Goals and KPIs

Goals say what someone should achieve in a performance cycle. KPIs measure it. Each goal carries one or more KPIs from the organisation’s library, each with a target, and the actuals recorded against them become the person’s score.

Individual goals are employee-driven and manager-approved: the employee drafts their own goals in the cycle’s goal-setting window, submits them, and their manager approves them. Only approved goals count in scoring.

Who can manage the KPI library, set any goal and decide any goal set: Owner, HR admin.

Who can set and approve goals for their direct reports: Owner, HR admin, Manager.

Employees draft their own goals and record their own progress. See Your goals. Managers have their own guide: Your team’s goals.

Before you start

• Set up scoring in Performance → Settings. See Scoring and grades.
• Create a performance cycle in Performance → Cycles. See Performance cycles.

The KPI library

The KPI library is the list of measures every goal is built from. Open Performance and choose the KPI library tab.

Add a KPI

1. Click New KPI.

2. Enter a Name and, if you want, a Description.

3. Choose the Unit: Percent, Count, Naira, Hours or Days.

4. Choose the Direction: Higher is better or Lower is better.

5. Choose where the Actual comes from:

   • Entered by hand: the employee (or their manager or HR) records progress.
   • Held elsewhere, entered by hand: the figure lives in another system and is typed in.
   • Attendance rate (from timesheets), Leave days taken (from the leave ledger), Client rating and Placements made (agency recruiters): Cadre works the actual out itself. See Automatic actuals.

6. Choose how Several entries combine:

   • Entries add up: each update adds to the total.
   • Latest entry is the actual to date: each update replaces the last.
   • Average of the entries: updates are averaged.

7. Click Add KPI.

To stop a KPI being used, click Archive on its row. It can no longer be added to a goal. Goals already using it keep it, and past scorecards are unchanged. Turn on Show archived to see archived KPIs.

Goal levels

Level	Who sets it	What it measures
Organisation	HR	The organisation as a whole
Team	HR, and a manager for their own department	A department or a worksite
Individual	The employee, their manager or HR	One person

A goal can cascade from a goal at a higher level, so an individual goal can sit under a team goal and a team goal under an organisation goal.

Weights

Each goal has a Weight (%), and each KPI on a goal has its own weight.

• An owner’s goal weights must total 100%. Cadre checks this before an individual goal set can be submitted, and before a cycle can move to scoring.
• A goal’s KPI weights must total 100%.

The Goals tab lists every owner’s goal set with Ready or Needs fixing, and says what needs fixing.

Targets, thresholds and stretch

When you add a KPI to a goal you set three figures. The form says at the top which way the KPI runs, Higher is better or Lower is better, and its hints follow that direction.

• Threshold (worst) (optional): the worst result that still earns credit. Past it, the KPI earns no credit.
• Target: full credit at this figure.
• Stretch (best) (optional): extra credit, capped here. Left blank, the scoring scheme’s default stretch applies.

	Higher is better (sales, a loan book)	Lower is better (late days, exceptions found)
The order	threshold ≤ target < stretch	threshold ≥ target > stretch
Threshold	From 0 up to the target. Below this, no credit.	At or above the target. Above this, no credit.
Stretch	Above the target	From 0 to below the target. 0 is allowed: the best result is none at all

For example, a Compliance exceptions found KPI with threshold 5, target 3 and stretch 0: 6 or more earns nothing, 4 or 5 earns part of the credit, 3 earns full credit, and fewer than 3 earns extra credit. With a stretch of 0, extra credit is capped at the scoring scheme’s default stretch.

Under the figures, How credit works shows those ranges for the figures you typed, before you save.

If a figure is on the wrong side, Cadre says so and quotes what you typed, for example: For a lower-is-better KPI the threshold must be at or above the target (3). You entered 1. A target must be more than zero; for a zero-defect goal, use a target of 1 and a stretch of 0.

A Naira target is entered in Naira, such as 1500000 or 1,500,000.50.

