Overview
Financials allow you to track the investment required to achieve your Objectives and Key Results, bringing financial visibility directly into your strategic outcomes.
Instead of managing budgets, costs, and resource allocation separately from your OKRs, Financials connect the investment you are making to the outcomes you expect to deliver. This gives leaders and teams a clearer understanding of how resources are being allocated to drive strategic priorities.
By Tracking Financials for an Objective or Key Result, you can:
Track budget vs. actual spend for each outcome
Understand the investment behind strategic priorities
Monitor financial trends over time as initiatives progress
Identify risks early, such as overspending or under-resourcing
Improve decision-making by aligning financial investment with measurable results
Financials support time-based tracking, allowing you to update Budget, Cost, and Resources across multiple measurement dates and visualize how investment changes over time.
You can also connect Financials to Excel to automatically sync values, ensuring financial data stays current without manual updates.
Setting Up Financials for Objectives & Key Results
You set up and track Financials for an Objective or Key Result. Once Financials are added, a dedicated Financials tab appears on the Objective or KR page.
Step 1: Open the Objective or Key Result
Navigate to an already-created Objective or Key Result where you want to add Financials, and click Edit.
Please note: you'll need to have edit access to the Objective or Key Result.
Step 2: Open the Financials Section
Inside the Edit Objective or Edit Key Result modal:
Locate and select the Financials section
Click Add Financial Targets to open the Financials configuration modal.
In the Financials modal:
Choose a Currency from the dropdown.
Select a Cadence (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly).
Choose a Data provider
Enter the starting values for the financial metrics you want to track:
Budget
Resources
Running Cost
Step 3: Automate Updates From Excel (Optional)
You can automate values for Financials to come from Excel. If your data is coming from other integrations, we suggest you build an intermediary spreadsheet that you can use as the source of truth for the integration.
Click Automate values from external source
Please note: You'll need to connect and authenticate your WorkBoard account with Excel to proceed.
Select your Excel account (OneDrive or SharePoint).
Choose the file and sheet.
Map each financial metric to a specific cell.
Once connected, the data syncs automatically on a nightly basis.
Step 4: Save & Viewing
Click Save to complete setup.
After saving:
The Objective or KR will now display a Financials tab.
For Objective, it will be a tab on the Objective Modal
For Key Results, it appears as a tab below the chart on the Key Result Details page.
Current values and variance (Budget – Cost) are visible.
Variance will be the delta between your Budget and your Cost
Permissions to view: anyone with access to the Objective and Key Result can see the financials set up for it
Permissions to update: anyone with edit access to the Objective and Key Result has edit / update access for the financials tracked for that entity.
Financials for Key Results can be accessed from the tab below the chart on the Key Result Details page. (tab next to Activity and Attachments).
Updating Financials
Financials support time-based tracking, allowing you to record Budget, Cost, and Resources across multiple measurement dates and visualize trends over time.
Each update is saved to a specific measurement date, and the most recent date determines the current displayed value.
Navigate to the Objective or Key Result where Financials are already enabled
Click on the Financials tab
Click the Update button to open the Update Modal
Adding Updates for a Date
Click Add data for new date at the bottom of the table.
Select the measurement date. A new row is added to the table.
Enter updated values for:
Running Cost
Overall Budget
Overall Resources
You can also modify previously entered values from the same table
Click the Save button to save your updates
Important Notes
Each date can only be added once. Duplicate dates are not allowed.
You can update values for any date, regardless of cadence timing.
New rows appear at the top of the table.
Financial updates do not impact OKR progress or RAG status.
Modifying the Set Up for Financials
After Financials have been created, you can update their configuration at any time.
This includes modifying financial metrics, changing cadence or currency, updating values, or adjusting Excel integration.
You must have edit access to the Objective or Key Result to make changes.
Step 1: Open the Objective or Key Result
Navigate to the Objective or Key Result where Financials are already enabled
Click on the Financials tab
Step 2: Open the Edit Financials Modal
Click Edit Financials (top-right of the Financials section)
The Financials configuration modal opens. Within the modal, you can modify the configuration, including updating or disconnecting Excel Integration.