Cost Plan form

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

    The Cost Plan form in the Zurich release enables ServiceNow customers to define and manage financial details related to project or demand cost planning. It provides fields to specify the cost plan’s name, associated project or demand, and the fiscal period range it covers. Adjusting start or end fiscal periods dynamically updates related cost plan breakdowns, ensuring alignment with project timelines.

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    Key Features

    • Cost Plan Identification: Enter a descriptive name and link the cost plan to a specific project or demand.
    • Fiscal Period Management: Define the start and end fiscal periods, with automatic updates to cost breakdowns when these periods change or new breakdowns extend beyond the current range.
    • Financials Section:
      • Entered Currency: Specify the currency for the cost plan. If different from the functional currency, budget reference rates are used for conversions, or an exchange rate of 1 is assumed if no rates are defined.
      • Unit Cost and Quantity: Define the cost per resource unit and the required quantity.
      • Recurring Costs: Indicate if costs recur each fiscal period, automatically calculating costs as Quantity x Unit Cost x Number of Fiscal Periods.
      • Cost Type and Investment Details: Assign cost types and, if applicable, link to investments and funding sources when Investment Funding plugins or applications are activated.
      • Total Planned and Actual Costs: Track estimated costs, actuals, and costs converted into the functional currency for comprehensive financial oversight.
      • Estimate at Completion: Provides a projection combining actual costs to date with forecasted costs for remaining fiscal periods, aiding in budget monitoring and forecasting.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing the Cost Plan form, customers can precisely plan and monitor project costs over defined fiscal periods, manage currency conversions accurately, and integrate funding information where applicable. This leads to improved financial tracking, budgeting accuracy, and informed decision-making throughout the project lifecycle.

    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.