Set goals as HR

You can set any goal at any level from the Goals tab while the cycle is Open.

1. Open Performance and choose the Goals tab.

2. Choose the Cycle.

3. Click Add goal.

4. Choose the Level. For a team goal, choose whether The team is a department or a worksite, then the Team. For an individual goal, choose the Employee.

5. Enter the Title, an optional Description, the Weight (%) and an optional Due date. If the goal belongs under another, choose it in Cascades from.

6. Click Add goal.

7. On the goal’s row, click Add a KPI (the plus), choose the KPI from the library, enter the targets and the Weight (%), and click Add KPI.

An individual goal you add joins that person’s goal set, which must still be submitted and approved before it counts.

Who set a goal

Cadre records who set each goal and each KPI on a goal: the employee themselves, their manager, HR (or an owner), or the cascade from an organisation or team KPI. A KPI that counts towards an organisation or team KPI is treated as set by the organisation.

On their own goals, an employee can’t change or remove anything their organisation set. They see it marked Set by your organisation, with who to ask: their approver, else their line manager, else HR. Specifically, they can’t change such a goal’s title, description, weight, due date or alignment, archive it, or add, change or remove its KPIs; and they can’t change or remove a KPI you put on one of their own goals, or archive that goal while the KPI is on it. Their own goals stay theirs, and every change still goes for approval.

HR, owners and managers are not restricted: you can change any goal or KPI as before. Changing a goal the employee set doesn’t make it yours; it is still theirs to change.

Weights. A person’s goal weights must still total 100%. If the goals you and their manager set already total 100%, the employee’s own goals take a weight of 0%: tracked, but not scored. Cadre accepts 0% only for an employee’s own goal, and only then.

Goals and KPIs that existed before Cadre recorded this were filled in from who created them. Where that can’t be told, they count as the employee’s own, so nothing was locked by a guess.

Move a team goal to another team

If a team goal was set on the wrong department or worksite, move it instead of archiving it and adding it again. Click Edit on the goal, choose the right The team is a and Team, and click Save. Its KPIs, targets, what it cascades from and the goals that cascade from it all go with it. HR can move any team goal; a manager can move one only between teams they set goals for. Goals can move while the cycle is open.

Once the cycle moves to scoring, goals and targets are frozen.

Goal sets and approval

A person’s individual goals in a cycle form one goal set. It moves through these states:

State	What it means
Draft	Being written. The employee, their manager or HR can change it
Waiting for approval	Submitted. Frozen until the approver decides
Approved	Counts in scoring
Returned	Sent back with a comment. It becomes a draft again on the next edit

To submit, a set needs at least one goal, goal weights totalling 100% and each goal’s KPI weights totalling 100%.

The approver is the person’s line manager when the set is submitted. If they have no manager, the approver is HR. Owners and HR admins can always decide. Nobody decides on their own goals, HR included.

Decide a goal set

1. Open Performance and choose the Approvals tab. Goals to approve lists the sets waiting. As HR you see every one.

2. Click Review on the person’s row.

3. Read the goals, their weights and their KPIs.

4. Click Approve, or click Return with a comment, write What should change?, and click Return. A comment is required. The person sees it on their goals page; the email only says the goals were returned.

Exclude a set from scoring

Sometimes a set cannot be approved in time: the person is on long leave, or joined late. HR can leave it out of scoring instead.

1. Open the person’s goals from Approvals or Team goals.

2. Click Exclude from scoring.

3. Give a Reason and click Exclude.

An excluded set no longer holds the cycle back, and is not scored. Click Include in scoring to bring it back.

Readiness for scoring

As HR, the Approvals tab also shows Readiness for scoring: how many sets are Approved, Waiting for approval, Draft or returned and Excluded, and how many employees have No goals yet, with a list of what still blocks the cycle. A cycle can move to scoring only when every set with goals is approved or excluded and no change request is waiting.

