To utilize the contract rate cards features, you need to activate the Rate Management plugin, which provides the ability to define and manage rates for various types of costs and expenses1.
The contract rate cards features allow you to capture operating costs by generating expense lines representing the cost of a contract. You can associate a contract to certain assets and costs of those assets are tied to the contract. This is similar to a rate card cost, except the contract contains all the costs2.
The other plugins are not required to use the contract rate cards features. The Financial Management plugin provides the ability to track and manage the financial performance of your IT services3. The Contract Management plugin provides the ability to create and manage contracts for assets, services, and vendors4. The Cost Management plugin provides the ability to track and allocate costs for configuration items, tasks, and projects5. References: 1: Rate Management 2: Cost Management - ServiceNow Elite 3: Financial Management 4: Contract Management 5: Cost Management