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Business Continuity Plan Template

Use a business continuity plan to outline how your business will continue to operate in a range of disaster scenarios.

Business Continuity Plan Template

Updated December 18, 2023 Written by Sara Hostelley | Reviewed by Brooke Davis

A business continuity plan outlines the instructions and procedures a business should follow after a natural disaster or disruptive event so it can resume its operations. Events like floods and fires can interrupt your business practices, so it’s essential to have a plan in place to handle these situations and effectively get back to work.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

When to use a business continuity plan, benefits of a business continuity plan, elements of a business continuity plan, different types of business continuity plans, activities to complete before writing a business continuity plan, how to write a business continuity plan, business continuity plan sample.

A business continuity plan is a document establishing your organization’s strategies for dealing with a disaster. These procedures help you resume business quickly and reduce downtime and lost revenue.

It covers essential processes like protecting assets, handling human resources issues, and dealing with business partners.

Business Continuity Planning vs. Disaster Recovery Planning

An effective business continuity plan helps a company continue its overall operations after a catastrophe, while a disaster recovery plan focuses on reviving a business’s IT-related functions.

Creating a business continuity plan before you need it can help you prepare for the unexpected. It helps you be proactive so you don’t have to devise a plan amidst a disaster.

Once your continuity plan is in place, you may need to implement it during disasters like:

  • Cyberattacks
  • Natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, and floods
  • Major IT or internet disruptions
  • Pandemics or health crises
  • Supply chain disruptions
  • Man-made disasters or times of social unrest

While a business plan guides your company’s everyday operations, a business continuity plan helps you resume company activities after severe disturbances.

Explore the benefits of a business continuity plan for your company:

Better Decision-Making

A BCP offers a structured framework for employees to make decisions during high-stress situations. Clear protocols and communication methods help your business continuity management team make rational decisions, which can promote confidence and encourage action among employees.

A More Efficient Return to Normal Business Operations

A BCP could make the difference between continued operations and further turmoil in an emergency. Returning to business operations quickly can prevent customers from seeking out competing businesses.

A business continuity plan template makes planning for contingencies in various scenarios easy and addresses the most critical roles and responsibilities necessary for keeping your company running.

Above all, a BCP limits confusion during critical situations and orients employees to the primary focus.

Increased Employee Safety

BCPs prioritize employees’ safety and well-being during emergencies. These plans include guidelines for remote work so employees don’t have to be near the disaster site. They also contain protocols for communicating with one another and evacuating plans in case a disaster happens during work hours.

A Reduction in Lost Time and Revenue

Unmitigated disruptions can financially weaken an organization quickly. Business continuity plans account for all factors necessary for continued operations. The more effort you put into planning, the more time and money you can save.

So, ensure a reliable backup plan for essential systems and enable remote access to customer, product, and company data to keep the revenue stream flowing.

Ability to Quickly Implement IT Fixes

Natural and manufactured disasters typically involve system disruptions. To remain functional, build redundancy into your critical systems. This proactivity will allow you to implement essential fixes to hardware and software assets.

Increased Organizational Resilience

A BCP prepares a company to encounter any challenges it may face. It lets the company’s employees adapt strategies as necessary and work towards continuous improvements, allowing the company to experience long-term success no matter the obstacles it encounters.

Explore some essential elements in a business continuity plan:

  • Business Impact Analysis: Determine how a disaster would impact your business’s operations.
  • Risk Assessment: Identify the risks that may disrupt your business’s processes.
  • Business Continuity Strategy: Detail the steps you’ll take to keep your company running if an interruption occurs. Tailor this strategy to your business’s needs.
  • Recovery Team: Include members from across key departments in your recovery team.
  • Training: Define training procedures to ensure all members have sufficient knowledge relating to emergency protocols.
  • Business Continuity Exercises: Create simulations to practice how your business continuity team would react in an emergency.
  • Communication: Establish methods for distributing information internally and externally.
  • Backup Locations and Physical Assets: List backup locations for conducting business operations if the primary location isn’t usable. Summarize the equipment you’ll need to continue operations.
  • Periodic Review and Recommendations: Include policies for reviewing and updating your plan. Accept recommendations from employees to improve the plan’s efficiency.
  • Technology: Describe the processes for retaining access to technology systems. Detail the importance of having emergency power and data backup procedures in place.

While a business continuity plan can cover various recovery strategies for specific events, it prioritizes one event. Explore some of the types of business continuity plans:

  • Scope: Emphasize the restoration of normal business activities.
  • Objective: To prepare for an unforeseen emergency.
  • Scope: Focus on the recovery of IT data, systems, and infrastructure.
  • Objective: To reduce downtime and data loss by quickly restoring IT services if they go down.
  • Scope: Address communication methods and strategies after a crisis.
  • Objective: To provide clear and timely communication to internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the accurate sharing of information.
  • Scope: Involve the supply chain’s continuity, including procurement, manufacturing, and distribution.
  • Objective: To limit supply chain disruptions and maintain the availability of services and goods.
  • Scope: Address the continuity of physical facilities, including warehouses, manufacturing plants, and offices.
  • Objective: To ensure the availability of operational facilities or other locations during critical events.
  • Scope: Focus on employees’ well-being and safety.
  • Objective: To maintain workforce availability and set up guidelines for remote work if possible.
  • Scope: Involve continuity plans for key third-party parties, including partners, suppliers, and vendors.
  • Objective: To account for the company’s dependencies on external parties and minimize associated disruptions.
  • Scope: Address regulatory requirements relating to business continuity.
  • Objective: To ensure compliance with industry standards and legal regulations.

Explore some activities to complete before writing a business continuity plan so you can create a more effective document:

1. Decide on a Writing Team

Decide on a team to write the plan. Find employees knowledgeable about various business processes so they can assign tasks accordingly.

Ask for employees’ input to create control and command teams. Appoint several people to be in charge during a crisis so they can have one another’s support. Establish a clear chain of command to minimize arguments and promote efficiency.

Nominate a team leader and a backup team leader for each department within your company. Consider recruiting third-party representatives to assist with coordinating specific activities during disasters.

2. Conduct Critical Function Analysis

Analyze your company’s critical business functions. Determine which functions it can and can’t exist without. This way, you can more easily determine what to prioritize in an emergency.

Determine how losing these functions across different departments might impact external and internal operations.

3. Analyze Potential Risks

Analyze potential risks depending on the nature of your business. Specific threats might be more imminent than others, so you can create visual representations, such as risk maps, to show the relationship between the impact and likelihood of your proposed risks.

From here, you can pinpoint high-priority risks that will require immediate attention.

4. Determine the Plan’s Scope

Determine whether the plan applies to specific departments, one location, or your entire company. Figure out what resources and critical functions you must maintain to successfully implement the plan.

5. Brainstorm Recovery Procedures

Use your risk assessment and critical function analysis to brainstorm how your team should react to a business disruption. Think about the timing for what must occur before, during, and after the business continuity planning process.

Step 1 – Write Your Company’s Information

Write your company’s information, including its name, address, and phone number. Include the name of the person writing the plan and the date you last revised it.

Company Information business continuity template

Step 2 – Define the Document’s Purpose

Define the document’s purpose, restating that the document is to establish procedures for the execution and recovery of business activities for your specific company. Check off the specific events you want to plan for.

Purpose business continuity plan template

Step 3 – Outline the Applicability

Clarify the applicability of the document. State which operations the document applies to, including the operation’s name, description, and impact on the business.

Applicability business continuity plan template

Step 4 – Define the Recovery Strategies

Define the recovery strategies for all the events you’ve outlined. Explain the recovery procedure and resource requirements for each event, such as a natural disaster, fire, epidemic, pandemic, technical issue, cyberattack, supply chain disruption, business site disruption, labor strike, or civil unrest.

Recovery business continuity plan template

Step 5 – Name Your Recovery Team

Name your recovery team, including a team and an alternate team lead. These individuals will restore and maintain business continuity and ensure the document’s compliant execution. Include each member’s name, role, email, phone number, and responsibilities.

Recovery team business continuity plan template

Step 6 – Detail Processes for Vendor Communication

Designate a person who will be responsible for contacting vendors and partners. This way, external parties key to the business’s functions will know what’s going on and the plan for continued operation.

External Vendors business continuity plan template

Step 7 – Name an Internal Communicator

Name an internal communicator, providing their name, email, phone number, and roles within the organization. This person will provide all employees with business-wide updates as the appropriate teams implement the continuity plan.

Internal Communicator business continuity plan template

Step 8 – Describe Relocation Procedures

Describe relocation procedures, including backup offices and methods for obtaining equipment and assets for relevant business activities. Provide an estimated timeline for a transition back to normal operations.