The goal-setting window

Each cycle has a goal-setting window: by default the first 14 days of the cycle’s period. You change the default length in Performance → Settings → Goal-setting window (days) (1 to 90 days), and each cycle’s window in Performance → Cycles. See Performance cycles.

• Inside the window, employees draft, edit and submit their own goals. Editing an approved set inside the window sends it back to Draft, to be approved again.
• Outside the window, only the manager and HR can draft and submit, while the cycle is open.
• After the window, an approved goal changes only through a change request.

Change requests

After the window closes, an approved goal set changes only through a change request.

1. The employee, or their manager, clicks Ask for a change on the approved set. They can change a goal’s title, description, weight, due date and alignment, a KPI’s target and weight, or remove a goal. They cannot add new goals or KPIs. They say Why should the goals change? and click Send for approval.
2. The approved version stays in force until the request is decided, and both versions are kept on the request.
3. The approver sees it under Goal changes to decide on the Approvals tab, and approves it or rejects it with a reason.

Only one change request can wait per set. The change must still leave the weights at 100%.

To add new goals or KPIs after the window, reopen the window for the cycle.

Progress updates

Employees record progress on their own KPIs that are entered by hand: a value, the date it applies to, a note, and optional evidence (PDF, PNG, JPEG or Word, up to 10 MB). Evidence is filed on the person’s record.

You choose how an update counts in Performance → Settings, under An employee’s progress update:

• Counts at once; the manager can adjust it (the default).
• Waits for the manager to confirm. The update does not count until the manager confirms, adjusts or rejects it.

Either way, the manager can adjust an update with a reason (their figure then counts, and the employee’s is kept), or reject it with a reason. Updates waiting appear under Updates to confirm on the Approvals tab. HR can review any.

Late updates are never refused while the cycle takes actuals (while it is Open or Scoring).

What people enter

The form tells each person what to enter, from how the KPI adds up:

• Each update adds to the total (sales, new customers): Enter what you did this week (28 Sep – 4 Oct). Cadre adds it to your total. Under the figure: Your total: ₦2,100,000.00 → ₦2,600,000.00 · 42% of ₦6,130,000.00.
• Each update is the value to date (a rate, a balance): Enter the figure as it stands today., with the figure now and the target.
• Updates are averaged (a score): Enter this week’s figure. Your figure is the average of your updates.

One update per period, and the running-total check

Each person has one update of their own per KPI in each period: a week (Monday to Sunday), a fortnight (two weeks counted from the cycle’s start) or a calendar month, as set below. With no set period, it is one a day. If they already made one for that period, the form opens it for them to change instead of adding a second, and Cadre refuses a second one even from a double click or a second tab. Figures recorded by a manager or HR, and automatic figures, are not limited.

On a KPI that adds up, a figure that is at least the person’s total so far, and at least 1.8 times their usual figure (the average of their other updates), looks like their total typed again. Cadre asks them to confirm it, and offers the difference as this week’s figure. A steady week, about the same as the last, never asks, and a first update never does. It is never refused or saved without asking.

Changing and withdrawing an update

People can change or withdraw their own update until their manager confirms or adjusts it. Changing keeps the earlier figure on the timeline as Changed; withdrawing keeps it as Withdrawn. Neither counts, on the person’s KPI or on any team or organisation total it adds up to. After the manager has confirmed or adjusted it, only the manager can adjust it.

If someone changes an update that is waiting for their manager, the manager’s Updates to confirm shows the new figure, marked Changed since sent with the figure first sent, so nobody confirms a figure that has gone.

How often people update

How often people update in Performance → Settings sets the period: Weekly (Monday to Sunday), Fortnightly (two weeks from the cycle’s start), Monthly (calendar month) (the default) or None (no reminders; one update a day). Each cycle can change it. Cadre reminds employees when an update is due or overdue, sends managers a digest of reports with overdue updates, and reminds people with no approved goals while the window is open. Reminders never include a figure or a comment.

