Setting targets for public service delivery combined with increased flexibility in resource use has been a major topic of reforms internationally. Performance contracts are a central instrument of implementation, defining the relevant contents of control. The article will analyse performance contracts in Swiss local governments as regards performance specifications and the combinations of performance and financial control which they use. The analysis shows that only about a third of performance contracts contain indicators for performance specification, and only about 20 percent of performance contracts have defined indicators for outcomes. In contrast, about 90 percent of performance contracts regulate the attribution of financial resources by variable and globalized budgets. As a consequence, only a minority of performance contracts fulfil the conceptual idea of combining output-oriented financing and control of performance by targets and indicators.