You can setup a negative KPI metric in such a way that your target value is less than the start value at the time of creating your objective. This way, If the actual value at the time of checking in is less than the start value the objective is considered to be progressing on track.
Let us take an example:
KPI metric - "Max acceptable client complaints" and the maximum acceptable number of complaints is between 0 and 2
Here, you can set the target as 0 and the start value as 3. If the actual value is 2, the score would be 0.3. If it's 1, the score would 0.7 and if it's 0, the score would be 1.
Another way to setup this metric is look at it as a binary score (0 or 1). Where the target is 1 and start is 0. You give a score of 1 if the target of less than 3 is achieved and give a score of 0 if the target is not met.
Ally's Scoring Guidance feature also allows you to add guidance for others to see how progress should be tracked and/or how a score should be calculated.