Colleagues’ figures

Show the team’s contributions to members in Performance → Settings → Goal setting and progress is off by default. Off, people who count towards a team or organisation KPI see their own figures and the total. On, they also see The team’s contributions on that KPI’s timeline: each colleague’s target, figure and % of target. See Roll up to organisation and team targets. Click Save goal setting after changing it.

The timeline

Every KPI has a Timeline: each update by period, newest first, with who recorded it, the value, the note, the evidence, whether it counts, is waiting, was changed or withdrawn, and any adjustment or reason. It shows the running actual against the target, threshold and stretch, and a projection to the end of the period.

Automatic actuals

For KPIs whose actual comes from Cadre, nobody records entries by hand. Cadre works the actual out for each person’s individual goals:

• Attendance rate: of the rostered working days so far that have an approved timesheet and are not covered by approved leave, the percentage the person attended.
• Leave days taken: the days taken on the leave ledger in the period so far. Leave types that keep no balance, such as unpaid leave, do not count.
• Placements made: for an agency recruiter, the placements they are credited with that started in the period and have not failed.

To bring automatic actuals up to date, open Performance → Cycles and click Refresh automatic actuals on the cycle’s row while it is Open. Cadre shows what it refreshed and anything it skipped, with the reason.

Automatic actuals are worked out per person. When an automatic KPI is on an organisation or team goal, its figure comes from the people who carry it: attendance and client ratings are averaged, and leave days and placements are added up. Refreshing brings people’s figures up to date, and the team’s figure follows. See Automatic KPIs on organisation and team goals.

Record an actual as HR

For a KPI entered by hand, HR can also record an actual from the Goals tab. Click Actuals on the KPI, enter the Actual, the date it Applies to and any Evidence, and click Record. Actuals can be recorded until calibration starts.

An organisation or team KPI whose actual rolls up from people’s KPIs cannot be entered by hand. To record it by hand, open the KPI on the Targets tab and choose Don’t add up — HR enters the team figure under How it adds up.

Roll up to organisation and team targets

An organisation or team KPI can have its actual worked out from the KPIs of the people, or teams, that carry it. A branch’s loan portfolio can be the sum of its loan officers’ portfolios, and its recovery rate the average of theirs. You choose the rule for each KPI, so it fits the way your organisation measures things.

Who can choose how any organisation or team KPI adds up, and add people to it: Owner, HR admin.

Who can see the Targets tab for their own department's team goals, and set up their team KPIs: Owner, HR admin, Manager.

The rules

On How it adds up	Shown on the card as	What the team’s figure is	Each person’s target
Share it out and add it up	Adds up	Everyone’s figures added up	A share of the target. The shares add up to it
Everyone aims for the same figure, averaged	Averaged	The plain average, for example of a satisfaction score	The same target as the team
Everyone aims for the same figure, averaged by size	Weighted by the other KPI	Each person’s figure counts in proportion to their figure on another KPI	The same target as the team
Don’t add up — HR enters the team figure	Entered by hand	Whatever HR records. Nothing rolls up	Unchanged: each person keeps their own

Averaging by size suits a rate that depends on size. A recovery rate weighted by each person’s loan portfolio means a bigger book counts for more. If every weight is zero, Cadre uses the plain average and says so on the card: Every weight is zero, so this is the plain average.

Cadre marks one rule Picked for you. Amounts, counts, hours and days whose updates add up are shared out and added up. A percentage, or a figure that is the latest or an average, is averaged. You can choose any rule.

A new organisation or team KPI starts with the rule picked for it (from 3 October 2026). Before that, every new KPI started on Entered by hand. When this changed, Cadre also switched existing organisation and team KPIs that nobody carried yet, that nobody had entered a figure for, in an open cycle, to the rule picked for them. KPIs people already carry kept their rule.

While a KPI rolls up, its actual cannot be entered by hand. Choose Don’t add up — HR enters the team figure to do that. This choice is not offered for a KPI Cadre works out itself. See Automatic KPIs on organisation and team goals.

