Service contract life cycle

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Service Contract Life Cycle

    The service contract life cycle in ServiceNow Zurich release defines the various states a service contract passes through and the permissible actions in each state. This framework ensures proper management and control over contract terms, entitlements, and related items throughout the contract duration.

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    Life Cycle States and Actions

    • Draft: The contract is created. You can modify start/end dates (within parent contract limits), add/remove contract lines, entitlements, and sold products/install base items.
    • Active: The contract is active from the activation date. Manual or automated modifications are allowed except the start date. The end date can be extended beyond the current date. Contract lines and covered products can be added or modified.
    • Expired: Contract automatically expires at the end date. No further actions are allowed.
    • Canceled: Contract is canceled; no actions are allowed.

    Child Entities and State Relationships

    Contract lines and entitlements follow similar state transitions as the parent service contract. When the parent contract expires, child entities also expire. However, changes in child entity states do not impact the parent contract’s state. Additionally, sold products or install base items referenced in contract lines or entitlements must be in the same state as their parent entity.

    Suspended State

    If a sold product is suspended, related contract lines and entitlements in Draft or Active states also move to Suspended. Suspended items are paused for most activities except editing fields and adding related records. Upon resuming the product, the contract line or entitlement state updates based on start and end dates. If the suspended item’s end date passes, it automatically moves to Expired.

    Date Validations

    Contract lines must be created and modified within the parent service contract’s start and end dates, ensuring consistency and compliance across the contract hierarchy.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Clear state-based control over service contract management and modifications.
    • Automated state synchronization between parent contracts and related contract lines and entitlements.
    • Consistent enforcement of contract validity periods through date validations.
    • Ability to pause contract coverage via suspended state without losing data integrity.

    A service contract goes through the various states in each phase of its life cycle.

    In each state, a service contract is enabled to perform certain actions as mentioned in the following table.
    Table 1. Service contract life cycle, related states, and actions that it can perform
    Life-cycle State Action
    A service contract is generated. Draft
    • The start and end dates of the service contract can be modified such that the child records' dates are within the date range.
    • The related contract lines and entitlements can be added, removed, or modified.
    • The sold product/install base item covered can be added or removed.
    Service contract gets activated on the date of activation. Active
    • Modifications to the service contract can be done manually, via integration and via Sales Customer Relationship Management workflow.
    • The start date can't be modified.
    • The end date can be extended and should be greater than the current date.
    • Service contract line items can be added.
    • The sold product/install base item covered can be modified.
    Service contract is deactivated on the date of expiration. Expired No action.
    Service contract is canceled. Canceled No action.

    The service contract line items and entitlements also perform similar actions in the respective states.

    When a parent entity moves to the Expired state, the child entities inherit the same state. For example, when a service contract expires, the related contract lines and entitlements also expire.

    However, the state change of a child entity doesn't affect it parent entity.

    The sold product or install base item referenced either in the contract line or an entitlement must be in the same state as the entity where it's referenced.

    Suspended state

    When a sold product is suspended, the related service contract lines and entitlements, in the Draft or Active states, move to the Suspended state as well.

    A suspended service contract line or entitlement is paused for any activity, except the following:
    • Editing the field values.
    • Creating records in the corresponding related lists.

    On resuming the sold product, the related service contract line item or entitlement acquires the state depending on its start and end dates. For example, a resumed entitlement that has its start date in the past and its end date in the future, acquires the Active state.

    Exceptionally, when a contract line or entitlement in the Suspended state has reached its end date, it moves to the Expired state automatically.

    Date validations

    A service contract line associated with a service contract must be created within the service contract's start and end dates. Any modification to the dates of service contract lines must comply with the date range of the parent service contract.