Accurate financial tracking is critical for ensuring project success and financial transparency. With the new financials experience in ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM), users now have a more reliable and insightful way to compare actual costs with planned costs.
Previously, users relied on a financials view that displayed planned costs, actual costs, and the planned vs. actual variance for all fiscal periods. While this provided basic cost comparisons, it had several limitations that affected financial accuracy and forecasting.
The new Compare Baselines capability in the financials experience addresses these limitations, offering better visibility, accuracy, and control over financial data.
Challenges with the Previous Financials View
The previous financials experience, while functional, had some drawbacks:
- Limited Usefulness of Future Actual Costs:
- Since actual costs are only available for completed fiscal periods, displaying actual costs and variances for future fiscal periods provided little to no value to users.
- Risk of Data Tampering:
- Users could easily modify planned costs for past fiscal periods, making it possible to manipulate data to match actuals instead of maintaining historical accuracy.
- Lack of Latest Forecast Visibility:
- The previous view did not provide a clear picture of the latest forecasted cost, which includes both actual costs (for completed periods) and planned costs (for current and future periods).
How the New Financials Experience Solves These Issues:
The new Compare Baselines feature introduces significant improvements, allowing users to track financials with greater accuracy and reliability:
- More Meaningful Cost Comparisons:
- Users can now compare actual costs with planned costs only for past fiscal periods, eliminating irrelevant actuals for future periods.
- Additionally, instead of just planned vs. actual variance, users can compare re-forecasted planned costs with the initially estimated planned costs, providing better insights into financial changes.
- Improved Forecasting Visibility:
- Actual costs for past periods
- Planned costs for current and future periods
- The new view enables users to see the latest forecasted cost, which includes:
- This holistic view helps in better financial planning and decision-making.
- Prevention of Data Tampering:
- The system ensures that past planned costs remain unchanged, preventing users from modifying historical data to align with actuals.
- This maintains financial integrity and provides an accurate record of budget performance over time.
Steps for Using Compare Baselines for Better Financial Management
To take full advantage of the new financials experience, follow the below steps:
- Create a Financial Baseline before the project starts to capture the initial planned costs and periodically after that.
- Use Compare Baselines to track changes in financials over time and assess whether re-forecasted costs align with original estimates.
- Automate Financial Baseline Creation using the scheduled job “Create financial baseline for active projects and demands” to ensure regular updates without manual effort.
How does the compare baselines screen work:
Example:
- If a project is starting from Feb 2025 and ending on Dec 2025. Project estimates are provided from FY25: M02 (Feb 2025) to FY 25: M12 (Dec 2025).
- If the financial baseline is created in Feb 2025, the system captures the snapshot of all planned costs from the forecast at that point in time.
- When a user is comparing the latest financial forecast in March 2025 with the baseline created in Feb 2025 as shown in the below screenshot, the compare baseline shows 'Planned' values for FY25: M02 from the financial baseline and 'Actual' values from the latest forecast.
- For FY25: M03 and its future fiscal periods, the screen shows 'Planned' values from the financial baseline and 'Planned' values from the latest forecast.
For the selected baseline, the screen looks at the date on which the financial baseline was created and shows 'actual costs' for the fiscal periods before the baseline creation date and 'planned' values for the fiscal periods falling on or after the baseline creation date in alignment with how 'forecast' view works.
With these enhancements, financial tracking in ServiceNow SPM is now more accurate, transparent, and insightful, helping organizations stay on top of their budgets and financial performance. Start using the Compare Baselines feature today to take control of your project finances with confidence!
