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Using and Managing Goals

Once goals exist, the Goals page is where you monitor pace, dig into a single goal's history, leave context for the team, and keep targets current.


Filter the Goals Grid​

Two filters in the toolbar control which goals you see:

  • Status — Active (default) or Archived.
  • Period — All periods (default), or a single granularity: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual.

The filters combine — for example, Active + Monthly shows only this month's active goals.


Open a Goal's Details​

Click any goal card to open its detail panel. It shows:

  • Pace header — the same actual-vs-target and status you see on the card, in full.
  • Trend — a line chart of Actual vs. Expected over time. The first point is calculated automatically after creation; nightly refreshes fill in the line as the period progresses. Completed periods plot the real final actual. The current, still-open period plots at its projected finish instead of the partial actual-to-date, marked with its own dot on the line — so the chart doesn't read as a sudden drop at the end just because the period isn't over yet. Hover any point for the raw actual and the fuller explanation.
  • Comments — a running log of notes about the goal.

Add a Comment​

  1. Open the goal's detail panel.
  2. Type in the Add a comment about this goal… box.
  3. Click Add.

Comments are great for recording why a goal is off track, what action was taken, or context for the next review.


Edit a Goal​

  1. On a goal card, click Edit (requires the update permission).
  2. In the editor you can change:
    • Target value and target setup method
    • At-risk threshold override
    • Owner
  3. Click Save changes.
note

A goal's metric, period, and scope are locked after creation — they define what the goal is. To change those, create a new goal with the scope you want. Editing adjusts the target setup, threshold, and owner. When you manually edit the target number, Pulse records the goal as manually targeted.


Archive a Goal​

Goals you no longer track can be archived so they drop out of the Active list without losing their history.

  • View archived goals anytime: set the Status filter to Archived.
  • To archive (or restore) a goal, contact your administrator — archiving is an administrator action.

Refresh Pace Now​

Pace is recalculated automatically every night. Administrators can update it on demand:

  1. Click Refresh pace in the toolbar (visible to administrators) when you specifically need to force an early refresh.
  2. Pulse recomputes pace for every goal in your company using the latest numbers.
  3. Cards and the trend update with the new values.

Use this only when you want to force the freshest numbers before a meeting or review. New goals calculate automatically. The refresh result reports how many goals calculated and how many still need source data or configuration.

tip

Fresh goals show Calculating… and populate automatically from live operational SQL, normally within a few seconds. No Data after calculation means there were no matching rows, the metric could not be computed, or the source was unavailable; the card explains which case applies.


See Goals Outside the Goals Page​

Goal pace also surfaces, read-only, where you already work:

  • Dashboard — the Targets widget (for example, Monthly & Quarterly Targets on the Admin/Owner dashboard) shows snapshotted pace for your goals. See the Dashboard Widget Reference.
  • Reports — a Goals overlay appears on the Reports page and on Stats by Week, showing the pace of goals relevant to that report. It's read-only; create and edit happen on the Goals page.

These views show nothing when goals are disabled or when no goals match — they never get in the way.


Troubleshooting​

A goal still shows "No Data"​

If the goal says Calculating…, its first live-SQL result is still being prepared and the page will update automatically. If it changes to No Data, read the card's explanation: the goal may have no matching source rows, may not be computable from the available values, or the source may be unavailable.

The trend chart is empty​

History starts with the automatic first calculation and grows with nightly refreshes (plus any manual Refresh pace runs).

I don't see the Refresh pace or Create goal buttons​

Those require admin and create permissions respectively. Your role may be view- or edit-only — contact your administrator.