How to Make a KPI Confidential in Ninety
Making a KPI confidential keeps a sensitive number private in Ninety. Only the teams you choose, your Leadership Team, Owners, and Admins can see it. Everyone else won't find it on any Scorecard (your team's weekly metrics in the Data tool), in search, or in Maz. Owners, Admins, and members of your Leadership Team can make a KPI confidential. Confidential KPIs are available on the Essentials, Accelerate, Thrive, and Legacy plans.
Note: Confidential KPIs is in beta. You may see small changes to how it looks and works while we finish it. Join Ninety's beta program for early access, or see what else is in beta on the Currently in Beta at Ninety page.
What a confidential KPI is
A confidential KPI is a KPI that only selected teams and people can see. By default, every KPI in Ninety is visible to everyone in your organization because any team could add the KPI to their Scorecard.
When you turn on Confidential, the KPI is limited to:
The teams you share it with.
Your Leadership Team, which is the team marked LT in Company Settings > Teams.
Owners and Admins.
The person who owns the KPI.
Anyone outside that group can't see the KPI or its data anywhere in Ninety. That includes:
Team Scorecards and the Trends view.
The Add Existing KPI search.
My 90 and 1-on-1 conversations.
The Vision tool, including printed and archived versions.
CSV exports, Maz, and the Ninety API.
Companies often make these KPIs confidential: compensation and bonus tracking, cash on hand, profit margin, headcount plans, and financial numbers that a public company must limit to insiders.
Who can see and change a confidential KPI
Who can see and change a confidential KPI depends on four things: whether the person is an Owner or Admin, whether they are on your Leadership Team, whether they own the KPI, and whether their team has been given access.
Person | See it | Enter scores | Edit title, goal, formula, and owner | Change confidential settings |
Owners and Admins | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Leadership Team members, including your Coach | Yes | Yes* | Yes* | Yes |
The person who owns the KPI | Yes | Yes | Yes* | No |
Members of a team with Data entry access | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Members of a team with Read only access | Yes | No | No | No |
Everyone else | No | No | No | No |
*A person's role still limits what they can do. Team Members can't edit any KPI's settings, and Observers can't enter scores on any KPI.
Note: Only Owners, Admins, and Leadership Team members can change the owner of a confidential KPI. For everyone else, the owner field is locked.
When you share a confidential KPI with a team, you give that team one of two access levels:
Read only: The team can see the KPI and its history. People on the team can't enter scores, set custom goals, add notes, or enter forecasts, unless they are an Owner, Admin, or Leadership Team member.
Data entry: The team can enter scores. It can't change the KPI's title, goal, formula, or owner.
Tip: Share the KPI with its owner's team. The owner can always see a confidential KPI, but it still leaves their team's Scorecard if their team isn't on the list. If the owner reports on it in their team's Weekly Team Meeting, add their team.
How to make a KPI confidential
You can make a new or existing KPI confidential from its details panel. Owners, Admins, and Leadership Team members can do this. Other people don't see the Confidential toggle.
In the Data tool, click the KPI's title on your team's Scorecard to open its details. To create a confidential KPI, click New KPI instead. Owners, Admins, and Coaches can also open a KPI from the KPI Manager.
In the Visibility section, turn on Confidential.
Under Who can see this KPI, open Share with other teams. Every team that already has the KPI on its Scorecard is selected for you. Clear any team that shouldn't keep access, and select any other team that should see it.
Next to each team, click Read only or Data entry.
Click Save.
Check the list of teams in the confirmation, then click Make confidential.
Important: Teams you don't share with lose the KPI from their Scorecard. Any formula-based KPI that uses it also stops calculating for people who can't see it. Your Leadership Team, Owners, and Admins always keep access and can't be removed from the list.
How to change who can see a confidential KPI
Owners, Admins, and Leadership Team members can change who sees a confidential KPI at any time from its details panel.
Open the KPI's details.
In the Visibility section, make your changes:
To give another team access, select it in Share with other teams.
To change what a team can do, click Read only or Data entry next to it.
To take away a team's access, click the X next to it.
Click Save.
In the Change who can see this KPI? confirmation, click Save changes.
To make the KPI visible to everyone again, turn off Confidential and click Save.
Important: Sharing a KPI with a team again doesn't put it back on that team's Scorecard. After you give the team access, a Manager, Admin, Owner, or Coach must add the KPI back to the team's Scorecard with Add Existing KPI.
