Setting Goals with the Global Goal Engine

There are two ways to add goals in Dear Lucy. You can add a goal to a tile directly from the dashboard or you can use the Global Goal Engine. 

Adding goals directly to a tile is quick and easy, but it becomes a laborious exercise if the goal needs to work with dashboard dimensions (filters) or you have a lot of tiles where you would like to add goals. For those instances we recommend using the Global Goal Engine, which allows you to define and manage all your goals in a separate section. You can plot in the numbers manually, or even just copy / paste them from a spreadsheet directly into Dear Lucy. Once the goals have been added you are then free to enable them on all tiles in your Dear Lucy environment.

This article will explain how to set up a goal using the Global Goal Engine. You can read more about how to add goals directly to a tile here.

Creating a new Goal

To set up a goals using the Global Goal Engine first navigate to Dear Lucy Settings and you will see the Goal header in the top menu. 

• Click the Goal header from the top bar menu
• Click New Goal once you've accessed the Global Goal section
• A new window pops where you can fill in the specifications of your goal

1. Name: Choose a name for your goal. Since you can add as many goals in Dear Lucy as you'd like, we recommend choosing a descriptive name for the goal so it is easy to recognise which goal you're adding to which tile. (Note: A separate goal should be added when the numbers in the goals don't compare or add up, e.g. Sales € vs Meetings #, or New MRR vs New Sales).
2. Input period: Here you select whether you want to add a goal on a Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly level. If the if the monthly numbers are just an even breakdown of the yearly goal, you should select Yearly (the goal engine will automatically distribute the goals quarterly and monthly). However, if your target differs from month to month, then select Monthly. You can also add Constant, which is applicable to non-time-based goals, such as e.g. a Gap-to-goal metric, where the target is always 0.
3. Dimensions: Here you define the granularity of your goal, and also which dimensions (dashboard filters) the goal will work with. In the example above, we are splitting down or goal to two dimensions, Salesperson and Deal Type, meaning that I will be able to see a granular goal for person X and deal type Y. All dimensions that you currently have available as filters in Dear Lucy will be available in the drop-down list. The Global Goal Engine supports up to 3 dimensions + time period for all goals.
4. Calculation method: The default value for this is SUM as this is the most common attribute for a goal. However, if you're setting a goal for Win Rate %, you should select AVG since you don't want to add up percentages.
5. Value format: Select between currency, number, integer or percentage.

Press Save to save your goal specifications before you can proceed to add the actual goal values.

Advanced options:

If you open up the Advanced options tab you will be able to define on a granular level how the goal will behave on the actual dashboard. However, these options can also be defined when enabling the goal on the dashboard-level and we recommend configuring these specifics there instead.

The one thing to apply here is whether you want to add the goals using your fiscal year period or your calendar year. If you have changed your Dear Lucy to use your fiscal year, we recommend ticking that box also for the goal.

Adding the goal values

Once your goal is saved, you'll get back to the main goal menu where you can see your different goals. The next step is to click on the goal name, which will allow you to add the actual values.

You will now see a spreadsheet-type of view with the dimensions that you included in your goal specifications. In our example we set up a monthly goal with two dimensions and that is what the goal view is now showing: Months on the x-axis and the y-axis representing all combinations of salespeople and deal types. (Please note: bear in mind that the a-axis (months) is scrollable, if you can't see all months).

There are also two additional tables showing underneath; a quarterly and a yearly table. These don't have to be filled in but will auto-populate once press Save.

There are now 2 key options for adding the goals: i) Add them manually by filling in the cells or ii) copy / paste the values from off a spreadsheet if you have them there already. 

i) Adding the goal values manually

The first thing to do is to select the correct year from the top menu. By default, the initial view will always show the current calendar or fiscal year, but you may also set targets for last or next year.

For every month you should fill in the goal for each salesperson and for each deal type. As you type the goals in you can also see the total yearly values aggregating in the Total column to the right. If you would like to also see the total for each month, you can press the Roll up values button. However, only do this after having added the goals you're planning to add. If you amend the sub-level goals later, those will not be in the roll-up otherwise.

If you have 10 salespeople and 2 deal types in your organisation, this already means that you have to fill in 10x2x12=240 cells. You do have another option, however. 

If your targets are evenly distributed among the salespeople and deal types, you can also just fill in the Overall goal for each month and then press the Fill empty values button.

When you have added all your goals press Save and the goals will be stored and the Quarterly and Yearly tables will populate automatically.

Note: If there are too many salespeople in the list (Dear Lucy will automatically populate all opportunity owners from your CRM) you can filter out dimension values beneath the tables. Here you can select what sales people to include / exclude to make sure you have a clean list of only people who actually are in sales and have targets. 

ii) Copy / Paste goal values from a spreadsheet

If you have goals on a granular level (for example multiple dimensions and time periods) and you already have them defined in a spreadsheet, the absolute quickest way to add the goals to Dear Lucy is to use the Copy/Paste feature under the Paste values button.

An empty box appears which allows you to paste your values into the box and press Apply to grid to populate all table values. 

There a few important things to keep in mind:

• The pasted values are expected to follow the same structure as the goal table. In our example that is Sales Person, Deal Type and then the monthly values.
• You can paste headers into the box, but only for the dimensions, not for the months. The recommended approach is to follow the expected structure and paste the values excluding a header row.
• If you're adding monthly goals, you need to add cells for all the months, even if they're empty (see screenshot).
• The dimension values (names of salespeople, deal types, etc.) need to have an exact match to how they're spelled in your CRM or you will end up with duplicate rows.

Once you press Apply to grid the values will appear in your tables immediately. The goal table now show only the cells that were copy / pasted but once you press Save, all the dimension combination cells will appear again. 

In other words, if you didn't copy / paste a value for each sales person for both deal types, these will show up as empty cells once you press Save. However, you can also include / exclude these dimension combinations from the nottom of the goal engine page.

You also have the option to Roll up the values in order to see the aggregate monthly values in the table, the Overall goal. This will simply sum up the values in the columns. You are also able to manually set a different top-level goal by typing it in manually (i.e., not the sum of the column). The Roll-up and Fill empty values buttons are useful tools depending on whether you have added the Overall goal or the granular goals first. Allowing you to either distribute an Overall goal evenly, or roll up granular goals to a total.

Once you have pressed Save your goals are stored and can be applied to any tile and dashboard in your Dear Lucy.

Applying goals to tiles on the dashboards

When you have saved your goal you can go to any tile on any dashboard and add it where it applies. In our example, we added a Sales Rep sales goal and we'll now apply it to our Sales Forecast: This Month tile.

1. Navigate to the dashboard you want to add the goal to
2. Press the pen (Edit dashboard) icon in the bottom right corner of the dashboard

3. Press the pen (Edit tile) icon in the top menu of the tile

   

4. In the Edit tile menu, you can now see the Goal section where you can choose to apply your goal

In the goal section you can choose how you want your goal to be displayed both in terms of comparing to the actual goal value (as opposed to Progress % or Delta between goal and actual for example), but also how you would like the traffic light coloring (green / red background color of the tile) to behave. These are the same options that were also available under the Advanced options in the overall Goal settings.

Once you're happy with the settings, press Save. Return to the dashboard view and your goal will show up on the dashboard.