Relocation business continuity plan template

Step 9 – Write Testing Procedures

Write testing procedures to occasionally examine the BCP’s effectiveness. This way, the company can make updates to improve the plan’s effectiveness.

Testing business continuity plan template

Step 10 – Outline Deactivation Procedures

Outline deactivation procedures so your team knows when your company has officially restored its normal operations.

Deactivation business continuity plan template

Step 11 – Provide Exceptions

Write exceptions so your team knows when the business continuity plan doesn’t apply. For example, the plan might not apply if business operations can restore themselves within a certain number of hours.

Exceptions business continuity plan template

Download a business continuity plan template below in PDF or Word format:

Business Continuity Plan Template

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Business Continuity Plan Template

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16 Business Continuity Plan Templates For Every Business

Download our free Business Continuity Plan Template Download this template

As a business leader, you know that unforeseen events can disrupt your business operations and impact your bottom line. That's why having a solid business continuity plan in place is essential.

But where do you start? That's where we come in. This article provides you with 16 free, customizable business continuity plan templates that are prefilled with examples, making it easy to create a plan that meets your unique needs. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, our templates are designed to help you prepare for any contingency.

In addition to the templates, we've included a step-by-step guide on how to create an effective business continuity plan. From identifying risks and critical functions to testing and updating your plan, our guide covers everything you need to know.

Free Template Download our free Business Continuity Plan Template Download this template

General Business Continuity Plan Template

business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

New to business continuity planning? No worries! Our general BCP Template is like a friendly guide—perfect for both newcomers and veterans. Use it to get the ball rolling on your continuity planning initiative and create robust strategies that will keep your business operational in times of crisis.

How to use this template? 👀

1. Sign up to get instant access to your chosen template. (Yes, it’s 100% free.) 

2. Customize the template to fit your needs: 

  • Define your focus areas or strategic priorities 
  • Set strategic objectives  
  • Assign KPIs and owners 
  • Create action plans and projects to achieve your desired outcomes 

3. Integrate all business data in one place for a comprehensive view of performance. 

4. Use reports and dashboards to monitor progress and identify risks before they escalate. 

5. Invite your team members to collaborate and ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE Business Continuity Plan Template

💡All templates below follow the same structure. The only difference lies in the pre-filled sample data, making them customized for specific industries and use cases.

Industry-Specific Business Continuity Plan Templates

Hospitality bcp template.

hospitality business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Craft a resilience plan for your hospitality business, including hotels, restaurants, or travel services. This BCP template for Hospitality will help you establish measures to handle potential emergency situations and ensure customer satisfaction.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Hospitality Continuity Plan Template

Manufacturing BCP Template

manufacturing business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Ensure uninterrupted production and operations with this Manufacturing Continuity Plan Template . Use this template to keep your business partner relationships, supply chains, and production lines strong, even when surprises pop up.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Manufacturing Continuity Plan Template

Transportation BCP Template

transportation business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Need a solid game plan for spotting risks early and building strong strategies to manage disruptions in your transportation business? Create your own with the BCP Template for Transportation to maintain timely deliveries and operations.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Transportation Continuity Plan Template

Healthcare BCP Template

healthcare business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

In an industry where lives depend on service reliability, the Healthcare Business Continuity Plan Template helps you build and execute contingency plans to ensure uninterrupted care and handle emergencies effectively.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Healthcare Continuity Plan Template

Retail BCP Template

retail business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Strengthen your retail business's resilience to unforeseen events like global pandemics, supply chain disruptions, or surges in demand. With this Retail BCP Template , establish plans for inventory management, customer service, and store operations.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Retail Business Continuity Plan Template

Pharmaceuticals BCP Template

pharmaceutical business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Keep vital manufacturing and supply chain operations running like clockwork with our Pharmaceuticals BCP Template . This template has everything you need to hit the ground running on your continuity planning. Use it to ensure your business doesn’t miss a beat because of trade disputes, regulations, and recalls.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Pharmaceutical Business Continuity Plan Template

Financial Services BCP Template

financial services business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

The BCP Template for Financial Services is designed to assist financial professionals concerned about their continuity and resilience. Use it to identify and plan strategies to keep your business sailing steady and navigate business continuity management like a seasoned professional.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Financial Business Continuity Plan Template

Telecommunications BCP Template

telecommunications business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Our Business Continuity Plan Template for Telecommunications is ideal for internet service providers, telcos, and MSPs that want to keep their telecommunication services humming along, no matter what. Use it to outline strategies to reduce the risk of disruptions such as new technology, regulatory changes, and cyber-attacks.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Telecommunications Business Continuity Plan Template

IT BCP Template

it business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Create a comprehensive continuity plan for your information technology business with the IT Business Continuity Plan Template . This template will help you formulate and execute strategies for data center security, network downtime planning, and maintaining service levels. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE IT Business Continuity Plan Template

Nonprofits BCP Template

nonprofit business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Ensure that your nonprofit's mission endures through unexpected events and map out your organization's preparedness with the Business Continuity Plan Template for Nonprofits . This template guides nonprofits in developing strategies for funding, communication, and service delivery during crises such as natural disasters. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE Nonprofit Continuity Plan Template

Small Business BCP Template

small business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Build resilience and safeguard your small business to weather uncertainties with the Small Business Continuity Plan Template . With this prefilled template, you’ll be able to kickstart the strategic planning process to build effective recovery procedures and disaster mitigation strategies.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Special Focus Templates 

Supply chain continuity template.

supply chain business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Strengthen the resilience of your supply chain with this Supply Chain Business Continuity Plan Template . Use it to create and track strategies to mitigate risks such as supplier failures, transportation disruptions, and inventory shortages, ensuring a steady flow of goods and services.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Supply Chain Continuity Plan Template

Operational Continuity Plan Template

operational continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Keep your business operations running smoothly, irrespective of unforeseen challenges, with the Operational Continuity Plan Template . With it, you can quickly create an actionable Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) that guarantees your business’s preparedness when disaster strikes.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Operational Continuity Plan Template

Risk Assessment Plan Template

risk assessment plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Risk management is at the heart of any successful continuity planning strategy. Why? Because knowing the risks your organization faces is the first step to preparing for, and effectively navigating unforeseen circumstances. 

If you're ready to start building your BCP, begin with the Risk Assessment Plan Template . This framework is designed to help you pinpoint potential risks, measure their impact, and craft proactive strategies to dodge business disruptions.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Risk Assessment Plan Template

Crisis Communications Plan Template

crisis communications plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Effectively manage internal and external communications during a crisis with this Crisis Communications Plan Template . Ensure the right messages reach your stakeholders, employees, and customers on time. This will contribute to a well-coordinated response and support your human resources team in managing crisis-related communications effectively.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Communications Plan Template

How To Write A Business Continuity Plan 

A clear business continuity plan helps teams act quickly and effectively, minimizing disruptions to operations. If you want to build a resilient business continuity plan, here's a true-and-tried approach:

1. Identify critical business processes and types of threats

First, figure out which parts of your business are the most important. Why is this so crucial? When things go wrong, you can't keep every part of your business going—it's just not practical.

But, many senior management teams stumble at this stage because they:

  • Take a siloed approach to continuity planning.
  • Misidentify the core processes integral to business success.
  • Exclude critical stakeholders when trying to understand what drives the business.
  • Rely on outdated risk assessments and information for planning.
As PwC puts it, " Businesses struggle to do this well because it’s complex and can involve multiple departments and players. It’s not the usual approach in which business continuity is looked at solely within the siloed functions. ”

To build a resilient BCP, thoroughly examine your business, engage all stakeholders, and really understand your key business functions and processes.

2. Perform a risk assessment

Risk assessments help companies understand potential threats, their severity, and their likelihood. This crucial step aids in prioritizing planning, encourages strategic thinking, and empowers problem-solving abilities.

💡 Check out our article Risk Matrix: How To Use It In Strategic Planning for guidance . 

3. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis and prioritize strategies

A Business Impact Analysis evaluates the possible consequences of risks on your crucial business operations . It’s vital for gathering information, developing appropriate recovery strategies, and setting strategic priorities.

Consider impact such as:

  • Lost or delayed sales and income
  • Increased expenses
  • Regulatory fines
  • Loss of business opportunities
  • Operational setbacks
  • Reputation damage
  • Loss of shareholder confidence
  • Supply chain disruption

4. Build your business continuity plan

Finally, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and turn your research, risk assessment, and business impact analysis into a fully-fledged business continuity plan. 

Your continuity plan should act as a roadmap. It should outline how your organization will keep the gears turning in the face of disruptions.