Automatic KPIs on organisation and team goals

Some KPIs are worked out by Cadre: Attendance rate, Client rating, Leave days taken and Placements made. Cadre works their figures out for each person. When one of these KPIs is on an organisation or team goal, the team’s figure always comes from the people who carry it:

KPI	Shown on the card as	The team’s figure
Attendance rate	From timesheets · averaged	The average of the people’s attendance rates
Client rating	From client ratings · averaged	The average of the people’s ratings
Leave days taken	From leave records · adds up	The people’s leave days added up
Placements made	From placements · adds up	The people’s placements added up

You can change between adding up and averaging on How it adds up. Don’t add up — HR enters the team figure is not offered, because nobody can enter an automatic KPI’s figure by hand. The panel says so.

When nobody who carries the KPI has a figure yet, the card says why instead of showing a dash:

• No approved timesheets yet in Q4 2026: nobody carrying an attendance rate has an approved timesheet on a rostered day in the cycle so far.
• No client ratings recorded yet: nobody carrying a client rating has been rated in the cycle.
• No leave days worked out yet in Q4 2026 or No placements worked out yet in Q4 2026: their figures have not been worked out yet.
• Not worked out yet: HR refreshes automatic actuals on the cycle: there is something to work out, such as approved timesheets, but nobody has refreshed automatic actuals since. See Automatic actuals.
• Figures count once people’s goals are approved: people have figures, but none of their goals is approved yet. See What counts.

The People tab gives the same reason under each person who has no figure yet.

From 3 October 2026, a new automatic KPI on an organisation or team goal starts averaged or added up as in the table. Automatic organisation and team KPIs in an open cycle that were set to Entered by hand were switched once, in the same way. No figure could have been entered on them, so nothing was lost.

The Targets tab

Open Performance and choose the Targets tab. Owners and HR admins see the organisation and every team. A line manager sees their own department’s team goals, and only their direct reports. The totals are still the whole team’s.

Choose the Cycle, the organisation or a team, and Weekly or Monthly for the trend. The trend follows the cycle’s update reminders unless you change it.

The page shows:

• The cycle’s overall % of target, headed (cycle name) target achieved. It combines the KPIs’ % of target using their weights, for example portfolio 40, recovery 30 and satisfaction 30.
• The trend: % of target to date, week by week or month by month.
• How many KPIs are not shared out yet, for example 2 KPIs not shared out yet. An amount or count (a KPI whose picked rule is to share it out) is not shared out while nobody carries it, or while it is entered by hand.
• A card for each KPI: how it adds up (Entered by hand is marked as a warning; an automatic KPI says where its figures come from, for example From timesheets · averaged), the total so far in its own unit against its target, its % of target, and, for a KPI where lower is better, lower is better beside the target. A KPI that adds up also shows where it is heading by the end of the cycle: On pace for ….
• Who carries each KPI, on its card: their initials, 2 people carry it, and how the first few are doing, for example Jennifer ₦4.1m of ₦6.13m · Vivian ₦3.2m of ₦6.13m. Everyone who has the KPI on their goals is counted, whether their goals are approved, waiting for approval or still in draft. A KPI nobody carries says Nobody carries it yet.
• Who is contributing: each person’s figures in each KPI’s unit, their own % of target, and their last update or Overdue since …. For a KPI with shares, a figure shows as actual / share. The last line is the rolled-up total.

Each card has Show people (or Add people when nobody carries it) and Open. Both open the KPI’s panel.

How many people carry a KPI, and how many count towards a target, are shown only to owners and HR admins. A manager sees Your reports who carry it instead.

What counts

• Only counted updates. If your organisation asks managers to confirm progress updates, an update waiting for the manager does not count towards the total until it is confirmed. See Progress updates.
• Only approved goals. A person’s KPI counts towards the total once their goals are approved. Until then, the People tab shows Counts once approved.

The KPI’s panel

Show people, Add people and Open open one panel for the KPI, with its goal, its rule and its target at the top, and three tabs:

• How it adds up: the rule.
• People: who carries it.
• Add people: putting it on more people’s goals.

