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Business Continuity Plan Templates

46 best business continuity plan templates [word & pdf].

Businesses are rarely owned and operated by a single proprietor. Most businesses have many partners or owners whose assets are tied up in the business. This means that any problem related to the welfare of the business can impact many people. When a business suffers during a disaster or some kind of unexpected problem that threatens its continued existence, a business continuity plan is needed to help guide the recovery process.

Businesses always have business continuity plans in place to protect against confusion when things like floods, fires, or natural disasters negatively impact the ability of the business to continue to operate. Social disasters and problems can also cause a need for a business continuity policy to ensure that the business survives.

Table of Contents

• 1 Business Continuity Plan Templates
• 2 What is a Business Continuity Plan?
• 3 Business Continuity Plan Examples
• 4 How Do You Write a Business Continuity Plan?
• 5 Business Continuity Plan Samples
• 6 What Are the Seven Components of a Business Continuity Plan?
• 7 BCP Templates
• 8 Common Reasons for the Use of a Business Continuity Plan
• 9 Business Continuity Plans Are Critical to Business Success

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan sets forth your organization’s plans that are put in place to help deal with a disaster. These plans might involve the process by which business is resumed if there is an interruption in provided services or operational function. Your BCP will also help to reduce downtimes and lost revenue. Asset protection and human resources issues, as well as business partner roles during and after a disaster, can also be outlined in this business continuity plan.

When you are using a template to help design the plan that all the business owners will agree upon and put in place, you need to be sure that you think about all of the details that should be included in the agreement. This is one of the business documents that many people lean on an attorney or legal expert to look at once it is drafted and before it is put into effect. The more objective and expert opinions you have about the details of your BCP, the more likely it is that you will create a truly effective business document.

Business Continuity Plan Examples

How Do You Write a Business Continuity Plan?

Using the right business continuity plan template can be critical to creating the proper foundation for your business continuity planning. The more that you know about the process of creating a business continuity plan template, the better off you will be if there is ever a reason that you should need to lean on this document for your business’ continued operations.

There are some steps that you should follow when you are making your business continuity plan template. These steps will help ensure that you do not miss any important details during the planning stage of this essential document. These steps will ensure that you have thought of all of the details and have included the relevant and necessary information in your plan.

Leaving any of the stages of the business continuity plan to chance is never a good idea. There are always a lot of things going on when a business is in crisis, and no one single owner should have to make unilateral decisions for the whole group that runs the company. You will want the guesswork to be completely removed from the emergency process so that there are no bottlenecks or additional setbacks beyond the original emergency.

Make sure that you take care of the basic components of your business continuity plan so that you will have the best results when you use it in a true emergency situation.

Business Continuity Plan Samples

What Are the Seven Components of a Business Continuity Plan?

• Purpose of the Plan Itself. You will want to be sure that you know what the scope and intended effect of the business continuity plan will be. Do you want to get back to normal operations, or is your BCP only relevant when you are trying to change the nature of the business itself in response to ongoing distress or disaster without relief? There are many different reasons that you might want to utilize this plan, and knowing its purpose is critical to making sure that you are writing a plan that will serve your needs.
• Identify Key Business Areas in Your Plan. When a disaster has taken place, it can be impossible to get back to normal right away. You will need to make sure that you identify the most critical aspects of your business so that they can be the focal point of efforts to keep things on track after a bad spell. You will need to make sure that the most critical parts of your business get the maximum attention to help ensure that your business maintenance efforts will be focused on the right things during this time of crisis.
• Define a Crisis Team. Your crisis team will essentially be comprised of the people who will be in charge during and after an emergency or disaster. There needs to be no doubt about who these people are and who will be in charge of the major decisions that will need to be made. There might also need to be people that are tasked with very specific roles related to your unique business needs at this time. The crisis team should be called out by job role and name as well as by title. This will make it easy for anyone who needs to know who to contact to find the right responsible party during the emergency and the recovery phase. You will also need to be sure that the people who are part of the crisis team know what their roles are and are able to be available when a situation like this arises.
• Create a Communication Plan . Communication during a crisis is one of the most critical aspects of resolving the situation and getting business back on track. You will need to be sure that there is a fallback plan if normal communications are not available. You will want to be sure that you have thought about situations where no email or no phone calls might be possible. You will also need to make information about how to handle customer ordering and fulfillment or other needs that are typically done via computer. You could draft some sample emergency messages and information releases for the press in advance as well to be sure that you can keep your customers and other business partners up to date on your status during times when regular communications are down.
• Recovery or Relocation Plans . If the emergency that has taken place is a natural disaster that leads to your teams needing to relocate to a safe location, the information about this process needs to be included in your business continuity plan template. This can be one of the most difficult parts of the process of salvaging business operations in times of strife, and you should not leave this to chance. Companies that operate in areas where social conflict and wars are common almost always have a detailed recovery and relocation plan to help protect business processes if there should be a need to relocate for safety.
• Review and Test Your Plan of Action. You should make sure that all of the parties involved in approving this plan have signed off on it and have reviewed the steps that are listed in the document. You might have already tested the operational plan that is set forth in the document you are creating, but if you have not, this should be done as well. You need to be sure that your business continuity plan will really work when push comes to shove. If you have more than one kind of business continuity plan in place, all of these different plans need to be checked out for operational soundness before being put in place.
• Deactivation of the Plan and Return to Normal Operations. All business continuity plans need to include information about when the continuity plan can be deactivated and how this process should be done. This will ensure that the company processes can go back to normal and that emergency efforts can be ended for the time being. Making sure that this stage of the process is clear is just as important as making a plan to change business operations in response to an emergency.

