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How to create a work plan (with template)

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What is a work plan?

3 great reasons to use a work plan, work plan template and examples, types of work plans, and once you knock it out of the park….

You did it — you got promoted or landed your dream job . 

After a lot of hard work, you’re ready to make your mark with your next project. You want to make a great first impression with your boss. Whether you've got big ideas to pitch or big challenges being pitched at you, execution matters.

You know that you need to communicate your ideas clearly. But you also need to communicate your ability to execute on them and rally the resources to help. That starts with demonstrating that you have a solid grasp of the nature, size, and complexity of the project.

How? By creating a work plan that shows your approach and lets others see where they fit in. A work plan isn't always right, but it gets people to ask the right questions.

So before you change the world, think about your approach. Are you following a known methodology? Your manager will need specifics, everything from your project timelines to a high-level action plan. (And, eventually, a detailed action plan.)

In short, you’ll need a work plan — a roadmap for accomplishing your work goals . Whether you want to streamline your team's workflow, build a new app, or put on the event of the century, a strategic plan will take you there.

Let’s talk about how to create a work plan t hat meets your project management goals and achieves the outcomes and impact that matter.

A work plan is a document that helps everyone communicate more clearly about the project.

A good work plan lays out the action steps needed to complete a project.

It makes clear what the desired outcome is and the major streams of activities or deliverables that will accomplish that outcome. It also highlights needed resources or participation and dependencies.  

Key stakeholders should review and provide input to a plan before the project begins. This process is lengthy, but you’ll have a clear roadmap that everyone supports when it’s ready (more on how to create an action plan and achieve your goals in a moment).

A final work plan typically includes:

  • Goals and project objectives
  • Project tasks
  • Task assignments (if working with a team) 
  • Key deliverables
  • Required resources
  • Timelines, including due dates

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It’s tempting to avoid creating such a rigorous document for your workflow. After all, this process is both complicated and somewhat time-consuming. But extra work now will pay off in the long run.

Creating a plan forces you to really consider how to achieve the objective. The process forces you to ask hard questions, like who will do the work, and is there enough time?

Here are three reasons to pull together a work plan:

1. It’ll help your team stay on task

A great work plan establishes deadlines and tasks. Listing out who is responsible for what keeps everyone accountable. People can also see how their work fits into the bigger picture. That can make it more rewarding but also helps them make better decisions.

2. Manage expectations

By the time you start the project, your plan will have made the rounds to all relevant stakeholders — including management. This process takes time and effort. But without it, people will inevitably throw curveballs at you throughout the project. (They still may but you are standing on more firm footing with a good work plan).

Everyone should be clear on what the plan requires and what it can accomplish. It surfaces mismatched expectations and different interpretations at the outset to reduce confusion and conflict down the road. Plus, it will highlight requirements and constraints that you might not have been aware of,  like special permissions, that you can add to the plan.

3. It’ll make it easy to know when to celebrate

Tracking your goals and milestones gives you a reason to celebrate with your team. Nothing feels better than crossing a significant item off the list. Plus, you can share your successes with management, making you and your team look good.

Understanding what level of detail is appropriate and how to present your plan to different stakeholders are some of the skills that BetterUp can help you develop.  

You can create a work plan in Microsoft Word, Excel, or a dedicated project management software. You can also find work plan templates online. We've provided a step-by-step template with examples below.

No matter what you choose, there are some fundamental principles to follow. First, start simple. At every step, try to tell a clear, easily understood story. Second, get test it on the high-level before you get too detailed. Share it with your manager, experienced team members, or trusted peers and listen for what resonates or where they have questions.

An example can help you understand how the process works. So imagine you’re the head of a public relations department at an outdoor equipment company. In this role, one of your goals is to organize a fundraiser for a high-profile local not-for-profit. Let’s prepare your work plan to pitch to your CEO. 

Woman-Drawing-Charts-On-White-Board-how-to-create-a-work-plan

Step 1: Define the “why” of your project

In your work plan document, you’ll need to explain: 

  • The purpose of this endeavor. How does it fit into the company's big picture? What will it bring to the organization? Provide a clear explanation .
  • The background and wider context of this project. Demonstrate where the project fits in the company's business plan or key objectives. It can also be helpful to show how the project fits into the company’s core values . 

In the outdoor equipment company’s case, you want to show the company’s commitment to the local community. This helps build trust with customers and employees, who are the pillars of the company’s success.

And because you sell outdoor equipment, your charity of choice is an environmental group. This perfectly aligns with the outdoorsy image of your organization. 

Step 2: Set your project schedule

It’s always good to have a clear deadline for a project . A time-bound project helps you to prioritize and get things done. Plus, having a deadline can help you manage your time effectively . 

In this example, your time frame is clear: You have until the date of the event. Pick a placeholder date to help you establish the schedule. Keep in mind the event date could change during discussions with stakeholders.

You will also need start dates and end dates for each aspect of the project, such as creating promo materials and guest invitations. Determine which of these dates are fixed and which have some flexibility. Don't create a plan that relies on the best-case scenario every step of the way.

Be sure to assign team members to these tasks. 

Step 3: Clearly state your goals

This is where you list clear, achievable objectives. Consider using the SMART goals technique . This will help you brainstorm specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based objectives.

Be sure to also define key performance indicators (KPIs). These are the tools you need to measure success.

For your fundraiser, a donation goal of $100,000 and an attendance rate of 50% would be reasonable indicators of success. 

Step 4: Go over your constraints

Your goals should be consistent with your chosen timeline, budget, and resources. You probably found barriers in the planning process, so make sure the project’s scope is realistic. Don’t promise a moon landing if you don’t have money for a rocket.

Your event should have a realistic way of meeting its goals of $100,000. Does your company have connections in the community? Will you have many high-profile guests who can make large donations? Are they guaranteed to show up if they RSVP? 

Answer these questions honestly, think imaginatively about alternatives, and adjust your goals accordingly.

Team-Working-Together-how-to-create-a-work-plan

Step 5: Discuss risk and accountability

Think of your plan from every angle . What are your core dependencies? What could go wrong? Whether it’s unexpected employee turnover or bad weather forcing the event indoors, be clear about what could prevent an ideal outcome and have a backup plan. Have several and specify what conditions would trigger a contingency plan in advance.

Every work plan will be different. As t his work plan template shows they vary  depending on the type of project, the number of people involved, and who will be using the plan each day 

The nature of these strategies makes them hard to categorize, but we can boil them down to two major types: 

Employee work plan

These plans are smaller in scope, focusing on simple projects within a department. They aim to help your team achieve its internal goals — thus negating the need for upper management approval. Usually, these small projects fall within your purview as a department head or manager.

An employee work plan includes things like:

Project goals

Materials and expenses required for the project

Deadlines and estimated date for completion

Colleagues-Planning-Together-how-to-create-a-work-plan

Manager work plan

A manager's work plan is more appropriate for large projects. They involve long-term goals and strategies, and may require help from other departments. These projects tend to have:

The projected impact on the company

Detailed risk analyses

Granular cost breakdowns and budgets

Because of their size and complexity, these plans often require approval from the higher-ups.

Let’s come back to your mountain equipment company fundraiser. This project would be considered a manager plan. It’s expensive, could significantly impact the company’s brand image, and involves multiple stakeholders outside of your department. Within the plan, you might find tasks that you can assign to your employees on a smaller scale — but that’s still part of the manager’s role. 

Project management plans are essential for any team leader , but they’re not everything. Having and communicating a vision and leading a team all the way through execution are important skills. Now that you kn ow how to create a solid work plan, yo u’re on your way.

BetterUp can help you level up your leadership skills to get everyone on board with your work plans. We’re here to help you create a plan to crush your goals (in the best possible way).

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Elizabeth Perry

Content Marketing Manager, ACC

Member story: working effectively with stakeholders on complex projects

How to create a scope of work in 8 steps, take the initiative: a how-to guide in 10 steps, how to get permission for taking a sabbatical from work, the best work-life balance jobs to improve your well-being, what’s a project scope, and how do you write one, the pros and cons of working as a contractor versus an employee, 5 team alignment tactics to boost organizational performance, find the purpose of work by creating purpose in your work, similar articles, how to excel at life planning (a life planning template), your 6-step guide on how to make an action plan for management, learn what process mapping is and how to create one (+ examples), hit the ground running with this ultimate 30-60-90 day plan, building influence without authority: be the change you want to see, what is an action plan how to become a real-life action hero, strategic plan vs. work plan: what's the difference, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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How to create a work plan (examples and template)

work plan for business

As a kid, I watched John “Hannibal” Smith from The A-Team often say, “I love when a plan comes together.” The four action heroes appeared to be able to create elaborate plans to solve their challenge of the week and execute them on the spot. Well, I never thought that as an adult product manager, I would be saying the same words.

How To Create A Work Plan (Examples And Template)

In practice, my planning comes with way more hurdles than the TV action heroes faced. However, both the A-team and the product teams still need a work plan to achieve success!

What is a work plan?

Now, what is a work plan in product management, especially in an agile product management world? A work plan is a high-level document that helps you gather any initiative’s goals, timelines, risks, and other aspects for a future update. It helps you coordinate and monitor these details to make sure the work is going accordingly.

“Wait a minute!” – you may shout – “That sounds like project management!”

Well, I need to agree here. But, this work plan is not there for you to get timelines from your team and monitor them with a stopwatch.

This is a communication tool. This is how you help yourself, your team members, and your stakeholders get a common understanding of upcoming challenges. When you work with your team on the plan, the right people get their chance to voice their concerns and ideas.

Also, in the product management world, it is not about setting everything in stone. It’s about being able to create clarity where possible (say, the problem you want to fix with the new initiative) and identify the moving elements (i.e., where will the development go once a certain aspect is A/B tested).

What are the 3 steps of a work plan?

To understand a tool work plan for a product manager, let’s divide it into three stages:

  • Preparation

Steps Of A Work Plan

Let’s take a look at them one by one!

1. Preparation

Every change starts with an idea. However, the idea is simply not enough to convince anyone that it’s a good one. Thus, here comes the bulk of, often lonely, work of a product manager. In this stage, you should:

Create an initiative document

Establish a user story or similar, verify how the idea fits the current product fundamentals and focus, choose the product metrics to address, perform research and early product discovery, identify the internal stakeholders.