How it adds up

1. On the Targets tab, click Open on the KPI’s card. The panel opens at How it adds up.

2. Choose a rule. Each one says what each person’s target will be, for example Each person’s target: a share, such as ₦6,130,000.00 of ₦12,260,000.00. For Everyone aims for the same figure, averaged by size, choose the KPI it is Weighted by.

3. Check With today’s figures: each person’s figure, and the team’s worked out from them under the rule saved now.

4. Click Save. If the shares would not add up to the target, Cadre asks you to confirm with Save anyway.

Saving keeps everyone who carries the KPI and every share HR changed. It changes their targets to follow the rule: a share each when adding up, the team’s target when averaging, and nothing when HR enters the figure. See Saving changes people’s targets. To change the KPI’s own target or weight, use Targets on the Goals tab.

People

The People tab shows, at the top, what has been achieved so far and its % of target, the shares given out and whether they add up to the target, and the last figure and who sent it.

Below is everyone who carries the KPI: their job title and location (or department), their share or target, their figure so far, their progress against their share, and where their goals stand: Approved, Waiting for approval, Draft or Returned. The last line is the team’s.

• Change share (when the KPI adds up): type a share for the person. It is marked Changed by HR and kept; Cadre splits the rest again and shows everyone’s share before you save. Use an equal share returns the person to an equal share.
• Stop counting (the cross on the row): the person’s KPI no longer counts towards this one. Their target stays as it is; when the KPI adds up, the others’ shares are split again.

Changing a share changes that person’s goals. Approved goals go back for approval. See Saving changes people’s targets.

Share out the target

When a KPI adds up, its target is shared out between the people who carry it:

• Cadre splits the target equally. Money is split to the kobo, and any remainder goes on the first shares.
• A share you type is marked Changed by HR, and kept when the rest are split again.
• A share’s threshold and stretch follow the organisation or team KPI’s, in proportion.

Cadre says whether the shares add up: Add up to the target, or short of it or over it, and by how much. If they do not add up, Cadre asks you to confirm rather than refusing.

Add people

Add people puts an organisation or team KPI on many people’s goals at once: a department, a manager’s team, chosen people or an agency client’s workers, in one go.

Who can add any organisation or team KPI to anyone's goals: Owner, HR admin.

Who can add their own department's team KPIs to their direct reports' goals: Owner, HR admin, Manager.

1. On the Targets tab, click Add people on the KPI’s card (or Show people, then the Add people tab). The tab opens at 1 · Who.

2. Under Whose goals get this KPI?, choose:

   • A department: everyone currently in it.
   • A manager’s team: everyone reporting to the manager, directly or further down.
   • Chosen people: pick names from the organisation.
   • An agency client’s workers: the workers placed at a client. Shown only to an agency with clients.

3. Cadre lists everyone it reaches and where their goals stand: No goals yet, Has goals in Draft, Goals approved: will go back to Draft, Already linked to this KPI, or Cannot change now with the reason. Untick anyone to leave out, then click Review.

4. Under 2 · Review and send, check the Goal title on each person’s goals (the organisation or team goal’s title unless you change it). Leave Share of each person’s scorecard (%) blank to give each new goal what that person has left, or type a figure to use it for everyone. If the new goal would take anyone over 100%, choose under Make room on their scorecard whether to Scale their other goals down (the default) or Leave their other goals as they are. See Weights.

5. Read what Cadre will do for each person, the Weights after, and their share or target. Change a share if you need to. See What Cadre does for each person.

6. Leave Tell each person and their manager ticked to send them a notification, and click Add to … people’s goals.

A manager can add only their own department’s team KPIs, and reaches only their direct reports.

