Previous target table format

We have updated our target table format to support targets with multiple dimensions applied at the same time. If you registered your targets table before March 2025, you may still be using the old target table format. We recommend updating the format to take advantage of the all the benefits. Read our migration guide to learn how to update to the new target table format.

 

Targets migration guide →

How targets works

  1. Create a table in your database following the targets table format found below
  2. Connect your targets table to Steep.
  3. Add targets to line, bar, and rank charts and tables or display them in home and team screen widgets
  4. Apply filters
    • Single filter applied → Shows the target for the selected dimension.
    • Multiple filters applied → Automatically adds up target values for the selected dimensions.

This ensures that targets match the filtered data, making it easy to track progress toward goals without manual adjustments.

Targets overview

Targets are typically used for Budgets and Forecasts, and tied to specific metrics. You may add more than one target to each metric in your workspace.

Everyone

View targets

Admins

Set up targets

How to prepare your targets data

To set up targets in Steep, register a target table from your database. Steep will read targets from this table and match them to the corresponding metric. The target table needs to follow the formatting outlined below.

Target table format

seriesmetrictimedimension namevaluenumeratordenominator
series namemetric identifierstart datedimension valuetarget valueratio numeratorratio denominator

Target table columns:

  • Series: The series column can be used to set up multiple targets per metric, e.g. ”Budget”, ”Budget v2”, ”Stretch budget”, that users can switch between.

  • Time: The time column specifies the start date of each period based on the time grain (for example 2022-04-01 for April on a monthly time grain, or 2022-04-04 for Week of Apr 4 on a weekly time grain). Steep automatically detects the time grain of your target series by looking at the difference between the first two dates in each series.

  • Metric: The metric column is used to specify the metric and corresponds to the unique metric identifier, which can be found under the About tab in a metric, or when editing the metric. Using the metric identifier in the target setup ensures it stay consistent, even if metric names are changed.

  • Dimension: The dimension column(s)is used to specify the dimension and dimension values. A metric can have multiple dimensions, and the column name must match the column name of the dimension in your database. Add the corresponding dimension values in the table. If targets are not set at the dimension level, you can exclude the dimension columns. Specify the dimension value for a metric, or a combination of dimension values.

Note

You must add target values for all combinations of dimension values to get aggregations of targets in visualizations. See the example table below.**

  • Value: The value column represents the target value for the specific metric and applied dimensions for the specified time.

  • Ratio metrics: If you are adding a target to a ratio metric you need to include numerator and denominator columns. Add the numerator and denominator that is used to generate the target value. The target ratio will automatically appear as either a number or percentage, depending on how the metric is defined.

Note

In the target table, any columns that begin with an underscore (_) will be ignored during processing. These columns can still be added for internal purposes, such as metadata.

Target table examples:

Basic example
seriesmetrictimevalue
Budget 2024new users2024-01-0110000
Budget 2024new users2024-04-0112000
Budget 2024new users2024-07-0115000
Budget 2024new users2024-10-0120000
Complex example
seriesmetrictimecountryplatformvaluenumeratordenominatar
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-011000
Budget 2025registrations2024-02-011000
.....................
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-01iOS800
.....................
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-01Android100
.....................
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-01US500
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-01JP100
.....................
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-01USiOS300
Budget 2025registrations2024-01-01JPiOS502501000
.....................
Budget 2025activation2024-01-01USAndroid5100

Note

Steep does its best to aggregate/average the defined target data between time grains dynamically so that the user always gets a target line on their chart regardless of time grain. However, this is currently not possible for Custom value and Unique count metrics. For those metric types, we recommend defining the target data in the time grain in which the metrics will be most commonly viewed.

How to connect your targets table

To register your targets table in Steep, go to Settings → Targets → select the targets table from your database.

Caching

Target data fetched from your targets table will be cached by Steep for 4 hour. In the rare case that you want to clear the cache after a major change to the source data, you can do that manually by changing your targets table setting eg. by removing it and adding it back.

How to add targets to visualizations

Metric charts

Add targets to metrics in the explore menu. The option to add a target appears in for all metrics with a matching metric identifier.

Add chart from report

Widgets

Add a target to a widget to see how your metric performs directly on your home or team screen Learn how to add a Target to a widget.

Add chart from report

Tables

Add targets to your tables in reports. Click on the metric you want to add select the relevant target. The target will appear as a row under the metric.

Add chart from report