  • Create a ticket in your product management software

Plan a project kick-off meeting

Step One Preparation

This is not your Jira ticket — not yet. This will be your work plan’s main document, where you will gather all the notes and key information needed. For now, this can be a private document, but be aware that you should be able to share it with anyone at any point.

work plan for business

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work plan for business

It’s not your notepad, but a document collecting all aspects of the initiative. This document will later be super handy when crafting any other communication or updates connected to this initiative. Be sure to record the information you collect from the following points in this document.

While the book approach dictates that you start with a problem to solve, let’s face it, we usually work on solutions. However, a solution looking for a problem is most likely nothing more than a waste of time.

Thus, provide the right context for your initiative, the intended user group and the value the idea delivers. This will set a solid foundation for the rest of the work you are going to do. Thus, start by filling in this sentence:

As a [description of user], I want [functionality], so that [benefit].

Every product idea needs a good context. It has to fit the current product vision and strategy, and address current goals and OKRs . Without it, it will be a distraction from the current direction. Doesn’t mean the idea is bad, but timing is also important. You can still plan it! Duh! A well-crafted work plan can be a basis to define the next period OKRs!

If you verified the context, it’s time to link your solution to your product metrics and goals. It’s OK to have ideas that don’t address any metrics directly, but build product quality to increase long-term retention. However, it will be far harder to sell such work to your stakeholders.

No worries, you just need to adjust your pitching strategy. Maybe the idea is worth pursuing as a side project or hackathon initiative. Anyway, make sure your flagship initiatives at least plan to improve some of the key product metrics. It’s best to also include that in a written product change hypothesis.

While it’s not always possible to get all the information you need, try to research the answers to the following questions:

  • Was this solution tested in other areas of the product or by competitors or semi-competitors? For example, the “stories” feature worked out great on Instagram, but it was a disaster on Skype
  • Is there a science paper that evaluated the idea in a controlled environment? For example, have scientists evaluated the impact of gamification on users’ behavior?
  • Are you able to estimate the impact of the initiative on product metrics or are you performing a pure “guesstimation”?
  • Which user personas will benefit from the update?
  • What are the other ways to solve the same problem (this is just a sanity check step to see if you can come up with even a better idea)

From developers, researchers, business analysts, and other product managers to high-level executives. This will help you down the road in making sure all the right parties are up to speed!

Create a ticket in your product management software (most likely Jira)

At this stage, you should be able to create your epic and copy-paste relevant information from the initiative’s document. It’s a formality at this stage, as you basically have everything to create an exceptional epic.

Once you did all that due diligence, it’s time to call in a meeting and get all the needed stakeholders in one room to get everyone on the same page. However, the main goal will be to create a more tangible product plan and identify the unknown risks and gaps that could prevent the idea from becoming a reality.

2. Kick off

Now that all the product manager’s preparation work is completed, the kick-off meeting can be treated as sort of a handoff meeting. While the PM doesn’t move on to researching another idea right after this meeting, the responsibility of making it happen is essentially passed on to the development team. Or at least it should be like this.

If you are a product manager that also performs the project manager/development team leader duties, you will have to see all the work through until the end.

Anyway, regardless of your role, here are the elements you need to tackle during the kick-off meeting. Remember to record everything in the initiative document! The meeting here should consist of the following elements:

  • Product manager presenting their findings
  • Discussion on those findings to make sure all meeting members are on the same page
  • Planning out the high-level technical elements needed plus the timeline
  • Agreeing on the potential risks and brainstorming solutions to mitigate those
  • Seeking an MVP that can be implemented to test the product hypothesis as early as possible. This can mean different things, from a product discovery process where a mock of the update is presented to random people, to a full-blown working update with perhaps only a selected pool of intended functionalities
  • Drawing expected timeline and check-in points
  • Finalize the design – Mart – by the 14th of August
  • Build the API – Donna – by end of August
  • Prepare the tracking specification – Lucas – early August
  • Clearing the necessary architecture changes with team Astro – Monica – ASAP
  • Expected MVP release – Jane – second sprint of September
  • Agreeing on the requirements. You can come up with a draft of the update’s requirements for the Jira ticket, but it’s best to run them with the stakeholders and include their input
  • Final Q&A session to make sure everyone leaves the room at least in peace, if not optimistic and confident

Now, as I mentioned earlier, what happens next depends on how your organization defines your product manager role. This might be a point after which you only check in with the team to share your opinion on the deliverables and collect status updates for your communication. However, you may also be the person who needs to change this into a full-on project management role, with full oversight, daily reports, and addressing any hurdles the team should face.

Sidenote: honestly, if you are closer to the second possibility, please consider changing employers. You won’t be growing as a product manager if project management takes the bulk of your job.

Assuming you work in an agile organization, the plan is now being realized and adjusted on the fly based on what will happen. The timeline can be pushed back for multiple reasons, but that’s OK.

Timely delivery is not about setting dates and deliverable outcomes in stone — it’s about using agile scrum to deliver the optimal value to the user and knowing how to do it transparently. It’s a neat compromise between chaotic-on-the-fly decision-making and a complex predefined structure project execution plan as presented by, i.e., PRINCE2 framework.

As you are, hopefully, an agile product manager, let’s look at the final stage of the plan:

3. Evaluation

This is a bit fuzzy part where you are meant to reflect on how the plan is coming together. While you will be making your decisions based on the MVP and following releases’ performance, it will be really impressive if you are already prepared for certain outcomes.

Try to answer the following questions:

  • What happens next after the MVP is successful (or not)?
  • What parts of a successful MVP should be improved first and foremost?
  • Does the result of this initiative impact your roadmap going forward? How? (i.e., when your experiment is done as a small side project, but is so successful it promises way better results than other roadmap items planned)
  • Can other parts of the product/company have any stake in this update? (i.e., If a new feature introduced in the mobile app is successful, perhaps the web browser version of the product should follow suit?)
  • Are there any opportunities this update unlocks?

Generally, sit down and speculate what you should do next. Don’t wait until the update is released to do that, as that will be a waste of time. If you find a successful result, you should pursue it immediately – every day you don’t build on your previous success is a day lost!

Let’s make it easy for you: Template with an example

Hope you liked the framework above and would like to give it a go! If so, this article comes with both a work plan template and a filled-in example of a work plan for you to use.

I hope you will use it and it will be easier for you to deliver your next initiative to the kick-off meeting stage. Good luck!

Conclusion: “I love when a plan comes together”

The A Team Meme

I believe some of you were skeptical when you saw the beginnings of this article. A work plan for an agile product manager does seem to contradict the basic foundations of how the role should be executed.

I hope however that now you see that “agile” doesn’t mean “without a plan.” On the contrary, being agile is not about working without one — it’s about having a solid understanding and foundations to be able to adjust the plan on the go while maintaining the right vision and ability to still attain any pursued goal.

I hope this article will help you achieve those!

Dr. Bart Jaworski, Senior Product Manager at Stepstone, ex-Microsoft

Follow me on LinkedIn!

Check out my product management resources: drbartpm.com

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1. Write an executive summary

2. describe your company, 3. state your business goals, 4. describe your products and services, 5. do your market research, 6. outline your marketing and sales plan, 7. perform a business financial analysis, 8. make financial projections, 9. add additional information to an appendix, business plan tips and resources.

A business plan is a document that outlines your business’s financial goals and explains how you’ll achieve them. A strong, detailed plan will provide a road map for the business’s next three to five years, and you can share it with potential investors, lenders or other important partners.

Bizee

Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing your business plan.

» Need help writing? Learn about the best business plan software .

This is the first page of your business plan. Think of it as your elevator pitch. It should include a mission statement, a brief description of the products or services offered, and a broad summary of your financial growth plans.

Though the executive summary is the first thing your investors will read, it can be easier to write it last. That way, you can highlight information you’ve identified while writing other sections that go into more detail.

» MORE: How to write an executive summary in 6 steps

Next up is your company description, which should contain information like:

Your business’s registered name.

Address of your business location .

Names of key people in the business. Make sure to highlight unique skills or technical expertise among members of your team.

Your company description should also define your business structure — such as a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation — and include the percent ownership that each owner has and the extent of each owner’s involvement in the company.

Lastly, it should cover the history of your company and the nature of your business now. This prepares the reader to learn about your goals in the next section.

» MORE: How to write a company overview for a business plan

work plan for business

The third part of a business plan is an objective statement. This section spells out exactly what you’d like to accomplish, both in the near term and over the long term.

If you’re looking for a business loan or outside investment, you can use this section to explain why you have a clear need for the funds, how the financing will help your business grow, and how you plan to achieve your growth targets. The key is to provide a clear explanation of the opportunity presented and how the loan or investment will grow your company.

For example, if your business is launching a second product line, you might explain how the loan will help your company launch the new product and how much you think sales will increase over the next three years as a result.

In this section, go into detail about the products or services you offer or plan to offer.

You should include the following:

An explanation of how your product or service works.

The pricing model for your product or service.

The typical customers you serve.

Your supply chain and order fulfillment strategy.

Your sales strategy.

Your distribution strategy.

You can also discuss current or pending trademarks and patents associated with your product or service.

Lenders and investors will want to know what sets your product apart from your competition. In your market analysis section , explain who your competitors are. Discuss what they do well, and point out what you can do better. If you’re serving a different or underserved market, explain that.

Here, you can address how you plan to persuade customers to buy your products or services, or how you will develop customer loyalty that will lead to repeat business.

» MORE: R e a d our complete guide to small business marketing

If you’re a startup, you may not have much information on your business financials yet. However, if you’re an existing business, you’ll want to include income or profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet that lists your assets and debts, and a cash flow statement that shows how cash comes into and goes out of the company.

You may also include metrics such as:

Net profit margin: the percentage of revenue you keep as net income.

Current ratio: the measurement of your liquidity and ability to repay debts.

Accounts receivable turnover ratio: a measurement of how frequently you collect on receivables per year.

This is a great place to include charts and graphs that make it easy for those reading your plan to understand the financial health of your business.

» NerdWallet’s picks for setting up your business finances:

The best business checking accounts .

The best business credit cards .

The best accounting software .

