Planning results

Projects need Org plan.

Every project has a results planning mode, set initially to the simplest. This page documents the modes and the conditions under which upgrading is appropriate.

Simple mode is the default

Simple mode deliberately contains no results-planning constructs. It provides a total budget with category buckets, and outcomes are recorded through updates and evidence. There are no objectives, indicators or hierarchy.

For a community grant of approximately €5,000–€50,000 where no logical framework has been requested, Simple mode is sufficient and the remainder of this page does not apply. Applying institutional planning structure to a small project produces work without producing anything the funder has required.

The three modes

Mode	Suits	Results planning	Budget
Simple (default)	Micro-grants, community projects	None — updates and evidence only	Total plus category buckets
Standard	Small to mid institutional, roughly €50k–€500k	A flat list of outcomes	Line items with funder attribution
Advanced	Institutional funders that require a full logframe	Four-level hierarchy	Line items, revision history, funder split

Two points apply before changing mode:

Updates and evidence are available in every mode and are never gated. A project remaining in Simple mode retains complete results tracking; the mode controls only whether the planning layer is available.

Modes can be upgraded but not downgraded. Simple → Standard → Advanced is a one-way transition. Upgrading exposes additional capabilities without altering existing records, but cannot be reversed, so it should be treated as a decision rather than a trial.

Standard mode

Standard mode provides outcomes as a flat list, without nesting. Each outcome carries indicators, and the budget becomes line items that can be attributed to funders.

Assumptions and means of verification exist in the data model but are not available in Standard mode, and are not offered by the interface. Where they are required, Advanced mode applies.

Advanced mode

Advanced mode implements the Logical Framework Approach in full, this being the convention used by institutional development funders. It has four levels:

Level	What it is
Goal	The long-term change being contributed to
Outcome	The change the organisation is accountable for
Output	What the work directly produces
Activity	The work undertaken

These are the standard Logical Framework Approach definitions rather than platform-specific ones. Where a funder’s guidance defines them differently, follow the funder.

Each level nests beneath the one above. Advanced mode also provides assumptions — the conditions that must hold for the logic to remain valid — and means of verification on each indicator.

Funder terminology

Every objective can carry a label that overrides the level name. Where a funder refers to an outcome as a “Specific Objective”, set that as the label; the underlying structure is unchanged.

Funder templates are vocabulary applied to a single structure rather than distinct structures. A logframe does not need rebuilding to satisfy a different funder’s terminology.

Indicators

An indicator is the measure by which an objective’s achievement is assessed. Each has:

Field	For
Name and unit	What is counted, and in what unit
Type	Quantitative or qualitative
Baseline and its date	The position at the start
Target and its date	The intended position
Frequency	Measurement interval: monthly, quarterly, annual, or ad-hoc
Means of verification	How the result is evidenced — Advanced mode only

Evidence attaches to indicators. Recording evidence against an indicator places the planned target and the actual measurement together, which is the purpose of setting a baseline as well as a target.

Rejected operations

Operation	Reason
Creating an objective in Simple mode	Results planning is not enabled; change mode first
Nesting one outcome under another in Standard mode	Hierarchy is available in Advanced mode only
Using a level other than outcome in Standard mode	Standard mode supports outcomes only

Setting assumptions or means of verification in Standard mode is not rejected but ignored. The fields are not part of that mode, so the values are not saved and no notification is given.