Cost Plan form

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Cost Plan form

    The Cost Plan form in ServiceNow Yokohama release helps you define and manage the financial aspects of a project or demand by specifying planned costs over fiscal periods. It allows you to set the scope of the cost plan, assign currencies, and estimate financial outcomes, enabling accurate budget planning and tracking.

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    Key Features

    • Name and Project/Demand: Assign a descriptive name and link the cost plan to a specific project or demand.
    • Fiscal Periods: Define the start and end fiscal periods for the cost plan; adjusting these periods automatically updates related cost plan breakdowns for accurate financial alignment.
    • Currency Management: Specify the entered currency for the cost plan, which can differ from the functional currency. Exchange rates or budget reference rates are used to convert amounts for consistent financial reporting.
    • Resource Costing: Input unit cost and quantity for resources; mark costs as recurring to calculate expenses per fiscal period.
    • Cost Types and Investment Funding: Define cost types and, if applicable, associate investments and funding sources when legacy or current Investment Funding plugins/apps are active.
    • Financial Calculations: Automatic computation of total planned cost based on quantity, unit cost, and recurrence, with clear distinctions between recurring and non-recurring costs.
    • Cost Roll-ups and Actuals: The form aggregates functional costs and actual costs from all cost plan breakdowns for comprehensive financial visibility.
    • Estimate at Completion: Provides a forward-looking financial estimate combining actual costs incurred and planned future costs, enabling proactive budget management throughout the project lifecycle.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    By using the Cost Plan form, ServiceNow customers can accurately plan and monitor project expenses across defined fiscal periods, handle multi-currency scenarios with exchange rate considerations, and integrate funding sources when applicable. The form’s automated calculations and roll-ups help maintain up-to-date financial insights, supporting better decision-making and budget adherence. It also facilitates tracking of recurring costs and provides estimates to completion, ensuring clarity on current and future financial commitments.

    Learn about the fields of cost plan form.

    Table 1. Cost Plan form
    Field Description
    Name Descriptive name of the cost plan.
    Project/Demand Project or demand to which the cost plan belongs.
    Start fiscal period Indicates the starting fiscal period.

    When you change the start fiscal period, the associated cost plan breakdowns also change. Start fiscal period also changes when you create cost plan breakdowns earlier than the start fiscal period.
    End fiscal period Indicates the ending fiscal period.

    When you change the end fiscal period, the associated cost plan breakdowns also change. End fiscal period also changes when you create cost plan breakdowns later than the end fiscal period.
    Table 2. Financials section of the Cost Plan form
    Field Description
    Entered currency Currency in which you want the cost plan to be created.

    If the selected currency is different from the functional currency, the corresponding budget reference rate is used to calculate the total planned cost, planned capital, planned operating of the project.
    Unit cost Cost of a single unit of the resource, which is in terms of entered currency.
    Quantity Quantity of the resource that is required.
    Recurring Option to indicate that the cost is recurring for each fiscal period.

    Quantity x Unit cost incurred for every fiscal period.
    Cost type Cost type definition.
    Investment

    Name of the investment created for the project.

    This field appears only if the legacy Investment Funding (com.snc.investment_funding) plugin is activated or the Investment Funding (sn_invst_pln) application is installed.
    Source type

    Funding entity to associated with the project investment for funding.

    This field appears only if the legacy Investment Funding (com.snc.investment_funding) plugin is activated or the Investment Funding (sn_invst_pln) application is installed.
    Source

    Funding entity value from which you request fund.

    The field is available when you select a value in the Source type field.

    This field appears only if the legacy Investment Funding (com.snc.investment_funding) plugin is activated or the Investment Funding (sn_invst_pln) application is installed.
    Total planned cost Total estimated cost of the cost plan.

    If the cost is recurring, the calculation is Quantity x Unit cost x number of fiscal periods. If the cost is non-recurring, the calculation is Quantity x Unit cost.
    Functional currency Currency that is obtained from the glide.system.locale property.

    For upgraded customers, if the selected currency is different from the functional currency configured in the Financial Management application, the corresponding budget reference rate is used to calculate the total planned cost, planned capital, planned operating of the project.

    Note:
    If budget reference rates are not defined, then exchange rate is considered as 1. For example, if functional currency is USD, entered cost is EUR, and no exchange rate is defined, then 1000 USD equals to 1000 EUR.
    Cost in functional currency Value that is rolled up from the Functional cost field of all cost plan breakdowns.
    Total actual cost Value that is rolled up from the Actual cost field of all cost plan breakdowns.
    Estimate at Completion Sum of all actuals for past fiscal periods added to the functional cost for future fiscal periods.

    For example, the duration of a project is from January 01 to December 31, and if you check the Estimate at Completion in the month of May, it is calculated as: Sum of actuals from Jan to April + Sum of functional cost from May to December.