OKR Cycles
Audience: Strategy Manager, CEO, Team Leads Page Type: How-To Guide Duration: 15–30 minutes
What is an OKR Cycle?
An OKR Cycle is the time-bound container for a set of Objectives and Key Results. While a Planning Period covers the full planning period (e.g., a year), OKR Cycles typically run at quarterly or semi-annual frequency within it.
Planning Period: 2025 Annual Strategy (Jan–Dec)
├── OKR Cycle: Q1 2025 (Jan–Mar)
├── OKR Cycle: Q2 2025 (Apr–Jun)
├── OKR Cycle: Q3 2025 (Jul–Sep)
└── OKR Cycle: Q4 2025 (Oct–Dec)
Each OKR Cycle has its own set of Objectives and Key Results, and its own scoring/closing workflow.
Creating an OKR Cycle
- Go to Goals & Tracking → OKR Cycles
- Click + New OKR Cycle
- Fill in:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Descriptive label | "Q1 2025 – Sales Team" |
| Planning Period | Taken from the selected parent planning period; no separate unit field | 2025 Annual Strategy |
| Start Date | Cycle start | January 1, 2025 |
| End Date | Optional cycle end | March 31, 2025 |
| Periodicity | Monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual; initially quarterly | Quarterly |
- Click Save. Approval belongs to the unit OKR workflow; there is no separate approval checkbox in this form.
OKR Cycle Status Flow
Draft → Planning → In approval → Active → Review → Completed → Closed
| Status | What it means | Allowed next steps |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Created, being prepared | Planning |
| Planning | OKRs are being written | In approval, Draft |
| In approval | OKRs are in approval | Active, Planning |
| Active | Running; open to check-ins and key result measurements | Review |
| Review | End-of-period scoring; key result writes still open | Completed, Active |
| Completed | Objectives and key results are locked | Closed |
| Closed | Final state; cannot be reopened | — |
Rules:
- One active OKR cycle per periodicity. One annual and one quarterly OKR cycle can be active in a tenant at the same time; a second active cycle of the same periodicity is rejected.
- An OKR cycle can only be activated while its planning period is Active. If the parent planning period is not active, Activate is disabled and the reason is shown. An active OKR cycle cannot be moved under a non-active planning period; an OKR cycle cannot be moved into or out of a closed planning period.
- Status changes only through the status control in the cycle edit screen; only allowed steps are shown.
- Completed and Closed ask for confirmation and are irreversible. The form of a completed or closed OKR cycle is read-only.
- Key results in a Completed or Closed cycle accept no measurements from any channel (UI, Push, Pull); Push returns
CYCLE_LOCKEDand Pull skips the key result. Writes stay open in Review. - Push and Pull update the key result's Actual field (and the target when sent) with the same rules as manual entry; progress and the objective roll-up are calculated the same way. No value history is kept for a key result.
- After a unit OKR plan is approved, the actual value can still be updated manually and through integrations. Approval locks only the plan fields (title, target, start value, weight, type, unit, owner, links); a request that changes the target is rejected with
OKR_LOCKED. An inactive unit blocks every write. - Before closing a planning period, move its active OKR cycle to Review or Completed.
Opening (Activating) a Cycle
- Open the cycle (its planning period must be Active).
- After Draft → Planning → In approval, click Activate.
Closing a Cycle
- Start scoring with Move to review.
- Lock results with Complete (asks for confirmation).
- If needed, move it to the final state with Close cycle.
See OKR Scoring & Quarterly Close for the full end-of-cycle workflow.
Managing OKRs in a Cycle
The cycle card summarizes objectives, pending/approved work, key results, initiatives, weighted progress, health and days remaining. An unavailable metric is shown as “—”.
Open the cycle to use Goals, OKR Tree, OKR Focus, Health, OKR Alignment, and, when authorized, Performance. The health table exports its visible rows as CSV. See OKR Health and Performance for views and scope.
The Goals tab
A cycle opens on the Goals tab. This tab shows the cycle's objectives, key results and initiatives in one table.
- Group by: Theme (default), Unit or Owner.
- The theme grouping lists all themes of the cycle, including themes with no objectives. Objectives linked to no theme come last, under Objectives without a theme.
- An objective inherits the themes of its parent objective. An objective linked to several themes appears once under each theme, with an "Also in: …" note.
- The unit grouping keeps the organization tree (company → division → team). A unit row's progress is calculated from the objectives of the unit and all of its sub-units.
- Columns: name, type, unit, owner, progress, health and last update. Metric key results also show the actual / target value.
- Opening state: All objectives and their key results open expanded. Initiatives stay collapsed under key results that have no objective below them.
- Filters: search, owner (including Me), health, type and theme. The unit filter comes from the unit picker at the top of the page and includes sub-units. Rows above a matching row are shown dimmed. Group progress and health do not change with the filters.
- Address bar: Filters are kept in the address bar, so you can share a filtered view as a link.
- Details: Click a row's name to open the objective's details.
- Confidentiality: The table applies the same visibility rules as the OKR Tree. Confidential objectives you cannot see do not appear in the table.
- Shortcuts: The View in the goals table button on a theme's detail page and on My OKRs opens the table with the matching filter.
The table is for viewing only; you edit objectives, key results and initiatives in the OKR Tree.
Cycle-Level Targets and Review
At the start of each cycle, it's good practice to:
- Align on the cycle-level priority — which 3–5 OKRs are most critical this quarter?
- Schedule the Quarterly Review (QBR) at cycle start — see Reviews & Cadence Meetings
Multiple Active Cycles
One OKR cycle per periodicity can be active at a time (e.g. one annual and one quarterly) under the single active planning period. The My OKRs view shows each user's personal OKRs across all active cycles.