This is a critical part of your business plan if you’re seeking financing or investors. It outlines how your business will generate enough profit to repay the loan or how you will earn a decent return for investors.

Here, you’ll provide your business’s monthly or quarterly sales, expenses and profit estimates over at least a three-year period — with the future numbers assuming you’ve obtained a new loan.

Accuracy is key, so carefully analyze your past financial statements before giving projections. Your goals may be aggressive, but they should also be realistic.

List any supporting information or additional materials that you couldn’t fit in elsewhere, such as resumes of key employees, licenses, equipment leases, permits, patents, receipts, bank statements, contracts and personal and business credit history. If the appendix is long, you may want to consider adding a table of contents at the beginning of this section.

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Here are some tips to help your business plan stand out:

Avoid over-optimism: If you’re applying for a business loan at a local bank, the loan officer likely knows your market pretty well. Providing unreasonable sales estimates can hurt your chances of loan approval.

Proofread: Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors can jump off the page and turn off lenders and prospective investors, taking their mind off your business and putting it on the mistakes you made. If writing and editing aren't your strong suit, you may want to hire a professional business plan writer, copy editor or proofreader.

Use free resources: SCORE is a nonprofit association that offers a large network of volunteer business mentors and experts who can help you write or edit your business plan. You can search for a mentor or find a local SCORE chapter for more guidance.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers , which provide free business consulting and help with business plan development, can also be a resource.

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How to develop an effective work plan in minutes

In order to develop an effective work plan you'll need to clearly understand what you're trying to achieve. ensuring a favorable outcome of a work plan often comes down to the manner in which you manage your goals and objectives, and how you measure success. a ready-made, customizable work plan template is an intelligent first step to reaching your goals..

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What is a work plan?

Manage any plan or project in an intuitive way with monday.com.

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4 tips for creating a successful work plan

  • Work your way backwards from the final goal Planning activities can be accomplished by working backward from the final goal with core initiatives arranged hierarchically. Developing the plan can be achieved through iterative refinements of strategy, objectives and the underlying tactics. Gating factors should be accounted for in the development of a straw man outline. The main objectives and summary checklist should be included as the first step of the process.
  • Establish goals with measurable deliverables Once the project outline is complete, it’s important to define clear realistic deliverables as part of the action plan. Milestones allow progress to be tracked against deliverables within a results-oriented framework. A timeline can be instrumental in identifying what needs to happen and when.
  • Create realistic objectives that are relevant to the stated goals A good plan will often fan out from goal to tactic. For example, a single goal might be supported by a small number of strategies, each with a single or a small number of objectives. Objectives will often contain many tactics which should comprise the concrete actions to be accomplished within an achievable time frame. The more granular the tactical plan, the easier it will be to follow. Tasks can often be broken down into sub-tasks which represent individual units of work resulting in identifiable deliverables. As the project commences, it's important to track against the agreed-upon deliverables.
  • Define responsibilities and roles in the work plan Allocating responsibilities among designated stakeholders with clearly assigned tasks is a key component of the operation plan. That way, all members of the team can function according to the team charter.

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 A Work Plan

Learn everything you need to know about creating a project/work plan for business projects . Includes best practices , how-tos, examples, and a free work plan template at the bottom.

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

– Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President

I can’t agree more with President Eisenhower’s quote. Planning forces me to organize my thoughts and narrative for change. If I establish a goal, and I have a bunch of chess pieces, I have to figure out the proper sequencing of all of the chess moves to achieve the goal. And, given the chess pieces are people, I have to assess how much they can get done in a timely fashion, create milestones that will stretch the team but are reachable, and build a case for change that will motivate the team. Then, I have to figure out how to get the wheels turning in a new direction, aligning and mobilizing people and resources to focus on something new and unknown. There are a lot of moving pieces, and while a plan might be good, it will always be imperfect, and inevitably the plan is only as useful as the planning that went into it.

Strategic leaders expend much of their mental energy on thinking about the future and working backward. And, they codify much of their thinking into a plan. So, let’s go over what makes up a plan and some of the best practices in planning and creating a plan.

What is a plan?

A plan begins to bring to life a strategy. A plan arranges the composition of resources and work necessary to achieve an objective over some time period. A plan is useful to further problem solve a strategy, understand the magnitude of necessary resources, work, and time, chunk up progress into milestones, reveal dependencies, align and provide clarity to stakeholders and serve as a cornerstone for execution .

Whether the plan is a strategic plan , a project plan, a marketing plan , a daily plan, or any other plan, all plans share a set of common elements, including objectives, resources (money, people, infrastructure) workstreams, work blocks, phases & milestones, dependencies, and time.

A Work Plan for Business

A Plan begins with an objective, the ultimate output of the use of resources. The objective can be figuring out a solution to a problem, building a new product, next year’s growth goals for a business, or getting from point A to point B. Regardless, it is important to be crystal clear on the objective, for it serves as the guidepost to optimize the work, resources, and timing of a plan.

Workstreams & work blocks

Work is the actions taken by people to accomplish objectives. Good plans separate work into both work blocks and workstreams. Work blocks are chunks of interdependent tasks. While workstreams are logical groupings of work blocks, often segmented by the person, team, or function that will do the work or some other relevant segmentation .

Phases & milestones

Often, but not necessarily, work is also segmented by phases, which often defines the lifecycle of a plan over time. Phases can be punctuated at the end by milestones, which are intermediate accomplishments or outputs, signifying progress towards the ultimate objective(s) of the plan.

Resources (people, money, infrastructure)

Resources are needed to execute a plan. Resources always start with people or a team, who do the work. Often, the execution of a plan also necessitates resources such as money or budget, and infrastructure.

The last element of a plan is the dimension of time. A plan charts a course of action through time, with the plan’s composition of resources and work, optimized on the canvas of time.

Core Planning Tools

In developing good plans, there are four main tools to utilize, including collaboration, disaggregation , lean, and estimation.

Collaboration

Developing a good plan necessitates robust collaboration with stakeholders, potential team members, and people with previous experience. Strong planning is like a multi-dimensional puzzle, where many of the puzzle pieces are in peoples’ experiences and knowledge or created in rich interaction and discussion. The arrangement of the puzzle pieces can only be properly put together through the debate on how to optimize the right resources doing the right work at the right time to achieve the objective.

Disaggregation

Building a plan is a problem solving project. And, once the objective is defined, the first step in problem solving is disaggregation. In the case of a plan, the focus is on properly disaggregating the workstreams, work blocks, phases, milestones, timing, and necessary resources. And, as with any disaggregation, the key is being MECE ( Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive), segmenting the elements in a way that they don’t overlap, and are inclusive of everything that is necessary to achieve the objective.

Another challenge in disaggregation is defining the right level of specificity. It is hard work to figure out at what level of specificity a plan is most effective. Regarding a high-level strategic plan, typically the right level of specificity is represented by the big goals and initiatives of an organization . A daily plan needs a level of specificity at the task level.

Defining too low of a level of specificity (tasks) on a project plan can demoralize people. People like to know what they need to accomplish, and not be told how to accomplish things. Typically with a project plan, keep the work blocks and streams defined at a pretty high level, and focus the attention on setting the right milestones and goals.

A plan outlines a process with inputs (resources) creating outputs (milestones and objectives). As with all processes , be as lean as possible, eliminating the 8 Forms of waste , including waiting, motion, over-processing, over-production, defects, transportation, intellect, and inventory.

More often than not, there is a lot of waste within the architecture of a plan. Maybe the plan doesn’t fully utilize resources by parallel processing workstreams, has milestones that aren’t value-added output, but are more procedural, or creates multiple handoffs from one group to another. Just like in any process, it is important to use lean tools to minimize waste. The goal of a plan is to efficiently and effectively utilize resources to achieve an objective. Therefore, you should apply a high level of diligence in eliminating waste from a plan.

It is difficult to accurately estimate the necessary resources and timing to get the work done in a plan. There are two main elements of estimation. The first is properly estimating the amount of work that needs to be done, including any dependencies between work blocks. The second element is properly estimating how many resources you need and the productivity of the resources.

Estimating the amount of work involves properly disaggregating and leaning out the work blocks. Estimating the amount and productivity of resources can be much trickier. Software development studies highlight that the best software developers can be up to 15 times more productive than bottom-tier software developers. So, getting the right people on a project is a big part of the success equation.

Regarding estimating the productivity of the resources, the best practice is to involve the people in the planning that are going to execute the plan. Through a combination of their experiences, past performance, and debate, the team can typically assess what resources they truly need and how long the work will take. And, of course, the other estimation best practice is to always provide a bit of resource and time buffer in a plan. Typically, there is enough buffer in a plan when the people that will execute the plan have a 90-95% confidence level that they will accomplish the objective with the planned resources and schedule.

DOWNLOAD THE POWERPOINT PROJECT PLAN TEMPLATE

To get you going on planning your next project, download the free and editable PowerPoint Project Plan Template.

For an upcoming project, use the following Project Plan Template to organize the different elements of a plan.

First, think through the objectives and outputs of the project. Then dive into disaggregating the work into 2-5 workstreams. Next, think through the work blocks necessary for each workstream. Focus on what the output of each work block is and the steps to get there. You can either create milestones for the work streams or the total projects. Then adjust the timing of each work block by estimating the resources and time needed to complete, giving a little cushion to ensure there is enough time for completion. Organize the work blocks and workstreams to account for dependencies.

Once the project work has been organized, then codify your thoughts on the team structure and personnel, and the resources you’ll need to execute the project. This should give you a good understanding of the overall budget for the project.

When a project strawman is complete, the next step is to get more stakeholders involved to iterate and improve the various elements of the plan. Once the necessary stakeholders agree and sign off on the plan, then the project plan should go through the organization’s governance process to be evaluated against other projects and hopefully approved.

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How to Write a Work Plan

Last Updated: September 10, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Sydney Axelrod . Sydney Axelrod is a certified life coach and the owner of Sydney Axelrod LLC, a life coaching business focused on professional and personal development. Through one-on-one coaching, digital courses, and group workshops, Sydney works with clients to discover their purpose, navigate life transitions, and set and accomplish goals. Sydney has over 1,000 hours of relevant coaching certifications and holds a BBA in Marketing and Finance from Emory University. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,691,601 times.

