Resource plans

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

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Summary of Resource plans

Resource plans are fundamental to managing resources in ServiceNow's Resource Management, enabling project managers and resource requesters to request, track effort, and monitor costs related to resource allocation across projects and tasks. Resource managers review, modify, approve, and allocate resources based on these plans. Note that resource plans will no longer be available to new customers in future releases and are being superseded by resource assignments, which offer greater flexibility.

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Resource Plan Lifecycle and States

Resource plans progress through several states, each defining their current status and allowed actions:

Planning: Default editable state when a plan is created or changed.
Requested: Submitted by requesters for manager review; resource managers confirm or reject.
Rejected: Manager rejects plan; remains until requester modifies and resubmits.
Confirmed: Resources are blocked/confirmed for future allocation; only resource managers can modify.
Allocated: Hard allocations assigned; resource managers can modify or cancel.
Completed: After task/project completion, allocations are deleted post completion date.
Canceled: Plan and allocations canceled; can revert to Planning if no past allocations exist.

Resource managers can modify plans in Confirmed or Allocated states, which resets the plan to Requested state and recreates allocations. Only allocation record changes do not revert the plan state.

Request Types and Calculations

Resource plans can request resources by:

Hourly: Request specifies number of hours needed.
FTE (Full-Time Equivalent): Planned hours calculated based on average daily FTE, working days, and FTE value, synchronized with user/group schedules.
Person days: Planned hours derived from person days multiplied by average daily FTE hours or hours per person day.

Cost Tracking and Rate Calculation

Costs are tracked as planned, allocated, and actual within resource plans. Hourly rates are derived from rate overrides, associated rate models, or labor rate cards. When rate models change, recalculation of resource plan costs ensures accuracy. Costs aggregate to related projects and demands for comprehensive financial tracking.

Key Functionalities for ServiceNow Customers

Create and Manage Resource Plans: Create plans for tasks across projects, demands, incidents, changes, etc., and edit until approval.
Use Resource Finder: Analyze resource availability to facilitate effective resource planning.
Operational Resource Plans: Allocate team capacity for non-project operational activities like meetings or training.
Request, Confirm, Allocate, and Modify Plans: Requesters submit plans; resource managers confirm, allocate, or reject; modifications in certain states managed by resource managers.
Change Requests and Extensions: Request changes to submitted plans, extend allocated plans, or reduce duration with streamlined resource deallocation.
Cancel and Complete Plans: Cancel plans no longer needed or complete plans once tasks/projects finish.
Time Zone Support: Manage resources across different geographic locations with proper time zone considerations.
Time Card Association: Link time cards accurately to the correct resource plans when resources are allocated to identical tasks across plans.

Practical Considerations

ServiceNow customers should anticipate transitioning from resource plans to resource assignments for future-proof resource management. Meanwhile, understanding resource plan states, modification rules, cost tracking, and request types is critical for effective resource allocation, approval workflows, and financial control within projects and demands.

Resource plans are the key element in resource management.

Important:

Resource plans in Resource Management will no longer be available for new customers from future releases.

You're encouraged to work on resource assignments which offers more flexibility Create resource assignments and operation resource assignments in Resource Management Workspace using Resource Management Workspace or Project Workspace.

Resource requesters, such as project managers, create resource plans to ask for resources, track effort, and track costs. Resource managers modify and approve resource plans before the plans are used.

All resource plans for a task appear on the Resource Plan related list of the Project task form, where resource requesters can access them.

Resource plans progress through several states.

