Milestones

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Milestones

    Milestones in ServiceNow represent acknowledgments that a specific deliverable has been achieved for a service. They can be created against purchase lines and purchase order lines for service product types when the acknowledgment type is set to Milestones. Milestones help track progress, confirm completion, and manage payments related to service deliverables.

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    Key Features

    • Milestone Fields: Key fields include Deliverable Name, Number (unique identifier), Assigned to (user responsible for confirmation), Primary Contact (procurement team member), associated Purchase Line and Purchase Order Line, State (status), Due Date, Summary Details, Completion Date, Payout Type (Percentage or Amount), Payout Amount or Percentage, Cancellation Reason, and Deferral Reason.
    • Milestone Actions: Recipients assigned to milestones can Confirm Completion, Cancel (with a required reason), or Defer Completion (with a new completion date). Confirming sets the milestone state to Closed Complete; deferring sets it to Pending Completion Date.
    • Receipt and State Updates: When a milestone is marked Closed Complete, a receipt is generated, and the corresponding Amount or Percentage received fields are populated. This triggers updates to the purchase order line and purchase order states, following a workflow similar to goods receipt processes.
    • Automated Monitoring: The [PSM] Monitor Milestone Tasks scheduled job runs daily to track active milestones. On the milestone completion date, it changes the state from Pending Completion Date to Confirmation Required, enabling UI actions for users to confirm or defer the milestone.

    Practical Benefits

    ServiceNow customers can use milestones to effectively manage and acknowledge service deliverables tied to procurement. This ensures clear responsibility assignment, timely confirmation or deferral of deliverables, and proper tracking of payment allocations. Automated monitoring and state transitions facilitate proactive management, reducing manual follow-up and improving accuracy in procurement workflows.

    Milestones represent an acknowledgment that a certain deliverable is achieved for a service. You can create a milestone against the purchase line and purchase order line for a service product type, when the acknowledgment type is set to Milestones.

    The key fields of a milestone are:

    Table 1. Milestone fields
    Field Description
    Deliverable Name Name of the milestone
    Number System-generated unique identifier of the milestone.
    Assigned to User primarily responsible for confirming the completion of this milestone.
    Primary contact Person within the procurement team who can be contacted with questions about receipts, milestones, invoices, or other activities related to acknowledgment. This field is populated or updated with the same user in the Assigned to field of the parent task record, as follows: For a milestone or acknowledgment task, from the referenced purchase order.
    Purchase line Purchase line associated with the milestone.
    Purchase order line Purchase order line associated with the milestone.
    State Status of the milestone.
    Due date Expected completion date from the user this milestone is assigned to.
    Summary Details
    Completion date Scheduled completion date for the milestone.
    Payout type The type of the payout associated with this milestone. For example, Percentage or Amount.
    Payout amount Amount associated with this milestone.

    This field is displayed if the payout type is set to Amount.

    Sum of the amount across all milestones can’t exceed the total amount on the purchase requisition.
    Payout percentage Percentage of the payout amount associated with this milestone.

    This field is displayed if the payout type is set to Percentage.

    Sum of the percentages across all milestones can’t exceed 100%.
    Cancellation reason Reason for the cancellation of the milestone.

    This field is required when the recipient cancels the milestone.
    Deferral reason Reason for the deferral of the delivery date of the milestone.

    Milestones are assigned to the recipient of the purchase line. A recipient can either confirm, cancel, or defer milestones using Confirm completion, Cancel, or Defer Completion options.

    • Confirming a milestone updates the state to Closed Complete.
    • Canceling a milestone requires a cancellation reason.
    • Deferring the completion of a milestone requires a completion date and the state is updated to Pending Completion Date.

    When the status of a milestone task is Closed Complete, a receipt is created and the Amount received or Percentage received fields are populated accordingly on the receipt. The receipt triggers the update of the states on the purchase order line and purchase order similar to the workflow of a good receipt.

    The [PSM] Monitor Milestone Tasks scheduled job monitors the completion date of each active milestone on a daily basis. On the specified date of completion, the job updates the state of the milestone from Pending Completion Date to Confirmation Required.

    The UI action to confirm or defer the milestone is displayed when the state of the milestone is Confirmation Required.