---
title: Expense lines and expense allocations
description: The Expense lines application tracks costs and record expenses incurred. Expense allocations let you associate expenses with items such as users, groups, or departments.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/c\_ExpenseLinesAndAllocations.html
release: australia
product: Expense Line
classification: expense-line
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Expense Line, IT Service Management]
---

# Expense lines and expense allocations

The Expense lines application tracks costs and record expenses incurred. Expense allocations let you associate expenses with items such as users, groups, or departments.

Expense lines are a key component of cost management because they can be generated from any application and are used to allocate expenses to business entities. Expense lines can be created manually or generated automatically when costs are created by scheduled processing.

Users with the financial\_mgmt\_admin and financial\_mgmt\_user roles can work with expense lines and expense allocation rules.

To use expense allocation rules, activate the [Cost Management](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/it-business-management/r_CostManagement.md) application.

-   **[Create an allocation rule](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/t_CreateAnAllocationRule.md)**  
Expense allocation rules enable you to associate expenses with an item, such as a user, group, or department.
-   **[Automatic expense line creation](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/c_CreateExpenseLinesAutomatically.md)**  
You can automatically create expense lines to facilitate the accurate reporting of expenses.
-   **[Create expense lines manually](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/t_CreateExpenseLinesManually.md)**  
You can create expense lines at a single level or in a hierarchy to better organize expense information.
-   **[Delete an expense line](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/t_DeleteAnExpenseLine.md)**  
Deleting an expense line also deletes all expense allocations that were generated from the expense line.
-   **[Create a sample allocation rule](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/t_SampleAllocationRule.md)**  
You can create a sample expense allocation rule that allocates the cost of an incident to the department of the caller.
-   **[Use a scripted allocation](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/t_UseAScriptedAllocation.md)**  
Scripted allocations define custom allocation amounts and targets by executing a script.

**Parent Topic:**[Expense Line](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/expense-line/c_ExpenseLine.md)

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