A presentation on the role of goal setting for Finance Teams, including relevant examples for every role.

1. 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 Manager
ROLE
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
CFO
ROLE
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 Analyst
ROLE
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 Manager
ROLE
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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