Betterworks→OKIAR

Migration guide · Betterworks

Betterworks migration: export goals and milestones before the contract ends

Facts checked October 27, 2026

Before you start: set a deadline and collect admin access

Count back from your contract end. If you want the SFTP feed, Betterworks says setup takes three to eight weeks, so ask early. For everything else you need a few days.

Line up:

• A Super Admin. API keys inherit the permissions of the person who creates them, and Betterworks says a Super Admin has complete access while HR Admins and Admins see less.
• The business periods you care about. Goal exports follow the Business Period selector at the top of the Goals page.
• A list of departments, including child departments. Admin reports return nothing if you select only a parent department.
• Owners for the non-goal data. Conversations, feedback, recognition and calibration aren't OKRs, but someone will want them saved.

Step 1: Choose your Betterworks exports

Goals page export

Betterworks' goal filtering and exports article covers the NextGen goals page. You filter by things like Aligned To, Department, Due Date, Owner, Owner Reports To, Progress, Risk (At risk, Off Track, On Track) and Type, and choose whether filters apply to goals, milestones or both. Then click the three dots next to Create Goal, choose Export Goals, and pick .pptx or .xlsx. A link to the file arrives by email. It works from both default and custom views.

Take the .xlsx. The PowerPoint is useful only as a picture for a leadership review.

Admin reports

The reports article lists templates including All Goals and Milestones, All Goals, User Activity, Comments, 1:1s and Audit Log. A goal report returns goals that were active at any point in your date range, so set the range wide enough to cover the quarter you're moving. You get a notification with a download link, and anything over 50,000 entries is split across several links.

API

The API article says goals and milestones can be read and written, while conversations, feedback, recognition and calibration are read-only. A Super Admin generates the key under Admin, Platform Configuration, Integrations, API. Betterworks' developer site says goal calls return the owner, comments, progress and last update details. The full reference opens inside the Betterworks app, so whoever writes the script needs a login.

Outbound SFTP

The outbound SFTP overview describes gzipped JSON files for users, goals, departments, conversations and calibration records, with up to 10,000 records per file. The first delivery is a full export and later ones are only changes. Feedback and recognition aren't included. This suits a data team that wants everything in a warehouse, not a quick OKR move.

When there's no admin

Ask support@betterworks.com before the contract date. If it has already passed by more than a week, there's likely nothing left, and you'll rebuild from slide decks or our OKR examples.

Saving what isn't an OKR

Betterworks holds more than goals, and HR usually wants the rest kept. Make a short list before the deadline:

• Conversations and feedback. The Conversation Answers and Feedback Answers reports hold the text. Run them for every department and check that people with no department are included.
• Recognition. The Recognition and Hashtag reports cover it. SFTP doesn't.
• Calibration. Readable through the API and the SFTP feed.
• Usage. The Usage Dashboard has an Email Report option if leadership wants adoption numbers for the record.

Give each file an owner and a home. These exports are about your people, so treat them with the same care as review files.

Step 2: Check the Betterworks file

A Goals page export only shows the business period you had selected, which is the classic way to lose a quarter. Compare totals with the screen before going further.

Before you plan the move, open the .xlsx and confirm:

1. The number of goals and milestones matches the Goals page for the same period and filters.
2. Each milestone sits under the right goal, and goals show what they're aligned to.
3. Owners are people, not departments, wherever a person really is accountable.
4. Milestones tracked only as complete or not complete are marked, so you can rebuild them as numbers.

If a column you need is missing, run the All Goals and Milestones report as well. When the files disagree, the screen in Betterworks is the referee.

Still choosing a replacement? The Betterworks alternatives page compares pricing, Slack and Teams support and import options.

Step 3: Rebuild the goals in OKIAR

You can upload the .xlsx as it is. According to OKIAR's sign-up docs, goal import reads spreadsheets, multi-sheet Excel included, plus CSV, PDF, Word, text, Markdown, up to 5 MB a file. API JSON works too, once you've unzipped it and trimmed it under the limit. The import helps map people, teams and parent links for you to review and shows a draft you edit before saving. It runs at sign-up or later from inside the app.

A practical order:

1. Open a free account at okiar.app/signup.
2. Import this business period's goals first. Older periods can go into an archive folder rather than the live tool.
3. Check alignment. Betterworks' "Aligned To" becomes a parent link in OKIAR.
4. Turn complete or not complete milestones into a count from 0 to 1, or rewrite them as measurable results.
5. Weight the key results that matter most. OKIAR supports weighting.
6. Recreate departments as teams and assign roles: Admin, Manager, Contributor or Viewer.
7. Add a co-owner only where the work is shared. Extra owners are optional.

Where each Betterworks field goes in OKIAR

How OKIAR flags risk

Betterworks shows risk. OKIAR calculates it from pacing, as the objective docs explain. It compares progress with the expected amount for the date: at 0.7 or above the item is On track, between 0.4 and 0.69 it's Behind, and under 0.4 it's At risk. Owners set Not started, Closed or Abandoned themselves, and each check-in carries a 0 to 10 confidence score.

Step 4: Swap the integrations

Betterworks has a Teams integration and a Slack app. In OKIAR:

Step 5: Hold the first check-in, then let the contract lapse

Run one week of check-ins in OKIAR while Betterworks is still live. Owners enter a value, a confidence score and any blocker. Managers compare the top goals in both tools. Once the numbers agree, store every export somewhere your company keeps records, then let the contract end. Seven days later, the old data won't be there to check.