Goals
Set a named target for a measure, by month, quarter or year, split by region or product if you like. Halo shows how each one stands today, draws it over charts, scorecards and tables, and lists goals in reports.
A goal is a named target for one measure of a dataset, such as this year's revenue by month. The Goals page in the sidebar shows how each one stands: actual, target, the difference, a status and a recent trend.
Goals also go over charts: see Compare a chart with a goal.
Make a goal
You need to be able to edit the dataset. On Marketplace data, which nobody can edit, you need permission to create datasets, and you pick a workspace for the goal.
Start with New goal on the Goals page, on a dataset's Goals tab, or from a chart's ⋯ menu with New goal from this chart, which fills in the chart's dataset.
Then set out what it targets:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | What people see. Goals on one dataset each need their own |
| Dataset and Measure | What's being measured. A goal stays on its dataset |
| Better when | Higher is better, or Lower is better for something like costs |
| Period | Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, or No periods: one target. Quarters and years follow your organization's fiscal year. Periods need a Date field |
| Periods combine by | How periods add up over a longer range. Left on Follow the measure, an average averages and the rest add up. You can choose Sum, Average, weighted by days or Last period's value |
| At risk below (% of goal) | Where At risk ends and Behind starts. 90% by default |
Split and segment gives a target to each value of up to two dimensions, such as one per region, and adds filters that narrow the measure.
Set the values
Under Where its values come from, choose one:
Enter them. Type into the grid, with a row per split and a column per period. Move between years with the arrows.
Relative to last year. Change on last year (%) works it out from the same measure, so 5 means last year plus 5%. There's nothing to enter.
Another measure, such as a budget column. Pick a field, in this dataset or another, and Halo reads the target from it.
Entering values has some shortcuts:
Paste from a spreadsheet. A block with a heading row fills the grid.
Upload a CSV, laid out the same way.
Spread a year's total. Type a Year's total, then choose Spread evenly or Follow last year's shape.
Read how it stands
Each goal has a status:
| Status | Higher is better | Lower is better, with the same setting |
|---|---|---|
| On track | At or above the goal | At or below the goal |
| At risk | Below the goal, down to the At risk below share | Above the goal, by no more than that margin. At 90%, up to 110% of the goal |
| Behind | Below that | Above that |
A period still in progress compares with the goal to date, worked out evenly by days. So for a measure that adds up, on the 15th of a 30-day month, a monthly goal of 100 reads as 50.
A goal's Status tab says what's compared and how it stands. Sometimes it can't, and says why instead:
| It says | What to do |
|---|---|
| "This goal has no value for the current period." | Enter one. A period with no value is a gap, never zero |
| "The dataset no longer has the field …" | Someone changed the dataset. Edit the goal, or put the field back |
| A row policy limits what you see by a field this goal isn't split by | See below |
Who sees what
Anyone who can view content can read goals on datasets they can open, and goals follow that dataset's access.
Row policies apply to the actual figures. A goal is for everything it covers, so comparing one person's rows with it wouldn't compare like with like:
If a policy limits you by a field the goal is split by, you see your own rows' goals.
If it limits you by a field the goal isn't split by, you don't get a comparison, and the goal says why.
So to give each region's manager a goal they can read, split the goal by region.
Compare a chart with a goal
In the chart editor, or a report's chart panel, open Goal and pick one under Compare with goal. The list holds the dataset's goals on a measure the chart shows. New goal from this chart starts one from the chart.
| Chart | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Scorecard | The status in words, the share of goal, and the goal |
| Line, area and combo | The goal per period as a dashed, stepped line |
| Column and bar | A mark on each bar at its goal |
| Table | Goal, Difference, % of goal and Status columns |
| Gauge and bullet | The goal is the target |
Tooltips give the goal, the share of it reached and the status. Other chart types, and charts with a Breakdown, don't offer goals.
How a chart lines up with a goal
Halo Engine works the goal out for each row, from the periods it touches:
A chart by month, quarter or year gets each period's goal. A chart by day or week gets its share of the goal's period, by days.
A scorecard gets the goal over its date range. Over January 16 to February 14, with 3,100 for January and 2,800 for February, a goal that adds up is 1,600 + 1,400 = 3,000. An average weighs each month by its days, and Last period's value takes February's.
A period still in progress compares with the goal to date, evenly by days, as on the Goals page.
A split goal gives each row its own: a table by region gets each region's goal, and a scorecard filtered to North gets North's. Grouped by neither, the goals add up.
Without a date range, a scorecard can't compare with a goal that has periods, and says so.
When it won't compare
A goal says why, under the chart, rather than compare a part with a whole:
| It says | Why |
|---|---|
| "This goal is for all of Region, and the chart is filtered to part of it." | The chart filters a field the goal isn't split by. Split the goal by it, or remove the filter |
| "This goal isn't split by Market, so it can't be compared row by row." | The chart groups by a field the goal isn't split by |
| "This goal is for part of Region. Filter the chart the same way…" | The goal has a segment filter the chart doesn't |
| "This chart doesn't show …, which the goal is for." | The chart's measures don't include the goal's |
| "This goal is in the Trash." | Restore it from the Trash, and it draws again |
Row policies work as they do on the Goals page: a goal limited by a field it isn't split by doesn't show.
In text and alerts
A live value in a report's text can show a goal's share, the goal, the difference or the status. A chart that compares with a goal can alert you when it falls behind or reaches it.
A goal scorecard in a report
A goal scorecard lists goals in a report, each with its actual, goal, % of goal, status and a trend, as it stands today.
In the report editor, select Add, then Goal scorecard….
Pick the dataset. Under Shows, keep Every goal on this dataset, so goals set on it later join in, or choose Goals I pick and tick them. It shows up to 20, in the order the dataset's goals are listed.
Select Add scorecard.
In the inspector, give it a title, and turn the Trend and Difference columns on or off. In a narrow box, the difference and then the trend give way to the numbers.
Each reader sees each goal as their own row policies allow, as on the Goals page. A goal they can't open, or one that was deleted, reads "A goal that isn't available" in its place. Report and page filters don't change a scorecard: each goal is its own measure.
Shared reports
Public links, embeds, PDFs and scheduled emails show goals as Halo Data does. A link can read only the goals its published report's charts compare with, its text names, and its goal scorecards show. A goal scorecard on a link reads as nobody's row policies, and on a signed embed with the embed's attributes. On a report locked to some rows, by its own locked filters or a signed embed's, a scorecard names its goals without figures, since a goal's totals would reach past those rows. Goal scorecards always read live, even on a report on snapshots, and an edition's link doesn't show them. A report on snapshots holds its goals as published, and rebuilds when a goal changes. An edition keeps what it said.
With Halo AI
Ask Halo how you're doing against a goal, and it reads how it stands as you, under the same rules. It can also propose a goal for you to review in this form. Written summaries and insight explanations can mention goals falling short. A goal that uses a field hidden from Halo AI stays out of all of these.
Change, restore or delete
The Edit tab changes a goal, with an optional Note on what changed. If someone else saved after you opened it, Halo refuses the save rather than replacing their work, and asks what you want to do.
History lists each save, with who made it, and can restore one. Restoring saves it as the newest version, so the history stays whole.
Deleting a goal moves it to the Trash for 30 days.