What happens when a team loses access
When a team loses access to a confidential KPI, Ninety removes the KPI from that team's Scorecard and tells everyone on the team. Here's what changes for that team:
The KPI leaves the team's Scorecard. Its scores and history aren't deleted.
The KPI leaves the team's Vision.
Any formula-based KPI that uses it stops calculating for people who can't see it. Instead of a number, they see a message that the calculation uses a confidential KPI they don't have access to.
Every member of the team gets a notification titled "[KPI] is now confidential." The message reads "Only Leadership Team, Owners, Admins, and selected teams can view this KPI." The link opens the Scorecard.
The notification can arrive in Ninety, by email, and as a mobile push notification. Each person controls it with the Confidential KPIs setting in their notification settings. To change those settings, see Stay Updated with Ninety's In-App Notifications and Alerts and Receiving Email Notifications and Reminders.
Adding a confidential KPI to another team's Scorecard
A confidential KPI can only appear on the Scorecard of a team it's shared with, or on your Leadership Team's Scorecard. Managers, Admins, Owners, and Coaches can add it to one of those Scorecards.
If the team doesn't have access yet, ask an Owner, Admin, or Leadership Team member to share the KPI with that team.
In the Data tool, go to the team's Scorecard.
Click New KPI, then select Add Existing KPI.
Search for the KPI and click Add.
Add Existing KPI only lists a confidential KPI for teams that can see it. If you try to add one to a team without access, you'll see a message that some KPIs are confidential and aren't shared with this team. For more on adding KPIs to several teams, see Sharing and Duplicating KPIs.
Troubleshooting
Issue: A KPI disappeared from our Scorecard.
Solution:
Check your Ninety notifications for a message that the KPI is now confidential.
Ask an Owner, Admin, or Leadership Team member to share it with your team.
Once your team has access, have a Manager, Admin, Owner, or Coach add it back with Add Existing KPI. Sharing alone doesn't put it back on the Scorecard.
If the issue persists, contact support.
Issue: I can see a confidential KPI, but I can't enter a number.
Solution:
Your team probably has Read only access to this KPI, which lets you see it but not enter scores.
Ask an Owner, Admin, or Leadership Team member to change your team's access to Data entry.
If your team already has Data entry access, check the other reasons a cell can be locked in Scorecard Permissions Explained.
If the issue persists, contact support.
Issue: A formula-based KPI stopped calculating and says it uses a confidential KPI.
Solution:
One of the formula's inputs is a confidential KPI your team can't see.
Ask an Owner or Admin to share that input with your team, or to change the formula. For help with formulas, see Creating Formula-Based KPIs.
If the issue persists, contact support.
Issue: I own the KPI, but I don't see the Confidential toggle.
Solution:
Only Owners, Admins, and Leadership Team members can make a KPI confidential or change who sees it. Owning the KPI isn't enough.
Ask an Owner, Admin, or Leadership Team member to make the change for you.
If the issue persists, contact support.
Issue: I can't find a KPI in Add Existing KPI.
Solution:
The KPI is probably confidential and not shared with the team whose Scorecard you're adding to.
Ask an Owner, Admin, or Leadership Team member to share it with that team, then try again.
If the issue persists, contact support.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make a KPI private?
Yes. In Ninety, a private KPI is called a confidential KPI. Owners, Admins, and Leadership Team members can turn on Confidential in the Visibility section of a KPI's details to limit who can see it.
Can Owners and Admins always see confidential KPIs?
Yes. Owners and Admins can see, edit, and change the settings of every confidential KPI in the company.
Which team is the Leadership Team?
Your Leadership Team is the team marked LT in Company Settings > Teams. Its members can always see confidential KPIs and can change their settings. For more on team types, see Company Settings.
Can our Coach see confidential KPIs?
Yes. Coaches are members of your Leadership Team, so they can see confidential KPIs and change their settings.
Will Maz or the Ninety API show a confidential KPI to someone without access?
No. Maz and the Ninety API follow the same rules as the rest of Ninety. Someone who can't see a confidential KPI on a Scorecard can't get it from Maz or the API either.
Is any data deleted when a team loses access?
No. The KPI keeps all of its scores, notes, and history. It only leaves the Scorecard of the team that lost access.
If I share a KPI with a team again, does it come back on their Scorecard?
No. After you give the team access again, add the KPI back to its Scorecard with Add Existing KPI.
Can I make several KPIs confidential at once?
No. You make each KPI confidential one at a time from its details panel.