In the 1970s, Andrew Grove, the then-current CEO of Intel, developed the very first OKR framework, building on the objective-driven management practices by Peter Drucker. The following success of Intel propelled the OKRs into the public eye — and with a bit of help from John Doerr, the approach spread across Silicon Valley and eventually the entire IT industry. Nowadays, everybody is using OKRs or some derivative framework inspired by them.
The OKR framework is a bit tricky, and learning by example remains the best onboarding method. We already have similar crash courses on Engineering OKRs, Marketing OKRs, and Sales OKRs — and in this article, we will talk about Finance OKRs and Accounting OKRs, and provide some insight into the challenges you might face.
How does OKR work?
The team defines several Objectives — critical goals for the company, departments, and employees for a certain period (for example, a quarter).
Every objective should be represented by 3-5 Key Results — measurable parameters by which one can judge the results achieved.
Every month the team gets together and discusses the degree of objectives achievement:
- What actions were taken;
- What is planned;
- Whether the team’s help is required.
If you want more insight into the basics of OKRs, check out Oboard OKR Consulting.
OKR principles: What rules to follow
The OKR system has a clear set of rules. The fundamental points of the methodology are:
- Publicity and accessibility. Everyone should be able to see the goals and coordinates of everyone.
- Ambitions. Goals should be higher than average, pushing employees towards new approaches and innovative solutions.
- Synchronization. You should discuss your goals and progress towards them every two weeks at least. Otherwise, the system will not be able to course-correct in time.
- Focus. You should have as few goals and metrics as possible to focus like a laser and make a breakthrough instead of just following a few directions.
- 30/70 or 60/40. OKRs don’t go all the way down from the top. For 30–40 percent, goals and coordinates are given by management; for 60–70 percent, they are created by employees. This co-creation process contributes towards settling on relevant approaches, strategies, and tactics.
- Scale. OKRs are set clearly for the quarter and roughly for a year. This provides flexibility due to the ability to quickly respond to market changes and clarity through planning.
Following the above, check out specific OKR samples for the accounting department’s goals and objectives.
OKR for Accounting Department Examples
Accountants fulfill diverse roles in many companies, and trying to pigeonhole them into a single OKR example would do the profession a disservice. Instead, we recommend you check out OKRs related to a specific type of task and then adapt them to your current mission, vision, and priorities.
Accounting OKR Examples for Budget Formation
The budget formation is the core task for any company that wants to be successful — and doing it right the first time around alleviates many headaches. A lot of Financial Departments consider improving their annual budget models as their top objective — and making them an accounting OKR is an excellent way to showcase this work.
- [O] Reform procedures of budget forming
- [KR] Implement a system for tracking and managing expenses in real-time by the end of the year
- [KR] Increase accuracy in forecasting revenue and expenses by 15% by the end of the following year
- [KR] Shorten the budget approval time from 4 weeks to 2 weeks
- [O] Improve transparency and speed of budget updates
- [KR] Lower the debit entry from 25 to 8 days
- [KR] Implement a system for automatic notifications to stakeholders when budget updates are available
- [KR] Achieve structure to meet the needs of all team leaders and CEO
- [O] Improve salaries to a competitive level
- [KR] Analyze the labor market and find out the average earnings of employees by specific departments in other companies;
- [KR] Develop a plan to bring 100% wages in line with industry standards in 1 year;
- [KR] Reach 90% salary satisfaction across all departments.
Accounting OKR Examples for Audit
There are two types of people — those that don’t do regular audits yet, and those that already do. Stopping the proverbial presses and going over all your expenses and revenue to find any inconsistencies and potential hangups is often worth its weight in gold. However, you need to do it diligently — and sometimes, it is even worth dedicating a full OKR to it.
- [O] Make the audit process easy and comprehensible
- [KR] Carry out the first-party audit before the quarter-end;
- [KR] Audit 75% of identified risks;
- [KR] Lower audit adjustments from 4% to 2%;
- [KR] Implement reporting system to get off data loss;
- [KR] Headline a meeting with departments in which recurring losses occur.
Financial Reporting Objectives Examples
Financial reports are the key information piece of any shareholder meeting, and thus should always be prepared to the highest possible standard. If the company is only starting up or restructuring, it is often worth dedicating a quarter to just figuring out the most efficient way of generating these reports and putting them in front of people’s eyes. Consider these your first priority when setting up OKRs for accounting department.
- [O] Simplify internal procedures and make financial reporting more simple and transparent
- [KR] Improve the process of classifying invoices by expense type before they go to the accounting dept
- [KR] Reduce delays in documents submission to the financial department by 50%
- [KR] Accelerate payment processing from “applied” to “paid” from 13 to 6 hours
- [O] Prepare accurate financial statements
- [KR] Collect and provide financial information to third-party advisors
- [KR] Make the first-party audit for processes optimization
- [KR] Agree on revenue forecasts with team leaders
- [KR] Develop a unified reporting system for every department
OKR is not a silver bullet — it is a framework. But it is a damn good framework, far outperforming any traditional management doctrine. And while it may take some getting used to, and does require a bit of maintenance, the benefits far outweigh the downsides.
To embrace OKRs fully, you need a dedicated OKR management platform — like our OKR Board for Salesforce. It’s a powerful tool that simplifies and automates your OKR management process, letting you sync your OKRs with Tasks. You can even create real-time performance reports and share them with your management with a single click — giving you more time to stay productive and focus on your work.