WorkBoard→OKIAR

Migration guide · WorkBoard

WorkBoard migration: how to export your OKRs and rebuild them somewhere else

Facts checked October 27, 2026

Before you start: who should run the export

WorkBoard's export article is plain about the limit: "The OKRs you can export are all the OKRs that are visible to you." A team lead who runs it gets their own corner of the company. The article doesn't name a role that sees everything, so check before you rely on one file.

Do three things this week:

1. Find the person who can see the most OKRs, such as whoever runs your OKR program, and have them open the Heatmap with no filters. Compare what they see with a few team leads' views.
2. Ask WorkBoard, in writing, for a full export of your account and for its data deletion terms before your contract ends. WorkBoard's Slack Marketplace listing says it keeps a former customer's data for a minimum of 30 days after the account becomes inactive, so don't count on more time than that.
3. List every connector and integration that feeds your key results, so nothing stops updating quietly after the move.

Step 1: Work out which WorkBoard export you have

There are four exits from WorkBoard, and no single one carries everything.

The Heatmap export (Excel or Word)

The export article walks through it. Go to Objectives, open the Heatmap and click Export. Then choose:

• Which details to include: key results, rolled-up key results, a workstream summary and one-level alignment.
• Whether to include comments, the full alignment report, and open or closed objectives.
• Filters for team, people, objectives, categories or name.

Click Preview, check the result, then export to Excel or Word, send it by email or print it. Pick Excel for the rebuild. WorkBoard's custom fields article says custom fields "are found in their own column when exporting to Excel."

Tick every detail and include comments. Export the open objectives you're about to rebuild, then run a second export of closed objectives for your archive.

Scorecards (CSV, PDF or PowerPoint)

If you track metrics on scorecards, WorkBoard's scorecard export article lists three outputs. You can publish a scorecard to PDF (WorkBoard recommends Chrome for this), export it to PowerPoint as an editable table without trend lines, or pick Export, then CSV, from the scorecard's menu. Take the CSV for each scorecard you still use.

The API

WorkBoard's API article says the API covers user, objective and key result data, and the custom fields article says custom field values can be read through it too. The help articles we read don't say whether it returns past check-ins, so ask a developer to check WorkBoard's API documentation before you count on history. The developer page adds that agent access to the API needs a WorkBoardAI subscription and Agent-Tier API licenses.

If you have no file

If nobody can export, piece the quarter together from business review decks and any Excel files colleagues downloaded earlier. Or start clean with one of the templates for 16 teams in OKIAR's OKR examples.

Step 2: Check what your file contains

WorkBoard doesn't publish a column list for the Heatmap export. Here's what its help articles do say:

• The file holds what you tick and filter for, so two people can export different files from the same account.
• One-level alignment and the full alignment report show how objectives connect.
• Comments are in the file only if you chose to include them.
• Custom fields get their own column in Excel.

Before you plan the move, check four things:

1. Count the objectives and key results in the file, and compare the total with the Heatmap for the same filters.
2. Check that every key result sits under an objective, and that every team objective shows what it aligns to.
3. Look for owners who have left the company.
4. Look for check-in history. The export article mentions comments, not past check-ins, so assume the file holds current values only until you see otherwise.

Moving to a tool other than OKIAR

Ask every shortlisted vendor to run a trial import of one WorkBoard Excel file before a contract is signed. Here's how their importers worked on October 27, 2026:

• Tability's AI importer has no required layout and handles XLSX or CSV up to 10 MB. Users and teams have to be set up separately.
• Perdoo's goal import wants pasted text or its own CSV layout (5 MB, 10,000 rows at most). WorkBoard comments and check-ins won't transfer.
• Atlassian Goals can't take a file at all; bulk upload is still a feature request.

Our WorkBoard alternatives page lines up eight replacements and the imports each supports.

Step 3: Rebuild your current quarter in OKIAR

WorkBoard's Excel export can go straight into OKIAR. The sign-up guide caps uploads at 5 MB and reads every sheet of a workbook, so the alignment and objective tabs can travel together. Owners, teams and parent links stay attached. Import during sign-up or later; either way OKIAR proposes a plan and waits while you correct objectives, key results, start values and targets.

Rebuild the open quarter. Older periods are better kept as the exported workbook.

1. Register for the free beta: no card, and any number of team members.
2. Upload the Excel export of open objectives; when it's above 5 MB, filter to this period and export again. Approve the plan only once each objective and key result looks right.
3. Line the imported teams up with your org chart before inviting people as Admin, Manager, Contributor or Viewer.
4. Use WorkBoard's alignment report to confirm which team objectives belong under which company objective.
5. For each key result, confirm the unit, the starting figure, today's figure and the target.
6. Move scorecard metrics, the ones you watch every quarter, into KPIs.
7. Hook up Slack.
8. Compare objective, team and person views against the workbook and fix any owner or link that drifted.

Where each WorkBoard field goes in OKIAR

Statuses in OKIAR

Don't bother carrying WorkBoard's statuses over. OKIAR derives a status by pacing, which the objective guide defines as how far a goal has come versus how far it should have come by now in the quarter. A manual override is there if you need it.

A confidence score, 0 to 10, can go with every check-in too.

Step 4: Replace your WorkBoard integrations

WorkBoard's developer page lists pre-built connectors for Excel, Google Sheets and CSV files, plus native integrations with Microsoft Teams, Slack, Outlook and Google Calendar. None of those connections come with your file.

Connectors were doing the updating in WorkBoard; in OKIAR, owners will. An assistant such as Claude can help through OKIAR's MCP tools, 12 of them, by posting check-ins or setting a current value, but none can create an objective or key result. If your company runs on Microsoft Teams, factor in that there's no Teams app before you decide.

Step 5: Run the first check-in

Book the first check-in within your first week in OKIAR.

• Give each team a check-in day and a template.
• Owners record progress, confidence and blockers in text or by voice.
• At the next team meeting, read the weekly summary as a group.
• Once a few weeks of data exist, Insights will show pacing, confidence and the blockers that recur.
• Rework the plan at mid-quarter.

Five ready-made prompts are in our weekly check-in template.