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Working with Cost Items

A cost item is a specific line item within a cost entity, such as an incident, service request, or service. Costs associated with a task are automatically added to an incident or service request record. You can also manually add costs to these records. These cost items are listed in the Cost Item tab of the associated record, and in the ITFM Cost Item workspace, which is then used to compile data on all costs. See About Task Costs.

Viewing Cost Items

Do one of the following:

Log into the Service Desk console and open the ITFM Cost Item workspace. All cost items are listed.

Open an incident, service request, or configuration item record, and then select the Cost Item tab. Cost items associated with that record are listed.

Not all configuration items have cost items.

Adding a Cost Item

Costs are added automatically from service requests, tasks, and allocations. (See Creating a Service Request, Creating a Task or Service Allocation.)

There are two types of costs that you can add manually:

Ad-hoc costs: Click New ITFM Cost Item when there are no defined cost types.

Defined costs: Click New from Price List Item when adding a cost with a defined cost type.

Adding a New ITFM Cost Item

1.Open an incident, service request, or configuration item record, and then select the Cost Item tab.

2.Click New ITFM Cost Item.

3.Enter information into the fields.

Field Description
Item Description A unique name for the item.
Price List Item The price list item. To add an item not on the list, see Adding a New Price List Item.
Unit Cost Cost of each unit.
Qty The number of units.
Unit of Measure The type of measurement of each unit.
Total Cost Total cost calculated by Unit Cost x Qty.
Cost Driver Name of the cost driver.
Vendor Name of the vendor.
Billable Select if the cost is billable to a customer.
Capital Expense Select if the cost is a capital expense.
Fixed Cost Select if the cost is a fixed cost.
Direct Cost Select if the cost is a direct cost.
Notes Notes or comments about the record.

4.Click Save.

Adding a Defined Price List Item

1.Open an incident, service request, or configuration item record, and then select the Cost Item tab.

2.Click New from Price List Item.

3.Select a cost item from the list. The item appears on the list.

Adding a New Price List Item

1.Open an incident, service request, or configuration item record, and then select the Cost Item tab.

2.Click New ITFM Cost Item.

3.Click the search icon in the Price List Item field. A list of price list items are displayed.

4.Click Add. The Price List Item dialog box opens.

5.Enter information into the fields.

Field Description
Enabled Makes this price list item active.
Item Name A unique name for the item.
Item Revision The version number.
Type The purpose for the price list item.
Recurrence Type If the price is recurring, choose Monthly or Yearly. Else, select None.
Price The price of the item.
Cost The cost of the item.
Unit of Measure

The price and cost unit of measure.

Description A brief description of the item.
Vendor Name of the vendor.
Cost Driver Name of the cost driver.
Cost Drive Category Type of cost driver that is automatically generated.
Is Direct Select if the price of the item is direct.
Is Fixed Select if the price of the item is a fixed cost (as opposed to a variable cost).
Is Capital Expense Select if the item can be classified as a capital expense for tax purposes.

6.Click Save. The price list item is listed in the New from Price List Item list.

Modifying a Cost Item

1.Open the ITFM Cost Item workspace.

2.Double-click the item to edit. The Cost Item page opens.

3.Make the required changes.

4.Click Save.

Deleting a Cost Item

1.Open the ITFM Cost Item workspace.

2.Select the cost item to delete and click the Delete button from the toolbar. The item is removed and no longer listed.

Exporting Costs to Microsoft Excel

You can export one or more of your cost items to a file and opened with Microsoft Excel or other financial software.

1.Open the ITFM Cost Item workspace.

2.Select the records to export or select none to export all records.

You can create a saved search to limit the records that are displayed in the list. See Using Saved Search.

3.From the toolbar, click Export Cost Item to Excel. The details are exported to an excel file.


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