A work plan is an outline of a set of goals and processes by which a team and/or person can accomplish those goals, and offering the reader a better understanding of the scope of the project. Work plans, whether used in professional or academic life, help you stay organized while working on projects. [1] X Research source Through work plans, you break down a process into small, achievable tasks and identify the things you want to accomplish. Learn how to write a work plan so that you can be prepared for upcoming projects.

Mapping out Your Work Plan

Step 1 Identify the purpose for your work plan

  • In the workplace, work plans help your supervisor know what projects you will be working on over the next several months. These often come right after an annual performance review or as teams undertake large projects. Work plans can also be the result of strategic planning sessions your organization holds at the beginning of a new calendar or fiscal year.
  • In the academic world, work plans can help students create a schedule for a large project. They can also help teachers plan their course material for the semester.
  • For a personal project, work plans will help you delineate what you intend to do, how you intend to do it, and by what date you intend to have it done. Personal work plans, while not strictly necessary, will help the individual keep track of his/her goals and progress.

Step 2 Write the introduction and background.

  • The introduction should be short and engaging. Remind your superiors why you are creating this work plan. Introduce the specific project(s) you will be working on during this time period.
  • The background should highlight the reasons you are creating this work plan. For example, recite details or statistics from recent reports, identify problems that need to be addressed, or build off of recommendations or feedback you received during previous work projects.

Step 3 Determine your goal(s) and objectives.

  • Goals should focus on the big picture of your project. List the desired ultimate outcome of your work plan. Keep it broad; for example, make your goal be to complete a research paper or to learn more about writing.
  • Objectives should be specific and tangible. In other words, you should be able to check these off your list when you accomplish them. For example, finding people to interview for your research paper would make a good objective.
  • Many work plans break down objectives into short- , middle- , and long-term objectives if they vary significantly. For example, a company's short-term goal to increase viewership 30% in three months may vary significantly from its long-term goal to strengthen brand visibility in social media outlets over the next year. [5] X Research source
  • Objectives are generally written in the active voice and use action verbs with specific meanings (e.g. "plan," "write," "increase," and "measure") instead of verbs with vaguer meanings (e.g. "examine," "understand," "know," etc.). [6] X Research source

Step 4 Consider ordering your work plan by

  • Specific . What exactly are we going to do for whom? Lay out what population you are going to serve and any specific actions you will use to help that population.
  • Remember that a baseline number needs to be established to quantify change. If you don't know the incidence rate of HIV/AIDS among South African newborns, it's going to be impossible to reliably say that you decreased incidence rates by 20%.
  • In some cases, an expert or authority may need to be consulted to figure out if your work plan objectives are achievable.
  • Relevant . Will this objective have an effect on the desired goal or strategy? Although it's probably important for overall health, does measuring the height and weight of high-schoolers directly lead to change in mental health procedures? Make sure your objectives and methods have a clear, intuitive relationship.
  • Time bound . When will this objective be accomplished, and/or when will we know we are done? Specify a hard end date for the project. Stipulate which, if any, outcomes would cause your project to come to a premature end, with all outcomes having been achieved.

Step 5 List your resources.

  • At the workplace, resources can include things like financial budget, personnel, consultants, buildings or rooms, and books. A detailed budget may appear in an appendix if your work plan is more formal.
  • In the academic arena, resources may include access to different libraries; research materials like books, newspapers, and journals; computer and Internet access; and professors or other individuals who can help you if you have questions.

Step 6 Identify any constraints.

  • List specific action steps. Identify what needs to happen each day or week for you to complete your objectives. [10] X Trustworthy Source Kansas University Center for Community Health and Development Community-based research center focused on supporting public health development and education Go to source Also, list steps other people on your team will need to take. Consider using project management software or a personal calendar to keep this information organized.
  • Create a schedule. Though you can create a tentative work schedule, realize that unexpected things happen and you need to build space into your schedule to prevent falling behind.

Sample Plan and List of Things to Include

work plan for business

Expert Q&A

  • Identify milestones if your project is especially large. Milestones are points throughout the project that highlight meeting certain objectives. They can also serve as a point of reflection, allowing you to look at here you are in the process and make sure you are still on track with the work plan. [11] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Make your work plan work for you. Work plans can be as detailed or as broad as you would like or need them to be. They can be written on a piece of paper or created on professional software, using graphics and colors. Use what is most natural and effective for you. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

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  • ↑ https://www.insightful.io/blog/how-can-strategic-planning-improve-your-productivity
  • ↑ http://cec.vcn.bc.ca/cmp/modules/pm-pln.htm
  • ↑ https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-create-a-work-plan
  • ↑ Sydney Axelrod. Certified Life Coach. Expert Interview. 30 June 2020.
  • ↑ https://smallbusiness.co.uk/short-mediumand-longterm-objectives-27759/
  • ↑ http://rootedinrelationships.org/file_download/inline/1301eeee-df67-48b0-8445-f7daed9331b8
  • ↑ SMART" objectives
  • ↑ https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/make-work-plan
  • ↑ https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning/identify-action-steps/main
  • ↑ https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/milestones-project-management

About This Article

Sydney Axelrod

To write a work plan, start by defining a specific, measurable goal that you want to accomplish, like increasing sales by 50% by the end of the year. Then, list the resources that are available to help everyone involved accomplish the goal. You'll also want to mention any constraints or obstacles that might get in the way and how you plan on dealing with them. Also, make sure you clearly explain to everyone involved what they're accountable for. Finally, come up with a strategy for how you and your team are going to be successful. To learn more about how to break your plan into short-term and long-term goals, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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18 Best Work Planning Templates For Busy Professionals In 2024 [Includes Daily, Weekly, Monthly Templates]

Best Work Planning Templates For Busy Professionals

It can be tough to stay on top of everything when you’re a busy professional. From handling emails and attending meetings to taking care of deadlines, there’s always something vying for your attention. That’s why it’s helpful to have some work planning templates in your arsenal.

Daily, weekly, and monthly planner templates can help you map out your time and ensure that you’re staying on task. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or bogged down by your workload, these templates can give you the breathing room you need to reevaluate your priorities and create a plan of action.

According to a study conducted by Gloria Mark of the University of California, “It takes employees approximately 23 minutes to refocus on a task after they get distracted.”

That’s why we’ve gathered professional work templates to help all you hard-working professionals plan your days, weeks, and months more effectively. From to-do lists to goal tracking charts, we’ve got you covered.

Now, let’s dive into the best work planning templates in 2024!

What Is a Work Planning Template? 

A work planning template is a document that outlines the steps and timeframes necessary to complete a task or a project.

It typically includes space for the task or project name, a brief description, and columns for tracking start and end dates, assigned personnel, and completion status. It can be used by individuals or teams and can be tailored to fit specific needs.

Work plan templates can be created in Excel, Google Sheets, or other spreadsheet applications. However, building out the first version of these templates can often be a time-consuming and tedious task. It is often easier to adapt an existing template from a project management tool like monday.com which curates a template library of over 200.

Page Contents (Click To Jump)

Daily Work Planning Templates

A daily work planning template is a tool used to help map out and plan your day-to-day tasks. It helps you stay organized and on track during the course of a day. It can help ensure that all tasks are accounted for, and that important deadlines are not forgotten. Most templates include a section for daily goals, as well as a list of to-dos that need to be completed.

1) Daily Recap Flow by Assembly

work plan for business

The Daily Recap Flow is a great way for employees and managers alike to summarize their work in an easy-to-understand format. You get the highlights of what’s going on with your projects, while also learning about any roadblocks or plans that may be slowing them down!

Why we love this daily work template: The Daily Recap Flow allows you to customize reports and include information like progress updates and any business plans for collaboration with other teams or managers in charge of specific projects throughout. This gives both parties an idea about how their allocated tasks are going and promotes transparency.

Tip: Reduce the number of in-person meetings by obtaining more useful information from your staff and their progress thanks to the Daily Recap Flow.

Where to get started: Daily Recap Flow by Assembly

2) Team PTO Template by Smartsheet

Team PTO Template

The Team PTO Template is a powerful tool that allows you to easily track and analyze absences within your team. With its pre-built charts and executive-level dashboards, you can quickly identify trends and anticipate any potential productivity impacts caused by upcoming shortages.

Why we love this daily work template: This work planning template efficiently manages PTO and absences by utilizing a single intake form and real-time reports. Keep your team and managers updated with this work planning solution.

Tip: You can gain a complete picture of what is going on internally and spot shortages for each project.

Where to get started: Team PTO Template by Smartsheet

3) Event Planning Template by Wrike

Event Planning Template

Utilize the template to break down events into stages, coordinate schedules, meet deadlines, assign tasks, visually track progress on a timeline, and manage the event budget. With an interactive Gantt chart, dynamic calendars, and various work views, this Event Planning Template offers unparalleled features, surpassing even dedicated event planning software.

Why we love this daily work template: The Event Planning Template helps you assign tasks to different team members, ranging from finance to marketing. By doing so, you’ll maximize efficiency, collaboration, and achieve outstanding results.

Tip: Use the Event Planning Template for everything from planning and logistics to creative, event, and follow-up.

Where to get started: Event Planning Template by Wrike

4) Daily Task Tracker Template by Wrike

Daily Task Tracker Template

Maximize your productivity by organizing and prioritizing your daily tasks with the powerful tracker template. Experience the satisfaction of achieving your goals and ending each day with a strong sense of accomplishment.

Why we love this daily work template: The Daily Task Tracker Template lets you optimize your workday, empowering you to prioritize, meet deadlines, and celebrate completed tasks. Bid farewell to forgotten responsibilities and embrace a day filled with productivity and success.

Tip: Access the daily task tracker through a request form, organize tasks in structured folders, and track task progress through dashboards.

Where to get started: Daily Task Tracker Template by Wrike

5) Daily Standup by Miro

Miro-Daily-Stand-up-Meeting

The Daily Standup is the perfect way to get your day started on the right foot. This template will help you track your daily responsibilities and improve your time management so you can reach your goals.

Why we love this daily work template: Thanks to this user-friendly work planning template, you’ll be able to work more efficiently and effectively towards crossing items off of your list, manage deadlines better, prioritize important tasks, and achieve more in less time! You can download this template for FREE and share it with your team members to plan your next daily standup.

