A report shows what happened, but it does not know what was supposed to happen. A plan answers the second question: metric targets for each period. The Plan vs actual section, the sprint’s Focus and the decision engine all take their targets from a plan.
Planning (the Plans item in the project menu) is where you create and edit these targets.
What you see here
On the left are the project’s plan groups. Every plan lives in a group; under a group name you see the number of plans in it. Plans that were not put in any group are collected in the General group. The + Add plan group button at the bottom of the list creates a group with its first plan.
On the right are the plans of the selected group, as sections one under another. Each plan is a table: a row is a metric, a column is a period. A cell holds the target for that period. An empty cell does not mean “no target”: the target of the previous period applies, and it is shown in grey.
Next to the metric is the Role column:
- Goal is the sprint’s main metric. A plan has only one: Focus builds the forecast and the gap on it.
- KPI — up to five metrics that sit next to the goal.
Below the table is a chart of plan and actual: the plan is dashed, the actual is solid. The actual is shown only for completed periods. The icons in a table row decide which metrics are on the chart.
A group is useful when plans follow each other: sprint after sprint, quarter after quarter.
Set it up for your question
Create a plan
- Open a group in the list on the left and click + Add plan on the right of the page toolbar. To start a new group, use + Add plan group at the bottom of the list.
- In the plan’s ⋮ menu, choose Rename… and give the plan a name.
- In the second row of the toolbar, choose Group by — the period size: week, month, quarter or year.
- Click + in the table header and enter a date: the first period is the one that contains it. Add later periods with the same + button on the right, and an earlier one with Add an earlier period in the first column’s menu.
Enter targets
- Use the Metrics button on the toolbar to add metrics — the same picker as in report sections.
- Click a cell and type a number. Enter or Tab saves and moves on, Esc cancels. Changes are saved at once; there is no separate save button.
- Enter a target only where it changes: empty periods continue the previous one.
- In the Role column, mark one metric as Goal and up to five as KPI.
Zero is a valid target. To remove a target from a cell, delete the number.
Limit the plan with a condition
Optional. The Filter button adds a condition to the plan — for example, one channel or one market. The targets of such a plan apply only to that part of the project.
Only the Plan vs actual section reads a plan with a filter. Pulse and the decision engine do not: they compare the whole project with targets for the whole project. That is why KO asks again before you add a filter, or remove one from a plan that already has targets.
Run plans one after another
- Next sprint in the ⋮ menu creates a plan for the next window of the same length and puts both plans in one group. The item is disabled while the plan has no periods.
- Duplicate makes a copy of the plan with all its targets, next to the original.
- Move to group… moves the plan to another group or to a new one.
- Move up and Move down change the order in the list on the left and of the sections inside a group.
How to read it
A grey number is a carried target. The period has no target of its own, so the previous one applies. If a period needs a different target, enter it in that period.
Plan periods go in a row, with no gaps. That is why only the first or the last period can be removed. If it holds targets, KO asks you to confirm: the targets are removed with the period.
How a plan gets into a report. In the Plan vs actual section, you pick a plan in the Plan menu. The same menu creates named goals — a goal for its own period or with its own condition. In Planning you see them with the Goal switch above the table, but you edit them only in the section: when such a goal is selected, the table is read-only.
The plan period and the report grouping must match. If the plan is monthly and the report shows weeks, Plan vs actual does not show the completion percentage. The targets are still visible.
Set a monthly sales plan on “Sales by purchase date”. The Sales metric puts a purchase in the month of the lead, so the current month is always behind the target and past months keep growing afterwards. Sales by purchase date and Revenue by purchase date count a purchase in the month when it happened and do not include refunds.
If there are no numbers
- “No plans yet” — the project has no plans. Click Add plan.
- “No targets in this plan yet” — the plan has no metrics. Click Add metric.
- “The plan has no periods yet” — the plan has no window. Add the first period with + in the table header.
- A metric disappeared after a reload — a metric with no targets and no role is not saved. Enter at least one target or give it a role.
- “Metrics that are not in the project catalog are hidden” — the metric was removed from the catalog. Its targets stay in the plan and come back when the metric is in the catalog again.
- No actual on the chart — the actual is drawn only for completed periods. A plan that starts today has no actual yet.
Deleting a plan or a group does not ask for confirmation. When you delete a group, its plans are not deleted: they move to the General group.
Related
- The Plan vs actual section — where the plan meets the actual, and how to read the completion forecast.
- Settings → Metrics — where plan metrics come from.
- The Calendar section — the working days used to calculate the plan pace.