Roles required for Advanced planning capability

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Roles required for Advanced planning capability

    The advanced planning capability integrates Advanced Audit with Project Portfolio Management (PPM) in ServiceNow, enabling creation of equivalent projects for engagements. This feature supports resource planning, cost planning, resource allocation, and time card reporting directly from engagements, enhancing project and audit management.

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    Roles and Permissions for Engagement Planning Features

    To utilize the advanced planning features effectively, users must have specific roles assigned. These roles determine the level of access and management capabilities for resource planning, cost planning, resource allocation, and time card reporting within engagements.

    Resource Planning

    • Purpose: Find resource availability, and create/manage resource plans for projects and tasks.
    • Required Roles:
      • Users with snaudit.manager plus resourceuser or resourcemanager can manage and add resource plans.
      • resourcemanager role holders can confirm and allocate resource plans.
      • Users with snppmread, timecarduser, or resourceuser roles can view resource plans if they have engagement access.

    Cost Planning

    • Purpose: Capture and manage project cost plans specifying unit costs per fiscal period.
    • Required Roles:
      • snaudit.user or snaudit.manager plus itprojectmanager can manage cost plans.
      • snaudit.user or snaudit.manager plus projectmanager can add new cost plans, though itprojectmanager is recommended.
      • Users with snppmfinanceread, demandmanager, programmanager, portfoliomanager, or projectmanager roles can view cost plans if they have engagement access.

    Resource Allocations

    • Purpose: Confirm and allocate resources to plans, moving plans through Confirmed and Allocated states based on resource availability and schedules.
    • Required Roles:
      • Users must have ppsresource and either snaudit.user or snaudit.externalauditor roles to be auditors on the engagement from the resource plan.
      • ppsresource role is required for users to be added as resources to resource plans.

    Time Card Reporting

    • Purpose: Log hours on engagements and related tasks, with actual expenses and resources rolling up if linked to projects.
    • Required Roles:
      • timecarduser role is necessary to create time cards.
      • Users with snppmread, timecardapprover, or timecardadmin roles can view all time cards for engagements and related tasks if they have engagement access.
      • Users with timecarduser role can view only their own reported time cards.
      • timecardapprover role is required to approve submitted time cards, governed by assigned timesheet policies.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    Assigning the correct combination of roles ensures users can fully leverage advanced planning capabilities linked to engagements and projects. This setup facilitates effective resource and cost management, precise allocation, and accurate time tracking, supporting better audit and project portfolio management outcomes.

    The advanced planning capability enables integration of Advanced Audit with the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) product. The capability creates an equivalent project for the engagement, and provides planning features that could be used for resource planning, cost planning, and so on, from the engagement.

    Engagement planning features and roles

    To use the new features of advanced planning capability, users must have the following roles:
    Table 1. Engagement planning features and role requirement
    Feature name Description Roles and their scope
    Resource Planning As a resource requester, find the availability of the resources, and create and manage the resource plans for the project and project tasks in the project workspace. For more information, refer to Create and manage resource plans for a project
    • Users with sn_audit.manager plus resource_user or resource_manager roles would be able to manage and add resource plans. Users with resource_manager role would also be able to confirm and allocate the resource plans.
    • Users who already have access to the engagement and also have sn_ppm_read or timecard_user or resource_user roles are able to view the resource plans on the engagement.
    Cost Planning Project cost plans capture the costs of projects. Create a cost plan to specify the unit cost of a cost type for a fiscal period. For more information, refer to Create a project cost plan
    • Users with sn_audit.user or sn_audit.manager plus it_project_manager roles would be able to manage the cost plans.
    • Users with sn_audit.user or sn_audit.manager plus project_manager roles would be able to add a new cost plan.
      Note:
      Users are suggested to use it_project_manager role instead of project_manager role by PPM product.
    • Users who already have access to the engagement and also have sn_ppm_finance_read or demand_manager or program_manager or portfolio_manager or project_manager roles are able to view the cost plans for the engagement.
    Resource allocations

    After resource requesters create a resource plan, resource managers can confirm the resources to move the plan to the Confirmed state. Resource managers can then allocate resources to the plan and move it to the Allocated state.

    Based on calendar and schedule information, resource managers view resource availability and select the resources under their management that can be confirmed and allocated to specific tasks. For more information, refer to Resource allocation
    • Users need both pps_resource and sn_audit.user or sn_audit.external_auditor roles to be added to the auditors field on the engagement from the resource plan.
    • Users need pps_resource role to be added as resources to the resource plans.
    Time card reporting

    You can log hours in a time card for an engagement and other tasks on an engagement. If there is a project associated with an engagement, then the actual expenses and actual resources values roll up. To create a time card, see Create a time card.
    • Users need timecard_user role to create a time card.
    • Users who already have access to the engagement, audit tasks, milestones, issues and also have sn_ppm_read or timecard_approver or timecard_admin roles will be able to view all the time cards on the engagement, audit tasks, milestones, and issues.
    • Users who already have access to the engagement, audit tasks, milestones, and issues and also have the timecard_user role will only be able to view the time cards that they have reported on the engagement, audit tasks, milestones, and issues.
    • Users need timecard_approver role to approve a submitted time card. The time sheet policy assigned to the user governs the approval process.