Here are the key elements: 

  • 🎯 Objectives
  • ⏳ Timelines
  • 🏆 Priorities
  • 👥 Team members
  • 📝 Projects and action plans

If you’re using Cascade strategy templates , you’ll have these vital elements ready and waiting to help you plan faster and better.

💡Don't spend too much time on analysis and planning. There is no such thing as a perfect plan. Instead, focus on the execution and adapt your plan as you go. 

Tips For Writing And Executing Your Business Continuity Plan

Want to create a business that can ride the wave of any disruption? You'll need a fresh take on strategic risk management and continuity planning. The real magic happens when you blend centralized observability and fast execution . 

Creating your plan shouldn't be a one-and-done deal. You need to keep an eye on things and tweak your strategies as needed. This is where Cascade strategy execution platform shines.

Cascade’s customizable dashboards give you real-time insights into your business operations. See the big picture or drill down to team-specific details, all in one place. This helps in identifying issues early and implementing your continuity plan effectively.

example of a dashboard in cascade strategy execution platform

Time is of the essence when a crisis hits. Decision-makers need information fast. Cascade's Reports lets you create concise strategy reports with up-to-date data and charts with a click. No more wasting time on manual reporting.

Continuity planning is an ongoing, iterative process. Risks change, and your strategies should evolve accordingly. With Cascade, you can continuously monitor performance and make necessary adjustments to your business continuity plan in one place.

“Cascade provides our organization with a level of transparency we've never experienced before. Traditionally siloed teams have insight into what other groups are working on, facilitating a new level of engagement and cross-team collaboration.” - Katie B, G2

📚 Recommended reads for more tips and best practices: 

6 Steps To Successful Strategy Execution

Strategic Control Simplified: A 6-Step Process And Tools  

Get Faster Insights And Make Better Decisions With Cascade 🚀

As the world’s #1 strategy execution platform, Cascade cuts through the chaos of running business operations and paves a clear path forward.

Build continuity plans that are data-driven and aligned with your long-term vision.

Cascade helps you diagnose where you stand today and understand the factors affecting your performance, leading to informed and confident decisions.

What’s more, Cascade centralizes visibility over your execution process. This means you can swiftly identify dependencies and potential risks, and act proactively to mitigate them.

Ready to take control? Sign up for a free forever account today or book a 1:1 product tour with one of Cascade’s in-house strategy execution experts.

Business Continuity FAQs

What are the 4 ps of business continuity .

The 4 Ps of business continuity is a way of measuring the impact of disruptions on an organization. They stand for People (the impact on the lives of workers), Processes (the effect on operations), Profits (the impact on revenue generation), and Partnerships (the impact on the enabling business environment).

What is the difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan? 

The main difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan is its purpose. A business continuity plan aims to sustain the critical functions of an organization during disruptions, while a disaster recovery plan outlines the strategy for restoring normal business operations after major disruptions.

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It’s not always fun thinking about things that could go wrong. But when you’re creating a business, taking the time to think about these things can help prevent risk. Creating a solid backup plan for your business can help ensure success—even if something bad happens. That’s where a business continuity plan can help.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a long-term strategy to help your business overcome and recover from major roadblocks. Creating a BCP ensures that, even if something goes wrong, your business still has a strategy in place to overcome that issue.

What’s the difference between a business continuity plan and a contingency plan?

What is a business continuity plan template.

A business continuity plan template is the basic framework of a continuity plan, which you can easily duplicate whenever you need to create a new plan.It’s intended to be used as a skeleton, so your team can fill it with the important information needed to establish a strong business continuity plan.

Using a business continuity plan template ensures that every single BCP you create has all the necessary information your team needs to make the plan successful. When there’s a repeatable framework, your team becomes more familiar with what information goes into a BCP. As a result, they’ll be more comfortable using the plan, should the situation arise. 

What components does a business continuity plan template have?

The goal of a business continuity plan template is to help everyone on your team understand what to do after an emergency happens. That means your BCP template should organize key information into the following categories. That way, your team can fill out the correct information when you build your strategy.

Directly responsible individuals (DRIs) or important tiger teams : These are the individual points of contact you would go to in case of an emergency. You’ll find contact information for the DRIs, plus the best way to reach them in this section.

Risk assessment: This includes risk analysis documents such as a risk register , which analyzes potential setbacks a project or your business may encounter. 

Action plan : The step-by-step plan your team will follow if an emergency happens.

Recovery procedures: This section details the steps your team should take to recover from any major business interruptions.

Crucial business functions: The key aspects of the business that are necessary to keep things functioning. These are the bare minimum operations that your business needs running smoothly if you want to stay functional. It’s important to highlight these functions so your team knows which areas to focus on should an emergency arise. 

Succession plan : In the event that leaders or DRIs are unable to fill a role, a succession plan provides a back-up person to take their place. 

Internal communication strategy: It’s important to develop a communication plan for how you share information with your entire team. Developing a communication strategy beforehand can help prevent misinformation and confusing messaging from going out to your team during emergency situations.

Alternate business processes (aka backup plans): This section details alternate ways your business can still function even if a part of it fails. This can include alternate vendors or suppliers, or manual workarounds for automated tasks. 

Why you should use a business continuity plan template

Using a business continuity plan template can help your team in a few different ways. Here’s how.

Faster recovery: When disaster happens, you want to be able to recover quickly to minimize the amount of downtime your company faces. Having a BCP template prepared can help minimize the amount of time it takes to develop a full BCP strategy.

Create multiple fail-safes: Sometimes one BCP is not enough. A BCP template can help you create multiple plans so you have more than one way to recover should an emergency occur. 

Insurance doesn’t cover everything: While insuring your business is a smart move, it won’t be able to help you in all situations, such as an economic downturn. Using a BCP template means your business is ready to develop a strategy before any external environments begin to change, so your team can start planning as soon as you catch wind of something on the horizon. 

Integrated features

List View . List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

Subtasks . Sometimes a to-do is too big to capture in one task. If a task has more than one contributor, a broad due date, or stakeholders that need to review and approve before it can go live, subtasks can help. Subtasks are a powerful way to distribute work and split tasks into individual components—while keeping the small to-dos connected to the overarching context of the parent task. Break tasks into smaller components or capture the individual components of a multi-step process with subtasks. 

Custom fields . Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization. 

Messaging . Need to share information that isn’t actionable? Try Messages in Asana. Messages enable you to communicate within Asana about non-actionable work. You can send messages to any combination of individuals, teams, and projects, so everyone is on the same page. Link to tasks, projects, and Goals in Asana to make it easy for your message recipients to gain context and drill down into the details.

Suggested apps

Microsoft Teams . With the Microsoft Teams + Asana integration, you can search for and share the information you need without leaving Teams. Easily connect your Teams conversations to actionable items in Asana. Plus, create, assign, and view tasks during a Teams Meeting without needing to switch to your browser.

Slack . Turn ideas, work requests, and action items from Slack into trackable tasks and comments in Asana. Go from quick questions and action items to tasks with assignees and due dates. Easily capture work so requests and to-dos don’t get lost in Slack. 

Google Workplace . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

Zoom . Asana and Zoom are partnering up to help teams have more purposeful and focused meetings. The Zoom + Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call is over. Meetings begin in Asana, where shared meeting agendas provide visibility and context about what will be discussed. During the meeting, team members can quickly create tasks within Zoom, so details and action items don’t get lost. And once the meeting is over, the Zoom + Asana integration pulls meeting transcripts and recordings into Asana, so all collaborators and stakeholders can review the meeting as needed.

How do you write a business continuity plan template?

Creating a business continuity plan template is simple. Start by using collaborative work management software like Asana so that your entire team can access the template. From there, create sections for all of the key components of a BCP template—like directly responsible individuals (DRIs), risk assessments, action plans, recovery procedures, crucial business functions, succession plans, internal communication strategies, and alternate business processes.

What are the four P’s of business continuity planning?

When you start filling out the key information in a business continuity plan template, there are four segments that you should consider: people (meaning your employees and potential customers), processes (the steps you need to take to run your business), premises (the physical location or locations of your business), and providers (business partners like suppliers and vendors).

What is a business continuity plan checklist?

A business continuity plan checklist is a list of tasks your team should complete when experiencing an emergency or potential risk. It helps by minimizing the amount of disruptions your business experiences when encountering issues or roadblocks.The easiest way to create this checklist is by using a business continuity plan template. That way, you have the same checklist for every strategy you create.

Keep your team connected

Learn how to create a business continuity plan template in Asana with a free trial today.

Free business continuity template

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Using this business continuity template.

When filling out this business continuity plan, it helps to have scenarios in mind. Think about what you’d do if some of these things below went wrong. They could be crises within the business or in the world around you.

