Parent-child rollup task calculations

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Parent-child rollup task calculations

    Parent-child rollup task calculations allow date changes, state changes, and value calculations to flow from child tasks to parent tasks. This ensures that parent tasks reflect the most current information and status of their associated child tasks, enhancing project management accuracy and efficiency.

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    Key Features

    • Date Changes: Parent task dates (Planned Start, Planned End, Actual Start, Actual End) become read-only based on child task inputs.
    • State Changes: The state of parent tasks updates automatically when all child tasks reach a specified state (e.g., Work in Progress, Closed).
    • Value Calculations: Parent tasks automatically sum values from child tasks for planned and actual duration and effort, contingent on child tasks being closed.
    • Cost Rollups: Estimated and actual costs roll up when the costing add-on is active, allowing tracking of total project expenses and ensuring accurate financial reporting.
    • Expense Line Generation: Expense lines for tasks are created when child tasks close, based on labor rates and defined rate cards.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing parent-child rollup calculations, ServiceNow customers can expect:

    • Improved project tracking with automatic updates to parent task details based on child task information.
    • Enhanced visibility into project costs and efforts, leading to better budget management.
    • Streamlined reporting processes that reflect accurate project statuses and financials.
    • Increased efficiency in project management practices, with automatic adjustments to task states and values.

    Date changes, stage changes, and value calculations roll up from child tasks to parent tasks.

    • Date changes involve modifying the planned start or end date of a parent task based on those values in child tasks.
    • State changes involve modifying the state of the project record or parent task records when all child records are set to a certain state.
    • Calculations involve summing the values of child tasks and then automatically updating the parent to reflect a new total.
    The following fields change on rollup tasks:
    • Planned Start date: Set to read only for parent tasks. Remains editable for the project record (also considered the top-level task).
    • Planned End Date: Becomes read only.
    • Planned Duration: Becomes read only.
    • Actual Start Date: Becomes read only.
    • Actual end date: Becomes read only.
    • State: Becomes read only.

    Duration Rollups

    Rollups are calculated for the following items:
    • Planned duration and planned effort: the sum of all planned duration and planned effort values for all child tasks.
    • Actual duration and actual effort: the sum of all actual duration and actual effort values. Actual duration and actual effort values are calculated when all child tasks are in the Closed Complete state. Actual effort values can include rollups from time cards.
    Note:
    Verify that the time card property com.snc.time_card.update.effort is enabled. Navigate to System Properties > All Properties to enable this property.

    Cost Rollups

    Cost calculations roll up when the costing add-on is active.
    • Estimated cost: The sum of all cost estimates at the beginning of a project. Estimated costs of child tasks roll up to parent tasks and to the project.
    • Actual cost: By default for the project, the sum of all costs of all the expense lines, and are typically associated with a time card and a labor rate. To track costs, you can derive rates using any of the following options:
      • Associate a rate model to the project.
      • Define rate cards for the task and labor expenses.
      • Associate rate at the resource plan level.

      These rates automatically generate expense lines showing actual expenditures, which are associated with the projects. If rate cards are defined, the task expense lines are generated as each project task closes, and labor expense lines are generated when time cards are approved. Expense lines are visible in the Expense Lines related list, which requires the Advanced view on both Project and Project Task forms.

    To ensure actual costs of child tasks correctly roll up to the project and added to project expense lines, the following must be true:
    • The com.snc.project.rollup.cost property must be set to true. To enable this property, navigate to Project Administration > Settings > Preferences - Project and select the Enable project cost rollup check box.
    • The glide.cost_mgmt.process_task_top_task property must be set to false. Go to the costing properties in the Cost Management application. Check the When creating a task expense line should the system also create expense lines for the task's top task box is not checked.
    • The glide.cost_mgmt.calc_actual_cost property must be set to true. Go to the costing properties in the Cost Management application. Check the For planned tasks types, calculate the actual cost field using the total of expense lines for the task box.

    Project State Rollups and Roll Downs

    Project task states roll up. The state of parent tasks becomes read only, and changes automatically when you change the states of child tasks.
    Project task states can roll up if:
    • The state of the child task is manually changed and there are no other conditions on the parent task.
    • The state of the child task is changed to Work in Progress or Closed. These states roll up to the parent. Pending and Open do not roll up to the parent task.
    Project states can also roll down. If you change the state of a project to closed, all tasks under it change to the default closed value (Closed Complete). If a closed project or closed task is reopened, all tasks under it change as follows:
    • Project or parent changed from closed to Pending or Open: Child tasks change to Open.
    • Project or parent changed from closed to Work in Progress:
      • Child tasks with a Start on date that has passed are changed to start ASAP and the state is changed to Work in Progress.
      • Child tasks with a Start on date that has not yet passed retain the same start on date but the state is changed to Open.