Plan with objectives and key results

Portfolio is where you set the roadmap's direction. An objective says what you're trying to achieve, its key results say how you'll know, and the initiatives under it hold the work. Use it to plan a year or a quarter, or to see what you're spending against each goal.

You need access to edit initiatives to make changes, and access to financial figures to see money — ask your Flowstate admin.

Get to Portfolio

Portfolio doesn't have a tab. You get to it from:

• An objective's page. Select Back to roadmap. To open an objective, select the Objective link in an initiative's side panel or at the top of its page.
• Your Inbox. When your project tool suggests initiatives, a task called Review … initiatives suggested from … opens Portfolio.

Tip

Bookmark Portfolio once you've opened it, so you can come straight back.

Read Portfolio

Portfolio has a band across the top, a tree on the left and a detail pane on the right. Choose the period in the toolbar; it starts on the current quarter.

The band sums up the period for the whole roadmap, or for the objective or initiative you've selected in the tree.

Figure	What it shows
Budget	The budget for the period, from your budget or the initiatives' desired budgets. A dash means no budget is set
Forecasted	The forecast cost for the period. The arrow underneath shows how far it is over or under the budget
Effort	The effort people actually spent, in FTE. The arrow shows the difference from what was planned
Headcount	How many people are planned on the projects in scope, directly or through their team. Each person counts once

Without access to financial figures, you see Effort and Headcount only.

The tree lists your objectives, each with its initiatives beneath. Each initiative shows its status, how many of its projects are done (for example, 3/5), and how far its actual cost is from its forecast. Initiatives with no objective are under No objective.

At the bottom, Projects with no initiative shows how many projects aren't in an initiative. Select it to see them on the Projects tab.

The detail pane shows whatever you select in the tree:

• An objective: its status, how many initiatives it has, and its Key results.
• An initiative: the tabs Overview, Delivery, CapEx and Attributes, and Open full page. CapEx only appears when the initiative can be capitalised. See Group projects into initiatives for what's on each tab.

Group, sort and search

• Group by By objective (the default), By finance mode, By lens or By status. By lens groups initiatives by their driver.
• Sort by Variance (the default), Budget, Committed FTE or Name.
• To find an initiative by name, type in Find in view... at the top. The results show as a single list.

Create an objective

1. In the toolbar, open the menu next to New Initiative and select New objective.
2. Enter a Name.
3. Select Create objective.

The objective's page opens.

Edit an objective

Open the objective's page: select the objective in the tree, then the open icon in the pane. Or open the ⋯ menu on the objective in the tree and select Open.

• Rename it: select the title, type the new name and press Enter.
• Change its status: select Status and choose Draft, Planned, In progress, In review or Done.
• Describe it: on Overview, select the description and type.

The top of the page also shows the objective's Owner and Dates, and:

Figure	What it shows
KRs measured	How many key results have moved towards their target, out of all of them
Initiatives	How many initiatives are under the objective
Budget · FY…	The total of its initiatives' budgets for the year. Shown when you have access to financial figures and at least one initiative has a budget

Overview also lists the objective's initiatives, with their status and how many of their projects are done.

Not available yet

You can't change an objective's owner or dates in the app. Ask your Flowstate contact to set them.

Add and update key results

A key result is a measurable outcome that shows the objective is being met, such as "increase checkout conversion".

1. Select the objective in the tree, or open the Key results tab on its page.
2. Select Add key result.
3. Choose Increase or Decrease.
4. Fill in the sentence:
   • Metric — what you measure.
   • Unit — for example %, £ or count.
   • Baseline — where it was before the work.
   • Target — the value that means success. It must be different from the baseline.
   • Current — where it is right now.
5. Check the Preview, then select Add key result.

As the measure moves, select Edit on the key result, change Current and select Save changes. To remove a key result, select Delete. It's removed straight away.

Create an initiative under an objective

1. In the tree, open the ⋯ menu on the objective.
2. Select New initiative.
3. Enter a Name. The Objective is already chosen.
4. Optionally, choose a Driver and a Finance mode. See Choose a finance mode.
5. Select Create.

The initiative's page opens. To create an initiative without an objective, select New Initiative in the toolbar instead.

Add projects to an initiative

1. In the tree, open the ⋯ menu on the initiative.
2. Select Add projects to this initiative.
3. Search for a project and select it. It's added straight away.
4. Add any others, then close the dialog.

A project can only be in one initiative. If it's already in another, remove it there first. See Manage projects.

Delete an objective or initiative

1. In the tree, open the ⋯ menu on the objective or initiative.
2. Select Delete objective or Delete initiative.
3. Select Delete.

• Deleting an objective also deletes its key results. Its initiatives stay, with no objective.
• Deleting an initiative also deletes its CapEx claims. Its projects stay, with no initiative.

You can't undo a delete.

Review initiatives suggested by your project tool

Jira and Linear can send their own initiatives to Flowstate. In your tool's settings, on Data Mapping, Initiative Sync has a Mode:

Mode	What happens
Off	Initiatives aren't synced
Auto-create initiatives	Each initiative in your tool becomes a Flowstate initiative, with its projects added
Suggest for review	Each one waits in Portfolio for someone to accept or dismiss it

For Jira, also enter the Initiative issue type — the issue type above your epics.

When suggestions are waiting, people who can create initiatives get an Inbox task. To review them:

1. Open Portfolio. The suggestions are listed at the top, each with the tool it came from and how many projects it has.
2. Select Accept to create the initiative and add its projects to it, or Dismiss to ignore it.

Create a CapEx claim for an initiative

You can claim a whole initiative as one CapEx claim, with each of its projects as evidence.

1. In the tree, select the initiative.
2. In the pane, open CapEx.
3. Select Create claim.
4. Enter the Claim period, such as FY26-Q1, and choose the Period start and Period end.
5. Select Create claim.

The claim appears under Claims. Evidence — projects shows each project as Available, or Claimed in … once it's in a claim. A project can only be in one claim for a period. You need access to financial figures to create a claim. See Capitalise a whole initiative.

If something's not right

The CapEx tab isn't there. None of the initiative's projects has a cost centre in the CapEx category. Give the projects the right cost centre on Projects.

Create claim is greyed out. The initiative has no projects, or every project is already in a claim.

Accept or Dismiss is missing. You don't have access to create or edit initiatives. Ask your Flowstate admin.

Budget shows a dash. No initiative in scope has a budget for the period. See Set a budget.