  • Included Losing key staff or a big client
  • Included Failure of critical equipment
  • Included Fire
  • Included Shipping and supply chain issues
  • Included Natural disasters
  • Included National or global financial shocks

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Types of business structure

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The 11 Best Free Business Continuity Plan Templates Online

Tim King

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Best Free Business Continuity Plan Templates

The editors at Solutions Review have compiled this list of the best free business continuity plan templates available online.

With cyber-attacks and natural disasters threatening your data at every turn, being prepared with a business continuity plan is your best defense. Having a plan can prevent debilitating data and financial loss and give you peace of mind while running your business. Creating a business continuity plan from scratch is a daunting task. Luckily, there are free examples of these plans online. Instead of having to search for one that works for you, the editors at Solutions Review have put together a record of the best free business continuity plan templates online, listed below in no particular order.

Best Free Business Continuity Plan Templates

Search disaster recovery.

OUR TAKE:   Search Disaster Recovery offers a few different kinds of recovery plans, spanning business impact analysis, pandemic recovery, and business continuity. However, their IT disaster recovery plan offers a comprehensive step-by-step guide to prepare for the worst. In addition to step-by-step instructions, this template also helps practitioners to create their own table of contents for their disaster recovery plan, allowing them to easily identify key issues to address.

OUR TAKE:   IBM separates its plan into 13 sections of what is necessary for disaster recovery. If you feel confident in some areas, but less so in others, you can pick and choose which sections would be the most useful for you. IBM also offers examples of each section, enabling disaster recovery professionals to easily understand the best way to approach their recovery strategies. The 13 sections that make up this template include, major goals of a DR plan, personnel, application profile, disaster recovery procedures, and recovery plan for mobile sites, among others.

OUR TAKE:   Ontrack, a tech blog, posted their own disaster recovery plan template. It allows you to personalize your plan by filling out the template, while also offering tips in the headings of the subsections. With its template, Ontrack aims to help small businesses become comfortable with the building blocks of a disaster recovery plan and to think realistically about what it would take to resume normal business operations after a severe IT disaster.

Adams State College

OUR TAKE:  Adams State College has made its plan public online. While it applies to the college specifically, the plan is so extensive that anyone looking to create their own recovery plan could glean from it as an example. Though this template has not been updated for some time, it is still a comprehensive outline useful as a starting point for anyone beginning to develop a DR strategy

Disaster Recovery Plan Template

OUR TAKE:   Disaster Recovery Plan Template offers, as one would expect, disaster recovery plan templates. Their basic recovery plan provides templates to make the plan specific to your needs, as well as step-by-step instructions that apply to all businesses. The template was created through extensive research on disaster recovery planning and emergency management of records and information programs.

The Council on Foundations

OUR TAKE:   The Council on Foundations provides a template that is completely comprehensive; assigning disaster roles to employees based on their job, outlining business impact analysis, and building evacuation procedures. Additionally, the Council on Foundations also offers individual templates to use in conjunction with its full Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plan.

SANS Institute

OUR TAKE:   SANS Institute has a plan that provides an outline of what should happen in a disaster situation. If you need light structure or something to fall back on when creating your own plan, this one would be helpful. The SANS Institute’s plan also provides a discussion of the culture and employee education surrounding disaster recovery and risk avoidance.

OUR TAKE: Evolve IP designed this template to help Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) practitioners with the process of capturing and organizing the critical information needed to ensure that IT operations are in a position to survive when a disruption occurs. This template is meant as a guide only. Users should review it carefully to determine whether it appropriately fits their specific needs.

Disaster Recovery Plan Templates

OUR TAKE: In addition to offering a basic disaster recovery plan, Disaster Recovery Plan Templates also offers a recovery plan specific to IT. This provides an outline of what should occur in IT should a disaster strike. The plan is divided up into 13 sections, which include determining the scope of your plan, definitions of disaster, framework design, administrative processes, and testing processes, among others.

Southern Oregon University

OUR TAKE: Like Adams State College, Southern Oregon University has a public disaster recovery plan . While again, this plan is specific to the university, it offers guidelines on how to handle disaster recovery. The university places emphasis on testing its plan, stating that it is reviewed and updated every year by IT staff, and then those updates are approved by the organization’s chief information officer.

DisasterRecovery.org

OUR TAKE:   DisasterRecovery.org offers a free disaster recovery plan template, as well as a business continuity plan template . Additionally, the site offers emergency management, incident management, and threat plans, as well as a look at a cloud-based disaster recovery solution. This makes it a perfect place for organizations in their nascent stages to start to prepare for a disaster.

Being prepared with a disaster recovery plan is one of the best ways to maintain business continuity and protect your data, so why not get a jump start on it for free? If you find a plan from this list, consult our Disaster Recovery as a Service Buyer’s Guide, Backup and Disaster Recovery Buyer’s Guide, or our Data Protection Vendor Map for more information on disaster recovery planning.

Download link to Data Protection Vendor Map

This article was written by Tim King on July 26, 2022

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Tim is Solutions Review's Executive Editor and leads coverage on data management and analytics. A 2017 and 2018 Most Influential Business Journalist and 2021 "Who's Who" in Data Management, Tim is a recognized industry thought leader and changemaker. Story? Reach him via email at tking@solutionsreview dot com.

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ISO 22301 Business Continuity Simplified: Fortify Your Business Against Disruption

By Andy Marker | June 22, 2020 (updated September 15, 2022)

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In this article, you’ll find expert tips and implementation guides, and you'll learn how ISO 22301 can buffer your business against disasters. 

Included on this page, you’ll find an International Standards Organization (ISO) 22301 audit checklist template , a simplified ISO 22301 cheat-sheet , and an ISO 22301 self-assessment checklist , as well as examples of ISO 22301 in action and an ISO 22301 quick-start guide .

What Is ISO 22301?

ISO 22301 is a global standard for business continuity planning requirements to help organizations protect themselves against disruptions. The most current version is 22301:2019, Security and resilience - Business continuity management systems - Requirements.

The requirements in ISO 22301 address disruptive incidents that can be natural or human-made, widespread or local, intentional or unintentional, such as a snowstorm, a broken water main, an epidemic, a data breach, or a phishing attack. Large or small, for- and nonprofit organizations alike can use ISO 22301.

The Business Manager’s Quick-Start Guide to ISO 22301

The ISO 22301 standard can provide benefits for your business continuity planning, even if your organization chooses not to pursue certification, or the review process that confirms your business continuity system meets all ISO 22301 requirements. 

"Certification is nice, but not required,” says Mart Rovers of InterProm. “First, seek compliance. That way, you know that your business continuity management practices are in better shape." You can start to create a solid business continuity plan with just a few simple steps, which you can also download as this ISO 22301 Quick-Start Guide .

  • Check If You Already Have Continuity Plans: Find out if your organization already has business continuity plans. Search through your document management system and ask management or long-time employees. Organizations sometimes create and quickly forget about resources, or store responses locally in an informal system.  As Andrew Nichols of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center suggests, if your organization already implements other ISO standards, such as ISO 9001 or ISO 27000, you can leverage some of the common requirement elements for your 22301 plan.
  • Identify Missing Components: Conduct a gap analysis of existing policies and processes to see what business continuity resources you need. According to Mart Rovers, one way to conduct a self-assessment is to copy into a spreadsheet each phrase of the ISO 22301 standard that contains the word "shall." Then, determine gaps between your company and the standard. "Use the standard as your guide to establishing a coherent set of practices to address business continuity management for your organization," says Rovers. You can also use Smartsheet's ISO 22301 Self-Assessment Checklist and ISO 22301 Simplified Cheatsheet for your gap analysis.
  • Keep It Simple: Having binders full of perfectly formatted procedures won’t help in an emergency. Create easy-to-follow guidelines and checklists and, more importantly, build "muscle memory" in your employees through training and drills. That way, in a panic, people understand what to do without having to be told.
  • Make Your Plan a Living Document: Ticking off items on an audit checklist doesn't mean you’re prepared. Frequently read, revise, and practice your plan to keep it relevant and to train new staff.

Alex Fullick

  • Communicate Your Plan to Staff and Other Stakeholders: Even the most well-written plan is useless if the people who can benefit from it don't know about it. Inform everyone covered by the plan that it exists, including your supply chain and other outside stakeholders.

ISO 22301 Requirements

The ISO 22301 standard offers a framework for planning, testing, and monitoring a business continuity management system (BCMS). The ISO 22301 document contains 10 sections, which introduce the standard and definitions, as well as actionable requirements of the standard. 