Tip:  You may add, categorize and arrange your responsibilities and tasks in order of importance.

Where to get started: Daily Standup by Miro

6) Daily Briefing by ClickUp

Daily Briefing Template

The Daily Briefing Task allows team members to leave a comment providing a quick update on their project progress, roadblocks, and priorities—giving leadership a one-stop shop to keep track of individual contributions and celebrate successes and achievements.

An effective tool for promoting team alignment and transparency, this also helps teams quickly identify areas where additional support may be required.

Why we love this daily work template: The Daily Briefing Task streamlines project updates and facilitates team communication, all while making it easy for leadership to get an at-a-glance update across multiple projects. Threaded replies allow for quick collaboration, and comments can even be seen from a List view or Activity view.

Tip: Make sure to send out the completed template as a roundup for all intersted parties!

Where to get started: Daily Briefing by ClickUp

Bonus: Productivity Planner

work plan for business

The Productivity Planner is designed to help you focus on your top priorities for the day. It includes a daily ‘To Do List’, as well as sections for reminders, deadlines, and follow-up items.

Why we love this daily work template: You can print out the planner templates for each day of the week, so you always have it with you when you need it. Plus, there are helpful tips throughout the planner that will teach you how to be more productive and organized in your work life.

Tip:  Download the digital file instantly, print it out and start planning.

Where to get started: Productivity Planner

Weekly Work Planning Templates

A weekly work planning template is a document that outlines the tasks or goals that need to be accomplished during a given week. It can be used by individuals, teams, or organizations to track progress and ensure that all necessary work is completed.

7) Star Wars Template by Miro

Star-Wars-Retrospective

Part icebreaker, part retrospective, this Star Wars-themed template is a favorite of teams who want to work in a galaxy far, far away.

Why we love this daily work template: It is a fun and engaging template that can be used as many times as you want. Perfect for teams that have fans of Star Wars!

Tip: Share the template with the team ahead of your next meeting so they can create their lightsaber and answer the questions.

Where to get started: Star Wars Template by Miro

8) Weekly Planner Template by Miro

Miro-Teams

Weekly planning is a powerful tool for managing your personal and professional calendars. That’s where Miro’s nifty weekly work plan template comes in.

Whether you’re setting up a virtual coffee date, scheduling an important meeting, or tracking a project, use your weekly planner to stay on track.

Why we love this daily work template: Planning out your day, week, and month has never been more visual — or fun. Miro’s handy template can be shared across your team for broader input. You can also download it into a PDF format ready for printing.

Tip: You can customize your weekly planner with colors, graphics, and images.

Where to get started: Weekly Planner Template by Miro

9) Weekly Activity Planner by Fame

work plan for business

The Weekly Activity Planner is a dynamic dashboard that makes it easier to track all of your tasks. This HR template makes use of the drag-and-drop method. Simply choose your preferred sticky notes style from the supplied library, copy and paste into the Weekly Planner, resize as necessary, and input your activity or task.

Why we love this weekly work template: By using this planner, you will be able to accomplish more! You will have a plan that is tailored specifically to you and your goals. Plus, with this easy-to-use interface, you will be able to get started right away without any hassle.

Tip: Rows and stickers can be added with ease, making it ideal for people who are new to Excel templates.

Where to get started: Weekly Activity Planner by Fame

10) Weekly To-Do List by Miro

Miro-To-Do-List

The Weekly To-Do List template can help you handle your time and responsibilities better. You may quickly move items around, establish due dates, and keep track of how long it takes to accomplish them. This will assist you in keeping track of your important activities and weekly to-dos.

Why we love this weekly work template: This workplan template makes it easy to stay organized and in command of your job. You’ll be informed of deadlines, so you won’t have to worry about missing a beat again. Additionally, tasks may be easily prioritized based on their significance or urgency. With the Weekly To-Do List Template, you can get more done in less time!

Tip: With just a few clicks, you can export the template to Excel, as well as import your Excel file and convert it into a Miro board in a matter of minutes.

Where to get started: Weekly To-Do List by Miro

Bonus: Weekly Agenda

work plan for business

The Weekly Agenda is a planner that breaks down your work week into an easy and simple flow. You can plan out everything that needs to get done, prioritize, segment the tasks, track progress, move the priorities around, and cross them out. Having a planner like this will help you stay on top of your work and prevent burnout.

Why we love this weekly work template: With the Weekly Agenda, you can finally have a clear understanding of what needs to get done each week. This will increase your productivity , and you’ll feel less overwhelmed.

Tip: Select and organize the project’s personnel. Tag them so they may communicate their priorities or provide feedback, updates, or necessary information.

Where to get started: Weekly Agenda

Monthly Work Planning Templates

A monthly work planning template outlines the specific tasks that need to be completed each month to achieve specific goals. Most templates include a section for monthly goals, as well as a section for weekly assignments that correspond to the monthly goals. A monthly work plan template includes space for you to list out your goals, objectives, and tasks for the month, as well as a calendar to help you keep track of deadlines, milestones, and any new project.

11) Monthly Planner Template by Wrike

work plan for business

This Monthly Planner Template helps you schedule all your monthly projects and get a bird’s eye view of all the team projects that your company is managing. You can also do task prioritization and identify delays or roadblocks instantaneously.

Why we love this monthly work template: The Monthly Planner Template makes it easy to get everyone in the team on the same page. The calendar is sharable so all stakeholders know exactly where the project is at any given time.

Tip: The uber-cool cross-tagging and color-coding features means you no longer have to contend with cumbersome task categorization features!

Where to get started: Monthly Planner Template by Wrike

12) Editable Monthly Planner by MLP

work plan for business

The Editable Monthly Planner features a template for each month, along with a general template you can use interchangeably. Prioritize your to-do list, focus on deadlines, get helpful reminders, organize communication, and make notes in the free space.

Why we love this monthly work template: The Editable Monthly Planner allows you to arrange your to-do list, add reminders, notes, and more in follow-up sections.

Tip:  Take advantage of the fact that once you own the file, you can print out as many copies as you’d like to!

Where to get started: Editable Monthly Planner by MLP

13) Work Plan by Miro

Miro-Meeting-Minutes

Feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list? The Work Plan template is the solution for you. It’s an online tool that helps you create a plan and then break it down into actionable steps. You can then assign team members to each step and monitor project goals and work progress at every stage.

Why we love this monthly work template: You’ll be able to work on the most important tasks first and avoid getting bogged down by distractions. Plus, with this work plan template’s time tracking feature, you’ll know exactly how much time each task took so you can optimize your workflow in the future.

Tip: Start by selecting one of more than 200+ pre-made layouts or adding and rearranging as many as 30 different column types to build the ideal process.

Where to get started: Work Plan by Miro

14) Wins List Template by Assembly

work plan for business

If you ever get frustrated by your never-ending to-do list, then the Wins List Flow has you covered! It’s a task management template that encourages you to focus on your achievements rather than all of the things left undone. As a result, you can break free from procrastination and feel more productive in general.

Why we love this monthly work template: You deserve to celebrate every accomplishment, no matter how small it may seem. You can use Wins List Flow to record everything you do, as well as acknowledge each task completed. Plus, keeping all of this information in one location makes it simple to revisit and reflect on your achievements and wins over time.

Tip: Make this work planner template yours by customizing it to meet your own, team, department, or even corporate requirements.

Where to get started: Wins List Template by Assembly

Work Breakdown Structure Templates

The WBS consists of a hierarchical list of tasks, starting with the overall goal of the project and then breaking it down into smaller and more manageable tasks needed to achieve that goal. Each task is then assigned a level of detail, from high-level “chunks” to individual steps. This information can then be used to create a project schedule and budget and makes it easier to identify dependencies and allocate resources.

15) Single Project Template by monday.com

Single Project Template monday.com

The Single Project Template by monday.com helps you organize your single projects in a simple yet highly effective manner. You can use this template to set timelines and milestones, manage tasks, and gain complete visibility throughout.

Why we love this monthly work template: User-friendly features, colors for denoting statuses, and more than eight views (Gantt charts, Timeline, Kanban, etc.) make this template a breeze to work with.

Tip: The Single Project Template by monday.com is essentially a no-frills and fuss-free template. But it’s flexible enough to scale up when you’re ready to do more with it.

Where to get started: Single Project Template by monday.com

16) Work Breakdown Structure by Miro

Work Breakdown

The Work Breakdown Structure Template  is a great way to start planning your work, whether you’re managing multiple projects at once or just starting one.

Why we love this work breakdown structure template: This free WBS format makes it easy for anyone with little experience in project management because they can use this one simple tool that guides them through every step of their job!

Tip: This WBS plan has a sample work breakdown schedule so you may observe how it works in practice.

Where to get started: Work Breakdown Structure by Miro

17) Project Feed Template by Assembly

work plan for business

The Project Feed Template assists teams in communicating more effectively and avoiding overlap or missed communications. It’s a must-have tool for keeping everyone up to date on modifications and activities.

Why we love this work breakdown structure template: It’s an essential tool for establishing a clear project timeline and roadmap and helping you decide on an action plan . This will assist you in staying on top of your game and ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.

Tip: Adjust the degree of visibility necessary for each activity.

Where to get started: Project Feed Template by Assembly

18) Responsibility Matrix Template by Someka

work plan for business

A great project management template is a comprehensive assessment of the members and the assignments. That’s where the Responsibility Matrix Template helps out because it provides a framework for complex projects, simplifying the tasks and making the execution more efficient.

Why we love this work breakdown structure template: This RAM template can be accessed directly through Excel and it contains both a WBS chart and the RACI chart in one file. Exact info about every team members’ assignments is offered with this work planning template.

Tip: Utilize all three sections, which include settings, the responsibility assignment matrix (RAM), and the work breakdown structure.

Where to get started: Responsibility Matrix Template by Someka

Why Should You Use a Work Planning Template?

A work planning template is a way to organize and track the tasks you need to do to achieve a goal. It can help you stay focused and avoid procrastination. A work planning template can ensure that all the important tasks are completed on time. Having a work plan will also help you stay focused and avoid distractions especially if you are working remotely .

People Also Ask These Questions About Work Planning Templates 

Q: how do i create a work plan template.

