
Calculated from services: automatically calculates the deal value based on the total of all services. Updates whenever services change.
Manual entry: allows you to define the deal value manually. Service changes will not update it unless you confirm.
Proposals
Proposals generated from a Retainer deal automatically display service amounts and totals as per-period values (e.g., $800.00 / month).
A Contract total field is also available in the proposal template, showing the full contract value across all periods.
📌 The Contract total field must be enabled in your proposal template to appear. Go to Settings > Document Templates, open your proposal template, and toggle it on. It only renders on Retainer deal proposals.
👉 See Creating and Managing Deal Proposals for more.
Projected Revenue and Forecasting
Projected revenue is calculated as total deal value × probability, distributed evenly across the deal's date range. Custom distribution is not available for retainer deals.
Changes that affect projected revenue distribution:
Period duration, number of periods, or start date: distribution is recreated and all dates shift. Revenue will appear in different periods in your forecasts.
Value entry mode (Per period ↔ Total): changes how the deal value is interpreted. The total projected revenue amount changes accordingly.
Value source (Manual ↔ Calculated from services): the underlying deal value changes. Projected revenue recalculates based on the new value.
Probability: affects the projected revenue amount only. Distribution structure is unchanged.
Switching to One-off: Even lock is removed. All periods collapse into a single distribution spanning the original date range.
👉 See Projected Revenue Distribution for more information on how deal revenue is distributed over time.
Winning a Retainer Deal
When a retainer deal is marked as Won, a recurring budget is automatically created: one budget period generated for each period defined on the deal. From that point on, the recurring budget is the source of truth for the contract.
👉 For the full win flow, including recurrence setup options, see Winning a Retainer Deal.