As with other ISO requirement documents, ISO 22301 describes only what organizations must do to reach minimum proficiency — it does not prescribe how to achieve these standards. Each organization must consider its distinct conditions and obligations to find the best way to follow the requirements.

Here is an overview of the clauses in ISO 22301 that impact an organization most: 

  • Clause 4, Context: Your organization must understand what it is, what it does, and what outputs and processes it must sustain. You must also determine who has a stake in the continuity of your operations — in other words, the interested parties. For example, customers have a stake in your organization continuing to function.
  • Clause 5, Leadership: Few organizational initiatives thrive without the sustained support and championship of top management. Management must commit to a business continuity plan and make available any resources — human, financial, or otherwise — to ensure its success. 
  • Clause 6, Planning: To plan for sustainability, you must understand what disruptions could potentially occur and how these incidents affect the business — in other words, potential risks and their impact. Set measurable business continuity objectives to guarantee the minimum viable products or services, as well as compliance with any legal or regulatory requirements. 
  • Clause 7, Support: No program can advance without resources and support. Decide what personnel, roles, and teams you need for threat response and how you can best enhance their effectiveness. Create internal and external communication procedures for reference, and communicate the continuity plan to all necessary parties before and during a crisis. Establish a document management system for key continuity documents, such as procedures.
  • Clause 8, Operation: Conduct your risk assessment and business impact analysis , and plan your disruption recovery approach. Implement the recovery plan with detailed procedures, and test it regularly to verify that it works. Make sure people can find the procedures (and other documents) they need, and revise your plan as necessary.
  • Clause 9, Evaluation: Establish a process to regularly measure and assess your continuity policies and procedures and their execution. Review and revise your plan and documents to ensure they are effective and relevant
  • Clause 10, Improvement: Seek continual improvement in all functional and operational areas, including through periodic management reviews. Improvements in day-to-day activities help bolster the organization in times of disruption. When processes veer from the standard or fail to conform with ISO and quality management standards, implement corrective action.

Key Definitions Related to ISO 22301

Some of the following key terms and concepts originate with ISO, some with ISO 22301, and some with business continuity and risk management:

  • Context: The purpose and character of the organization and the environment in which it operates. This includes internal and external influences that shape the business continuity management system.
  • Disruptive Incident: A disruptive incident is an event that stops or slows the everyday work of an organization. Examples of disruptive incidents include earthquakes, internet stoppages, broken fans in a data center, or food poisoning in a cafeteria. 
  • Interested Parties: Interested parties are stakeholders in the successful operation and outcomes of your business continuity plan. They can include customers, employees, suppliers, or regulatory officials.
  • Leadership: In ISO 22301, leadership refers to top management or the person or people who run the organization and champion the business continuity effort. 
  • Maximum Acceptable Outage (MAO): The length of time an activity or process can be unavailable or ineffective before the health and survival of the organization are threatened. 
  • Minimum Business Continuity Objective (MBCO) : The lowest level of products or services that is acceptable for a business to offer during a disruption.
  • Recovery Timeframe Objectives (RTO): This refers to the prioritization of key activities and the timing that makes those activities operational.

Benefits of ISO 22301 and Business Continuity Management System

If teams are already overwhelmed with their workload, they may not like to think about disasters. Furthermore, organizations might think that ISO standards include difficult jargon and that pursuing a continuity plan adds unnecessary work. However, management systems practitioners suggest that continuity preparations produce substantial gains.

Andy Nichols

“I think it's a truism that many organizations can benefit from the principles and some of the practices of resiliency and contingency planning,” says Andrew Nichols, Quality Program Manager at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center .

As an example of the benefits that risk analysis and preparation can yield, Nichols relates his experience of visiting a small northeastern town during a widespread winter power outage. The whole town was closed, with the exception of one restaurant that had a generator. 

“They had a line of people out the door every mealtime because nowhere else was capable,” Nichols remembers. “Somebody had the foresight to think about the loss of power. And that organization cleaned up financially because they were able to provide what the customers needed.” 

Consider these specific benefits to using ISO 22301 business continuity planning:

  • Protect against and recover from disruptive incidents.
  • Identify and control current and future threats.
  • Improve your risk management planning efforts.
  • Prevent large-scale damage.
  • Become proactive in preventing problems and recovering from incidents, rather than reactive to damage and disruption.
  • Reduce downtime and increase recovery time.
  • Keep important activities running during disruption.
  • Deliver quality products consistently. 
  • Provide dependable service. 
  • Prove you’re a reputable supplier.
  • Prove your resilience to all stakeholders.

Experts also assert that ISO 22301 can be a simple and effective continuity tool. “All these ISO standards, they’re like hidden gems because of how fast they can get you up to speed without having to reinvent the wheel,” says Mart Rovers, President of IT consulting firm InterProm . 

Mart Rovers

“I cannot emphasize enough how within reach this standard is. Anytime people hear the word ‘ISO,’ they think, ‘Oh, that's for large organizations. Oh, that's way too formal. It's too much. It's overkill.’ I understand where this is coming from because the word ‘standard’ itself is scary for many organizations. However, the size of organization really doesn't matter. The things you should be doing in ISO 22301, you can do at a smaller scale,” says Rovers. 

Some also hesitate at the thought of certification. Both Nichols and Rovers stress that certification is not necessary for every enterprise. Although certification may be a condition of doing business for some companies, those who don’t need certification can still gain advantages from following ISO 22301. 

In weighing the pros and cons of ISO certification, Rovers suggests buying a copy of ISO 22301 , and then copying and pasting each sentence that contains the word “shall” into a spreadsheet (these sentences represent the requirements you must follow). From the spreadsheet, consider whether full ISO adoption and certification are too complicated for your organization. Regardless of your decision, you can always use the spreadsheet to conduct a self-audit.

ISO 22301 in Action

The following image provides a small sample of the possible outcomes to business continuity management.

How a Management System Helps Business Continuity

For those familiar with other ISO standards, the management system component of ISO 22301 might be a new concept. Rovers describes management systems as follows: 

“The best way to explain a management system is to imagine opening up an old watch. It has these spinning wheels, these gears. In the case of an ISO standard, you're looking at a number of requirements to put that watch together with all these spinning wheels. That watch is a coherent system. You take out one of those gears, and then the watch fails. 

“A management system for continuity follows the same idea — every requirement that the standard asks for represents one of those gears. And every requirement serves a distinct purpose (otherwise, it would not be a requirement). If you don't meet a particular requirement, the watch, so to speak, may not function as it could or should. These ISO requirements are not just there to keep you busy.”

ISO 22301 and PDCA

Each segment of the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle for continuous improvement corresponds to at least one ISO 22301 clause. Organizations can use ISO 22301 to test continuity procedures, review outcomes, and implement updates or fix problems in a continuous cycle that leads to an increasingly resilient business continuity system.

PDCA for ISO 22301

ISO 22301 and Maturity Models

A maturity model measures an organization’s ability to pursue continuous improvement in key areas. ISO 22301 does not have a maturity model.

As Rovers explains, “It was never the intent of ISO 22301 to be a maturity model. You either meet all the requirements of the standard, or you don’t. You could say that by not meeting the requirements of the standard, you’re not mature. Or better said, your business continuity management practices are not mature.”

BCM Lifecycle ISO 22301

The business continuity management (BCM) lifecycle represents industry best practices and some of the core requirements of ISO 22301. These practices offer a solid foundation for resilience, while offering flexibility to adapt to changes in the organization. 

Guided by leadership, these are the key activities for the lifecycle:

  • Conduct a business impact analysis and risk assessment.
  • Establish a business continuity strategy.
  • Establish and implement business continuity procedures.
  • Exercise and test the procedures regularly before a disruption occurs.

BCM Lifecycle ISO 22301

ISO 22301 Audit Checklist Template (Excel)

ISO 22301 Audit Checklist Template

Use this detailed checklist to determine if your business continuity plan aligns with ISO 22301 standards. You can use the template whether you’re applying for certification or simply pursuing a continuity management plan. 

Download ISO 22301 Audit Checklist Template

Excel  | Smartsheet

ISO 22301 Self-Assessment Checklist

ISO 22301 Self-Assessment Checklist Template

This self-assessment checklist is divided into sections that correspond to clauses in ISO 22301. Use it to confirm whether your business continuity system meets the requirements for leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation, and continual improvement.

Download ISO 22301 Self-Assessment Checklist Template

Excel | Word |  PDF

ISO 22301 Implementation Guide

ISO 22301 Implementation Guide Template

This guide states the essential information from ISO 22301 in plain English. For best results, read it with the full standard, which is currently available for free online to support the COVID-19 response. 

