Productive is the broad platform. Resource planning, tasks, time, budgets, expenses and invoicing are one system, so a professional services firm can see utilisation, forecast profit and bill from the same place. Placeholders and tentative bookings cover work that is not confirmed. Resource requests can be matched against who fits. If the agency wants the books and the plan together, that scope is the reason to look at it.
Kavaro does not try to be the ledger. It is the working plan for people and delivery: who is booked, what is tentative, which roles are still empty, and whether the phases, approvals and client view are keeping up. Cost and charge stay visible to the people who should see them. A staffing change is proposed, then confirmed. The agency can keep invoicing where finance already trusts it.
Kavaro vs Productive at a glance
| Capability | Kavaro | Productive |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | People plan and client delivery | Resourcing, projects, budgets, time, expenses and invoicing |
| Schedule | People × calendar, in hours or a percentage | Resource planner by person or by project |
| Unconfirmed work | Tentative bookings and open roles | Tentative bookings, placeholders and repeating bookings |
| Time off | Leave stays on the plan, with insights for clashes | Time-off requests and approvals feed the planner |
| How staffing is decided | Chat proposes; a person confirms or rejects | Resource requests ranked against requirements, then booked |
| Money | Permission-controlled cost and charge views from the plan | Budgets, rate cards, profitability, expenses and invoicing |
| Client delivery | Phases, approvals, checkpoints and a client view | Projects, tasks and budgets in the same platform |
Why agencies look at both
The overlap is real: both can show who is busy, what might land, and whether the team can take more. The split is what else you are asked to move. Productive asks the agency to run more of the business in one platform. Kavaro asks it to run the people and the delivery in one plan.
1. A platform is a different decision from a plan
Productive earns its place when budgets, third-party costs, retainers and invoices are as painful as the schedule. Rate cards, profitability forecasts and a scenario builder for deals are there because the commercial system and the resource system are the same product. Kavaro will not close the books. It will show the cost of a staffing choice, from the live bookings and the time logged against them, to the people with finance permission. That is enough when finance already has a system it will not replace, and not enough when the brief is to retire that system.
2. Resourcing is not a tab beside the budget
In Productive, bookings hang off the services on a deal or budget. That is coherent if every hour needs a commercial container before it can be planned. It is a heavy sequence when the resource manager’s job this afternoon is to see the clash and move the person. Kavaro starts from the people calendar. Confirmed work, tentative work and open roles are visible before the commercial paperwork has caught up, and insights call out overload, leave, empty seats and roll-off while the week can still be saved.
3. The person who trials it still has to live in it
Productive’s resource requests are a structured queue: the need is raised, likely matches are ranked, and the booking lands on the planner. Kavaro is a question against the live plan. Who is free, who has done this, what it does to utilisation and margin. The proposal waits for a confirm. For the person running traffic every day, the test is whether restaffing takes minutes and whether the agent can change the week without them.
4. Delivery status is part of capacity
A budget can be healthy while the client is still waiting on an approval. Productive tracks the project and the tasks in the same platform as the money. Kavaro tracks the delivery events agencies actually chase — phase, checkpoint, approval, and a client view that does not expose the internal plan — on the same calendar as the people. When an approval slips, the capacity impact is not a separate report.
Other comparisons
- Kavaro vs Float — If you want the schedule and project financials without moving invoicing.
- Kavaro vs Resource Guru — If the schedule also has to cover rooms, kit and other resources.
- Kavaro vs Runn — If saved pipeline scenarios matter more than a full finance platform.
- Kavaro vs Bonsai — If the commercial tool in place was built for freelancers rather than a delivery team.
Frequently asked questions
Is Productive only a resource planning tool?
No. Productive is a professional services platform. Resource planning sits alongside projects and tasks, budgets, time tracking, expenses and invoicing. Tentative bookings, placeholders and repeating bookings are part of the resource planner, and financial forecasts sit on the budgets.
Does Kavaro replace invoicing and expenses?
No. Kavaro is not the agency’s ledger. It shows the people plan, the staffing decision and client delivery, with permission-controlled cost and charge views and utilisation from bookings and logged time. If invoices, expenses and purchase orders need to live in the same system as the schedule, Productive is built for that.
Can Productive plan tentative work?
Yes. Productive supports tentative bookings and placeholders for unconfirmed work or future hiring, and it can model budget and deal scenarios. Kavaro keeps tentative bookings distinct on the people plan and holds open roles until a person is named.
Which is the better fit for a resource manager’s week?
Productive fits when resourcing, budgets and billing are one operating system. Kavaro fits when the weekly job is to see who is booked, resolve tentative work and keep delivery moving, with every staffing change confirmed by a person.
See how Kavaro handles this work
Try Kavaro free for 30 days. Bring a live plan, ask who can take the next piece of work, and approve the staffing before it goes live.