BCP Templates

Common Reasons for the Use of a Business Continuity Plan

These are the most common reasons that businesses have to use their business continuity plans to keep things on track during and after an emergency event. While these events are more likely in some parts of the world than others, there is never any reason not to have a business continuity plan in place for your company. You should always prepare for the worst and hope for the best when you think about potential emergency situations that could impact smooth daily business operations . You do not want to leave your company high and dry when an emergency comes to pass because there is no plan in place.

Make sure as well that everyone who needs to execute your business continuity plan knows their role and that you practice stages of the process if necessary. The better prepared you are for this kind of event to occur, the more likely it will be that your business will come out of an emergency or disaster situation in one piece.

Common reasons for the use of a business continuity plan:

• Cyberattacks
• Major storms
• IT or major internet disruption

In the case of IT concerns and cyberattacks, you also need to have a segment of your business continuity plan that deals with a situation where company data has been lost or stolen . This act can sometimes lead to your business being shut down for a very long period of time, which can be very difficult to recover from. There need to be concrete plans in your business continuity template that help handle such difficult situations that lead to a prolonged time period where your business is unable to engage with customers or to work on projects. Situations like ransomware and major data breaches can lead to your company being shut down for weeks or even months in some cases.

While this kind of event might not impact employee safety like a natural disaster, it can be quite complicated to maintain business operations during this kind of challenge and even harder to get back to business as usual after the fact. The better your BCP is for this kind of situation, the better off your business will be in the recovery phase of the process related to an IT problem or cyberattack.

Business Continuity Plans Are Critical to Business Success

There are so many reasons why you need a business continuity plan to make sure that your company is safe and secure in times of strife and trouble. While you might never need to use your business continuity plan for anything during the time that you are managing a business, having this important document in place can make all the difference if something goes wrong that you did not expect. You will be much more likely to save your business in the event of an emergency or a disaster if you have a quality business continuity plan template in place for your company’s needs.

These documents need to be meticulously arranged and tested to make sure that the plans that they suggest will work when your business is operating outside of normal working conditions. You also need to be sure that you have thought of all of the various parts of the plan carefully so that you are not forgetting critical areas of focus that might need to be called out to help save your business when a disaster happens. The more clearly your business continuity plan is laid out, the better off your business will be when a true emergency happens.

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Free Business Continuity Plan Templates

By Andy Marker | October 23, 2018

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In this article, you’ll find the most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates, in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats. Customize the templates to fit the needs of your business, ensuring you maintain critical operations at all times.

Included on this page, you’ll find a business continuity plan template , a small business continuity plan template , a business continuity framework template , and more.

Business Continuity Plan Template

Download Business Continuity Plan Template

Word | PowerPoint | PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this template to document and track your business operations in the event of a disruption or disaster to maintain critical processes. With space to record business function recovery priorities, recovery plans, and alternate site locations, this template allows you to plan efficiently for disruption and minimize downtime, so your business maintains optimal efficiency. This template is available for download in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats.

Additionally, you can learn the definition of a business continuity plan, the steps involved in business continuity planning, as well as about the business continuity lifecycle in our article about business continuity planning .

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IT Service Continuity Plan Template

Download IT Service Continuity Plan Template

This template is geared specifically to IT business operations and aims to maintain IT processes despite any possible harmful disruption. Use this template to document recovery objectives, teams, and strategies in order to accurately capture all facets of the continuity plan needed for an IT team. This template is available in both Word and PDF formats.

