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The Planning section

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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

  1. 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.
  2. In the plan’s ⋮ menu, choose Rename… and give the plan a name.
  3. In the second row of the toolbar, choose Group by — the period size: week, month, quarter or year.
  4. 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

  1. Use the Metrics button on the toolbar to add metrics — the same picker as in report sections.
  2. 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.
  3. Enter a target only where it changes: empty periods continue the previous one.
  4. 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.

Add a separate goal

Optional. Besides the plan’s own numbers, a plan can have named goals — a goal for its own period or with its own condition: for example, a quarterly goal in a monthly plan, or a goal for one channel.

  1. Click Add goal above the table. While the plan has no named goals yet, there is no such button — choose Add goal… in the plan’s ⋮ menu.
  2. A row opens above the table. Goal name is optional: without it the goal is named after its period.
  3. In the Period list, choose week, month, quarter, year or custom range. From is the start of the period; a custom range also has To, its end.
  4. Filter is the plan’s filter by default. Change it if the goal is for another part of the project.
  5. Click Add. The goal appears as a tab above the table; type its numbers into the cells.

A goal with a different filter goes to a neighbouring plan. A plan has one filter for all its goals. So a goal whose filter differs from the plan’s goes to the plan in the same group that has this filter; if there is no such plan, KO creates a new one next to it. The row in the form tells you where the goal will go before you click Add.

To remove a goal, open its tab and click Remove goal. KO asks again: the goal goes together with all its numbers, and there is no undo. The Overall tab cannot be removed — it holds the plan’s own numbers.

Set an end date and a review

Optional. The end date says until when the plan is valid. The review cycle says how often the targets need a check. A plan with no end date and no cycle never becomes outdated.

  1. In the plan’s ⋮ menu, choose End date and review.
  2. In Plan is valid until, enter a date. Leave it empty for a plan with no end date.
  3. In the Review list, choose how often: every 7, 14, 30 or 91 days. not needed means no review.
  4. Click Save.

The cycle counts from the last review; you see its date in the same form, in the Last reviewed line. When you set a cycle for the first time, it counts from today.

When you have checked the targets, choose Mark as reviewed in the ⋮ menu: the review is saved with today’s date and the cycle starts again. Only a plan with a cycle has this item.

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. In Planning you see named goals with the Goal switch above the table: Overall holds the plan’s own numbers, and the named goals come after it.

You edit the numbers of a named goal right in the table — the same way as the plan’s numbers: click a cell and type a number; an empty cell removes the goal for that metric. The change shows in Plan vs actual at once, and the other way round. Metrics, roles, periods and the filter do not change for a named goal: they are shared by the whole plan, and you edit them on the Overall tab. You can add and remove named goals both here and in the Plan vs actual section.

“outdated” means the plan is due for a check. The mark appears in two cases: the date in Plan is valid until has passed, or the review cycle has passed and nobody marked the plan as reviewed. Then:

  • a line with the outdated mark appears above the table and says what has passed;
  • in the list on the left, the plan shows “outdated”, and its group shows “outdated” with a count;
  • the Plan vs actual section that shows this plan gets a warning;
  • the decision engine does not compare pace against this plan: instead of a completion forecast, it reports that the plan is outdated.

You can still see and edit the targets of an outdated plan. To remove the mark, click Mark as reviewed in the line above the table if the review cycle has passed, or click Change end date and extend the date if the plan has expired.

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.
  • “Deleted segments in the plan filter: …” — a segment in the plan’s filter was deleted in settings. Its condition is not applied, and the actual numbers are counted without it; in the filter menu such a segment is labelled Segment deleted. Edit the filter or remove it.
  • 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.