---
sourceDocument: Australia Public Sector
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/government-industry

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    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Public Sector

ft:clusterId :

    - gvin

bundleId :

    - gvin

workflow :

    - Customer and Industry


---

# Grants Management date validations

# Grants Management date validations {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated September 30, 2026  
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## Summary of Grants Management date validations

The Grants Management date validations system ensures that all funding timelines within the ServiceNow Grants Management application are properly nested and sequenced.
This prevents scheduling conflicts and enforces compliance with funding program constraints by validating dates across all grant-related activities.
Show full answer Show less  

## Date Definitions and Hierarchy

The system uses a hierarchical date structure to manage relationships between various dates in a grant lifecycle, including:

* **Funding Program dates:** Define the overall funding window within which all grant programs must operate.
* **Grant Program dates:** Specific start and end dates for individual grant programs, which must fall within the Funding Program window.
* **Publish program dates:** Include announcement publication/removal and proposal publication/close dates controlling when applicants can submit.
* **Merit Review and Milestone due dates:** Deadlines for review tasks and program milestones, which must also fit within the grant program window.
* **Proposal-related periods:** Calendar periods for goals and deliverables linked to proposals.

## Error Prevention and Validation Rules

ServiceNow enforces strict validations to maintain date integrity:

* Grant Program dates must be within the Funding Program dates.
* Merit Review due dates must be within the Grant Program window and cannot be in the past.
* Publish program dates (announcement and proposal dates) must follow a logical sequence and cannot be in the past or outside the grant program window.
* Proposal submission windows and deliverables must be consistent and within the grant program dates.
* Circular date dependencies, such as an end date before a start date, are blocked.

Validation error messages clearly indicate why a date is blocked, helping users correct issues promptly.

## Date Validations by Activity

* **Grant Program Setup:** Ensures program start/end dates align with other dates and the funding program window.
* **Publish Program:** Validates announcement and proposal publication/close/removal dates against the current time and grant program window.
* **Merit Review:** Validates that review task due dates are not in the past and fall within the grant program window.
* **Milestones:** Ensures milestone due dates are within program dates and not past.

## Customization Points

ServiceNow provides public wrapper classes and scheduled jobs for customizing date validation behavior without impacting upgrade stability:

* **ServiceApplicantPgrmMgmtUtil:** The main public API class to customize grant program and publish program date validations. Always override this public wrapper rather than internal implementation classes to ensure forward compatibility.
* **Scheduled Job "Cancel Expired Grant Proposals":** Controls auto-cancellation of draft proposals after the proposal close date.
* **UI Client Scripts and Utilities:** Manage validation for proposal deliverables, milestones, and merit review due dates at the user interface level.

All customizations must be done within the correct application scope and tested in non-production instances to avoid issues.  
The Grants Management date validations hierarchy defines how funding timelines nest and relate to one another in the grants management system. All dates are validated in sequence to prevent scheduling conflicts and ensure
conformance with funding program constraints.

## Date definitions

The date hierarchy, visually represents the nesting relationship of all dates in the Grants Management system.Figure 1. Date hierarchy

The following table defines each date used in the grants management validation hierarchy and the phase it occurs in:
{#psds-gmp-date-validation__entry__3}

| Date | What it means | Phase |
|-|-|-|
| Funding Program start date | The date the funding program's overall funding window opens. Every Grant Program created under it must start on or after this date. | Funding Program setup |
| Funding Program end date | The date the funding program's overall funding window closes. Every Grant Program under it must end on or before this date. | Funding Program setup |
| Grant Program start date | The date this specific grant program's own window opens; every internal date must fall on or after it. | Grant Program setup |
| Grant Program end date | The date this grant program's own window closes; every internal date must fall on or before it. | Grant Program setup |
| Announcement publication date | The date the program's public announcement goes live on the portal. | Publish program |
| Proposal publication date | The date applicants can begin submitting proposals. Indicates when the "Apply Now" button is enabled, allowing applicants to begin submitting proposals. | Publish program |
| Proposal close date | The hard deadline for proposal submission. After this date, new submissions are blocked and any proposal still in Draft is auto-cancelled by the "Cancel Expired Grant Proposals" scheduled job. | Publish program |
| Announcement removal date | The date the public announcement is taken down from the portal. | Publish program |
| Merit Review task due date | The deadline for the Merit Review activity's review task. | Merit Review |
| Program Milestone due date | The deadline for a Program Milestone defined on the program. | Grant Program setup (Program Milestones activity) |
| Goals (Calendar period) | The calendar period attached to a proposal goal. | Proposal Narrative |
| Deliverables (Calendar period) | The calendar period attached to a Goal's deliverable. | Proposal Narrative |
[Table 1. Grants Management date definitions]

## Error prevention checklist

When setting up a new grant program, verify:

* Grant Program: Grant program dates fall entirely within Funding Program dates.
* Merit review: All Merit Review task due dates are within Grant Program window and not in the past.
* Publish Program:
  * Publish Now:

    When selected, the program will be published immediately. These two date fields must be entered manually:
    * Proposal close date
    * Announcement removal date

    Note:  
    These two date fields don't appear on the form but are automatically populated to the current system date and time:
    * Announcement Publication Date: Set to current date and time
    * Proposal Publication Date: Set to current date and time
  * Schedule Publication:

    When selected, allows you to manually define future publication dates. These dates must satisfy the sequence
    requirements:

        Announcement publication date ≤ Proposal publication date ≤ Proposal close date ≤ Announcement removal date

* Proposal deliverables: All Proposal Submission window dates are within Grant Program window.
* No circular date dependencies. For example, an end date before a start date.

