Automatic rollup keeps parent OKRs current by aggregating child progress and computing time-based status. Eliminate manual updates and get real-time visibility into goal health. Learn when to use automatic vs. manual modes for your goals.

When you have parent OKRs with multiple contributing children, keeping track of overall progress and health can become overwhelming. How much progress have we made? Are we on track? What's the real status across all the work?

With automatic rollup, Rhythms eliminates manual calculations by automatically aggregating progress from contributing children and computing time-based health indicators. Your parent OKRs stay up-to-date in real time as your team makes progress, giving you instant visibility into goal health across your organization.

How this helps:

• Real-time accuracy: Parent progress and status update instantly when children change—no waiting for manual updates

• Eliminate manual math: No spreadsheets, no aggregating numbers across teams, no calculating weighted averages

• Health transparency: Status automatically reflects whether you're on pace with time expectations

• Save hours: Reclaim time previously spent manually updating parent goals

• Consistent tracking: Same calculation method across all organizational levels

• Early warnings: Spot problems immediately when child progress falls behind

How Automatic Rollup Works

Automatic rollup has two components that work together to give you a complete picture of goal health:

Progress Rollup: Aggregating Completion

Progress rollup calculates your parent's progress by combining the progress of all contributing children. By default, all contributing children have equal impact. If you have three Key Results at 80%, 60%, and 40%, your parent Objective shows 60% progress (the average).

Organizations can optionally enable custom weights to prioritize strategically important work. With custom weights, you might give a critical Key Result 50% weight while supporting work gets 25% each, so the weighted calculation reflects strategic priorities.

Draft goals and postponed goals are automatically excluded from rollup calculations. Their contribution weight is set to zero, so work that hasn't been finalized or has been paused won't affect parent progress or status. Once a draft goal is published, it begins contributing to the parent automatically.

When to use progress rollup:

• Parent goals that aggregate team deliverables

• Objectives with measurable Key Results

• Initiatives tracking multiple tasks or sub-initiatives

• Any time you want progress to reflect the weighted reality of contributing work

For detailed guidance on how progress aggregates and how to configure contribution weights, see 📄 Intelligent Progress Rollup: How Rhythms Calculates Parent Progress

Status Rollup: Time-Based Health Indicators

Status rollup automatically computes whether your goal is On Track, Behind, or At Risk by comparing actual progress against expected progress based on time elapsed.

The calculation works by determining where you should be based on how much time has passed. If you're halfway through your time period, you should be around halfway to your target. Status reflects whether you're on pace:

• Not Started: No progress has been made yet, but you're still within the early tolerance window (less than 10 percentage points behind expected progress)

• 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

For parent goals with children, Rhythms also considers the health distribution of contributing children when assessing status. If the majority of children are at risk, the parent status reflects that reality even if the mathematical average looks moderate.

This gives you immediate visibility into whether goals are healthy or need attention, without manual status assessment.

When status rollup helps most:

• Goals with clear time boundaries (quarterly OKRs, project milestones)

• Teams needing early warning signals about falling behind

• Organizations wanting consistent health indicators across all levels

• Leaders monitoring multiple goals and needing quick health signals

For detailed guidance on status calculation and when to override with strategic judgment, see 📄 Automatic Status Rollup for Parent OKRs

Choosing Between Automatic and Manual Modes

Every parent OKR can use one of three progress modes. Understanding when to use each ensures your goals reflect reality accurately.

Automatic Rollup (Recommended for Most Parents)

Best for:

• Objectives with measurable Key Results

• Initiatives tracking sub-tasks or deliverables

• Goals where progress is objectively measurable from child work

• Teams wanting to eliminate manual update overhead

How it works:

• Progress: Weighted average from contributing children (equal weights by default)

• Status: Automatically computed from progress vs. time-based expectations, with consideration for child health

• Updates: Real-time as children change

• Exclusions: Draft and postponed children are automatically excluded

Example: "Launch Mobile App" Objective with Key Results for features, testing, and approvals. As each KR progresses, the Objective automatically reflects overall completion.

Manual Mode

Best for:

• Qualitative goals requiring human judgment

• Executive-level objectives where strategic context matters more than math

• Goals with non-linear progress patterns

• Situations where child data is incomplete or misleading

How it works:

• Progress: You enter values manually in check-ins

• Status: You set status manually based on your assessment

• Updates: Only when you perform a check-in

Example: "Improve team culture" Objective where multiple factors contribute but progress isn't purely mathematical. Leadership judgment determines real status.

