Actual project costs

---
title: Actual project costs
description: Actual project costs come after you create expense lines for cost plans or after human resources use time cards to create expense lines.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-business-management/project-management/actual-project-costs.html
release: australia
product: Project Management
classification: project-management
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 2
breadcrumb: [Basics of Project Management, Exploring Project Management, Project Management, Project Portfolio Management, Strategic Portfolio Management]
---

# Actual project costs

Actual project costs come after you create expense lines for cost plans or after human resources use time cards to create expense lines.

The system captures actual project costs from expense lines:

-   Expense lines from cost plans: You can [create expense lines from a cost plan](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-business-management/project-management/t_CreateAExpenseLine.md). Allows you to specify the amount and date when the expense was incurred. The actual amount incurred is included in the cost plan after the expense line is processed.
-   Expense lines from timecards: Human resources can record time for project work by using time cards. When time cards are approved, the system generates expense lines. After the expense lines are processed, the actual costs are recorded for the project. If you provide a resource plan when creating time cards, the cost plan name is derived from resource plan and cost is captured against the resource plan. If you do not provide a resource plan, the cost is captured against the project.

**Parent Topic:**[Basics of Project Management](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-business-management/project-management/c_ProjectTasks.md)

**Related topics**  


[Parent-child rollup task calculations]()

[Project tasks]()

[Schedule conflicts between project tasks]()

[Change requests and project tasks]()

[Project task checklists]()

[Task resources]()

[Project and project task states]()

[Composite Fields]()

[Cost plan breakdown]()

[Types of external dependencies]()

[Project and portfolio funding]()

[Project scheduling in Project Management]()

[Task constraints]()

[View actual project costs](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-business-management/project-management/t_ViewActualProjectCosts.md)