Formula building in a calculated metric definition

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Formula building in a calculated metric definition

    In ServiceNow's calculated metric definitions, formulas enable you to perform custom calculations using operands, operators, and functions to derive meaningful metric results. This capability allows you to combine data from multiple metric definitions to create new insights, such as totaling employee counts by gender.

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    Key Features

    • Operands and Operators: Operands represent the metric definitions or data elements, while operators (+, -, , /) define the calculation performed between them.
    • Default Operand Values: You can configure default values for operands in the Calculated Metric Definition Settings table. This ensures calculations continue smoothly even when some data is missing, enhancing reliability and reducing manual errors.
    • Calculation Levels: Formulas can be built at two levels:
      • Metric Definition Level: The formula aggregates data across all child metric definitions or metrics. Executing the formula generates the calculated metric data for the overall metric definition.
      • Entity Level: The formula is applied per distinct entity associated with the operand metrics. Executing generates metric data for each entity, and aggregation produces the combined calculated metric data.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging formula building in calculated metric definitions, you can create tailored metrics that reflect complex calculations across your data. Setting default operand values prevents calculation failures due to missing data, ensuring consistent and accurate metric results. Selecting the appropriate calculation level allows you to produce either aggregated metrics or entity-specific insights, supporting diverse reporting and analysis needs within your organization.

    In a calculated metric definition, you can create formulas to perform calculations for any data that you may require.

    A formula consists of operands, operators, and functions. For example, if you want to calculate the total employee count from two metric definitions namely number of male employees and number of female employees, then the selected metric definitions are the operands and the operator is the symbol or function that performs a specific operation on the operands to obtain a result. Examples of operators include addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), and division (/).

    You can set default values for operands in the Calculated Metric Definition Settings table to ensure metric calculations continue smoothly even when data is missing or undefined. When a formula encounters an empty operand, the system automatically applies the configured default value from this table, allowing the calculation to proceed without interruption. Users can activate the shipped default record or create custom entries with preferred values for specific operands. This setup enhances the reliability and flexibility of metric logic, reduces manual intervention, and supports consistent results across varying data conditions.

    When you build a formula in a calculated metric definition, you can choose to build it at either the metric definition level or at the entity level. Before you save the calculated metric definition form and build the formula for metric definition score calculation, you must specify the calculation level in the calculated metric definition form. The two levels are as follows:
    • Metric definition: If you select Metric definition in the Calculation level field, then the data across all child metric definitions or child metrics is used for calculation. When you select Execute, the formula is applied and the calculated metric definition data is generated. For more information, see Configure the formula builder. The following image shows how calculation occurs at the metric definition level: Calculation at the metric definition level.
    • Entity: If you select Entity in the Calculation level field and specify the calculation method using the formula builder, then the child metrics are created for the calculated metric definition. These metrics are created for each distinct entity that is associated with the metric definitions that have been used as operands in the formula. When you Execute the metric definition, the formula is applied and the metric data is generated. When you Aggregate the metric definition, the metric data is aggregated and the calculated metric data is generated. The following image shows how calculation occurs at the entity level:Calculation at the entity level.