Levels, alignment and cycles

Flowtly Editorial Team4 min

Owner levels

Every objective is set at one of three levels — Individual, Department, or Company — which controls both the scope of the goal and who can see it.

Level Scope Visible to
Individual A personal goal for one employee The owner, their manager, HR managers
Department A goal owned by a team or department All department members, their managers, HR managers
Company An organisation-wide goal Every user in the workspace

Setting the right level ensures that personal performance targets stay private while company priorities are visible to everyone. A department head can see all Individual and Department objectives within their team, and HR managers have visibility across all levels and all departments.

Alignment and cascade

Objectives can be aligned to a parent objective to create a cascade from company strategy down to individual goals:

  • Company → Department: A department objective is aligned to a company objective, showing how the team contributes to the organisation's top-level goal.
  • Department → Individual: An individual objective is aligned to a department objective, giving the employee a clear line of sight to their team's priorities.
  • Company → Individual: An individual objective can also align directly to a company objective if no intermediate department layer is needed.

When an objective has aligned children, its detail view shows the contributing lower-level objectives alongside the progress of its own Key Results. This gives managers and executives a single place to track the full cascade.

To set alignment, choose a parent in the Align to a parent objective field when creating or editing an objective. Only objectives at a higher or equal level are available as parents — you cannot align a company objective to an individual one.

Standalone objectives vs cycle-linked objectives

Objectives can be used in two ways:

Standalone objectives have their own start and end dates and exist independently of any review cycle. They are useful for ongoing KPI tracking, long-running initiatives, or goals that do not coincide with a formal performance review. Key Results on standalone objectives can be assessed and updated at any time.

Cycle-linked objectives are connected to a performance review cycle. When the cycle is assessed, the Key Result outcomes for linked objectives flow directly into each employee's performance review. This is the recommended approach for individual performance management — creating objectives at the start of a review period and letting the outcomes drive the review assessment automatically.

Both types can have the full set of Key Results, weights, levels, and alignment. The only difference is whether the outcomes are wired into a review cycle or tracked independently.

Practical example

A company runs quarterly OKR reviews. The process looks like this:

  1. HR creates a Company objective — "Increase ARR by 25% in Q3" — and adds Key Results with weights.
  2. Each department head creates a Department objective aligned to the company goal (e.g. "Onboard 10 new enterprise customers"), also with weighted Key Results.
  3. Each salesperson has an Individual objective aligned to the department goal (e.g. "Close 3 enterprise deals"), linked to the Q3 review cycle.
  4. At quarter end, managers record Key Result outcomes. Individual outcomes roll into performance reviews; department and company realization scores are visible on the Objectives page.

Connection map

Refers toPart of
Documented hereDocumented elsewhere
audit-log records person. second-factor held by person. person works under agreement. work-schedule assigned to person. benefit-assignment held by person. employee-profile describes person. employee-document filed against person. responsibility assigned to person. performance-target set for person. meeting held with person. holiday-request submitted by person. leave-entitlement held by person. project staffed by person. project-rate rates person. booking books person.recordsheld byworks underassigned toheld bydescribesfiled againstassigned toset forheld withsubmitted byheld bystaffed byratesbooksAAudit trail — The record of who did what and when. It is how a user action is investigated after the fact, and what compliance is demonstrated from.Audit trailPPerson — An employee. The central record the rest of the workforce data hangs off — profile, documents, leave, benefits, rates.PersonSSecond factor — The extra proof of identity asked for at sign-in on top of the password — a six-digit code from an authenticator app, changing every 30 seconds.Second factorAAgreement — The document formalizing the terms between the organisation and one employee or contractor. It is the foundation of the employees module: whether someone has an active agreement decides whether they appear in the other modules at all.AgreementWWork schedule — The working days, hours and breaks assigned to an employee, from the week the assignment starts. It is what the Work Time calendar draws.Work scheduleEEmployee benefit — One benefit granted to one person for a date range. A person can hold several at once.Employee benefitEEmployee profile — The detailed record for one person: contact details, job role, department, employment history.Employee profileEEmployee document — A file attached to a person — a contract, a review, anything filed against them.Employee documentRResponsibility — An area of ownership assigned to a person.ResponsibilityPPerformance target — An objective set for a person and measured against.Performance targetMMeeting — A recorded one-to-one or review between people.MeetingHHoliday request — An employee's request for time off, submitted for approval. Approving it is what turns it into leave the rest of the system counts.Holiday requestEEntitlement — How much leave a person has for the leave year. A request draws it down; the balance is what remains.EntitlementPProject — The core organizational unit for a business initiative, client engagement or internal work. Everything tracked — time, cost, invoicing, profitability — hangs off one.ProjectMMember rate — A team member's billing or cost rate on a project. Rates are per member, so the same person can cost differently on two projects.Member rateBBooking — One person committed to one role for a stretch of weeks, at a percentage of their time. A booking is a plan, not a record of work done.Booking