The BetterWorks OKR Examples

FINANCE

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For finance teams, many of whom deal with pricing options, revenue targets, and various other numbers and dollar signs, it’s no surprise that measurable goals play a crucial role in ensuring business operations run smoothly. Imagine your CFO sets an annual goal to “increase revenue” without a specific target in mind. By the end of the year, if revenue is increased by only 1%, do you consider it a win? Even beyond the dollar sign, measurable results and outcomes resonate with finance teams in virtually every task they do: finance professionals should aim to increase revenue by a certain amount, secure a specific number of renewals, or prepare a company for IPO through a series of steps.

Not only are good finance goals measurable, but also cross functional across the whole company. CFOs complete strategic plans in collaboration with CEOs, financial analysts analyze profitability by obtaining information from Accounting and financial managers update their operating plans by coordinating with Sales teams. By fostering top down, bottom up and horizontal alignment between managers and employees and across teams, finance teams are actually responsible for more than just numbers—their goals play a significant role in increasing employee engagement and operational excellence throughout an organization.

Research conducted by MIT researcher Don Sull shows that when asked to identify the single greatest challenge to executing their company’s strategy, 40% of CEOs cite failure to align and 30% cite failure to coordinate across units. This is why at BetterWorks, we encourage collaboration and alignment on goals. Employees who collaborate on goals feel that their work is meaningful, which in turn leads to greater engagement with and progress on goals.

What’s Your Number?

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I will ________ as measured by ____________.

What You Came For: Examples

The Finance edition of OKR Examples has multiple examples that capture these subtle nuances. Different jobs call for vastly different types of objectives, so we’ve created specific OKR examples for major roles within finance. To make these examples even more valuable, we’ve divided them into two broad categories: objectives and key results. The examples are not intended to be complete packages of objectives and key results. Instead, you can choose which cross section of examples is best for you.

Kleiner Perkins general partner (and BetterWorks board member), John Doerr, believes that there are three words that make or break OKRs: “as measured by”. So a simple rubric for good OKRs is as follows:

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Create the rolling four quarter operating forecast by December 20

• Finalize bookings outlook with Sales by October 22

• Confirm budgeted hiring with department heads by end of November

• Receive approval on updated model from CEO by December 5

Provide analytical support to help each department finalize their annual plans by December 20

• Finalize Marketing’s annual pricing review by October 20

• Complete Product’s 2017 roadmap prioritization by November 5

• Finalize the Customer Success budgeting plan by December 7

Finance ManagerROLE

GOAL AS MEASURED BY

Close mezzanine financing round by December 20

Implement operational improvements by December 20

• Create list of potential debt and equity partners by October 21

• Finalize investor deck by November 5

• Procure terms by December 15

• Conduct external accounting audit by October 21

• Setup process for purchasing and vendor relationships by November 30

• Create new deal guidelines process with Sales by December 20

Complete 3 year strategic plan by December 20

• Meet with 10 departmental stakeholders by October 20

• Set revenue targets with VP of Sales by November 17

• Approve company-wide hiring plan by November 30

• Receive approval on strategic plan from the executive team and board by December 10

CFOROLE

GOAL AS MEASURED BY

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Create profitability forecast for products A, B and C by December 20

Present pricing options to CEO for new product offering by December 5

• Gather reports from Accounting on profitability in Q1, Q2 and Q3 by October 15

• Finalize analysis on key drivers of gross margin by November 5

• Present recommendations for improvements to key operating cycles to drive profitability by December 10

• Create report on pricing of top 5 competitors by October 15

• Finalize analysis of budgeted cost rollup by end of November 10

• Produce KPI report for Finance Manager by November 25

Financial AnalystROLE

GOAL AS MEASURED BY

Close financial statements by October 21

• Obtain inventory quantity reports from warehouse managers by October 21

• Receive balance sheet reconciliations from Accounting by October 21

• Approve month-end journal entries by October 21

• Reconcile cash and credit cards by October 21

Accounting ManagerROLE

GOAL AS MEASURED BY

Send invoices by October 25

Finalize Accounts Payable by October 21

• Confirm new client terms with Sales Ops and send invoices by October 25

• Confirm terms for renewing clients with Customer Support and send invoices by October 25

• Collect all invoices from departments by October 15

• Route to departmental heads for approval by October 17

• Send to Finance Lead for approval and payment by October 10

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Goal Science® Thinking

About BetterWorks

The BetterWorks platform is designed for today’s workforce by applying five Goal Science pillars, based on proven goal setting practices and organizational research.

BetterWorks provides enterprise software to easily manage collaborative goals and lightweight performance conversations. Its platform is built on Goal Science insights and operational research to help high-performing companies align and engage their teams, execute more effectively and ultimately become more successful.

For more information, visit www.betterworks.com.

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