Note: The following article shows the NextGen user interface. If the steps and/or screenshots do not match what you see in your organization's Betterworks instance, try this article that shows the same feature in the Classic user interface.
Contents
Overview
The Goals module provides a streamlined and intuitive experience for setting, managing, and aligning work, ensuring everyone in the organization is moving toward shared priorities.
- Centralized Management: All goal creation fields, editing options, and detailed views are unified in one interface, allowing for in-line updates and quick navigation.
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Hierarchical Views: Easily switch between a List view (for sorting and action) and an Alignment view (for visualizing multi-level parent and child relationships).
- Milestone-driven Tracking: Track progress on goals based on the completion status of their associated milestones.
- Collaboration Tools: Use Reactions and Nudges to recognize and encourage progress across the organization.
Configuration
A Super Admin can control configuration settings that impact how goals are created and managed from Admin → Program Management → Goals.
Goal & Milestone Categories
Categories allow users to tag and sort goals, aligning them to company values, strategic initiatives, or themes.
- Navigate to the Admin settings: Go to Admin → Program Management → Goals.
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Expand the Categories section to confirm that categories are enabled and determine if they will be required or limited to a single selection.
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Create, rename, or delete categories from the Categories tab.
Progress Color Thresholds
Goal progress is color-coded based on the expected compared to the actual progress. A Super Admin can customize these thresholds to define what progress is considered "On track," "At risk," or "Needs attention."
- Navigate to the Admin settings: Go to Admin → Program Management → Goals.
- Expand the Progress Color Coding section.
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Review the color code definitions (e.g., Green for On track, Yellow for At risk, and Red for Needs attention) and their corresponding progress thresholds.
Usage
The module is designed for quick, contextual management of goals and milestones.
Creating a New Goal
- From the Goals module landing page, click Create Goal.
- Fill in the Basics section: Users need a descriptive Goal Name, Owner, Start, and Due Dates.
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Complete the remaining sections: Users also need to review and/or adjust Privacy, Alignment, Progress Settings, and Attributes (Categories, Scope, and Type).
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Add a milestone: Click +Milestone. Each milestone can be configured with its own Owner, Dates, and Progress Settings.
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Click Publish.
If you leave the goal creation page before Publishing, a draft of your Goal will be auto-saved. Upon returning to this draft via the 'Create Goals' button, you will see the following:
'Continue Editing' will allow you to continue updating and then publishing your goal, and discarding will delete the draft and reset the goal creation page.
Setting Progress
Progress on goals is automatically calculated based on the completion status of their milestones.
- Milestone-Driven Progress: When a goal has associated milestones, its progress reflects the roll-up of those milestones.
- Inline Update: Click directly on a milestone's progress bar or percentage value in the List view to open the quick update modal.
- Manual Progress: Goals without any milestones or integrations attached can have their progress updated manually via a percentage or numeric input.
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Binary Goals: For goals that only need to be marked as done, set the Progress Setting to Complete or Incomplete.
Editing & Quick Actions
Users can quickly edit or interact with any goal or milestone directly from the main view.
- Inline edit: Click on the name of the goal or milestone to open the edit panel.
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Quick Actions: Click the ... (Additional Actions) menu on the far right of the goal row.
- Edit: Opens the editor panel for immediate changes.
- Create Milestone: Quickly launch the creation panel to add a new milestone under the current goal.
- Clone: Duplicate the goal or milestone. Users can clone to multiple people at once, assigning new owners (user, team, or department).
- Share this Goal: Copies the goal's URL to a user's clipboard.
- Delete: Goal owners and editors can delete a goal and its milestones.
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Interactions: Hover over a goal row to see interactions; reactions (bicep, clap, and party popper) to offer encouragement and nudges to prompt an update.
Alignment & Related Items
The Alignment section links a goal to the broader organizational hierarchy and related work.
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Align Up: Under the Alignment section, a user can click the alignment tool and search for the parent goal to which their work contributes.
- The progress of their goal will automatically roll up and contribute to the parent goal's progress.
- Users can only align to goals that share the same visibility and privacy settings (public to public, private to private).
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Related To: A user can create a lateral link between their goal and any other goals or milestones that are connected but do not directly contribute progress to one another.
Managing Privacy & Permissions
Permissions determine who can view, edit, or contribute to goals.
- In the Edit panel, click the Permissions or Privacy section.
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Roles:
- Owner: Responsible for the goal; completion counts toward their overall progress.
- Editor: Can make any changes the owner can, but completion is not tracked in their progress.
- Participant: Can contribute milestones and view information for downstream goals. The original goal author and any previous owners (from reassignment) are automatically listed in the Permissions table.
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Privacy Settings: Click Change to select the visibility of a goal.
- Public: Anyone in the company can view and contribute.
- Limited: Anyone in the company can view, but only selected people can contribute.
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Private: Only selected people can edit, view, or comment.
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Private Sharing Option: When setting a goal to Private, a user has an option to Enable visibility to my direct and skip level reports.
Using Filter Views
The Goals Module offers two primary views and flexible filtering options to manage large sets of goals efficiently.
- View Switching: Toggle between List View and Alignment View using the icons above the main table.
- Applying Filters: Click + Filters to apply criteria such as Owner, Scope, Progress, Categories, or Due Date.
- Saving Custom Views: After applying filters, click Save to create a custom filter view that will persist across sessions. Custom views can be renamed or deleted at any time.
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Exporting: Use the Additional Actions menu next to the Create Goal button to export the currently filtered goals to Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) or Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) for reporting.
Goals Panel
For more information regarding the dynamic Goals panel, visible across certain modules of the Betterworks platform, please see Goals Panel (NextGen).
FAQs
Why can't I manually update my goal's progress?
If your goal has milestones, its progress is automatically driven by the completion status of those milestones. Manual progress updates are only permitted for goals that have no attached milestones.
How do I change the goal a project aligns to?
Go to the goal's edit panel, navigate to the Alignment section, and simply edit or remove the current parent goal.
How do I remove a goal completely?
Use the ... (Additional Actions) menu on the goal row and select Delete. If the goal has milestones, you will be prompted to delete them as well or reassign them to another goal.
How can I link my goal to a colleague's without having my progress roll up?
Use the Related To section in the edit panel. This creates a non-contributing, lateral link between goals for visibility and context.
What sort of numbers can I use for Manual Progress settings?
You can enter positive and negative integers, as well as decimals. Decimal values are supported up to 12 decimal places in the back end of the system. Within the user interface, progress on decimal values will display up to 2 decimal places.