Target form

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

6 minutes to read

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Summary of Target form

The Target form in ServiceNow is designed to help you track and measure progress toward your strategic goals effectively. Key fields and features become available when the Goal Framework for Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) application is installed. The form supports detailed target management, including status tracking, progress calculation, duration, metrics, automation, and confidentiality controls.

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Key Features

Core Fields: Define the target name, associated goal, description, state (e.g., Draft, In progress, Achieved), status (Red, Yellow, Green), and automatically calculated progress percentage based on Maximize or Minimize target types.
Impact on Goal: Assign relative importance to targets for weighted progress calculation when enabled by system property, improving goal-level insights.
Assignment and Ownership: Specify assigned entity types (e.g., Business Unit, Department), owners, and contributors to clarify accountability.
Duration: Set start and end dates, defaulting to the associated goal's timeline.
Metrics: Define units of measure (quantitative like %, $, days; qualitative like Yes/No), target type (Maximize, Minimize, Milestone), baseline and actual values, and final target values to accurately capture performance direction and status.
Check-in Frequency and Target Breakdowns: Schedule progress updates (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.) with automatic creation of target breakdowns to facilitate incremental tracking. Note: Not supported for qualitative targets.
Target Value Distribution: Choose how target values are calculated over time (cumulative or non-cumulative) to align with reporting needs.
Confidentiality Controls: Restrict access to sensitive target records for Operational Sustainability Workspace users using Allowed groups and Allowed users fields, controlled by specific roles.
Target Automation: Enable automatic updating of actual values by linking to data sources such as Benefit Plans (requires PPM Standard), streamlining progress tracking.
Collaboration: Add comments to support communication and context sharing among target contributors.

Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

Using the Target form, you can create detailed, measurable targets aligned with your strategic goals, assign ownership, and monitor progress through automated and manual updates. The form’s flexibility in metrics and progress calculation enables you to handle diverse target types and ensure accurate reporting. Confidentiality features help protect sensitive environmental, social, or governance (ESG) targets. Automation integration reduces manual efforts by pulling data from defined sources, enhancing efficiency in goal management.

To maximize the benefits, ensure that your form layouts are configured to surface all relevant fields in your workspace, and system properties related to weighted averages and confidentiality are properly enabled. The Target form’s breakdowns and check-in frequencies support granular tracking, encouraging timely updates and focused progress monitoring.

Use the Target form to track and measure the progress of the goals.

Some of the fields on the form is available when the Goal Framework for SPM application is installed.

Note:

For Operational Sustainability Workspace and Strategic Planning users, to view the other fields that aren't added to the default view or your custom form view on the form in the workspace, configure the default or custom form layout. For information on how to configure the form layout, see Configuring the form layout.

Table 1. Target form
Field	Description
Name	Name of the target.
Goal	Name of the associated goal. This field is auto-populated when creating a target from the Targets related list on the Goal form.
Description	Brief description of the target. You can refine target description using the Refine records skill, if the Now Assist for SPM application is installed.
State	State of the target. The state can be Draft, In progress, Approved, Complete, Pending, Achieved, Not Achieved, or Cancelled.
Status	Status of the target. The status can be Red, Yellow, or Green.
Progress	Percentage of target execution that is complete. The value is calculated automatically. If the Type field is set to Maximize, the progress value is calculated using the following formula. `Progress = (Actual value - Base value) / (Target value - Base value) x 100` If the Type field is set to Minimize, the progress value is calculated using the following formula. `Progress = (Base value - Actual value) / (Base value - Target value) x 100` For more information on how the progress value is calculated when weight scale is defined, see progress value calculation.
Impact on goal	A numerical value that represents the importance of the target relative to the other targets of the goal. If there are any sub-goals present, they are also considered for relative weights and consequent progress calculation. By default, the value is (1) Neutral. The available options are: (0) No impact (1) Neutral (2) Moderate (3) High (4) Very high (5) Maximum Note: This field is available only when the sn_gf.weighted_average_enabled system property is set to Yes.
Assigned entity type	Entity type to which the target is assigned. For example, Business Unit, Department, Company, or Portfolio.
Assigned entity	Entity to which the target is assigned.
Owner	Owner of the target. By default, the name of the user creating the target is populated.
Contributors	Users who contribute to the achievement of the target. By default, the contributors of the associated goal are populated.

