Finance & Accounting OKR examples

Cash is the lifeblood of any business, and finance's department role is to manage the company's cash flow, revenue, and expenses, and make sure the company has resources to achieve its strategic Objectives.

In this article, we'll help you answer these questions:

• How to write good Finance/Accounting OKRs?
  
• What are examples of Finance/Accounting OKRs?
  
• What should I put in my Finance/Accounting OKRs?
  
• Should my Finance OKRs be moonshots? What if we achieve only 70% of our revenue/profit targets?

In the article, we will answer these questions and give you the relevant Finance OKR examples.

Revenue and profit OKR examples

Objective 1: Achieve record revenue and profitability‍

Key Results:

1. Increase the quarterly revenue from $2.2M to $3.0M
   
2. Increase pre-orders for the next quarter from $1.05M to $1.5M
   
3. Increase the quarterly profit from $660k to $900k
   
4. Lower the operational expenses from $1.5M to $1.3M
   

Objective 2: Double the Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)‍

Key Results:

1. Increase the MRR from $160k to $320k
   
2. Increase average monthly subscription size from $350 to $500
   
3. Increase the percentage of monthly subscription renewals from 64% to 85%
   
4. Reduce the monthly churn rate from 3.8% to 2%
   

Objective 3: Increase the company margins‍

Key Results:

1. Increase the gross margins from 45% to 65%
   
2. Reduce the % of deficient components from 2% to 1%
   
3. Increase the operational margins from 62% to 70%

Objective 4: Improve the company cash flow‍

Key Results:

1. Reduce the accounts receivables from $1.5M to $0.5M
   
2. Negotiate the NET30 (instead of NET60) contract with top 10 customers
   
3. Implement NET30 for all new clients
   
4. Reduce the average payment period from 63 days to 30 days
   

Budgeting and Fundraising OKR Examples

Objective 1: Improve quarterly budgeting and planning‍

Key Results:

1. Sign the business line budget proposals before October 12
   
2. Approve the final yearly budget by November 25
   
3. Reduce the budget approval process from 46 days to 20 days
   
4. Achieve 80% satisfaction rate of the new budget approval process
   

Objective 2: Create a financial strategy for the next 3 years‍

Key Results:

1. Conduct a strategic meeting with heads of all departments by September 20
   
2. Complete product roadmap prioritization by October 10
   
3. Finalize and approve budgets by October 30
   
4. Raise $10M for the growth targets in the next year.
   

Objective 3: Close the Series A round‍

Key Results:

1. Shortlist and outreach 200 VCs with relevant experience.
   
2. Conduct 50 pitches with interested investors.
   
3. Receive 5 term sheets.
   
4. Raise $5M at $35M valuation by October 20.
   

Objective 4: Make the team salaries more competitive on the market‍

Key Results:

1. Consult with 3 industry salary experts for the comparison ranges
   
2. Create the program for bringing 100% of salaries to the industry standards in 1 year
   
3. Achieve 80% salary satisfaction level in the team

Tax and accounting OKR examples

Objective 1: Improve operational efficiency‍

Key Results:

1. Conduct external accounting audit by November 15
   
2. Finalize process for vendor purchasing
   
3. Finalize the new deal guideline process with Head of Sales
   

Objective 2: Improve tax compliance‍

Key Results:

1. Reduce the audit adjustments from 3% to 1%
   
2. Reduce the number of tax-related issues/complaints from 5 to 1 per month
   
3. Reduce the number of Accounts Payable holds from 5% to 1%
   
4. Conduct external tax compliance audit
   

Should Finance OKRs be moonshots and aimed to be achieved only 70%?

It's a common question that relates to a popular myth about OKRs.

Indeed, if you'll achieve only 70% of your revenue plans, your company might go bankrupt or have other serious problems (such as layoffs).

Short answer - NO, no OKRs must be moonshots, including finance OKRs.

It's important to distinguish 2 types of OKRs: Moonshots and Roofshots.
Moonshots are the traditional aspirational, stretch Objectives that are the team considers successful if achieved only 70%. They are ideal for R&Ds and new product development.
Roofshots are the Objectives that the team aims to hit 100%. They are also challenging, but not that stretch as moonshots. Roofshots are ideal for financial and operational Objectives, where the costs of missing the numbers are too high.

Most likely, the majority of your finance OKRs will be roofshots. Make sure to communicate this clearly to your team. However, this doesn't mean that you cannot have moonshot Objectives in the finance department, that's also OK, just understand the risks in advance and have a plan to handle it appropriately.

Check out the article Moonshot with roofshot OKRs to learn more about the difference between these 2 types of Objectives.

Summary

Writing good, well structured, and effective OKRs is not easy. Have the patience to run several cycles of iterative improvements, and you'll see how OKRs will boost your team engagement, motivation, and performance. Use the examples above for inspiration and guidance for your own OKRs.

Here are more OKR examples for Sales, Product, Marketing, Engineering, HR/PO teams.

Need a simple and free tool for your team to track OKRs? Check a free OKR tool Peoplelogic.
Peoplelogic has 80+ templates of OKRs with metrics and you can add them to your cycle with just one click.