Business Continuity Framework Template

Download Business Continuity Framework Template

Word | PowerPoint | PDF

This template outlines the structure involved in creating a business continuity plan. It provides an easy, comprehensive way to detail the steps that will comprise your unique BCP. Use this template to plan each phase of a typical BCP, including the business impact analysis, recovery strategies, and plan development. This template can serve as an overall framework for your larger BCP plan.

Business Continuity Program Template

Download Business Continuity Program Template

Similar to the business continuity plan template, this template documents the steps involved in maintaining normal business operations during an unplanned disruption or disaster. Using this template, you can plan out the critical elements needed to continue business as usual, including recovery priorities, backup and restoration plans, and alternate site locations. This template is available for download in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats.

Business Continuity Procedure Template

Download Business Continuity Procedure Template

Much like the business continuity framework template, this template helps users create a thorough, streamlined BCP by detailing the procedure involved in creating and maintaining a plan, as well as implementing one. Use this template to document everything from a business impact analysis to plan development, plan testing, and exercises. Download this template in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or PDF to get started.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Nonprofits

Download Business Continuity Plan Template for Nonprofits

In the event of a disruption in business that affects your nonprofit organization, use this template to document a business recovery strategy, identify alternate business locations, and effectively plan for inevitable business downtime. This template is available for download in Microsoft Word and PDF formats.

School Business Continuity Plan Template

Download School Business Continuity Plan Template

Plan for disruptions in regular school activities and operations in the event of emergency or crisis with this helpful template. This template, designed with schools, colleges, and universities in mind, allows you to prioritize operations and responses, identify important phases of recovery, design a restoration plan, and more.

Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Download Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Record your business recovery priorities, identify alternate site locations to conduct business, create recovery teams, and assign recovery responsibilities to specific team members with this continuity plan for small businesses. Ensure that you are able to maintain critical processes and minimize downtime so your business can keep moving forward.

SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template

Download SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template

Use this business continuity plan template to keep your SaaS business productive and efficient, despite any unforeseen events or disruptions. With space to record everything from recovery procedures and strategies to relocation strategies and alternate site locations, you’ll be able to keep business moving and remain productive during a crisis or disruption.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Medical Practices

Download Business Continuity Plan Template for Medical Practices

Identify risk strategies for specific areas of business, like clinical, finance and operations, and IT, designate specific recovery strategies, and prioritize the most important, mission-critical operations for your medical practice with this complete business continuity plan template.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Healthcare Organizations

Download Business Continuity Plan Template for Healthcare Organizations

Some businesses, like healthcare organizations, rely on critical processes and procedures to maintain productivity and keep both patients and staff safe. To ensure these processes are followed — even during a business disruption — use this business continuity plan template to identify all potential risks, create mitigation plans, and assign tasks to key team members.

Activities to Complete Before Writing the Business Continuity Plan

Certain steps can help you prepare to write a business continuity plan. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

Common Structure of a Business Continuity Plan

Every business continuity plan should include certain common elements. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

Tips For Writing Your Business Continuity Plan

Business continuity experts have gathered time-tested tips for business continuity planning. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Step 10 – Outline Deactivation Procedures

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

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.

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

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The document above is a sample. Please note that the language you see here may change depending on your answers to the document questionnaire.

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• SafetyCulture

Business Continuity Plan Template

Prepare for business disruption and disaster recovery with digital templates and checklists.

• Eliminate paperwork with digital checklists
• Generate reports from completed checklists
• Free to use for up to 10 users

Use this Business Continuity Plan (BCP) template as an outline for your business continuity plan that will critically assess all aspects of the business and make sure the emergency procedures and equipment are adequate. This business continuity template can help with ISO 22301 compliance and allow business continuity managers and consultants to:

• Identify key business functions and components to be prioritized for restoration and recovery during an emergency.
• Add list of processes/equipment most at risk of disrupting business operations.
• Discuss roles and responsibilities of key personnel and gather confirmation (digital signatures).

Click on the Web or PDF report below to view the business continuity plan example.

What is a Business Continuity Plan Template?

A business continuity plan template is a tool used by business continuity managers and IT teams to outline strategies for keeping businesses operational despite emergencies such as extreme weather events, building evacuations, power outages, etc. It identifies high business impact operational areas, assets, and recovery strategies with assigned personnel. Business continuity templates can be used in any industry for IT disaster recovery, continuity of customer-facing operations, and backup of transport and logistics operations.

