Automatic Status Rollup for Parent OKRs

Last updated: February 10, 2026

Understand how automatic status rollup tracks parent OKR health. See how Rhythms determines On Track, Behind, or At Risk status by comparing progress to time-based expectations, and when to override with your strategic judgment.

When you own a parent OKR with multiple contributing children, keeping track of overall health can be overwhelming. You need to answer: Are we on track? Falling behind? Should we be concerned?

With automatic rollup enabled, Rhythms calculates status for you. Your parent's status is based on the progress of all contributing children, compared against expected progress at this point in time. When you check in, you'll see this calculated status and can accept or override it.

For an overview of how progress and status work together, see 📄 Understanding OKR Automatic RollupUnderstanding OKR Automatic Rollup.

  • Data-driven signals: Status comes from actual calculations: progress vs. expected progress

  • Early warning system: When children fall behind, your parent status reflects it immediately

  • Control when you need it: Accept the calculated status or override with your judgment and context

  • Time savings: No need to manually review all child progress and calculate whether you're on pace

How Status Rollup Works with Automatic Rollup

Status rollup is automatically enabled when you set your parent OKR to use automatic rollup for progress.

To use automatic rollup (which includes status):

  1. Open your parent OKR

  2. Click the current progress value

  3. Select "Update automatically based on rollup from contributing children" from the dropdown

Once enabled, your parent's progress and status will both be calculated automatically based on contributing children.

âš  Important: When you switch to automatic rollup, your parent's displayed progress and status will immediately change to show the calculated values from contributing children. Your previous manual check-ins will remain in the history.

How Status is Calculated

Rhythms determines your parent's status through a process that combines time-based math with child health assessment:

Step 1: Calculate weighted progress

Each contributing child has a weight that determines how much it contributes to the parent. Rhythms calculates the parent's overall progress by combining each child's progress according to its weight. Draft and postponed children are excluded from this calculation (their weight is automatically set to zero).

For details on how weighted progress works and how to adjust weights, see 📄 Intelligent Progress Rollup: How Rhythms Calculates Parent Progress.

Step 2: Determine expected progress

Rhythms calculates where you should be based on time elapsed in your period. For example:

  • 25% through the period = you should be around 25% complete

  • 50% through the period = you should be around 50% complete

  • 75% through the period = you should be around 75% complete

Step 3: Compare and assign status

Rhythms compares your weighted progress to expected progress and assigns status based on the gap:

  • Not Started: No progress has been made yet, and the gap between expected and actual progress is less than 10 percentage points. This recognizes that goals in their early days may not have started yet without being cause for alarm.

  • On Track: Progress is within 10 percentage points of expected progress, or you're ahead of schedule

  • Behind: Progress is 10 to 24 percentage points behind expected progress

  • At Risk: Progress is 25 or more percentage points behind expected progress

Step 4: Consider child health

For parent goals, Rhythms also evaluates the health distribution of contributing children. If the majority of children are in a worse state than the mathematical delta suggests, the parent status reflects that reality. This means a parent won't show On Track if most of its children are At Risk, even when the weighted average looks moderate.

This two-factor approach (mathematical delta plus child health distribution) provides a more accurate picture of true goal health than either factor alone.

Step 5: Review and decide

When you check in, you see the calculated status. You can accept it or override based on your own judgment and context that the system doesn't have.

Example: Seeing It in Action

Your situation: You own "Launch Mobile App" for Q1, and you're halfway through the quarter (50% of time has elapsed).

Your contributing children and their progress:

Child OKR

Progress

Core features complete

70%

Security testing

40%

App store approval

60%

Default Behavior (Equal Contribution)

By default, all contributing children have equal impact on parent progress.

What Rhythms calculates:

  • Weighted progress: 57% (calculated as: (70% + 40% + 60%) / 3 = 57%)

  • Expected progress: 50% (you're halfway through the quarter)

  • Gap: +7 percentage points (you're ahead of schedule)

  • Child health check: Two children ahead or near expected, one moderately behind. Mixed but generally healthy.

  • Calculated Status: On Track

With Custom Weights (Advanced)

If your organization has custom weights enabled and you've assigned strategic importance to each child:

Child OKR

Progress

Weight

Core features complete

70%

40%

Security testing

40%

30%

App store approval

60%

30%

What Rhythms calculates:

  • Weighted progress: 58% (calculated as: (70% × 40%) + (40% × 30%) + (60% × 30%) = 28% + 12% + 18% = 58%)

  • Expected progress: 50% (you're halfway through the quarter)

  • Gap: +8 percentage points (you're ahead of schedule)

  • Child health check: Distribution similar to above, no override needed.