## Date validations by grant setup activity

The following table captures the grants date validations across every grant phase or activity.  
Note:  
The two-digit year format (yy) isn't supported. Use the dd/mm/yyyy format.
{#psds-gmp-date-validation__entry__43}

| Phase | Condition | Result | Message shown |
|-|-|-|-|
| Grant Program | Program start date is after the earliest of the other dates in the same grant program (milestone dates excluded). | BLOCKED | The program start date cannot be after the {date name} {date}. |
| Grant Program | Program end date is before the latest of its other dates (milestone dates excluded). | BLOCKED | The program end date cannot be before the {date name} {date}. |
| Grant Program | Program start date is before the funding program's start date. | BLOCKED | The program start date cannot be before the funding program start date {date}. |
| Grant Program | Program end date is after the funding program's end date. | BLOCKED | The program end date cannot be after the funding program end date {date}. |
| Publish program | Any of the four dates (Announcement Publication Date/Proposal Publication Date/Proposal Close Date/Announcement Removal Date) is earlier than the current date/time, or before the Program Start Date. | BLOCKED | Date can't be before program start date. Date must be in the future. |
| Publish program | A date is earlier than the running-maximum valid date already seen earlier in the sequence (Announcement Publication ≤ Proposal Publication ≤ Proposal Close ≤ Announcement Removal) | BLOCKED | Date can't be before {publish program-date option} Example: Date can't be before proposal publication date. Example: Date can't be before proposal close date. |
| Publish program | Any of the four dates is after the Program End Date. | BLOCKED | Date can't be after program end date. |
| Merit Review | Review task due date is set to a date before today. | BLOCKED | Date cannot be in the past. |
| Merit Review | Review task due date is before the Grant Program's own start date. | BLOCKED | The review task due date cannot be before the program start date. |
| Merit Review | Review task due date is after the Grant Program's own end date. | BLOCKED | The review task due date cannot be after the program end date. |
| Milestone | Milestone due date falls outside the program's start/end dates, or is in the past. | BLOCKED | Inline error on the milestone due date field. |
[Table 2. Date validations by grant phase or activity]

## Supported customization points

A customization point is the correct place to modify a validation's behavior. It's always a public wrapper class (like `ServiceApplicantPgrmMgmtUtil`), not the internal implementation (Impl) class.

The platform routes its own calls through the public wrapper. If you override the Impl class instead, your code won't run. It will also break on the next upgrade. The Impl class is an implementation detail that can be restructured
without warning. Override the public wrapper class, not the Impl class.

The date-validation logic spans three application scopes. Stay in scope and confirm that you hold the correct scope and roles before editing. Select the matching scope access and roles to make changes:

* Service Applicant Program Management (sn_svc_appl_pgm_mg)
* Grants Management (sn_gsm_grnt_mgmt)
* Service Applicant Information (sn_svc_appl_info)

{#psds-gmp-date-validation__ul_vbd_prc_tkc}  
Important:  
Customize program and publish opportunity date logic at the public API class `ServiceApplicantPgrmMgmtUtil` that callers already reference and not by subclassing internal implementation (Impl) classes. All
components run within a specific application scope. Always test in a non-production instance first.
{#psds-gmp-date-validation__entry__84}

| Validation area | Customize at | Scope | Notes |
|-|-|-|-|
| Grant program \& funding program dates | Public class `ServiceApplicantPgrmMgmtUtil` | sn_svc_appl_pgm_mg | --- |
| Publish program dates | Public class `ServiceApplicantPgrmMgmtUtil` | sn_svc_appl_pgm_mg | The `onChange` client scripts and the client-to-server bridge only forward parameters to this class. Customize the public wrapper, never the Impl class directly. |
| Draft proposal auto-cancellation after close date | Scheduled Job "Cancel Expired Grant Proposals" (runs daily at 3:30 AM) | sn_gsm_grnt_mgmt | Adjust the job schedule, or disable it, to change automatic cancellation of draft proposals. |
| Proposal deliverables (Goals) | UX Client Script Include `serviceApplicantInfoUIUtils` | sn_svc_appl_info | UI-layer validation for required, unique, and non-empty deliverables. |
| Milestones | Milestones activity client logic | sn_gsm_grnt_mgmt | No standalone validator --- change milestone date behavior within the activity logic rather than a shared utility. |
| Merit Review task due date | Client script MeritReviewDateCheck (past-date check) and `ServiceApplicantPgrmMgmtUtilImpl.onValidateStartAndEndDate` (same general check as Grant Program) | sn_svc_appl_pgm_mg | Three separate mechanisms enforce the same field, so a change needs to span across all three |
[Table 3. Customization points by validation area]