  • A: One way to create a work plan template is to start with a weekly or monthly calendar. This will give you a basic overview of the project that you are planning. Then, add in any major deadlines or events that will be taking place during that period. Next, list out the tasks that need to be completed and include information about who is responsible for each task and when it is due. Finally, add any notes or comments that will help.

Q: Why should I use a work planning template? 

  • A: A work planning template will help you stay organized and on track. It ensures you set a project plan to identify the tasks that need to be completed and when they need to be completed. This will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, especially when working on a large project. A work planning template will also help you set a project schedule or timeline and track your progress. This will allow you to maintain a positive reputation within your workplace and avoid any negative consequences. Lastly, using a work planning template can help you become more productive and efficient.

Q: What are the benefits of using a daily work planning template? 

  • A: There are several benefits of using a daily work planning template. It helps you organize and structure your workday so that you can be more productive and efficient. It allows you to track your progress and see how much you have accomplished at the end of the day. It keeps you motivated and on track, by setting goals for each day and seeing your progress over time. It also helps reduce stress levels, as it provides a clear overview of what needs to be done each day and breaks down tasks into manageable chunks.

Q: How do I choose the best work planning template? 

  • A: It depends on your specific needs and work style. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a work planning template. Make sure the template is comprehensive enough to cover all the aspects of your work that you need to plan for. A good template should include space for task lists, deadlines, notes, and any other relevant information. Consider how flexible the template is – can it be easily adapted to changing circumstances, or will you need to start from scratch each time something changes? Think about how easy the template is to use – is it straightforward and user-friendly, or does it convolute the work process?

Q: What can I use to help write a work plan template?

  • A: There are many tools at your disposal that can make the process of writing a work plan template a lot simpler than if you were starting from scratch. One of the strategies that busy professionals use to get started is to begin with a ready-made template and then start to customize it based on their preferences. The first thing that is often added to a work plan template is a project timeline. Knowing how much time you have to complete your project can help you set reasonable goals that are attainable yet push you to work diligently. Not to mention, once you have solidified your project timeline, you can narrow down into specific tasks that need to be completed on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule.

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Work Plan Template

Get your Work Plan Template for Word or open it in ProjectManager, the best way to manage your projects online.

work plan for business

A work plan can be sparse or thorough, but either way, they are essential to staying organized. Thorough work planning helps organizations set the goals and processes that help teams do their job as well as dive into greater detail, such as outlining tasks, schedules, resources and budgets. Download our free work plan template for Word and give your project team the framework they need to succeed.

But, if you open the work plan template in ProjectManager instead, you’ll be able to manage your work plan with more than a Word doc, you’ll be able to use five different project planning views: Gantt, kanban board, task list, calendar and sheet. Plus, you can collaborate with your team in real time, and track progress in the software with live dashboards, timesheets and instant status reports. Get started for free with ProjectManager and build a better work plan.

A screenshot of a gantt chart in ProjectManager

What Is a Work Plan?

A work plan is used to organize, visualize and provide a context for the project they’re about to embark on. It lays out why the project exists and what it hopes to accomplish. It also details tasks that lead to the final deliverable and defines the roles and responsibilities of the team.

What Is a Work Plan Template?

A work plan template is simply a format that helps you save time as you plan how your team will execute work. The structure of a work plan template can vary as well as the tools you can use to make one. You can set one up on a Gantt chart or project calendar if you’re looking for a visual representation. But our work plan template for Word opts for the narrative variety, with expandable cells to capture the project and articulate its finer points.

ProjectManager's free work plan template

Why You Need This Work Plan Template

This work plan template helps everyone on the team do their job more efficiently. The team knows their role in the larger project and what they need to do in order for the project to achieve those goals and objectives.

It also gives the project manager a work planning document that they only need to fill in the blanks to complete. Of course, those blanks differ from project to project, but just having a sample work plan puts you ahead of the game. Once a project is complete, the work planning template can be used as historical data.

Our work plan template saves time by showing the tasks that are needed, the resources to support those tasks and the timeline to follow, among other things in the project plan . Going through these details before you start the project allows you to understand what success looks like and how to attain it.

Once the project starts, however, project management software gives you more control over all those moving parts. ProjectManager takes your work plan and puts it into action. Our online Gantt chart adds milestones, links dependencies and filters the critical path and gives you real-time data to monitor progress and performance to keep your project on schedule. Once your plan is built, track everything with our real-time dashboard. Try it free today.

ProjectManager's dashboard view

When to Use a Work Plan Template

Use a work plan template during the planning phase to organize your project. This is a process that occurs at the beginning of your work. It’s at this point that the project manager uses a work breakdown structure to list every task in the project. They’re also starting to get the team together, work on the budget and determine resources that will be needed to make everything run smoothly.

Our work plan template is another tool to employ at this point in the project. Unlike other techniques that help with estimating budget, resources, etc., the work plan template is where you collect this information. It’s a way to sort all the disparate elements involved in your project.

What Is Included In This Work Plan Template?

Our work plan template for Word is a thorough overview of your project. It gives everyone a frame in which to picture their work. The template can be customized if you want to remove some fields or add something unique to your project.

  • General information: The top of the work plan template is where you can add general project information. Add the project name, project manager and date, which is helpful to ensure you’re using the most up-to-date document.
  • Introduction: The introduction offers a broad-strokes picture of the project where you identify the problem you’re going to solve or a business opportunity to exploit. Then you explain how the project is going to respond to that problem or opportunity.
  • Goals and objectives: Goals and objectives for the project follow. Begin by defining these by using the SMART technique. This is a way to define your goals and objectives in such a way that they’re specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
  • Schedule: Now you want to show the schedule . The timeline portion of the work plan template is used to map the start and end dates. You should also note any milestones between those two points, such as the start of a new project phase and other important dates.
  • Budget: The budget comes next. This is the part where you’re going to use whatever tools and techniques you prefer to come up with an estimate of the project’s total costs. Take your time here to make sure the figure you come up with is as accurate as possible.
  • Resources: Next, you want to define the resources needed for the project. This includes your team, though there will be a place to go into detail about them, as well as any materials, equipment and so forth needed to execute the tasks.
  • Team: Now you can dive into the team, defining everyone’s role and responsibilities. Be thorough as this is how everyone on the project team will know what they need to do, what they have authority over and what their accountability is in the project.
  • Risk tracking: Every project has risks, and having a plan in place keeps the project on track. Here you’ll identify potential issues and assign team members to be responsible for taking ownership of any that do arise and resolving them.
  • Strategy: The strategy section of the work plan template is where you can add subtasks that you need to complete in order to achieve the goals and objectives you’ve already defined above.
  • Deliverables: Getting your deliverables done on time and within budget is part of what makes a project successful. There are also quality expectations. Here you choose the metric to measure success and make sure you’re meeting your stakeholders’ expectations.
  • Key performance indicators: Finally, it’s important to have an objective system in place by which you can make an overall assessment of the project. This will help you right any wrongs and repeat those things that proved successful when you embark on your next project.

Advantages of Using a Work Plan Template

Another advantage of this work plan template is that it allows you to standardize how your organization executes work, which helps you measure performance and improve your team’s productivity.

Disadvantages of Using a Work Plan Template 

While our Word work plan template is a good place to get started with work planning, it’s important to understand that Excel templates have drawbacks when it comes to creating and monitoring work plans. First, Word work plan templates are time-consuming because they must be manually edited, they’re hard to print and you must share a copy with everyone on the team every time changes are made.

More importantly, Word isn’t a work planning tool that can keep up with the daily operations of a team. Instead, you should use a work management tool like ProjectManager.

How to Create a Work Plan With ProjectManager

ProjectManager lets you use a variety of project planning, task management and resource management features so you can create a detailed work plan. Here’s how you can use ProjectManager’s Gantt chart to create a fully-fledged work plan.

Before we start, it’s important to note that the Gantt chart template is divided into two main sections, a spreadsheet that you’ll fill out with work planning information, and a timeline that will be automatically generated by the work planning software.

1. Add Task Names & Due Dates

The first step to creating a work plan with ProjectManager’s online Gantt chart is to simply list your work plan tasks and enter due dates for them. This is the base for your work plan timeline.

work plan for business

2. Assign Tasks to Team Members

Now, it’s time to assign those tasks to a team member. They’ll be notified every time any changes are made to their tasks, such as new comments, files or date adjustments.

work plan for business

3. Link Task Dependencies

ProjectManager’s Gantt chart lets you link four types of task dependencies, which is essential when creating a work plan. If you don’t consider task dependencies, your work plan could fail.

work plan for business

4. Estimate Task Costs

Your labor costs will be automatically added to timesheets as you enter information on the Gantt chart, kanban board, or project calendar. There’s also a field where you can add costs to each task.

work plan for business

Who Manages the Work Plan Template?

The project manager is typically the person who both creates and keeps the work plan template updated. Their job touches on all the aspects related to the work plan, so it only makes sense.

However, depending on the size of the project and the organization of the company running it, there can be others who manage the day-to-day on a work plan template. Some larger projects have several project managers and under them assistants who deal with most of the administrative duties.

Whoever is tasked with managing the work plan template on a project is almost always the project manager with whom the ultimate responsibility lies. Even so, it’s a shared document that keeps everyone on the project team aware of their place in the larger project.

How ProjectManager Helps With Work Planning

To take your work plan to the next level, use ProjectManager. Our award-winning project planning software organizes all your tasks, teams and even multiple projects to help you work more productively. The work plan template gathers all the various parts of your project and our work management software puts them into action.

Our cloud-based software lets you monitor progress in real time but also gives teams the collaborative tools they need to work better together. They can comment on the task, get emails and in-app notifications when tasks are updated and attach files and images to the task.

Multiple Work Planning Views

As stated above, you can build a detailed work plan on our online Gantt chart. But that’s not the only work planning view you can use. You can also use kanban boards, task lists, project calendars, dashboards and many other features to plan, schedule and track your work plans.

ProjectManager's Gantt chart showing a construction project

Track Labor Costs With Timeets & Workload Charts

ProjectManager’s timesheets help you calculate labor costs automatically as you assign tasks to your team members on any project planning. In addition, you can keep close track of labor costs and your team’s workload with interactive workload charts that tell you who’s over or under-allocated.

work plan for business

Create Work Tracking Reports in Minutes

a screenshot of the status report screen in ProjectManager

What Other Work Management Templates Can Help With Work Planning?