Download ISO 22301 Implementation Guide Template

Excel | Word | PDF

ISO 22301 Simplified Cheat-Sheet

ISO 22301 Simplified Cheatsheet Template

Use this simplified cheat-sheet to understand the basic elements of creating a business continuity plan. The template walks you through the process of determining critical aspects of your organization, writing the recovery plan, and exercising the plan to ensure proficiency. 

Download ISO 22301 Simplified Cheat-Sheet Template

ISO 22301 Business Continuity Policy Template

ISO 22301 Business Continuity Policy Template

A business continuity policy describes the processes and procedures an organization needs in order to function well daily, including in times of disruption and crisis. This policy template includes space for BCMS objectives, a leadership description, a policy outline, and any certification details.

Download ISO 22301 Business Continuity Policy Template

ISO 22301 Business Continuity Template

ISO 22301 Business Continuity Plan Template

Use this template to create a business continuity plan. Describe the results of your risk analysis and business impact analysis, detail your disaster recovery and continuity procedures, and list key contacts and important assets. 

Download ISO 22301 Business Continuity Template

Word |  PDF

ISO 22301 Business Continuity Sample

The Community Nonprofit Center of New York made available this business continuity template to support the response to coronavirus. Find space to detail responses to minimal and critical emergencies, a risk matrix template, and lists for information about insurance, critical assets, and responses to disruptive events.

For other most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates please read our  "Free Business Continuity Plan Templates"  article.

Disaster Recovery Plan Templates

After you perform a risk analysis and business impact analysis, consider writing a disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery plan templates , available in different formats, provide an easy-to-use structure for documenting continuity plans. Download templates specialized for IT, payroll, small businesses, and more.

To learn about the difference between recovery plans and continuity plans, visit our "Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Their Differences and How They Work Together" article.

ISO 22301 Versus ISO 27301

ISO 27301 provides requirements that organizations use to ensure their information and communications technology (ICT) continuity, security, and readiness to survive a disruption. The standard is often staged with ISO 22301 because both are based on similar management system approaches.

The full name of this standard is ISO 27301 - Information Technology - Security Techniques . Originally published in 2011, it is soon to be revised.

“Both [ISO 27301 and ISO 22301] ask for top management involvement and commitment, both ask that you have the right resources, that you have documentation management, that you do performance evaluations, and that you make improvements,” explains Rovers. 

They differ in the focus of the risk assessment: ISO 27001 addresses security, whereas ISO 22301 addresses business continuity. “Each area has different risks, but the approach to the risk management assessment and mitigation follows the same steps. There's enormous overlap.”

IT security continuity has significant relevance in the remote work environment. For example, while using your work laptop at home or signed into the work network, what happens when someone innocently plugs in a thumb drive that infects your laptop and corrupts the network? Both ISO 22301 and ISO 27001 work together to prevent such incidents and mitigate problems that occur.

For additional resources, visit " Free ISO 27001 Checklists and Templates ."

General Requirements Across Management System Standards

Some ISO requirements are commonly stated across the management system standards, which include ISO 22301; ISO 9001 , Quality Management; ISO 20000, IT Service Management; and ISO 27001, Information Security. Examples of common requirements include establishing objectives for the business continuity management system as appropriate to the organization, obtaining management’s commitment to supporting the system, implementing a documentation management system, conducting internal audits, and pursuing continual improvement. This functional overlap enables organizations to undertake combined audits for these standards.

Historical Foundations of ISO 22301

The concept of business continuity was borne out of the IT boom of the 1980s and 1990s. Public and private organizations realized the need to ensure continuity of service and key supplies and to mitigate the effects of disruptive events. The first formal standard reflecting these concerns was the United Kingdom’s British Standard (also known as BS) 25999, which introduced the management system concept to the business continuity discipline. 

In 2012, the global standards body ISO released ISO 22301:2012 as the first international standard for business continuity. Based on the contributions and comments of continuity professionals from assorted industries in over 60 countries, ISO 22301 superseded BS 25999. 

ISO’s consensus-based standards, such as 22301, cover practices and industries ranging from quality management, IT service, and food safety to environmental safety and information security. ISO standards aim to increase the quality and safety of many products and services, including most common household items, appliances, and cars. Although large enterprises and manufacturers usually follow ISO requirements and guidelines, organizations of all sizes and types can benefit from ISO principles. 

For ISO 22301, the standard provides a consistent BCMS framework and a universal language among organizations for communicating about continuity and aligning processes.

When they get certified in ISO 22301 and other ISO standards, organizations can demonstrate to management, legislators, regulators, customers, and other stakeholders that they follow good practices. For ISO certification, organizations need third-party verification that they comply with all requirements of a standard. 

“Certification shows you have some level of competence,” explains Rovers. “It shows you take the standard seriously. For organizations buying your goods or services, it can be a compelling reason to choose you.”

Guidance Documents for ISO 22301

For in-depth discussions of aspects of the 22301 standard, ISO offers a series of guidance documents. To those considering pursuing ISO 22301 certification, these documents provide additional insight:

  • ISO 22313 - Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems — Guidance on the use of ISO 22301
  • ISO 22316 - Security and resilience — Organizational resilience — Principles and attributes
  • ISO 22317 - Societal security — Business continuity management systems — Guidelines for business impact analysis (BIA)
  • ISO 22318 - Societal security — Business continuity management systems — Guidelines for supply chain continuity
  • ISO 22330 - Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems — Guidelines for people aspects of business continuity
  • ISO 22331 - Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems — Guidelines for business continuity strategy

What Is the Latest Version of ISO 22301?

The requirement document ISO 22301:2019, Security and resilience - Business continuity management systems - Requirements , was released on October 31, 2019. The update from the original 2012 version reflects changes in management system approaches and clarifies specifications around clause 8.

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Free Business Continuity Templates

Our business continuity templates are designed to help give you a start with your business continuity programme. The business continuity templates should be edited and customized to fit your needs.

1. Business Continuity Polic y

Plan do check act model

A business continuity policy sets out the intentions and direction of your business continuity programme and communicates the scope and requirements to your employees. This helps your employees understand their roles and responsibilities for delivering the programme so they can meet the expectations. A policy can also explain the legal and regulatory requirements that need to be met. If you include a short statement from your leadership team that explains the importance of the programme, this will show your employees that business continuity is taken seriously and is essential to your organization.

2. Business Impact Analysis

A circulate graph broken down by parts

A business impact analysis helps you better understand how you operate and is used to prioritize which parts of your business you want to protect. This template can help you identify the processes and activities that support your products and/or services; understand the internal and external dependencies between your processes and activities; determine the maximum time the processes and activities can be disrupted before you have an unacceptable impact; Identify the time following an incident within which each process and activity must be resumed (known as a recovery time objective).

3. Threat and Risk Assessment

A closeup of a risk assessment with a pen

A threat and risk assessment template is used to record the internal and external threats to your organization so you can assess the risk of disruption to your prioritized processes and activities. The template also helps you better understand how much a control has reduced the likelihood and impact of a risk. This template can be used to support a consistent approach towards risk assessment across your organization. There are three tabs in the threat and risk assessment template. The Threat Profile tab is used to record the known and anticipated internal and external threats to your organization. You can prioritize the threats based on a score.

4 . Business Continuity Plan

Business continuity plan template

A business continuity plan is used to document how employees will implement the agreed business continuity solutions for your processes and activities during a disruptive incident. This will help you resume your prioritized processes and activities within the agreed recovery time objectives, which will help keep impact to an acceptable level. All the information you need should be stored in the business continuity plan so it is ready to hand and you do not have to search different folders and files for information during an incident. This includes all the relevant contacts, their roles and responsibilities and any supporting information to help them fulfill their roles.

5. Disaster Recovery Plan

Closeup of a hand with a back up tape out of a device

An IT Disaster Recovery Plan can help you better understand existing fault detection, fault notification and escalation routes; document your team roles and responsibilities for recovering systems and data within the agreed recovery time and recovery point objectives; centralize all the information you need to help determine the root cause of a fault and how to recover. The plan can also include communication templates so you can send messages quickly during a disruptive incident.

6. Phone Tree

Phone tree

A phone tree can be used to communicate with employees during an unplanned disruptive incident. Most importantly, this can help you check employee welfare during an incident so incident management teams can work with senior management to protect your employees. You may also want to contact employees to notify them of the disruption, to ask relevant teams to implement the agreed business continuity plans or to provide general guidance on what employees should do. The phone tree template is useful for organizations that cannot afford or have decided for other reasons not to purchase an enterprise notification system.

