Business rules installed with Contract Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Business rules installed with Contract Management

    These business rules are pre-installed with ServiceNow’s Contract Management application as of the Zurich release. They automate key contract-related processes, ensuring data accuracy, compliance, and streamlined contract lifecycle management.

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    Key Features

    • Cost Calculations: Rules like "Calculate projected costs" and "Calculate totals with tax" automatically compute monthly, annual, tax, and total costs for contracts whenever cost or payment schedule changes occur.
    • Contract History Tracking: The "Contract history" rule records changes to critical contract fields such as start/end dates and terms, providing an audit trail.
    • Approval Process Automation: "Create approval record" initiates contract approval workflows when contracts are sent for review, updating terms and conditions accordingly.
    • Terms and Conditions Management: The "Flag terms and conditions" rule manages the active use flag of terms and conditions when they are associated or dissociated with contracts.
    • License Management: "Activate count for manual licenses" updates the count of computers associated with software licenses as instances are created or deleted.
    • Contract Lifecycle Handling: The "Manage contract lifecycle" rule automates extensions, renewals, and date adjustments based on approvals and contract status changes.
    • Outage Communication: "Post outage to news" posts news articles related to service outages for visibility.
    • Asset Cost Updates: Rules like "Update contract cost per asset" and "Update contract lifetime cost" calculate and update costs related to assets and expense lines tied to contracts.
    • Date Synchronization: "Updates after contract dates change" and "Updates after rate card dates change" keep asset, user, and rate card records in sync when contract dates are modified.
    • Date Validation: "Verify contract’s start and end dates" ensures contract and renewal dates are logical and valid.
    • Discount Validation: "Verify purchase agreement discount price" enforces discount values within acceptable ranges for Purchase Agreement contracts.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging these business rules, customers can expect improved accuracy and consistency in contract data, automated contract approvals and renewals, precise cost tracking including tax implications, and better license and asset management. These rules reduce manual administrative effort and help maintain compliance with contract terms and financial controls. They also facilitate timely communication during service outages linked to contracts. Overall, they empower customers to efficiently manage contract lifecycles and related financials within ServiceNow.

    Business rules are added with Contract Management.

    Name Table Description
    Calculate projected costs (Reports) Contract [ast_contract] Calculates the projected monthly and annual costs for a contract when costs or payment schedule changes.
    Calculate totals with tax Contract [ast_contract] Calculates the Tax cost and Total cost fields for a contract when the contract is created or updated.
    Contract history Contract [ast_contract] Stores history when the start, end, or terms and conditions of a contract change.
    Create approval record Contract [ast_contract] Updates contract Terms and Conditions and starts the contract approval workflow when a contract is sent for review.
    Flag terms and conditions Terms and Conditions [clm_m2m_contract_and_terms] Sets the Use flag on a Terms and Conditions record to true after the record is associated with a contract or to false after the record is disassociated from a contract.
    Activate count for manual licenses Software License Instance [ast_license_software_instance] Calculates and updates the number of computers a particular license is installed on when a software license instance is created or deleted.
    Manage contract lifecycle Contract [ast_contract] This business rule:
    • Updates the end date of a contract when a contract extension has been approved.
    • Renews the contract, updating its start date, end date, and base cost (if cost adjustments must be applied) when a contract renewal has been approved and the renewal has reached its start date.
    • Runs the condition checks to evaluate if dates need to be changed when a contract is approved, or an extension or renewal is approved, or the start or end dates have changed.
    Post outage to news Service [cmdb_ci_service] Posts a news article on the knowledge table when there is an outage.
    Update contract cost per asset Asset Covered [clm_m2m_contract_asset] Updates the cost per unit value based on the total cost and number of assets associated to the contract.
    Update contract lifetime cost Contract Rate Card [fm_contract_rate_card] Calculates the lifetime cost of the contract by calculating the sum of the contract expense lines.
    Updates after contract dates change Contract [ast_contract] Updates the Date added and Date removed fields for all assets and users associated with a contract if the contract end date changes.
    Updates after rate card dates change Contract Rate Card [fm_contract_rate_card] Updates the related contract assets and users linked to the rate card when the end date is changed.
    Verify contract’s start and end dates Contract [ast_contract] Validates contract start and end dates and contract renewal start and end dates.
    Verify purchase agreement discount price Contract [ast_contract] For contracts with the contract model Purchase Agreement, the business rule validates that the Discount field does not contain a value less than zero or greater than 99.