Managing portfolio financials in Portfolio Planning

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Managing portfolio financials in Portfolio Planning

    ServiceNow's Portfolio Planning enables portfolio users to view and manage the financial breakdown of portfolio planning items such as demands and projects. This includes detailed financial metrics like estimates, approved costs, benefits, actuals, and forecasts. Users can analyze these financial values rolled up at the portfolio level to track financial performance, make informed planning decisions, and avoid overspending.

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    Key Features

    • Financial Views: Access comprehensive financial fields including Budget (approved budget), Forecast, Variance (difference between approved budget and forecast), Actuals, and Remaining Estimates for Capex, Opex, Total, and Benefits.
    • Grouping and Filtering: Default grouping is by budget approval status (Budget Approved or Approval Pending). Users can customize grouping and column views to tailor the financial data presentation.
    • Expense and Cost Types: View costs by expense type or cost type, depending on portfolio configuration, to analyze budget attributes in detail.
    • Time Scale Customization: Customize the financial breakdown by fiscal month, quarter, or year with selectable ranges to get granular financial insights over specific periods.
    • Export Capability: Export financial data to Excel or CSV for offline analysis or reporting.
    • Navigation: Directly access a planning item's detailed financial record by selecting it in the left grid.

    Important Considerations

    • Configuration is required for both new and existing customers to enable portfolio financials visibility at the portfolio level.
    • The portfolio financials view supports only demands and projects configured with a Fiscal Calendar type.
    • Currently, the portfolio financials view is not compatible with the Investment Funding application and may not accurately reflect budgets from that source; future enhancements are planned.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    Portfolio managers can use these financial insights to:

    • Track and manage the financial status and performance of portfolio planning items effectively.
    • Make data-driven decisions during planning cycles by comparing approved budgets with forecasts and actual spending.
    • Customize financial views and time scales to meet specific portfolio management needs and reporting requirements.
    • Prevent overspending by monitoring variances and remaining estimates within portfolio timelines.

    View the financial breakdown of estimates, approved costs, benefits, and actuals and so on for portfolio financials.

    As a portfolio user, you can view the rolled up financial values of top-level demands and projects.

    You can view the costs by expense type or cost type. Using the Financials view at portfolio level, you can view different financial fields such as Budget (approved budget for planning items), Forecast, Variance (difference between the approved budget and latest forecast), Actuals, and the Remaining Estimates for Capex, Opex, Total, and Benefits for each planning item. This information can be used to track the financials status of the planning items and take an informed decision on which planning items to consider while working on the next planning cycle and track the to avoid overspending.

    Using the portfolio financials, portfolio managers can:
    • Track the financial performance and status of planning items.
    • Arrive at an informed decision by analyzing the estimated cost and benefits of a planning item while planning and prioritizing for the next Portfolio cycle.
    • View the financials based on the expense type or cost type depending on the budget attribute configuration.
    • Avoid overspending on planning items by comparing the approved budget with the latest forecast and actuals.
    Important:
    New and existing customers need to configure the portfolio financials to view the financials of your planning items at portfolio level. For more information, see Configure portfolio financials in Portfolio Planning.

    The portfolio financials view supports Demands and Projects with Fiscal Calendar type configuration only.

    Figure 1. Portfolio financials grouped by Budget status with expense type as the budget attribute
    Portfolio financials page view expense type budget attribute.
    Figure 2. Portfolio financials grouped by Planning status with cost type as the budget attribute
    Portfolio financials page view cost type budget attribute.
    Note:
    Group header row displays the rolled up values for Budget, Forecast, Variance, Actuals, and Remaining estimate of all the planning items in the group.
    The default view of portfolio financials is set to display the planning items grouped by their budget approval status. Budget approved grouping lists the planning items which have the budget allocated and approved. Approval pending grouping lists the planning items which do not have any budget or if the requested budget is not approved.
    Note:
    Portfolio financials view is not yet compatible with Investment Funding. This view may not show the right budget values allocated to planning items from Investment Funding application. This will be add as a future enhancement.

    In the left-grid, planning item details such as name, rank, planning state, planning item type, approved start date, total planned cost, total actual costs, total planned benefits and ROI for the full planning item duration.

    In the right-grid, financial attributes of the planning items such as, Budget, Forecast, Variance, Actuals, and Remaining Estimates for Capex, Opex, Total, and Benefits portfolio for the portfolio timeline or breakdowns by year, quarter, month, or period.
    Tip:
    You can select the name of a planning item from the left-grid to directly access the financials record page of that planning item.

    You can export the portfolio financials details to Excel or CSV using the Export option (Downward facing arrow indicating download option.).

    Customize your financials view

    Customize the portfolio financials to view and access the required parameters helping you in better planning your portfolio and planning items.

    • You can get a more detailed and granular view of the financials at monthly, quarterly, and yearly view by defining Timescale and Range. Use time scale to select a fiscal period and filter the range within the time scale to view the financials for any specific months, quarters, or years.

      Time scale and range modal window.

      Table 1. Time scale and range parameters
      Time scale Description and range
      Fiscal Month Portfolio financials view by monthly breakdown.

      You can select up to 12 months.
      Fiscal Quarter Portfolio financials view by quarterly breakdown.

      You can select up to 4 quarters.
      Fiscal Year Portfolio financials view by yearly breakdown.

      You can select up to 5 years period.
      Plan Timeline Portfolio financial breakdown for the entire portfolio timeline.
    • Personalize grouping and columns in the grids.

      Configure the columns and groupings in the right-grid using Personalize option (Gear icon for personalization settings.) to build a custom view.

      Checkboxes list to customize portfolio financials view.

      For example, if you want to compare budget and actuals breakdowns, select only these two options and apply your preferences. You can also customize the left-grid by selecting the required columns from the Left Grid list from the personalize settings.

    • Group the planning items.

      By default, the financials view is grouped by the Budget status column. You can remove Budget status grouping from the Grouped by row and drag-drop the required header to change this view.