7. Phone Tree Test Report

A business woman dialing a number on a desk phone

A phone tree test report can be completed after a phone tree test so you can monitor progress and improvement over time. A phone tree test helps familiarize members of your team with how to implement the phone tree. A test will also familiarize your employees with how they will be contacted during a disruptive incident and/or civil emergency. The phone tree test will help validate your contacts and their contact details. You may also decide to restructure your phone tree if contacts cannot be reached in a timely manner.

8 . Business Continuity Exercise Report

Tabletop exercise reporting template

Business continuity exercises do not have to be lengthy or complex to drive value. This simple business continuity exercise report form is great for short table-top exercises that last ~30 minutes. The template should be completed after the exercise to help determine whether the exercise objectives have been met, whether there were any issues during the exercise and what improvement actions need to be implemented. Exercises help you validate the business continuity solutions for your prioritized processes and activities. Exercises also help familiarize members of your team with their roles and responsibilities in the business continuity plan.

9. Supplier Business Continuity Clause

A businessman writing supply chain

A supplier business continuity schedule with appropriate clauses will help clarify your expectations of the supplier’s roles and responsibilities before, during and after a disruptive incident. Clauses can also be used to make sure your time critical suppliers continue to maintain their business continuity solutions. For example, if you identified particularly good solutions during the supplier due diligence process, you may want to make sure these are continued for the duration of your contract. Clauses could also be added to make sure your time critical suppliers have an exercise and/or test schedule in place to validate their business continuity solutions.

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Business continuity plan template – 29+ free word, excel, pdf format download.

Every business, no matter how successful and widespread has to devise and develop strategies in advance to protect and safeguard its interests, in case of adversities. The plan formulated is known as a Business Continuity Plan (BCP.) It contains an elaborate list of strategies and procedures the company must carry out in the event of a foreseeable or unforeseeable setback. This file also features defining the member’s roles and responsibilities when there is a negative scenario present. You can also see more on Simple Business Plans .

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Business Continuity Plan Template

A business continuity plan is a document that helps organizations create a plan for how they will continue operating in the event of a major disruption. The template typically includes a list of activities that need to be completed in order to keep the business running, as well as a timeline for when each activity should be completed. The template can be customized to fit the needs of any organization, and it is often used in conjunction with a risk management plan.

Business continuity and disaster recovery plan template

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Business continuity plan

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Continuity plan template for institutions of higher education

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Free business continuity plan template

Free business continuity plan template

Author’s note:  At the end of the day, we want this blog post to offer a little bit of reprieve. And, if we’re being honest, we hope it’ll make you laugh a little too. Because we could all use a little laughter in our lives. Stay tuned for a comprehensive download on everything that entails creating a BCP, as well as access to the  business continuity plan template .

Two words: dumpster fire. 

dumpster-fire

If you’re unfamiliar with the term,  Merriam-Webster  defines it as “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence.” As a business owner, it’s safe to say that you’d probably like to avoid them at all costs. But as John Lennon so famously iterated, “life happens when you’re busy making plans.”

What’s the purpose of a business continuity plan?

In the event of a crisis (big or small), you want to ensure business continuity, as well as an ability to secure the safety of your employees in some way, shape or form. Meaning, you want to be able to maintain or work toward business recovery and functionality. And a business continuity plan helps you:

  • Maintain business functionalities.
  • Manage crisis-related hurdles.
  • Resume business functionalities.
  • Recover from the crisis accordingly.

What’s the difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan?

You’ve probably seen the terms “business continuity plan” and “disaster recovery” used in the same sentence — likely because a disaster recovery plan functions as a subset of a business continuity plan.

Simply put, a business continuity plan works:

  • To ensure business as usual — i.e., maximum functionality despite circumstances.
  • To gain validation and assurance from and for stakeholders of your business.

Whereas a disaster recovery plan refers to:

  • A pre-existing emergency procedure or process that a business implements during a time of crisis to protect any IT infrastructure.
  • Ecological  – Also known as environmental disasters, ecological disasters usually occur because of humans. Examples would be the long-term side effects of a nuclear event or an oil spill. 
  • Natural  — Disastrous natural events include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and more. 
  • Human-made  — Similar to ecological disasters, human-made disasters also happen because of human actions as well as a lack of action.

So, all that said, how do you write a business continuity plan? Let’s dive in.

How to write a business continuity plan

There are five core components you need to define and implement before going hog-wild on a business continuity plan template. The more time and effort you put into creating a thorough and well-thought business continuity plan, the better off you’ll be — no matter if you’re leveraging a small business continuity plan template or a BCP template for a large-scale organization.

More specifically you need to:

Create a business continuity team

Define objectives, conduct a business impact analysis, write and define your response plan, set a testing schedule.

Over the next few paragraphs, we’ll expand on what steps you need to take and things you need to create an effective business continuity plan.

To get started, you’ll want to assemble a business continuity team. These folks will function as your business continuity management group and handle the ideation, development and implementation of your business continuity plan. Whomever you nominate should have a sharp attention to detail and be both highly organized and dependable in times of stress.

  • Executive manager  — Responsibilities include: writing the business continuity process and serves as the liaison between your business continuity team and executive management or board members. 
  • Program coordinator  — Responsibilities include: functioning as team lead for business continuity team, handling coordination in regards to plan development, budget and recovery procedures.
  • Information officer  — Responsibilities include: Sharing data information related to the business continuity plan.

There are two factors you want to consider as you evaluate and define your objectives.

  • Your end goal  — What is the end goal you’re looking to achieve by creating this plan? Are you looking to resume business as usual? Are you looking to recover a certain amount of financial standing? By defining your end goal, you’ll be able to narrow down the scope of your business continuity plan to ensure it feels both tangible and realistic.
  • Your budget  — What kind of budget can you expect to allocate for? As in, how much can you allocate toward resources to execute and achieve your business continuity plan?

Once you’ve defined your objectives, you’ll have a clearer perspective and understanding of how to go about putting together the business continuity plan.

To get a firm grasp on your budget, you’ll want to conduct a business impact analysis. A business impact analysis provides insight into costs, benefits and prioritization.

According to  Ready.Gov , a Department of Homeland Security website, a business impact analysis (also known as a BIA) “predicts the consequences of disruption of a business function and process and gathers information needed to develop recovery strategies.”

As in, what happens when one functionality breaks down? What else does this loss of functionality impact? For example, say you’re a food distribution business and one of your trucks breaks down — how does this affect your delivery and operations?

Great news! You and your business continuity team are on track to completing a concise yet simple business continuity plan template.

Now, you’ll need to brainstorm, write and define your response plan. Keep in mind, this BCP will be your first draft, so not everything will be set in stone right off the bat.

Within your response plan, you’ll need to include:

[Program administration]

  • Financial limitations or budget
  • Expected timeline

[Governance]

  • Team roles and responsibilities
  • Additional stakeholders

[Business impact analysis]

[Strategies and requirements]

  • Your proactive approaches to prevent crises
  • Your reactive strategies to ensure immediate response to crises
  • Your reactive strategies to ensure long-term recovery

[Training and testing]

  • Your training schedule for employees
  • Your testing schedule

If you’re so inclined, you can easily leverage one of our existing business continuity templates to your advantage. All you need to do is plop any existing information into the corresponding fields, and get to testing, which leads to our next and last step….

As tempting as it might be to call it in when you’ve wrapped up your business continuity plan, you should err on the side of caution and give it the old test-a-roonie. A test ultimately helps you identify potential hurdles, soft spots or holes in your plan, so when push comes to shove and a crisis does arise, you’re not left having to deal with a colander for a lifeboat during your time of need.

To start testing, communicate with and train each team member about the steps they’ll need to take when implementing the business continuity plan. Then, you’ll conduct a test trial of your BCP — be sure to make a note of any holes or gaps in the plan or execution of the plan itself as you’ll need to come back to these and fix them. 

You’ll want to consistently and periodically test your BCP for any hiccups. Plus, your company and organization are bound to change, and you need your BCP to be agile and grow with your company as it grows, too.

Creating a BCP for recovery

Ultimately, the last thing you want to be dealing with when you’re navigating a crisis is to be dealing with, well, the fallout of an unplanned emergency. And not only that, you want your employees to remain as safe and secure as possible. After all, they are the driving force behind your business productivity and functionality, which is why you must ensure that your business continuity plan provides the best chance of recovery possible.

Uncover how our business continuity template can help you, your business and your employees.

“Business

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Business Continuity Plan

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Business continuity is essential for any organization. The right plan ensures that your team can continue to operate in the event of an unexpected disruption, such as a natural disaster, an equipment failure, or a pandemic.