Table 2. Duration section of the Target form
Field	Description
Start date	Start date for the target. By default, the start date of its associated goal is populated.
End date	End date for the target. By default, the end date of its associated goal is populated.

Table 3. Metrics section of the Target form
Field	Description
Unit of measure	Measure type for the specified value. Usage of the measure such as cost, time, and rate. The available measure types are stored in the Units [sn_gf_units] table. Unit of measure defines the type of the target as qualitative or quantitative. The available unit of measures for quantitative target are #, $, %, and Days. The available unit of measure for qualitative target is Yes/No.
Type	Target type that signifies the direction of achievement. Maximize: The direction of the progress is toward the target value from the base value where the base value must be less than the target value. Minimize: The direction of the progress is toward the target value from the base value where the target value must be less than the base value. Milestone: Fixed type. Only the qualitative target values are allowed (that are set in the Unit of measure field for the target) to capture the achievement of the target. The Milestone option is applicable only for qualitative targets. The Type field becomes read-only with the value populated as Milestone for qualitative targets (when the Unit of measure field is set to a qualitative target value).
Start value	Start value of the target. The start value can also be considered as the present or current value. This field becomes read-only when a value is entered in the Actual value field. Clear the Actual value field to update a value in the Base value field. This field is available when the Type field is set to Maximize or Minimize.
Final target value	Final target value of the target. The target value should be aspirational and should challenge the teams. This field is available when the Type field is set to Maximize or Minimize.
Baseline reference	Past achievement of the target to provide reference for future performance. This value is only for reference purpose and not considered for target progress calculation.
Actuals to date	Actual value of the target at a given time. This field is available when the Type field is set to Maximize or Minimize.
Check-in frequency	Option to specify breakdown intervals for the target and how frequently the owner or contributor should update the actual value of the target. Breaking down the target into smaller periods helps you set a target for smaller periods and focus on the specific breakdown targets. The available options are Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly. Target breakdowns are automatically created when you set this field to any of the available options other than None. For more details on target breakdowns, see Target breakdowns in Strategic Planning. Note: The target breakdowns feature isn’t supported for qualitative targets.
Target value distribution	Option to specify the target to be calculated cumulatively or non-cumulatively. The available options are Split equally across the time period (non-cumulative) and Spread linearly across the time period (cumulative). This field is available only when the Check-in frequency field is set to any of the available options other than None.
Remark	Remark entered by the user for business justification when updating the actuals.
Check-in due date	Due date that the owner or contributor of the target must update the actual value of the target to.
Confidential	Option to restrict the access for this target record to the specific users populated in the Allowed groups and Allowed users fields. This field is available when the Operational Sustainability Management application is installed and the sn_grc.enable_record_confidentiality property is enabled. This field is applicable only when the Classification field in the goal form of the target is populated as Environmental, Social, or Governance. The required role to configure this field is sn_esg.reader. Note: Irrespective of the target record set to confidential or not, the target progress value rolls up to its goal for calculating the progress value of the goal.
Allowed groups	User groups who can access the target record. This field is applicable only for the Operational Sustainability Workspace users. Even though a user group is populated in this field, the users can access the confidential record only if the user group has the sn_esg.reader role. This field is available when the Confidential field is set to true.
Allowed users	Users who can access the target record. This field is applicable only for the Operational Sustainability Workspace users. Even though a user name is populated in this field, the user can access the confidential record only if the user has the sn_esg.reader role. This field is available when the Confidential field is set to true.
Comments	Detailed comments for the target to facilitate collaboration.

Table 4. Target Automation section of the Target form
Field	Description
Automate actual value	Option to enable the target automation feature for the target.
Actual value source	Target source table that the data is fetched from to auto-update the actual value of the target on the target's review due date. This field is available when the Automate actual value field is set to true.

Variables section of the Target form

This section appears based on the context variables available in the target source that is selected in the Actual value source field.

When you select Actual value source as Benefit Plans (predefined target automation script for benefit plans), the Benefit Plan field appears in this section, from which you can select the required benefit plans for automating the actual value of the target.

Note:

You can use the Benefit Plans custom script only when PPM Standard (Project Portfolio Management) is installed. If you can't find the benefit plan that you want to select, you can find and select the same from Heisenberg UI by navigate to Enterprise Goal Management > Targets and opening the Target form.