Designing a target model with explicit period semantics
A fictional RevOps case: one annual number, four possible year-to-date answers, and the model that decides which one is true.
Independently created. Contains no employer or client implementation detail, internal names or figures.
01The outcome
One published target per grain and period, with a declared phasing, a version history, a precedence rule and an owner—so YTD performance is reproducible and every change is visible.
The same account shows 90 % in one report and 101 % in another, because targets are loaded as numbers without phasing, version or owner.
What makes a target measurable during the year—and who decides when it changes?
Treat targets as versioned, owned data published from planning at a declared grain and phasing, frozen per period, and read—never edited—by the CRM and the data platform.
Annual targets are agreed per account and product line in a planning spreadsheet, then loaded into the CRM and the data platform by different people. Some teams phase them linearly, others by last year’s seasonality. Mid-year revisions overwrite the original numbers. Year-to-date performance—the basis for segments, recovery plans and bonuses—depends on which copy a report reads.
02The reality · current state
How the business is steered today.
- Two reports show different YTD performance for the same account and month
- Mid-year revisions overwrite targets, so past months are re-measured retroactively
- Accounts without a target silently disappear from performance reports
- Signed targets and the finance budget are mixed in one column
- Nobody owns publication; anyone with access can edit targets in the CRM
- Targets in local currency are compared with actuals at a different rate
03Operating loop
Each step with what happens, who owns it and how often.
- 01Set
Targets agreed at the declared grain: account × product line × year.
- Owner
- Sales leadership with finance
- Cadence
- Annual
- 02Phase
Spread over months with a declared phasing—linear or seasonal—stored with the target.
- Owner
- Commercial planning
- Cadence
- Annual
- 03Publish
One version published to the data platform and the CRM, with an effective date.
- Owner
- Commercial planning
- Cadence
- Per version
- 04Freeze
Frozen per period at a declared date; later changes need approval.
- Owner
- Commercial planning
- Cadence
- Monthly
- 05Revise
A revision creates a new version from an effective date; past months keep theirs.
- Owner
- Sales leadership, approved by finance
- Cadence
- Quarterly, if needed
The outcome of the last step changes the first one next period.
04Key dimension · Target grain, versions & YTD logic
A target is data plus governance
Each dimension has a grain, an owner and a rule. The lifecycle makes every change a version rather than an overwrite.
| Dimension | Grain | Owner | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account × product line | Month | Commercial planning | The authoritative grain; everything else aggregates from it |
| Salesperson | Month | Derived | Sum of the owner’s accounts—never set separately |
| Team and region | Quarter | Derived | Aggregated; a top-down gap is shown as unallocated |
| Business unit | Year | Sales leadership | Top-down; must reconcile with the account sum |
| Subsidiary | Year | Finance | Local currency, converted at the planning rate |
| Period | Calendar month | Commercial planning | Phasing declared per target: linear or seasonal |
Target lifecycle: every change is a version
- DraftCommercial planning
Working numbers; not visible in the CRM
- ProposedSales leadership
Top-down and account sums compared; gaps explained
- SignedSales leadership with finance
The commercial commitment for the year
- PublishedCommercial planning
Versioned and effective-dated; read by the CRM and the data platform
- FrozenAutomatic, per period
Closed months cannot change
- RevisedSales leadership, approved by finance
A new version from an effective date; history kept
Performance is always measured against the version that was in force for that month. That single rule removes most “why did last quarter change?” conversations.
05KPI contracts
Every measure with an owner, a cadence and an action.
| Metric | Definition | Owner | Cadence | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance to YTD target | (Invoiced + open orders) ÷ phased target in force, year to date | Sales operations | Daily; provisional until period close | Feeds segmentation and recovery |
| Target coverage of the customer base | Share of active accounts with a published target | Commercial planning | At publication | Assign targets or document exclusions |
| Unallocated gap | Top-down target − sum of account targets, by unit | Sales leadership | Quarterly | Allocate, or accept the gap explicitly |
06Accountability
Who owns what, decides what—and escalates to whom.
| Role | Owns | Decides | Escalates to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial planning | Grain, phasing, publication and freeze | When a version is published | Sales leadership |
| Sales leadership | The signed target and its revisions | Whether a revision is requested | Executive team |
| Finance | Budget, currency and planning rates | Approval of revisions affecting the budget | CFO |
| Sales operations | YTD definitions in every KPI | Which version and phasing a KPI reads | Governance forum |
07The trade-offs
Credible options, judged against these premises.
Load a spreadsheet of annual numbers into the CRM
One team, no mid-year changes
Cost: No phasing, no versions, no ownerLet each report phase and convert targets itself
Exploratory analysis
Cost: Different YTD answers for the same accountVersioned targets published from planning, read everywhere
Targets that drive segments, plans and reviews
Cost: A publication process and a planning owner08The second layer
Questions that change the design.
Semantics
- Calendar or fiscal year?
- Linear or seasonal phasing?
- How are partial months treated?
Versions
- What happens when a target changes mid-year?
- Signed target or budget—which does each KPI use?
- Which target takes precedence?
Gaps
- What happens to accounts with no target?
- Which currency and rate apply?
- Who owns publication, and when is it frozen?
09Decisions & outputs
What the work produces.
- 01Target grain model
- 02Phasing rules
- 03Version and freeze lifecycle
- 04Precedence rules
- 05YTD definition
- 06Publication process