Goals Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Colin Maitland, 22 October 2012

Goals Management is a key feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. At first glance this feature may seem complex to understand and configure, however, a brief investment of time into understanding Goal Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM will provide a beneficial return.

In this series of blogs I will be writing about the configuration and features of Goals Management. As an example of the one of the features of goals management the following screenshot shows the goal charts that are displayed on the Sales Performance Dashboard in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

 

Goals may be used to measure counts or amounts. E.g. using the example of a company that sells subscriptions to a scientific journal, a count related goal called Number of Subscribers and/or amount related goals called Dollar Value of Subscriptions and/or Quantity of Subscriptions may be defined for specific fiscal periods. The fiscal periods for which goals may be defined include Day, Week, Month, Quarter and Year or any other period you may want to use for measuring progress.

The remainder of this blog post is dedicated to a brief description of the various locations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM from where goal progress can be viewed.

Goal progress may be viewed from the following Dashboards:

• The Customer Service Representative Dashboard displays the Goal Progress (Count) chart. This chart shows goal progress for My Active Goals. Clicking the View the records that are used to generate the chart control opens a window that lists the underlying records displayed in the chart.
 

• The Sales Activity Dashboard displays the Percentage Achieved chart. This chart shows goal progress for My Goals for This Period. 

• The Sales Performance Dashboard displays the Goal Progress (Money) chart for My Goals for This Period, the Goals Progress (Money) chart for My Group’s Revenue Goals for This Period and the Percentage Achieved Chart for My Group’s Revenue Goals for This Period.

• The My Groups Revenue Goals for This Period view selects all Active Goals, based on the Revenue Goal Metric, for the current Fiscal Period that are managed but not owned by the current user. The Revenue Goal Metric measures the dollar value of Open (In Progress) and Closed Won (Actual) Opportunities. For Open Opportunities, the dollar value that is measured is the Estimated Value and for Closed Won Opportunities the dollar value that is measured is the Actual Value. 

• Additionally, goal related views and charts may be added to custom personal or system dashboards.

Goal progress may be viewed from the following Reports:

• Progress Against Goals. This report displays a list and a column chart that displays the Target, Actual and In Progress values for the selected filter condition and Goal Metric. The Goal Metric is a parameter on the report that may be selected when running the report. Goals displayed in the list that have related child goals may be expanded to display the related child goals. The following screenshot shows the Target, Actual and In Progress revenue Goal Metric related goals for the current user and the goals managed by the current user for the current fiscal period.

 

• Additionally, goal related views and charts may be added to custom reports.

Goal progress may be viewed from the following lists, and related charts, accessed by selecting Goals from either the Sales or the Service groups on the Site Map:

• Active Goals
• All Goals
• Closed Goals
• My Active Goals
• My Goals for This Period
• My Group’s Case Goals for This Period
• My Group’s Goals for This Period
• My Group’s Revenue Goals for This Period

• Additionally, personal and custom goal related views may be added to the Goal entity.

The related Goal charts are:

• Goal Progress (Count): This chart displays progress for goals based on the Count metric type.

• Goal Progress (Money): This chart displays progress for goals based on the Amount metric type. 

• Percentage Achieved: This chart displays the percentage achieved to date verses Today’s Target as a percentage for each goal in the related view.

• Today’s Target vs. Actuals (Count): This chart displays the actual achieved to date verses Today’s Target for goals based on the Count metric type.

• Today’s Target vs. Actuals (Money): This chart displays the actual achieved to date verses Today’s Target for goals based on the Amount metric type.

In my next few blogs I will be writing about the components of Goal Charts and also about Goal metrics which are fundamental components of goals management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.