  • Calculated Status: On Track

For details on custom weights and how to configure them, see 📄 Intelligent Progress Rollup: How Rhythms Calculates Parent Progress.

When you open a check-in, you'll see "On Track" as the recommended status. You can accept this, or if you know something the numbers don't show (like the security testing delay threatening the launch date) you can override to "Behind" or "At Risk" and explain why in your notes.

Using Status Recommendations in Check-ins

What you see during check-in

When you check in on your parent:

  1. Calculated progress appears (weighted average from contributing children)

  2. Calculated status appears (based on progress vs. expected, adjusted for child health)

  3. You decide: Accept the recommendation or select different status

  4. Add context: Especially important if you override

When to accept the recommendation

Accept when:

  • The calculated status accurately reflects reality

  • You don't have additional context that changes the picture

  • The weighted math tells the true story

This saves you time and ensures consistency.

When to override

Override when you have information the system doesn't. For example:

External dependencies: Approvals, vendor delays, or blockers not tracked as OKRs.

  • Example: Calculation shows "On Track" but a critical approval is stuck

Weighted importance in practice: The weights don't fully capture criticality.

  • Example: Four children on track, one critical child at risk → consider overriding to "At Risk"

Temporary setbacks: Short-term delays with clear recovery paths

  • Example: Behind this week but team has recovery plan

Changes in strategic context: Market conditions changed what success means, priorities shifted mid-cycle, resources were reallocated

âš  Remember to document your override in the check-in notes. This helps others understand why calculated vs. reported status differ.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "expected progress" mean?

It's where you should be based on time elapsed. Halfway through your period = approximately 50% expected progress. Three-quarters through = approximately 75% expected.

When does my parent's status recommendation update?

Status recalculates in real time whenever a contributing child's progress changes. When you open a check-in, you'll see the latest calculated status based on current child progress data.

If I override status, do I have to keep overriding?

Your override applies until your next check-in. At the next check-in, Rhythms presents its fresh calculated recommendation, and you decide whether to accept or override again.

What happens when I postpone a contributing child?

When you set a child to Postponed status, it's automatically excluded from both your parent's progress calculation and status determination. The child's contribution weight is set to 0, so it doesn't affect whether your parent shows On Track, Behind, or At Risk. This prevents paused work from creating false health signals. When you reactivate the child, it resumes contributing to both progress and status calculations.

What happens to draft goals in the rollup?

Draft goals are excluded from rollup calculations. Their contribution weight is automatically set to zero until they're published. This prevents unfinalized work from affecting parent status. Once a draft goal is published, it begins contributing automatically.

If a child's status changes, does my parent's status automatically change too?

Yes, it can. Rhythms considers the health distribution of contributing children when computing parent status. Changes in children's health can influence the parent's status even if the mathematical progress delta hasn't changed significantly. Additionally, when a child's progress changes, it affects your parent's weighted progress, which may also shift the parent's calculated status. This can cascade upward through multiple levels of OKR hierarchy.

Why does my parent show "At Risk" when progress looks decent?

Status is time-based. If you're at 60% progress but 90% through your time period, you're 30 percentage points behind expected progress, which triggers At Risk status (25+ points behind). The calculation reflects whether you're on pace to finish on time, not just absolute progress.

Can I disable automatic status calculation?

No. Status is always calculated automatically when you have automatic rollup enabled. However, you can override the calculated status during each check-in to reflect your strategic judgment. If you need full manual control over both progress and status, switch the parent to manual mode.

What's the difference between "Not Started" and "Behind"?

Not Started means zero progress has been made, but you're still early enough that the gap is less than 10 percentage points behind expected. Behind means there's a meaningful gap (10-24 points) between where you are and where you should be based on time. A goal can transition directly from Not Started to Behind or At Risk if no progress is made as time passes.

Why does my parent show "Not Started" even though time has passed?

"Not Started" appears when no progress has been made on any contributing children, but the gap between expected and actual progress is still less than 10 percentage points. Once the gap exceeds 10 points with no progress, the status shifts to Behind or At Risk.

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