ClickUp's Business Continuity Plan Template provides you with the essential tools and visualizations needed to create a comprehensive plan that covers:

  • Risk assessment and evaluation
  • Recovery strategies and solutions
  • Testing & review processes

Whether you're adapting to new regulations or creating a plan for future incidents, this template will help ensure your team can stay on track no matter what happens.

Having a business continuity plan in place can help your organization weather any storm. Benefits of using a business continuity plan template include:

  • Quickly identifying potential risks and outlining preventative measures
  • Ensuring that all teams and departments are aware of the plan and their roles in it
  • Providing guidance on how to respond to any potential disruptions
  • Enabling organizations to minimize downtime and maintain business operations during a crisis

ClickUp's Business Continuity Plan Template is designed to help you create a clear plan for any situation. This List template includes:

  • Custom Statuses: Mark task status such as Complete, In Progress and To Do to keep track of progress and performance
  • Custom Fields: Use 2 different custom attributes such as Business Plan Category, Details to save vital information about the plan and easily visualize progress
  • Custom Views: Open 4 different views in different ClickUp configurations, such as the Priorities, Board, List, and Getting Started Guide so that all the information is easy to access and organized
  • Project Management: Improve business continuity plan tracking with time tracking capabilities, tags, dependency warning, emails, and more

Creating a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) requires careful thought and planning. By following the steps outlined below, you can create a comprehensive plan that will help keep your business running during and after an emergency.

The first step in creating a BCP is to identify potential risks that your business may face. This includes natural disasters, power outages, cyber attacks, data breaches, and other scenarios that could disrupt your operations.

Use Docs in ClickUp to map out the various potential risks to your business.

Once you’ve identified the risks, you need to assess the potential impact they could have on your business. This includes examining how the risk could affect your operations, employees, finances, and other critical assets.

Use Automations in ClickUp to assess the impact of each risk.

Once you’ve assessed the potential impact of each risk, you need to develop response strategies to mitigate the damage. This includes developing plans for emergency response, business continuity, and recovery.

Create tasks in ClickUp to develop response strategies for each risk.

Now that you’ve identified the risks and developed response strategies, it’s time to create a BCP document. This document should include all of the information you’ve gathered, including response strategies and contact information for key personnel.

Use the Table view in ClickUp to create a customized BCP document.

Once the BCP document is complete, it’s important to test the plan and make any necessary revisions. This includes running regular drills to ensure that all response strategies are effective and up-to-date.

Set a recurring task in ClickUp to test and revise your BCP plan.

Business owners can use this Business Continuity Plan Template to help everyone stay on the same page when it comes to developing strategies for mitigating risks and preparing for unexpected events.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

add new template customization

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a comprehensive business continuity plan:

  • Use the Priorities View to prioritize tasks and make sure the most important tasks are completed first
  • The Board View will help you visualize the progress of your plan and keep track of what needs to be done
  • Use the List View to organize tasks into different categories and keep track of progress
  • The Getting Started Guide View will provide you with step-by-step instructions to get started quickly
  • Organize tasks into three different statuses: Complete, In Progress, To Do, to keep track of progress
  • Update statuses as you progress through tasks to keep stakeholders informed of progress
  • Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure maximum productivity

Get Started with Our Business Continuity Plan Template Today

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Home » Business » Business Continuity Plan Template (Excel, Word, PDF)

Business Continuity Plan Template (Excel, Word, PDF)

The current situation of the world has shown that many businesses can go through all sorts of situations. However, it doesn’t matter you are a small business, a hospital, or a bank. You should have a strategy to continue your work no matter what happens. Therefore, a business continuity plan template is an important part of your company’s risk management. It will help you to know what to do in an emergency and other disastrous scenarios.

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan is generally an initiative that is used to make a system of preventing and recovering from risk to the company. Furthermore, it includes procedures that ensure employees’ security. Despite disastrous events and unfavorable circumstances, it allows the employees to continue doing their work.

Thus, the main purpose of this plan is to prevent business operations from stopping completely. Moreover, it enables them to recover once the situation ends. You may also like Business Proposal Cover Letter .

How to plot a business continuity plan?

Here are a few ways on how you can draft the business continuity plan;

  • Consider all threats: Firstly, think about every disaster event that can negatively affect your business tasks. Do a risk assessment for each disaster event. Then, see if it will be safe for employees to continue work during that time. If testing shows it is safe to carry on, then plot plans to circumvent these issues.
  • Go online: Nowadays, information technology has made our lives easier. It enables you to continue to work online from a convenient location. Thus, your business task has a smooth transition and makes it convenient for everybody. Emails, video calls, and other online tools are considered to be effective for various jobs.
  • Plot it comprehensive: Your plan should have a guide that will enable any individual to understand how to execute the plan. However, there must be easily understandable instructions to make sure that business continuity is all set.
  • Take everyone’s input: Make sure that your plan is a document created out of collaborative efforts. In addition, you should involve particular entities and employees. This is because they can adequately determine the items that are a threat to the business. You may also see Business Contact List Template .

What components business continuity plan include?

There are four key components of a business continuity plan;

  • Scope and goals/objectives: Describe the purpose of the business continuity plan template. This includes such as the particular business functions that have to be prioritized for recovery during an emergency. Furthermore, this part includes examples of emergency events.
  • Operations at threat: This section involves feasible threats with key operational functions that disrupt business continuity. Moreover, this also includes the magnitude of each risk to each function.
  • Recovery strategy: Next, outlines the relevant recovery strategy to restore business operations after an incident. A good strategy must include a realistic recovery timeline and significant emergency resources.
  • Roles and responsibilities: In this section, responsibilities are assigned to each team member. Every member has a unique set of responsibilities to successfully carry out BCP. You should also check the Business Plan Template .

Instructions of Business Continuity Plan

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Hence, we concluded that a business continuity plan plays a significant role in every business. It provides an ideal strategy to prevent business operations from stopping completely.

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    Erica Dias ClickUp Contributor October 12, 2023 9min read Table of Contents What Is a Continuity Plan Template? Does your business have a plan when disaster strikes? Whether it's a natural disaster or a PR crisis, having a ready-made playbook on hand will help you come out stronger on the other side of any emergency. 💪

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    Free Business Continuity Plan Template | PDF & Word Home Business Business Continuity Plan Business Continuity Plan Template Use a business continuity plan to outline how your business will continue to operate in a range of disaster scenarios. Create Document Updated December 18, 2023 Written by Sara Hostelley | Reviewed by Brooke Davis

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    Free Business Continuity Templates. Business Continuity Policy template. Business Impact Analysis template. Threat and Risk Assessment template. Business Continuity Plan template. Disaster Recovery Plan template. Phone Tree template. Phone Tree Test Report template. Business Continuity Exercise Report template.

  17. Business continuity plan template

    Business strategy and planning Business plan template. View more. We allow you to use these templates only as part of your business activities, but we do not guarantee that they fit your needs. Unfortunately, we do not offer any assistance. You are responsible for the content of the documents you create using these templates.

  18. Business Continuity Plan Template

    Business Continuity Plan Template - 29+ Free Word, Excel, PDF Format Download Every business, no matter how successful and widespread has to devise and develop strategies in advance to protect and safeguard its interests, in case of adversities. The plan formulated is known as a Business Continuity Plan (BCP.)

  19. Business Continuity Plan Template

    Business Continuity Plan Template. A business continuity plan is a document that helps organizations create a plan for how they will continue operating in the event of a major disruption. The template typically includes a list of activities that need to be completed in order to keep the business running, as well as a timeline for when each ...

  20. Free business continuity plan template

    More specifically you need to: Create a business continuity team. Define objectives. Conduct a business impact analysis. Write and define your response plan. Set a testing schedule. Over the next few paragraphs, we'll expand on what steps you need to take and things you need to create an effective business continuity plan.

  21. Business Continuity Plan Template by ClickUp™

    ClickUp's Business Continuity Plan Template is designed to help you create a clear plan for any situation. This List template includes: Custom Statuses: Mark task status such as Complete, In Progress and To Do to keep track of progress and performance. Custom Fields: Use 2 different custom attributes such as Business Plan Category, Details to ...

  22. Business Continuity Plan Template (Excel, Word, PDF)

    Here are a few ways on how you can draft the business continuity plan; Consider all threats: Firstly, think about every disaster event that can negatively affect your business tasks. Do a risk assessment for each disaster event. Then, see if it will be safe for employees to continue work during that time.

  23. Business Continuity Policy and Procedure Template

    Download your template packet today. Includes a Business Continuity Plan template and a Business Continuity Policy template. Free from ControlCase. ControlCase is a global provider of IT Certification and Continuous Compliance services. More info: Learn more about GDPR. Learn more about PCI DSS. Learn more about ISO 27001. Learn more about SOC 2.