Table 1. Resource plan states
State	Description
Planning	Planning is the default state when a resource requester creates a resource plan. Any plan in this state can be edited. Requested Allocations are created when a resource plan is in Planning state. When a resource requester asks for a change to a plan that was already submitted, the plan reverts to the Planning state.
Requested	Resource requester submits a resource plan for resource managers review by selecting Submit. The resource plan then moves into the Requested state. Resource managers confirm and allocate resources or reject the plan, and finally close the plan. The resource requester can request a group, specific users in a group, or a specific user to work on the selected task. After you submit the plan for review, a resource manager can confirm, and then allocate some or all the requested users. If the task requires more than one user or groups, multiple resource plans can be created for the given task.
Rejected	Resource manager can reject a resource plan by selecting Reject. The resource plan then moves into the Rejected state. Rejected plans stay in that state until changes are made and the requester can re-request the resources.
Confirmed	After the plan is requested, the resource manager can block/confirm the resources for future projects and demands. The resource plan then moves into the Confirmed state. Only a resource manager can modify the plans in Confirmed state. Soft allocations are created when the resource plan moves to the Confirmed state.
Allocated	After the plan is confirmed, the resource manager can review the plans, view availability, change resource preferences and perform the resource allocation. The resource plan moves into the Allocated state. A resource manager can only cancel, complete, or modify it. Soft allocations are converted to hard allocations when the resource plan moves to the Allocated state. Note: You can also set a plan to the Allocated state directly from the Requested state using Confirm and Allocate option.
Completed	After all associated tasks and projects are complete or canceled, an Allocated resource plan can be completed. This deletes all the resource allocations for the resource plan post the completion date.
Canceled	A plan can be canceled if the allocations are no longer required. This removes all past and future allocations. A canceled resource plan can be brought back to the Planning state if it has no past allocations. Resource plans in Planning, Requested, Confirmed, or Allocated state can be canceled.

Note:

When a resource requester wants to change a plan that was already submitted for review (in Requested or Confirmed state but not yet allocated), the requester can request a change. The plan then moves back to the Planning state.

Resource Management supports time zones, which are important in the My Calendar and Resource Workbench modules.

Modifications in Confirmed or Allocated state

Only a resource manager can modify a resource plan in the Confirmed or Allocated state.

The effects of modification in header area on a resource plan form in Confirmed state are:

All soft allocations are deleted.
Requested allocations are re-created with changed values.
Resource plan moves back to the Requested state.

The effects of modification in header area on a resource plan form in Allocated state are:

All resource allocations (soft and hard) are deleted.
Requested allocations are re-created with changed values.
Resource plan moves back to the Requested state.

The resource manager can also modify or delete the past dated resource allocations for Allocated resource plans if no actual hours are recorded for those resource allocation records. When a user submits a time card, upon approval of the time card, actual hours are updated for an allocation record.

Note:

The resource plan does not move back to the Requested state if the changes are made to allocation records only.

Request type

You can request a resource plan using one of the following options:

Hourly: The request is in terms of the number of hours the resources are necessary.
FTE: The request is in terms of an equivalent value that represents full-time work. When the request type is FTE, planned hours are calculated as: Average Daily FTE * number of working days in resource plan * the FTE value. The average daily FTE hours are specified in User and Group records. If there is no value specified at User or Group record, the average daily FTE hours is taken from the Default Average Daily FTE property.
The number of working days is calculated based on the users schedule for a user resource or the default schedule for group resources. The default schedule is taken from the Default Schedule Name property.

For example, say that the average daily FTE for a group is 40 hours, the resource plan period is from September 1 to September 10, and the FTE is 0.5.

Assuming 8 working days during the plan period, planned hours = 40 * 8 * 0.5 =160 hours.

Note:
Capacity is not derived from FTE, but from schedules. Both FTE and schedules must be in synchronization with each other.
Person days: The request is in terms of person days. When the request type is person days, planned hours are calculated as: Total number of person days * Average Daily FTE Hours/Hours Per Person Day.
For example, say the Average Daily FTE Hours/Hours Per Person Day for a group is 8 hours, and the person days is 3. Then, planned hours = 8 * 3 = 24 hours.

Resource plan costs

Resource plan costs can be tracked directly in the resource plan record. Resource plan costs are divided into planned, allocated, and actual.

If the Rate override option in a resource plan is selected, the hourly rate for calculating the corresponding resource plan cost is derived from the rate specified in the Resource rate field.

If a rate model is associated to the project or demand, the hourly rate is derived from the rate model. Whenever the hourly rates in the associated rate model change, you must recalculate the resource costs of the resource plan to reflect the new rates.

If rate model is not available, the hourly rate for calculating the corresponding resource plan cost is derived from labor rate card.

Projects and Demands can have multiple resource plans. The aggregated costs for all resources plans roll up to the Planned Cost and Allocated Cost fields and the Resource Cost section of both projects and demands.