If you’re not ready to upgrade to project management software, we offer more templates to help you put together a more complete work plan template. We have dozens of free project management templates to choose from. Here are a few.

Work Order Template

A work order is similar to a work plan, but its scope it’s much narrower, as it only focuses on tasks. It describes the labor, materials and equipment required to complete an activity.

Work Breakdown Structure Template

You don’t want to forget any tasks as you collect them for your work plan. Using our free work breakdown structure template keeps you from neglecting any crucial steps. The tree diagram puts your final deliverable on top and all the tasks leading to it as captured in branches.

Project Timeline Template

The schedule is another key component of the work plan template. This template helps you get a visual representation of your whole work plan in one place.

Work Schedule Template

When you’re ready to get your team to work, use our free work schedule template to know when your team is working on a project or a task. You can also use this template to note the pay rates and hours spent completing their tasks. Use the work schedule template to organize your team.

Related Work Planning Content

There are more than free templates on our website. We publish several blog posts a week and have tutorial videos, guidebooks and more resources. If you’re looking to learn more about anything related to project management, we’re your online destination. Here are some articles that relate to the work plan template.

  • The Best Way to Make a Work Plan
  • How to Run a Planning Meeting
  • Workload Management & Planning: Manage Your Team’s Workload

ProjectManager is more than your online resource for all things project management. We’re the only tool you need to take your project from conception to completion. You get live data to make better decisions and features that manage your budget, schedule and keep your stakeholders updated. Join organizations as varied as NASA, the Bank of America and Ralph Lauren and the tens of thousands of teams using our tool to work more efficiently. Sign up for our software for free today.

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Deliver faster, collaborate better, innovate more effectively — without the high prices and months-long implementation and extensive training required by other products.

  • Growth and Jobs at Davos 2024: What to know
  • How using genAI to fuse creativity and technology could reshape the way we work

1. Generative AI boosts productivity, unevenly

In 2024, most chief economists surveyed by the Forum believe generative AI will increase productivity and innovation in high-income countries. But for low-income countries, just over a third think this will be the case.

Productivity boosts are expected in knowledge-heavy industries, including IT and digital communications, financial and professional services, medical and healthcare services, retail, manufacturing, engineering and construction, energy and logistics.

These potential benefits are in "sharp contrast with concerns about the risks of automation, job displacement and degradation", says the report.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of chief economists surveyed "do not foresee a net positive impact on employment in low-income economies".

work plan for business

2. Digital jobs keep growing

By 2030, the number of global digital jobs is expected to rise to around 92 million. These are generally higher-paid roles, according to the Forum's white paper, The Rise of Digital Jobs .

Digital jobs could help to balance skill shortages in higher-income countries, while boosting opportunities for younger workers in lower-income countries: "If managed well, global digital jobs present an opportunity to utilize talent around the world, widening the talent pool available to employers and providing economic growth pathways to countries across the income spectrum."

3. Unemployment levels could rise

The labour market showed resilience in 2023, with employment remaining high, said Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), in the Davos session ' What to Expect From Labour Markets '.

But he said ILO projections in early January suggested the global unemployment rate could rise from 5.1% to 5.2% in 2024, with an extra two million workers expected to be looking for jobs.

In the US, the jobs market remained stronger than expected for the first month of the year, with more than 350,000 new jobs added. The unemployment rate for January was 3.7%, close to a 50-year low, according to The Guardian .

Houngbo said ILO data shows inequalities persist between low- and high-income countries, while young people are 3.5 times more at risk of being unemployed than the rest of the adult population and "many workers are struggling to pay bills, which is very worrisome".

The impact of AI on jobs was not going to be "an employment apocalypse", but that reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning would be key to managing the transition to augmentation, he stressed.

4. More pop-up offices

LinkedIn has seen a drop in the number of fully remote job postings, from a peak of 20% in April 2022, to just 8% in December 2023, said co-founder Allen Blue, speaking in a Davos session ' The Role of the Office is Still TBC ' .

But employee interest in taking remote or hybrid jobs remains high, at around 46% of applications.

"The office is going to be in competition with working from home ... that’s a good thing for the office," he said, as management would need to innovate and create a workplace environment that "emphasizes dynamic human interaction".

Young people taking their first job want human connection, so they're more interested in hybrid than remote roles.

Martin Kocher, Austria's Federal Minister of Labour and Economy, said that some Austrian villages are actually paying for pop-up community office spaces, because people don’t want to work from home, and they can make use of other amenities close by.

He predicted the development of more pop-up office spaces away from company headquarters.

Have you read?

  • Davos 2024: 6 innovative ideas on reskilling, upskilling and building a future-ready workforce
  • From hierarchy to partnership: rethinking the employee/employer relationship in 2024

5. Skills will become even more important

With 23% of jobs expected to change in the next five years, according to the Future of Jobs Report, millions of people will need to move between declining and growing jobs.

Coursera CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda and Denis Machuel, CEO of Adecco Group AG, joined the Davos session ' The Race to Reskill ' to discuss the transferability of skills, and the potential of AI to help with personalized learning and productivity, which also levels the playing field for job opportunities globally.

But the key is in learning how to use AI and digital technologies, as Code.org Founder and CEO, Hadi Partovi, pointed out in the session ' Education Meets AI '.

When people think about job losses due to AI, he said, the risk isn't people losing their jobs to AI: "It's losing their job to somebody else who knows how to use AI. That is going to be a much greater displacement.

"It's not that the worker gets replaced by just a robot or a machine in most cases, especially for desk jobs, it's that some better or more educated worker can do that job because they can be twice as productive or three times as productive.

“The imperative is to teach how AI tools work to every citizen, and especially to our young people."

6. More women enter the workforce

In 2020, the World Bank found that potential gains from closing economic gender gaps could unlock a “gender dividend” of $172 trillion for the global economy.

But the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023 found that the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap has only closed by just over 60%.

Several sessions at Davos looked at how inclusion could benefit the economy , particularly by helping mothers return to the workforce, which could close skills gaps.

“There are 606 million women of working age in the world who are not working because of their unpaid care responsibilities, compared to 40 million men," Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of Moms First, explained in a session on the ‘ Workforce Behind the Workforce ’.

“At Moms First, we're working with over 130 companies in every sector, who are saying, ‘I don't have enough workers’. We are working with them to redesign their childcare packages and increase their subsidies.

“Childcare pays for itself. When you offer childcare to employees, you get higher worker productivity and lower rates of attrition, and greater rates of retention. We have to look at care as an economic issue that world leaders must actually do something about.”

CDC plans to drop five-day covid isolation guidelines

work plan for business

Americans who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to routinely stay home from work and school for five days under new guidance planned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency is loosening its covid isolation recommendations for the first time since 2021 to align it with guidance on how to avoid transmitting flu and RSV, according to four agency officials and an expert familiar with the discussions.

CDC officials acknowledged in internal discussions and in a briefing last week with state health officials how much the covid-19 landscape has changed since the virus emerged four years ago, killing nearly 1.2 million people in the United States and shuttering businesses and schools. The new reality — with most people having developed a level of immunity to the virus because of prior infection or vaccination — warrants a shift to a more practical approach, experts and health officials say.

“Public health has to be realistic,” said Michael T. Osterholm, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota. “In making recommendations to the public today, we have to try to get the most out of what people are willing to do. … You can be absolutely right in the science and yet accomplish nothing because no one will listen to you.”

The CDC plans to recommend that people who test positive for the coronavirus use clinical symptoms to determine when to end isolation. Under the new approach, people would no longer need to stay home if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medication and their symptoms are mild and improving, according to three agency officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Here is the current CDC guidance on isolation and precautions for people with covid-19

The federal recommendations follow similar moves by Oregon and California . The White House has yet to sign off on the guidance that the agency is expected to release in April for public feedback, officials said. One agency official said the timing could “move around a bit” until the guidance is finalized.

Work on revising isolation guidance has been underway since last August but was paused in the fall as covid cases rose. CDC director Mandy Cohen sent staff a memo in January that listed “Pan-resp guidance-April” as a bullet point for the agency’s 2024 priorities.

Officials said they recognized the need to give the public more practical guidelines for covid-19, acknowledging that few people are following isolation guidance that hasn’t been updated since December 2021. Back then, health officials cut the recommended isolation period for people with asymptomatic coronavirus from 10 days to five because they worried essential services would be hobbled as the highly transmissible omicron variant sent infections surging. The decision was hailed by business groups and slammed by some union leaders and health experts.

Covid is here to stay. How will we know when it stops being special?

The plan to further loosen isolation guidance when the science around infectiousness has not changed is likely to prompt strong negative reaction from vulnerable groups, including people older than 65, those with weak immune systems and long-covid patients, CDC officials and experts said.

Doing so “sweeps this serious illness under the rug,” said Lara Jirmanus, a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and a member of the People’s CDC, a coalition of health-care workers, scientists and advocates focused on reducing the harmful effects of covid-19.

Public health officials should treat covid differently from other respiratory viruses, she said, because it’s deadlier than the flu and increases the risk of developing long-term complications . As many as 7 percent of Americans report having suffered from a slew of lingering covid symptoms, including fatigue, difficulty breathing, brain fog, joint pain and ongoing loss of taste and smell, according to the CDC.

The new isolation recommendations would not apply to hospitals and other health-care settings with more vulnerable populations, CDC officials said.

While the coronavirus continues to cause serious illness, especially among the most vulnerable people, vaccines and effective treatments such as Paxlovid are available. The latest versions of coronavirus vaccines were 54 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection in adults, according to data released Feb. 1, the first U.S. study to assess how well the shots work against the most recent coronavirus variant. But CDC data shows only 22 percent of adults and 12 percent of children had received the updated vaccine as of Feb. 9, despite data showing the vaccines provide robust protection against serious illness .

Coronavirus levels in wastewater i ndicate that symptomatic and asymptomatic infections remain high. About 20,000 people are still hospitalized — and about 2,300 are dying — every week, CDC data show. But the numbers are falling and are much lower than when deaths peaked in January 2021 when almost 26,000 people died of covid each week and about 115,000 were hospitalized.