When a KPI is entered by hand

An amount or count that HR enters by hand is not shared out, so everyone would get the whole target. Review and send warns you first: Each person would get the full 60, with what the targets would add up to, for example If Jennifer and Vivian each aim for 60, their targets add up to 120, double the team’s 60. Choose:

• Share it out instead (30 each): the KPI is set to Share it out and add it up, and the review shows each person’s share.
• Keep: everyone gets 60: the warning goes, and everyone gets the full target.

Link a KPI someone already has

Below the steps, Link a KPI someone already has makes a KPI that is already on someone’s goals, or a team’s, count towards this one. A team’s KPI can count towards an organisation KPI this way.

The list shows the same KPI on goals below this one that does not already count towards another KPI, for example Branch Operations · B2 Grow savings in the branch · Active savers. Choose them and click Link. When nobody has the KPI yet, the list says Nobody has this KPI on their goals yet. Use Add people above.

To link a different KPI that measures the same thing, turn on Show other KPIs in the same unit. Cadre then also lists other KPIs in the same unit, marked (another KPI), and warns you: Their figures will be added into Active savers. Only link a different KPI if it measures the same thing. A KPI where lower is better is never offered for one where higher is better, or the other way round, and Cadre refuses to link it.

Someone who would count twice

A person can count towards a KPI twice: directly, through their own KPI linked to it, and again through a team KPI linked to it that they carry. Before you link, Cadre warns you, for example Chioma Eze in Branch Operations already counts towards Active savers directly, so their figure would count twice. Click Link anyway to link all the same. Add people warns you in the same way when you add someone who already counts through a team KPI, and asks you to confirm before sending.

What Cadre does for each person

What they have now	What Cadre does
No goal aligned to this organisation or team goal	Creates the goal, aligned to it, with the KPI on it
A goal aligned to it, without this KPI	Adds the KPI to that goal
This KPI on a goal aligned to it, not linked	Links the KPI, so it counts towards the total
The KPI already linked	Updates the share if it changed, otherwise nothing

Whatever changes is Draft. Nothing is approved by the cascade: each person (or their manager) submits their goals, and their manager approves them as usual. Cadre never approves goals for anyone.

• Approved goals go back to Draft while the cycle’s goal-setting window is open, to be approved again.
• Goals waiting for approval, and approved goals after the window has closed, cannot change. Those people are listed with the reason, and Cadre still adds the KPI for everyone else. To reach them later, decide or return their goals, or reopen the window, and cascade again.
• Weights that do not total 100% are flagged, not refused. They and their manager rebalance before submitting. When a new goal would take someone over 100%, Cadre can make room for it instead: see Make room on their scorecard.

Weights when you cascade

The goal’s share of the scorecard. Left blank, each goal Cadre creates takes what that person has left: someone with a 60% goal already gets a 40% goal, and someone with no goals gets 100%. Someone whose goals already total 100% gets an equal part: 100% divided by the number of goals they will have, so with one goal already, 50%. If you type a figure, every new goal gets it. The review shows each new goal’s weight, for example Creates the goal “Grow revenue” at 40%.

Make room on their scorecard

When the new goal would take someone’s goals over 100%, Review and send asks what to do with their other goals:

• Scale their other goals down (the default): the new goal takes its share, and each of their other goals in the cycle shrinks in proportion, so all their goals total exactly 100%. Weights are rounded to two decimal places, and any rounding difference goes on their largest goal.
• Leave their other goals as they are: the new goal is added on top, shown as, for example, 140% · rebalance, for them and their manager to sort out before submitting.

Their goals now	New goal	Scale their other goals down	Leave them as they are
O2 100%	40%	O2 60%, new goal 40% (100%)	O2 100%, new goal 40% (140%)
O1 70%, O2 30%	40%	O1 42%, O2 18%, new goal 40% (100%)	140%
O2 100%	Left blank	O2 50%, new goal 50% (100%)	150%

What Cadre will do shows the change for each person, for example O2 100% → 60% · creates “O3 Grow deposits” at 40%, and Weights after shows 100%.

