Choosing Planning Attributes for Resource Management - Support and Troubleshooting

Choosing Planning Attributes for Resource Management .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } Executive Summary Planning attributes are the criteria organizations use to request resources and track labor costs. Choosing the right attributes is a foundational decision that shapes both how resources are managed and how financial reporting works. This article explains what planning attributes are, how to choose them for resource management and financial planning, and why both decisions should be made together.

What Are Planning Attributes? Planning attributes serve two purposes: they define how Project Managers request resources, and they determine how labor costs are aggregated into cost plans.

ServiceNow provides five out-of-the-box planning attributes:

Attribute Description Commonly used for Resource Management Commonly used for Financial Management Group The resource group or team ✓ Role The job role (e.g., Developer, Business Analyst) ✓ ✓ Skill Specific skills or competencies ✓ Employee Type Internal vs. External (contractor) ✓ Expense Type Capex vs. Opex (task-level attribute) ✓ Organizations can also create custom planning attributes if their resource planning or financial reporting requires criteria beyond what's available out of the box.

Resource Management vs. Financial Planning Attributes An important distinction: planning attributes for resource management and planning attributes for financials can be configured independently, but there is a dependency between them.

Resource Management attributes determine how resources are requested and assigned. Example: Group + Role - "I need a Developer from the Mobile App team."

Financial attributes determine how labor costs are aggregated and reported. Example: Employee Type + Expense Type - Cost plans roll up as "Internal Capex," "External Opex," etc.

This separation gives flexibility - the way you organize and assign people doesn't have to match the way Finance wants to see and track costs. However, Employee Profiles must have primary values populated for both sets of attributes.

Important dependency: To enable an attribute for financial planning, it must first be enabled for resource management. All financial planning attributes must be resource attributes. For example, if Finance wants to aggregate costs by Employee Type, that attribute must be enabled for resource management even if PMs don't use it when requesting resources. This is why both decisions should be made together.

Choosing Attributes for Resource Management Before enabling any attributes, the organization must answer a fundamental question: How do we want to request and manage resources?

Common patterns:

Group + Role - "I need 2 Developers from the Engineering team" Group + Skill - "I need someone from the QA team with Automation Testing skills" Role + Skill - "I need a Senior Developer with Java skills" Questions to guide the decision:

How do PMs think about resource requests today? Do they ask for people by team? By skill? By role? The attributes should match how the business naturally thinks about resourcing. What level of specificity do you need? More attributes mean more precise matching, but also more complexity and maintenance overhead. How stable are these categories? Roles tend to be more stable than Groups (teams reorganize frequently). Choosing stable attributes reduces future migration pain.

Choosing Attributes for Financial Planning Once resource management attributes are decided, determine what Finance needs for cost tracking and reporting. The key question: How does Finance want labor costs to roll up?

Common patterns:

Employee Type + Expense Type - Cost plans split by "Internal Capex," "Internal Opex," "External Capex," "External Opex" Role + Employee Type - Cost plans per role, split by internal vs. external labor Role + Expense Type - Cost plans per role, split by Capex vs. Opex Role + Employee Type + Expense Type - Most granular: cost per role, per labor type, per expense classification Questions to guide the decision:

How does Finance report labor costs today? Do they split by internal vs. external? By Capex vs. Opex? By department? Match the attributes to existing reporting requirements. What level of cost granularity do you need? More financial attributes create more cost plan line items. If Finance only needs a total labor cost per project, fewer attributes suffice. If they need breakdowns by role and labor type, enable accordingly. Do you need to distinguish Capex vs. Opex? If yes, enable Expense Type and set a default value (Capex or Opex) using the system property sn_plng_att_core.default.expense_type . This value is applied at the project/task level. Do you use a mix of internal and external resources? If yes, Employee Type becomes essential for cost accuracy since internal and external resources typically have different rate cards. Remember the dependency: Every attribute you enable for financials must already be enabled for resource management. If Finance needs Employee Type for cost reporting but PMs don't use it for requesting resources, you still need to enable it for resource management and ensure Employee Profiles have primary values populated.

Best Practice: Keep It Simple While there's no technical limit to how many planning attributes you can enable, the best practice is to use 2-3 attributes for resource management and 2-3 for financial planning. Here's why:

Reduced complexity: Fewer attributes mean simpler resource requests and easier matching. Easier maintenance: Every enabled attribute requires a primary value on each Employee Profile. More attributes = more data to maintain. Cleaner capacity planning: Capacity views aggregate by planning attributes. Too many attributes create fragmented, hard-to-read capacity data. Manageable cost plans: Too many financial attributes create an explosion of cost plan line items that become difficult to interpret and maintain. Think hard before enabling attributes. The goal is to capture how the business actually works, not to enable everything "just in case."

The Lock-In Problem Planning attributes can be changed later, but it gets messy. Once resource assignments exist using certain attributes, changing them creates data integrity challenges:

Historical assignments reference the old attribute values Cost plans tied to those attributes may become inconsistent Reports and dashboards may break Active assignments may need to be migrated Mitigation strategies:

Invest time upfront: Get sign-off from PM leadership and Finance before enabling attributes. Pilot first: If uncertain, enable attributes for a single business unit or project type. Run for a quarter, gather feedback, then expand. Choose stable attributes: Prefer attributes that won't change with org restructuring. Role is typically more stable than Group. Document decisions: Record why specific attributes were chosen. This helps whoever handles future migrations understand what to preserve. Configuration Steps Once the organization has decided on both resource management and financial planning attributes:

Phase 1 — Resource Management attributes:

Navigate to Project Administration > Planning Attributes (or Strategic Planning, if SPW/PPW is installed) Enable the attributes the organization will use for resource management Create custom planning attributes if needed Phase 2 — Financial Planning attributes: 4. For each attribute needed for financial reporting, ensure it is already enabled for resource management (dependency) 5. Enable the Financials checkbox on those attributes 6. Set the default Expense Type if applicable ( sn_plng_att_core.default.expense_type )

Phase 3 — Employee Profiles: 7. Ensure Employee Profiles have primary values populated for all enabled attributes (both RM and financial)

Summary Planning attributes are not just a technical configuration—they're a business decision about how the organization thinks about and manages its people and its costs. Choose resource management attributes that reflect how PMs naturally request resources, and financial attributes that match how Finance needs to see labor costs. Keep both lists short (2-3 attributes each), make both decisions together, and invest time upfront to avoid painful migrations later.