The lower rates of hospitalizations were among the reasons California shortened its five-day isolation recommendation last month , urging people to stay home until they are fever-free for 24 hours and their symptoms are mild and improving. Oregon made a similar move last May.

California’s state epidemiologist Erica Pan said the societal disruptions that resulted from strict isolation guidelines also helped spur the change. Workers without sick leave and those who can’t work from home if they or their children test positive and are required to isolate bore a disproportionate burden. Strict isolation requirements can act as a disincentive to test when testing should be encouraged so people at risk for serious illness can get treatment, she said.

Giving people symptom-based guidance, similar to what is already recommended for flu, is a better way to prioritize those most at risk and balance the potential for disruptive impacts on schools and workplaces, Pan said. After Oregon made its change, the state has not experienced any disproportionate increases in community transmission or severity, according to data shared last month with the national association representing state health officials.

California still recommends people with covid wear masks indoors when they are around others for 10 days after testing positive — even if they have no symptoms — or becoming sick. “You may remove your mask sooner than 10 days if you have two sequential negative tests at least one day apart,” the California guidance states.

It’s not clear whether the updated CDC guidance will continue to recommend masking for 10 days.

Health officials from other states told the CDC last week that they are already moving toward isolation guidelines that would treat the coronavirus the same as flu and RSV, with additional precautions for people at high risk, said Anne Zink, an emergency room physician and Alaska’s chief medical officer.

Many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Australia, made changes to isolation recommendations in 2022. Of 16 countries whose policies California officials reviewed, only Germany and Ireland still recommend isolation for five days, according to a presentation the California public health department gave health officials from other states in January. The Singapore ministry of health, in updated guidance late last year, said residents could “return to normal activities” once coronavirus symptoms resolve.

Even before the Biden administration ended the public health emergency last May, much of the public had moved on from covid-19, with many people having long given up testing and masking, much less isolating when they come down with covid symptoms.

Doctors say the best way for sick people to protect their communities is to mask or avoid unnecessary trips outside the home.

“You see a lot of people with symptoms — you don’t know if they have covid or influenza or RSV — but in all three of those cases, they probably shouldn’t be at Target, coughing, and looking sick,” said Eli Perencevich, an internal medicine professor at the University of Iowa.

Coronavirus: What you need to know

New covid variant: The United States is in the throes of another covid-19 uptick and coronavirus samples detected in wastewater suggests infections could be as rampant as they were last winter. JN.1, the new dominant variant , appears to be especially adept at infecting those who have been vaccinated or previously infected. Here’s how this covid surge compares with earlier spikes .

Covid ER visits rise: Covid-19, flu and RSV are rebounding in the United States ahead of the end-of-year holidays, with emergency room visits for the three respiratory viruses collectively reaching their highest levels since February.

New coronavirus booster: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone 6 months or older get an updated coronavirus shot , but the vaccine rollout has seen some hiccups , especially for children . Here’s what you need to know about the new coronavirus vaccines , including when you should get it.

  • CDC plans to drop five-day covid isolation guidelines Earlier today CDC plans to drop five-day covid isolation guidelines Earlier today
  • Is this covid surge really the second biggest? Here’s what data shows. January 12, 2024 Is this covid surge really the second biggest? Here’s what data shows. January 12, 2024
  • Covid kills nearly 10,000 in a month as holidays fuel spread, WHO says January 11, 2024 Covid kills nearly 10,000 in a month as holidays fuel spread, WHO says January 11, 2024

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Form 1099-K FAQs: General information

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Find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about general information on Form 1099-K.

Back to Form 1099 FAQs

Updated and new FAQs were released to the public in Fact Sheet 2024-03 PDF , Feb. 6, 2024.

On Nov. 21, 2023, in Notice 2023-74,  the IRS announced that calendar year 2023 would be a transition year for third party settlement organizations (TPSOs). TPSOs, which include popular payment apps and online marketplaces, must file with the IRS and provide taxpayers a Form 1099-K that reports payments for goods or services where gross payments exceed $20,000 and there are more than 200 transactions during the calendar year.

General information FAQs

Q1. what is form 1099-k and why would i receive one (updated feb. 6, 2024).

A1. Form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, is an information return used to report payments you received during the year from:

  • Credit, debit or stored value cards such as gift cards (payment cards)
  • Payment apps or online marketplaces for goods or services (third party settlement organizations or TPSOs)

You should receive a Form 1099-K if you sold a good or provided a service and were paid a gross amount in excess of the reporting threshold through a payment app or an online marketplace or accepted a payment from a payment card. You may have a tax obligation if you had a gain on the sale or received payment for services you provided.

Form 1099-K is an information return that popular payment apps and online marketplaces provide when you use them for selling goods or providing a service. You can use the information on the Form 1099-K with your other tax records to determine your correct tax owed. See Understanding your Form 1099-K for more information.

Third party information reporting for certain payments is required by law and has been shown to increase voluntary tax compliance, improve tax collections and assessments within the IRS, and thereby reduce the tax gap .

Q2. Is there a threshold amount that has to be met before I would receive a Form 1099-K? (updated Feb. 6, 2024)

A2. For payment cards, there is no threshold amount that has to be met to receive a Form 1099-K due to payments received through a payment card transaction. Therefore, if you received $0.01 of payments from a payment card transaction, you should receive a Form 1099-K for those payments.

The federal reporting threshold for TPSOs for calendar year 2023 remains the same as previous years, which is for total gross payments for goods or services that exceed $20,000 and for which there are more than 200 transactions for a payee.  Your state may have a lower reporting threshold for TPSOs, which could result in you receiving a Form 1099-K, even if the total gross payments you received in the year did not exceed the federal reporting threshold.

For background: The ARPA lowered the reporting threshold to impose a reporting requirement on TPSOs on Form 1099-K from gross payments of more than $20,000 and 200 transactions for a payee to gross payments totaling more than $600 (regardless of the number of transactions) for a payee.

For 2022: The IRS issued Notice 2023-10 , which temporarily delayed the enforcement of the lowered reporting requirement on TPSOs only. However, you may have received a Form 1099-K at the lower threshold, despite Notice 2023-10.

For 2023: The IRS determined in Notice 2023-74 that calendar year 2023 will be regarded as another transition year for the new reporting requirements for TPSOs only. However, you may have received a Form 1099-K at the lower threshold, despite Notice 2023-74.

Q3. What qualifies as a payment card? (updated Feb. 6, 2024)

A3. The term “payment card” includes credit cards, debit cards, and stored-value cards (including gift cards), as well as payment through any distinctive marks of a payment card (such as a credit card number).

A payment card is issued according to an agreement that provides all of the following: one or more issuers of the cards; a network of persons unrelated to each other, and to the issuer, who agree to accept the cards as payment; and standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions between the merchant acquiring entities and the persons who agree to accept the cards as payment.

Q4. What is a third party settlement organization (TPSO)? (updated Feb. 6, 2024)

A4. A TPSO is the central organization that has the contractual obligation to make payments to participating payees (generally, a merchant or business) of third party network transactions. An example could include apps used to handle the money transfer between buyers and sellers.

Q5. Does delaying the $600 reporting threshold mean I won’t get a Form 1099-K for gross payments of $20,000 or less? (added Feb. 6, 2024)

A5. Not necessarily. The 2023 federal reporting threshold of over $20,000 and 200 transactions is a reporting requirement for TPSOs, but companies may still send a Form 1099-K for payments for goods or services payments that are less than that amount. For example, you may receive a Form 1099-K from other payment settlement entities, such as merchant acquiring entities.  In addition, those TPSOs that have performed backup withholding under section 3406(a) for a payee during calendar year 2023 must file a Form 945 and a Form 1099-K with the IRS and furnish a copy to the payee if total reportable payments to the payee exceeded $600 for the calendar year.  Also, your state may have a lower reporting threshold for TPSOs, which could result in you receiving a Form 1099-K, even if the total gross payments you received in the year did not exceed the federal reporting threshold.

For more information see Backup Withholding.

Q6. Who reports payment card transactions when a payment settlement entity contracts with a third party, such as an electronic payment facilitator, to settle reportable payment transactions? (updated Feb. 6, 2024)

A6 . The entity submitting the instructions to transfer funds to the participating payee's account is responsible for reporting payment card transactions. In this case, the electronic payment facilitator is responsible for reporting because it is the entity submitting the instructions to transfer the funds in settlement of the payment card transactions.

Q7. Do I have to report payments on my tax return if they are not reported on a Form 1099-K? (added Feb. 6, 2024)

A7. Yes, the Form 1099-K reporting threshold doesn’t affect whether payments are taxable or whether a tax return must be filed.

All income, no matter the amount, is taxable unless the tax law says it isn’t – even if you don’t get a Form 1099-K. Income also includes amounts not reported on forms, such as payments you receive in cash, property, or services.

Q8. What is reported on the Form 1099-K? (added Feb. 6, 2024)

A8. The gross payment amount (Box 1a) on Form 1099-K reports the total, or gross, dollar amount of reportable payment transactions. It doesn't include adjustments for fees, credits, refunds, shipping, cash equivalents or discounts. Those items are not income. Taxpayers can deduct those items from the gross amount when including the income on their tax return.

The gross payment amount also does not account for the original purchase price, or basis, of any items sold and whether the items were sold at a gain or loss. For more information on how to establish this basis, go to IRS.gov: Publication 551, Basis of Assets PDF .

Taxpayers will need to use their Form 1099-K with other tax records to help figure and report their correct income on their tax return.

Q9. If I buy an item with a payment card or payment app or use an online marketplace, will I receive a Form 1099-K? (updated Feb. 6, 2024)

A9 . No. You should not receive a Form 1099-K for making purchases. Form 1099-K is used to report certain payments that you received for selling goods or providing services.

Related topics

  • Understanding your Form 1099-K
  • General information  
  • What to do if you receive a Form 1099-K
  • Common situations
  • Third Party filers
  • Should my organization be preparing, filing and furnishing Form 1099-K?

Previous updates to FAQs

  • Fact Sheet 2023-06 PDF , March 22, 2023
  • Fact Sheet 2022-41 PDF , Dec. 28, 2022
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