• Only the goals’ weights change, never the weights of the KPIs inside them.
• It applies only when Cadre creates a goal for the person. Adding the KPI to a goal they already have doesn’t change their goal weights.
• Someone with no goals yet has nothing to scale.
• No goal is ever scaled to 0%. If one of a person’s goals would round to nothing, Cadre leaves all their goals as they are and says so.
• Their goals change under the same rules as anything else the cascade does: Draft goals change, approved goals go back to Draft only while the goal-setting window is open, and goals waiting for approval are not touched and are listed with the reason.
• Sending again doesn’t scale anyone a second time: once the new goal is there, their goals already total 100%.

After you send, the message says how many people’s goals were rebalanced.

The KPI weights on the goal. When every KPI on a person’s goal comes from the same organisation or team goal, their KPI weights follow that goal’s, scaled to total 100%:

Organisation goal “O1”	The person carries	Their KPI weights
Q4 revenue 60, Opex % 40	Both	60 / 40
Q4 revenue 60, Opex % 40	Q4 revenue only	100
Five KPIs: 35, 20, 15, 20, 10	The 35, the 15 and the 20	50 / 21.43 / 28.57

So cascading Q4 revenue and then Opex % to the same person leaves their goal at 60 / 40, with nothing to fix by hand. The review says when weights a person already has will change, for example KPI weights set to match O1: 60 / 40, and shows KPI weights 100% after.

If the goal also has a KPI of the person’s own, Cadre leaves their weights alone: the new KPI takes what is left of the goal’s KPI weights, or an equal part if none is left, and the total is flagged.

Shares and targets

The targets follow the KPI’s rule, as in Share out the target:

• Share it out and add it up: the target is split equally between the people the cascade changes, to the kobo. Type a different share for anyone; Split equally again keeps the shares you changed, and Equal share returns one person to an equal share. Each share’s threshold and stretch follow the organisation or team KPI’s, in proportion. People already counting towards the KPI from an earlier cascade, and anyone whose goals cannot change now, keep their shares. A bar says whether all the shares add up to the target; if they do not, Cadre asks you to confirm with Send anyway.
• Averaged or averaged by size: everyone gets the organisation or team KPI’s own target, threshold and stretch.
• Entered by hand: nothing is shared out. A new KPI starts at the organisation or team KPI’s target, and anyone who already has the KPI keeps their own. For an amount or count, Cadre warns you first. See When a KPI is entered by hand.

Cascading again

You can cascade the same KPI again, to the same people or to more. Nobody gets the goal twice: people already reached are left as they are, or have their share updated. Clicking Add to … people’s goals twice has the same effect as clicking it once.

Cascading again also brings KPI weights back in line. A goal whose KPIs all come from the organisation or team goal but whose weights no longer match it (for example 100 / 50 from before this rule) is set to match, and counts as a change: an approved set goes back to Draft while the window is open, and goals that cannot change now are left as they are.

People are told once per KPI. A later change to their share is not notified; they see it on their goals.

Saving changes people’s targets

Choosing how a KPI adds up, or changing a share, gives people a target, their share or the same target as the organisation or team KPI, so saving follows the goal-setting rules:

• Inside the goal-setting window, changing the target of someone whose goals are approved sends their goals back to Draft, to be approved again.
• Goals waiting for approval, and approved goals after the window has closed, cannot change. The person or their manager raises a change request.

If anyone’s target cannot change, nothing is saved and Cadre names them. Linking a KPI that HR enters by hand changes nobody’s target.

Why Cadre works this way

• Only % of target is combined across KPIs. Naira, counts and percentages cannot be added together, so each figure stays in its own unit at every level. What is combined is how far each KPI is towards its target, weighted as its goal says.
• Updates waiting for a manager do not count. A total built on unconfirmed figures could be wrong, and the organisation asked for a manager to check them first.
• Changing a target follows goal approval. A person’s target is part of the goals their manager approved. Changing it without that approval would change what they are scored against without anyone agreeing to it.

Related

• Scoring and grades
• Performance cycles
• Your goals
• Your team’s goals