Closing and Scoring Your OKRs

The end of a quarter is where your OKR system either pays off or falls flat. Learn how to properly close goals in Brev, score Key Results, and run a retrospective that makes next quarter better.

Leaving goals open after the quarter ends is the silent killer of OKR programs. Old goals clutter your view, scores never get recorded, and institutional learning evaporates. Teams repeat the same mistakes quarter after quarter because nobody captured what happened.

A proper close takes 30–60 minutes per team. It's one of the highest-ROI activities in your operating rhythm.

At the end of a time period, Brev makes it easy to grade your OKRs using a simple 0.0–1.0 score, capture learnings, and lock in the final status—without losing the narrative behind the number.

Brev uses a decimal scoring scale (like Google’s) to keep grading consistent across goals and teams.
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A practical way to interpret scores (for aspirational OKRs):

Tip: For overall OKR scoring, a common best practice is to score each Key Result and average them for the objective score.

Most teams close goals in the final week of the quarter or the first week of the new one. Pick a consistent time and stick to it. Brev's Cadence feature can prompt you with a "Quarter close" agenda automatically.

Before scoring, make sure every Metric is current:

1. Go to Goals → List view.

2. Filter by Time period: Current quarter.

3. Check the Last updated column. Any goal not updated in the last 7 days needs a refresh.

4. For connected data sources, trigger a manual sync to pull the final value.

For each goal, confirm the status:

Brev uses a 0.0–1.0 scoring scale (industry standard from Google's OKR framework):

To score a Key Result in Brev:

1. Open the Key Result.

2. Click Score / Close in the header.

3. Enter the final value and select a score (0.0–1.0).

4. Add a closing note — this is the most important part.

5. Click Close goal.

Once all Key Results are scored, Brev calculates the Objective's score automatically as a weighted average. You can override it if the composite score doesn't reflect the real outcome.

For every goal, add a brief closing comment:

These notes become the raw material for your quarterly retrospective and inform next quarter's goal-setting.

The goal of scoring is honesty, not optics. A 0.7 is a good OKR score — it means you stretched, nearly got there, and learned something. A 1.0 every quarter is a sign your targets are too easy.

Pro tip: If you're consistently scoring 1.0 on everything, your OKRs aren't ambitious enough. If you're consistently scoring below 0.5, they're too aspirational or you have an execution problem. Aim for an average score of 0.6–0.7 as a healthy signal.

After scoring, run a structured retrospective with your team:

1. What did we achieve? — Celebrate the wins.

2. What did we miss? — Honest look at the shortfalls.

3. Why did we miss? — Root cause, not blame.

4. What carries forward? — Any goals that should roll into next quarter?

5. What do we do differently? — Process, targeting, or execution changes.

Brev's Meeting Intelligence feature can capture this conversation and surface action items automatically.

After closing:

1. Closed goals automatically move to "Completed" or "Closed" state.

2. They drop out of the active Goals view but remain searchable.

3. Filter by Time period: Q1 2026 (past quarter) to review them any time.

Don't delete closed goals — they're your OKR history and help you spot patterns over multiple quarters.

Once this quarter is closed:

1. Carry forward any relevant goals using Duplicate (adjusts time period, resets progress).

2. Review the organizational priorities.

3. Use [Writing Quality OKRs](writing-quality-okrs.md) and Goal Coach to draft next quarter's goals with fresh perspective.

4. Publish goals before the new quarter starts so teams are aligned from day one.
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As always, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] with any questions or directly chat with us in the Brev app.