5 customisable OKR examples for Financial Automation
What are Financial Automation OKRs?
The Objective and Key Results (OKR) framework is a simple goal-setting methodology that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s. It became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s, and it's now used by teams of all sizes to set and track ambitious goals at scale.
Crafting effective OKRs can be challenging, particularly for beginners. Emphasizing outcomes rather than projects should be the core of your planning.
We've tailored a list of OKRs examples for Financial Automation to help you. You can look at any of the templates below to get some inspiration for your own goals.
If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read our OKR guide online.
Building your own Financial Automation OKRs with AI
While we have some examples available, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. You can use our free AI generator below or our more complete goal-setting system to generate your own OKRs.
Our customisable Financial Automation OKRs examples
You will find in the next section many different Financial Automation Objectives and Key Results. We've included strategic initiatives in our templates to give you a better idea of the different between the key results (how we measure progress), and the initiatives (what we do to achieve the results).
Hope you'll find this helpful!
1. OKRs to implement automation in financial reporting
- Implement automation in financial reporting
- Procure and integrate an automation tool by week 8
- Research and select a suitable automation tool by week 4
- Install and test automation tool integration by week 8
- Purchase chosen automation tool in week 5
- Identify and standardize 100% reportable financial data by week 6
- Review all current financial data for standardization
- Implement standardization protocol by week 6
- Establish parameters for 100% reportable data
- Reduce financial report generation time by 50% by week 12
- Implement automation software for faster report compilation
- Delegate assignments among financial team members
- Improve and streamline data collection processes
2. OKRs to implement automation for recurring journal entries
- Implement automation for recurring journal entries
- Choose and onboard an automation software/tool by end of the first month
- Purchase and install the selected software
- Conduct initial setup and staff training
- Research and select a suitable automation tool
- Migrate 50% of recurring entries to the automation system by the second month
- Implement necessary changes for automation integration
- Achieve 50% automation of recurring entries
- Identify recurring entries eligible for automation
- Achieve 100% accurate automation for all recurring entries by the end of the quarter
- Identify all processes involved in managing recurring entries
- Regularly audit and refine automation system
- Implement automation software tailored to those processes
3. OKRs to complete the Financial Statement promptly
- Complete the Financial Statement promptly
- Streamline the auditing and approval process by 15%
- Implement automated systems to expedite the auditing process
- Reduce approval stages and unnecessary checks
- Train staff to increase proficiency in audit procedures
- Reduce errors in financial reporting by 20%
- Provide ongoing accounting training for staff
- Implement stricter internal audit protocols
- Invest in automated financial reporting software
- Increase efficiency in data collection and processing by 30%
- Streamline data validation and consolidation processes
- Train staff on efficient data management strategies
- Implement automated systems for data collection and processing
4. OKRs to streamline and expedite cost allocation computation process
- Streamline and expedite cost allocation computation process
- Decrease computation process by 30% through automation or process enhancement
- Design and implement automation scripts or software
- Identify areas where automation can reduce computational processes
- Evaluate and tweak enhancements for optimal efficiency
- Successfully complete 100% of cost allocation computations by day 3
- Review and finalize computations by day 3
- Start cost allocation computations on day 1
- Dedicate sufficient time and staff to computations
- Develop a plan to optimize the computation method within the first 2 weeks
- Identify current computation inefficiencies
- Implement and test the chosen method
- Research alternative, optimized computation methods
5. OKRs to enhance the accounting, financial, and tax processes architecture
- Enhance the accounting, financial, and tax processes architecture
- Implement a new accounting system, improving data accuracy by 30%
- Implement regular data accuracy checks
- Train staff on new software operations
- Research and choose an advanced accounting system
- Decrease tax-related errors by 20% through updated software integration
- Train staff effectively on new software usage
- Research and identify advanced tax software solutions
- Implement selected software into company systems
- Increase process automation by 25% reducing manual efforts in financial tasks
- Train all finance team members on new automated systems
- Review and adjust automation protocols regularly for efficiency
- Implement advanced accounting software for streamlined financial operations
Financial Automation OKR best practices to boost success
Generally speaking, your objectives should be ambitious yet achievable, and your key results should be measurable and time-bound (using the SMART framework can be helpful). It is also recommended to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.
Here are a couple of best practices extracted from our OKR implementation guide 👇
Tip #1: Limit the number of key results
The #1 role of OKRs is to help you and your team focus on what really matters. Business-as-usual activities will still be happening, but you do not need to track your entire roadmap in the OKRs.
We recommend having 3-4 objectives, and 3-4 key results per objective. A platform like Tability can run audits on your data to help you identify the plans that have too many goals.
Tip #2: Commit to weekly OKR check-ins
Don't fall into the set-and-forget trap. It is important to adopt a weekly check-in process to get the full value of your OKRs and make your strategy agile – otherwise this is nothing more than a reporting exercise.
Being able to see trends for your key results will also keep yourself honest.
Tip #3: No more than 2 yellow statuses in a row
Yes, this is another tip for goal-tracking instead of goal-setting (but you'll get plenty of OKR examples above). But, once you have your goals defined, it will be your ability to keep the right sense of urgency that will make the difference.
As a rule of thumb, it's best to avoid having more than 2 yellow/at risk statuses in a row.
Make a call on the 3rd update. You should be either back on track, or off track. This sounds harsh but it's the best way to signal risks early enough to fix things.
How to turn your Financial Automation OKRs in a strategy map
Quarterly OKRs should have weekly updates to get all the benefits from the framework. Reviewing progress periodically has several advantages:
- It brings the goals back to the top of the mind
- It will highlight poorly set OKRs
- It will surface execution risks
- It improves transparency and accountability
Spreadsheets are enough to get started. Then, once you need to scale you can use a proper OKR platform to make things easier.
If you're not yet set on a tool, you can check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates guide to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.
More Financial Automation OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
OKRs to successfully complete 80% of the content project OKRs to improve efficiency & accuracy of invoice monitoring OKRs to strengthen strategic partnership for maximum business growth OKRs to reduce turnover rate through retention strategies OKRs to improve mobile user experience for our ecommerce website OKRs to boost client engagement and improve retention rates
OKRs resources
Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.
- To learn: What is the meaning of OKRs
- Blog posts: ODT Blog
- Success metrics: KPIs examples
What's next? Try Tability's goal-setting AI
You can create an iterate on your OKRs using Tability's unique goal-setting AI.
Watch the demo below, then hop on the platform for a free trial.