---
sourceDocument: Australia Strategic Portfolio Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-business-management

 Release :

    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Strategic Portfolio Management

ft:clusterId :

    - itbm

bundleId :

    - itbm

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Cost Management

# Cost Management {#ariaid-title1}

* Release version: Australia
* 
* Updated March 12, 2026
* 
* ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 1 minute to read

The ServiceNow® Cost
Management application tracks configuration item costs. The costs can be allocated to business
units and used in reports.
Cost management enables these features:

* Using rate cards.
* Defining configuration item (CI) costs.
* Tracking one-time costs for CIs.
* Processing recurring CI costs to generate expense lines.
* Distributing bulk costs to multiple expense line sources.
* Tracking costs related to tasks and projects.
* Aggregating configuration item costs and charging the total cost to a business service or application.
* Allocating expense lines to business units with flexible allocation rules.
* Tracking planned and actual budget costs by cost center.
{#r_CostManagement__ul_ukn_51l_44} Cost Management Options  
Use the following cost management options to plan and control business costs.

* Create rate cards to properly track configuration item, contract, task, and labor costs.
* Create expense lines and expense allocation rules.
* Aggregate configuration item costs and apply the total cost to a business service or application using relationship paths.
* Create distribution costs and distribution cost rules to divide costs between a group of records.
{#r_CostManagement__ul_qkb_cbl_44}
* **[Activate Cost Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ZCD71sYZtLR~Pixcm0J17w)**   
  Activate the Cost Management plugin (com.snc.cost_management) using the admin role.
* **[Cost Management Demo Data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/KYxurDo1BXloHR8aUV7gxQ)**   
  The demo data available with Cost Management provides samples of the data types to illustrate its use.
* **[CI rate cards](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/go9lNjLDMoJYkQGO~Q_seQ)**   
  A configuration item (CI) rate card is a group of recurring configuration item costs associated with multiple configuration items. Rate cards make it easier to enter and track costs that are the same across multiple configuration items.
* **[Task and labor rate cards](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/7~7L_5V2ha6DhBIAo0A7FA)**   
  In Cost Management, task rate cards and labor rate cards capture operating costs by generating expense lines representing the cost of performing a task
* **[Budgets and cost centers](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/aGhOC39rS_qsqZqLeEbjAA)**   
  Understand what budgets and cost centers are and how to manage them in the Cost Management application.
* **[Using distribution costs and rules](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/27I08lqHaabBKmiehN~Glw)**   
  Distribution Costs are costs which can be divided among a group of records.
* **[Use business services with expenses](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/osF78pfRMnqW6CcFp9RVhA)**   
  Manage the relationships between business services and their expenses with allocation units and cost centers.
* **[Cost sources](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/JGiE1uobv1nOXHCl7JYWng)**   
  There are a several ways to generate expense lines for objects in the system.
* **[CI relationships](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/eXQaiK6Z22YAzpdhKBOcFg)**   
  To get reports that represent the total costs for a business service, there must be some association between the service and the CIs that make up the service. This is done with CI relationships.
* **[Allocating expenses](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hby1g~L0raZT2o3JXPWEcw)**   
  Expenses can also be allocated to a business entity that is responsible for the expense.
* **[Budget related records](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/jN5vWB1zQCf1WnKdxtmgmQ)**   
  Budgets are related to additional records, displayed as related lists on its form.
* **[Domain separation and Cost Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/w7UmO01Rkxzk0s9q8bQ9hQ)**   
  Domain separation is unsupported in Cost Management. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.