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 enables tracking and measuring progress toward strategic goals. It is essential for users of Operational Sustainability Workspace and Strategic Planning to configure the form layout to access all relevant fields. The form captures detailed information about each target, including progress, status, assignment, metrics, and automation settings, facilitating comprehensive goal management.

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    Key Features

    • Identification and Status: Fields such as Name, Goal association, Description, State (e.g., Draft, In Progress, Approved), and Status provide clear identification and current state of the target.
    • Progress Calculation: Progress is automatically calculated based on the target type (Maximize or Minimize) using specific formulas and can consider weighted impacts when enabled.
    • Assignment: Targets can be assigned to various entity types (Business Unit, Department, etc.) and owners, with contributors inherited from associated goals.
    • Duration Management: Start and end dates default to those of the associated goal but can be customized to define the target timeframe.
    • Metrics Configuration: Units of measure (quantitative like %, $, days or qualitative like Yes/No) and target types (Maximize, Minimize, Milestone) support precise measurement of progress.
    • Progress Tracking: Fields for start value, baseline reference, actuals to date, and final target value enable detailed tracking of target achievement.
    • Check-in and Breakdown: Check-in frequency allows periodic updates (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly), automatically generating target breakdowns except for qualitative targets. Target value distribution supports cumulative or non-cumulative calculations.
    • Confidentiality Controls: When enabled, restricts target record access to specified user groups and users with appropriate roles, important for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) classified goals.
    • Automation: Enables auto-updating of actual values from specified data sources, supporting integrations such as Benefit Plans with PPM Standard installed.
    • Collaboration: Comments section supports detailed discussions related to the target.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Provides a structured and configurable approach to manage and monitor targets aligned with strategic goals.
    • Automates progress calculations and updates, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy.
    • Offers flexibility in assigning targets to organizational entities and managing contributor roles.
    • Supports confidentiality where needed, ensuring sensitive target information is protected yet progress rolls up to goals transparently.
    • Enables periodic check-ins and target breakdowns for granular management and timely interventions.
    • Integrates with other ServiceNow applications (such as PPM and Now Assist for SPM) to enhance data accuracy and insight.

    Overall, the Target form equips ServiceNow customers with a comprehensive tool to effectively plan, track, and achieve strategic objectives while supporting collaboration, automation, and security requirements.

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

    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 indicates whether the target breakdown is likely to be completed by the planned end date.
    Progress Percentage of the 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 the 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 subgoals 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 contributes 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 the associated goal is populated.
    End date End date for the target. By default, the end date of the 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 the quantitative target are #, $, %, and Days. The available unit of measure for the 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.
    Table 4. Target Automation section of the Target form
    Field Description
    Comments Detailed comments for the target to facilitate collaboration.
    Table 5. Activity 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.