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Manage OKR time periods

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Time periods in Viva Goals

Viva Goals comes with both annual and quarterly time periods. Typically, organizations operate on an annual planning cadence and departments/teams operate on a quarterly planning cadence.

The current time period in Viva Goals is when all OKR activity is happening and is automatically managed by Viva Goals.

When a new quarter begins, Viva Goals automatically sets the current time period for everyone in your organization to the new quarter. All users can see that the current time period has changed to the new quarter.

The Viva Goals administrator for your organization can manage OKR time periods and customize them to your organization's needs. Instead of the default quarterly periods, you could make time periods monthly or define a custom time period.

When you switch to a custom time period cadence, Viva Goals will no longer automatically switch the current time period. You have to manually switch the current period whenever you're ready.

How to manage time periods in Viva Goals

  1. Go to the Time Periods section in the admin dashboard. Select and save the month when your planning year starts. It's set to January by default.

    Screenshot of the time period dialog box.

  2. Use the Add Time Periods option to add custom time periods.

  3. From the Actions menu, set Custom time period as Current Time Period.

    Screenshot showing dialog box where you set a custom time period.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

  1. When are the time periods for my next planning year created?

    1. The time periods for the next planning year (annual and quarterly) will automatically be created in Viva Goals on the first day of the fourth quarter (Q4) of your current planning year.
    2. If you've already started planning for your next year's OKRs before Q4, you can add the next-year time periods from Admin > Time Periods dashboard and start adding your OKRs right away.

  2. Why doesn't my current time period automatically switch over after the last day of the period?

    1. When the administrator adds custom time periods, auto switching of the current time period no longer happens. Users have to manually change the current time period every time.