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

 Release :

    - zurich

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Zurich Strategic Portfolio Management

ft:clusterId :

    - itbm

bundleId :

    - itbm

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Cost plan breakdown

# Cost plan breakdown {#ariaid-title1}

* Release version: Zurich
* 
* Updated July 31, 2025
* 
* ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read

A cost plan breakdown captures the estimated cost and actual cost for every fiscal
period. Cost plan, project, demand, program, and portfolio are the breakdowns types that are
available.

Requirement
:   Requirement corresponds to a single cost plan. For example, for a regular calendar and a
    cost plan spanning across one year, 12 breakdowns would appear.

Task

:   Task corresponds to a project or a demand. The cost across all the cost plans per period is
    rolled up to the project or demand level. These records have breakdown type set to
    Task. There would be only one record of type
    Task per period. The number of records of type
    Task that are created depends on the duration of the project or
    demand, and the requirements planned in the project or demand. For example, for a regular
    calendar and a project with three cost plans, 12 breakdowns appear.

Program
:   If a project or a demand is part of a program, the breakdown type of
    Program provides the aggregate of program level costs per period.

Portfolio
:   If a project or a demand is part of a portfolio, the breakdown type of
    Portfolio provides the aggregate of portfolio level costs per
    period.
**Related concepts**   

* [Parent-child rollup task calculations](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Z5Fyk3hafR56oQ7JQQIuwg "Date changes, stage changes, and value calculations roll up from child tasks to parent tasks.")
* [Schedule conflicts between project tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/0pgfMgHHBJ_bawNBP6Ytzg "Scheduling conflict helps you to identify project tasks that are not honoring dependencies. A scheduling conflict occurs when one project task prevents other task from starting on the specified date because of dependencies or constraint types.")
* [Change requests and project tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/1hAxQaxpyZiQZo9OUzj36A "Large-scale changes approved by your change approval board (CAB) require new or existing projects to be implemented.")
* [Project task checklists](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/U0NP~AYa5qUe99x7YeImbA "A project task checklist gives you the ability to track activities that must be completed on a task.")
* [Task resources](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hIkQXAXxDpV7OvCw7ZWAgA "Resources are the individuals or groups assigned to perform tasks and subtasks in Project Management.")
* [Project and project task states](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/BBCq06zVY_g3r4OMliuTzw "In the base system, the states in project and project task inherit the states in Task table.")
* [Composite Fields](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/h7jnMXoX7Ab6FyRMqTw8Xg "A composite field combines information from two fields in a table to form a single field.")
* [Actual project costs](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hbqS57Z~uRwJ9W56tVpM5Q "Actual project costs come after you create expense lines for cost plans or after human resources use time cards to create expense lines.")
* [Types of external dependencies](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/OBROzcDVtLkfrVOe47DWmQ "The Project management application supports two types of external dependencies - hard and soft.")
* [Project and portfolio funding](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/xhTtDp9g85impHCQZM5PMg "Specify the amount of money that projects and portfolios are allowed to have.")  
**Related tasks**   

* [Project tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/sUnJJLUit2l5ZehCcCQeEQ "Create project tasks in several ways, even from other applications in the instance.")

## System-generated cost plans {#ariaid-title2}

When an expense line is created without populating the Cost Plan
field, system-generated cost plans are created automatically.

The orphan expense lines are associated to the system-generated cost plans. This association
ensures that the project actuals shown on the widgets or the total actuals are the same as the
aggregate of the cost plan actuals on the grid shown on the Project Financials page and
Investment Portal.  
Note:  
System-generated cost plans are created only when the project has a minimum of one cost plan.  
System-generated cost plans are created for any of the following reasons:

* When you create an expense line without populating the Cost Plan field.
* When you create a time card and approve it.
{#system-generated-costplan__ul_ydr_p2g_wrb}  
There are two system-generated cost plans, CapEx and OpEx. Depending on the type of expense selected while creating an expense line, the type of system-generated cost plan is created. The following are the name formats for the system-generated cost plans:

* \<project number\> System generated CapEx costplan
* \<project number\> System generated OpEx costplan
{#system-generated-costplan__ul_bmy_scz_csb}

When you create a time card and approve it, an expense line of type CapEx is created and then
the orphan expense line is associated to the system-generated cost plan of type CapEx. The
system-generated cost plans are created to ensure that none of the expense lines are left without
being associated to a cost plan. The system-generated cost plans are read-only.

For customers upgrading to Zurich, you can run the project diagnostics,
Associate orphan expense lines to the system generated cost plan, to
associate orphan expense lines to a system-generated cost plan. The diagnostic scan lists the
expense lines that are not associated to any cost plan. When you run the fix script,
system-generated cost plans are created, and the orphan expense lines are associated to the
system-generated cost plans.