Cost sources
Summarize
Summary of Cost sources
Cost sources in ServiceNow enable the generation of expense lines linked to Configuration Items (CIs), tasks, or custom sources. These expense lines help organizations track and allocate IT and operational costs accurately, supporting financial management and cost transparency.
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CI Rate Cards
CI Rate Cards define cost templates for specific types of CIs, such as servers. For example, a rate card for Sun E20K Servers in the NY data center sets common monthly recurring costs for UNIX servers regardless of individual usage.
- Rate cards include related CIs, which can be managed manually or updated automatically based on conditions (e.g., CI type).
- Tools like "Replace" or "Merge" enable syncing the rate card membership with current CIs matching the conditions.
- Expense lines generated from rate card costs represent the recurring expenses per CI (e.g., server backup services).
Distribution Costs
Distribution costs represent bulk expenses not tied to individual CIs but spread across multiple CIs, such as datacenter power costs. These costs are amortized and allocated evenly or based on rules to relevant CIs to enable granular cost reporting.
- Distribution rules define which CIs should share the bulk cost based on conditions (e.g., all installed servers).
- The system calculates and distributes the total cost accordingly for accurate cost per CI and cost center analysis.
Task Costs and Task Rate Cards
Task-related costs track expenses associated with processing tasks like Incidents or Change Requests.
- Task Rate Cards define cost calculation rules triggered when tasks are closed.
- Examples include flat-rate costs for priority 1 incidents or time-based costs for emergency change requests.
- Time-based costs use task time worked entries and apply hourly rates, either user-specific or default rates from the rate card.
- Expense lines are generated accordingly to reflect task processing costs.
Labor Rate Cards
Labor Rate Cards standardize hourly rates for groups of workers, avoiding individual rate management.
- Conditions specify which users the rates apply to (e.g., Development department).
- These rates are used to calculate costs for time worked, supporting consistent labor cost tracking.
There are a several ways to generate expense lines for objects in the system.
- CI costs
- Task costs
- Custom generated costs - these are not covered in the demo data, refer to the ExpenseLine API for more information.
CI Rate Cards
A CI rate card is a template that defines costs for a particular type of CI. This example uses only server-related costs. Since there are only a few different server models and the costs are the same for each model, CI rate cards can define a template of costs for each model.
Following is the Sun E20K Servers NY rate card:
It represents the common costs and CIs in the UNIX servers in the NY datacenter, regardless of what the server is used for.
- CIs that are a member of the rate card but do not match the condition.
- CIs that match the condition but are not a member of the rate card.
To "true-up" the rate card, use the Replace or Merge button.
The Rate Card Costs related list displays the recurring costs that all of the servers will incur, in this case on a monthly basis.
Adding the Expense Line related list to the CI Rate Card form shows the list of expense lines that have been generated from this rate card's costs. Here are the expenses for the Server backup services for two of the servers:
Distribution Costs
For more generic bulk costs that are generated by multiple CIs, distribution costs can represent the broader costs where individual CI rate cards do not apply. Navigate to to view a few examples.
Select Datacenter Facilities (amort) from the list:
In this example, the datacenter's power costs for a month have been amortized and represented as a monthly recurring distribution cost.
This bulk cost should be distributed to all servers evenly to enable reporting on costs per server and cost center. This is accomplished with the Distribution Rule listed on the cost's form. To view the distribution cost, click the reference icon for the All Installed Servers rule in the Distribution rule field:
This rule takes the $5,500 and distributes it to each of the servers that match the rule condition. The condition here is All servers with install status of installed. The '"View Condition Results related link displays the current records matching the condition.
Task Costs
Task-related activity can also generate expense lines to track the costs associated with processing tasks. The primary method of generating task-related costs is to use Task Rate Cards.
Task Rate Cards
A task rate card is a condition-based record that the system uses to determine how to calculate the costs of a task.
To view an example, navigate to and select Incident P1:
- When an incident with priority 1 - Critical is closed, it generates an expense line for $150.
- This is a flat rate defined for each P1 incident.
The Expense Line related list displays the list of expenses that have been created by this rate card.
Return to the Task Rate Card list and open the Change Request (emergency) rate card:
- The Use time worked flag in the rate card tells the system to use the task time worked records associated with the task when determining the task cost.
- Processing this rate will:
- Query the list of task time worked records for the task.
- Attempt to resolve an hourly rate for the user in the task time worked record, or use the default rate of $250/hr defined in the rate card.
- Generate an expense line for each time worked entry.
The Expense Lines related list shows the expenses generated from this rate card.
Labor Rate Cards
Labor rate cards are a way to define common patterns for hourly worker rates so rates need not be managed for each individual in the system.
To view the sample rates, navigate to and select the Development rate card:
The conditions state that for users in the Development department, time worked costs will use $100 as the hourly rate.