⚠ Important: When you switch to manual mode, you take on the responsibility of keeping progress and status current through regular check-ins.

Integration Mode (Advanced)

Best for:

• Goals tied directly to external data sources

• Organizations with connected tools (GitHub, Jira, etc.)

• Metrics that update automatically from integrations

How it works:

• Progress: Auto-calculated from connected data sources

• Status: Automatically computed from progress vs. time-based expectations

• Updates: Real-time as integrated tools provide new data

Example: "Close 10 deals" Key Result connected to Salesforce that updates automatically as opportunities close.

Note: Integration mode requires configured data connections. See 📄 How to Set Up Auto-Updatesfor instructions on how to connect your Key Results and Initiatives to external sources.

Getting Started with Automatic Rollup

Three simple steps:

1. Align your OKRs: Connect child items to parent OKRs so Rhythms knows what contributes to what

2. Enable contribution: For each child, toggle on "Contribute to parent's progress"

3. Set automatic mode: On the parent, set progress mode to "Update automatically based on rollup from contributing children"

Once enabled, your parent's progress and status will update in real time as teams make progress on contributing children.

Default behavior: All contributing children have equal impact. If you need to prioritize certain work more heavily, your organization can enable custom weights. See 📄 Intelligent Progress Rollup: How Rhythms Calculates Parent Progressfor details.

Note: Children with Draft or Postponed status are automatically excluded from rollup calculations. Their contribution weight is set to zero to prevent unfinalized or paused work from affecting parent progress or status. Draft goals begin contributing once published, and postponed goals resume contributing when reactivated.

When Automatic Rollup Might Not Work

Automatic rollup is powerful, but it's not right for every situation. Consider manual mode when:

Progress doesn't follow linear patterns:

• Goals with unpredictable milestones

• Work where 90% effort doesn't equal 90% completion

You're in the early planning phase:

• Children haven't been created yet

• You're setting aspirational targets before work begins

External factors dominate:

• Market conditions, dependencies, or unknowns heavily influence success

• The numbers look good but strategic context says otherwise

In these cases, manual mode gives you the flexibility to reflect reality more accurately than automatic calculations can.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know which mode my parent is using?

Click on the parent's progress value. The dropdown will show the current mode. You'll see either "Update automatically based on rollup from contributing children" (automatic) or "Update manually" (manual).

Can I switch modes after starting?

Yes. However, 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.

What happens if I have no contributing children?

Parents with no contributing children will show 0% progress in automatic mode. Add contributing children or switch to manual mode to track progress.

Do I need to enable automatic rollup on every parent?

No. You can choose different modes for different parents based on what works best for each goal. Many organizations use automatic rollup for measurable Objectives and manual mode for strategic, qualitative goals.

Can children contribute to multiple parents?

Only if enabled in your organization's goal model configuration. Contact your admin if you need multi-parent alignment.

Does automatic rollup work across all organizational levels?

Yes. If you have Objectives rolling up to company-level goals, and Key Results rolling up to Objectives, automatic rollup cascades through all levels. Progress flows upward in real time.

What's the difference between progress and status?

Progress measures how close you are to your target value (0-100%). For example, if your target is to reach $500K revenue and you're at $250K, you're at 50% progress. Status measures health by comparing your progress to time-based expectations (On Track, Behind, At Risk). Both update automatically with rollup enabled.

What happens to draft goals in my rollup?

Draft goals are automatically excluded from rollup calculations. Their contribution weight is set to zero, so they won't affect parent progress or status until they're published.

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

"Not Started" means no progress has been made on any contributing children, but you're still within the early tolerance window (less than 10 percentage points behind expected). Once the gap between expected and actual progress exceeds 10 percentage points, the status will shift to "Behind" or "At Risk."

Related Articles

• 📄 Intelligent Progress Rollup: How Rhythms Calculates Parent Progress - Detailed guidance on how progress aggregates from children, contribution weights, and AI-powered sum vs. average detection

• 📄 Automatic Status Rollup for Parent OKRs- How status is computed from progress vs. time expectations, threshold details, and when to override with strategic judgment

• 📄 Effective Check-ins to Track OKR Progress in Rhythms- How to conduct check-ins and update OKR progress

• 📄 How to Set Up Auto-Updates- Instructions for connecting Key Results and Initiatives to external data sources