Why Use a BCP Template?

Business continuity plan templates help organizations protect their business amid a crisis or emergency. This ready-to-use document provides a structured framework, ensuring the plan is comprehensive and no essential detail is overlooked. It is also typically customizable, allowing businesses to modify them according to their specific needs.

• Seamless Recovery/Restoration Process – In the face of a crisis, time is of the essence. A BCP template expedites the recovery and restoration process by providing a predefined framework. This ensures that businesses can bounce back swiftly, minimizing downtime and preserving essential operations.
• Proper Documentation – Effective documentation is the cornerstone of a robust BCP. The template guides businesses in creating comprehensive documentation, ensuring that every aspect of the plan is clearly articulated. This not only aids in swift implementation but also facilitates better understanding among stakeholders.
• Regulatory Compliance – Ensure that the BCP aligns with relevant industry regulations and standards, such as ISO 22301 , NIST SP 800-34, or industry-specific guidelines.
• Data Protection and Privacy – Address data protection laws and regulations, such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), to safeguard sensitive information during a continuity event.
• Legal and Contractual Obligations – Include provisions to comply with legal and contractual obligations, ensuring that the organization’s commitments to clients, customers, and partners are maintained even during disruptions.
• Health and Safety Regulations – Incorporate measures to comply with health and safety regulations to protect employees and stakeholders during emergencies or disasters.
• Communication Requirements – Define communication protocols and reporting mechanisms to comply with regulatory expectations for timely and accurate communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Financial Regulatory Compliance – Address financial regulatory requirements to ensure the organization’s financial processes are maintained and comply with relevant laws

What to Include in a Business Continuity Plan Template

Here’s a Business Continuity Plan report example:

Business Continuity Plan Template | Preview Sample PDF Report

BCP serves as a guide for organizations to create an effective strategy for responding to potential business-disrupting events. Here are four key components of a BCP:

Scope & Objectives

States the purpose of the BCP, including specific business functions that should be prioritized for recovery during an emergency. This section should include examples of emergency events that would trigger the response of this BCP.

Operations at Risk

Includes possible risks with key operational functions which would greatly disrupt business and customer continuity. This also involves the magnitude of risk to each function, which will help the BCP committee decide on appropriate preventive actions.

Recovery Strategy

Outlines all the relevant procedures to restore business operations after an incident or crisis. A good recovery strategy includes a realistic recovery timeline and essential emergency resources.

Roles & Responsibilities

Refers to key personnel and their assigned tasks during or after an incident. Each committee member has a unique set of responsibilities to successfully carry out the BCP for each business function.

FAQs about BCP Templates

How often should you update your bcp document.

BCP documents should be updated regularly. If any organizational changes have been made in terms of team structures and operational procedures, the BCP should be updated. A review will be conducted to check if the information in the BCP is still reliable.

Why is it important to conduct regular BCP audits using templates?

Outdated BCPs might result in a loss of customer trust, huge revenue loss, and damage to brand and company reputation. This is why it is crucial for BCPs to remain up-to-date. Regular BCP audits are essential to help evaluate emergency procedures and identify if there are vulnerabilities.

What are the four components of a BCP template?

A business continuity plan template typically includes detailed information about the plan’s scope and objectives, the operations or functions that might be affected and the risks associated with them, recovery strategies for uninterrupted operations, and the specific roles and responsibilities of essential personnel during and after an incident.

Establish a Strong Business Continuity Plan with SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) , the world’s leading digital form mobile software, can help businesses create and prepare a strong business continuity plan more efficiently.  With SafetyCulture as a business continuity software , businesses can switch to a paperless planning process where you can create your own templates, easily assess the accuracy of recovery procedures, and update your plans as needed on your mobile device.W ith SafetyCulture, you can:

• Create and customize business continuity plan templates using your desktop, iPad, or even on your mobile phone
• Assign action tasks to key personnel and BCP committee members
• Maintain business quality control with analytics , uncover leading trends, and be able to identify areas for improvement
• Generate professional reports to share with your stakeholders in a format of your choice (PDF, Word, CSV)
• Upskill your employees by deploying bite-sized training courses that doesn’t interrupt your teams’ workday.

To help you get started on your paperless planning, we have created business continuity templates and checklists you can download and customize for free.

Featured Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Templates

It business continuity plan template.

This business continuity and disaster recovery plan template aims to help IT teams and business continuity managers become proactive in preparing for events that could disrupt operations and come up with strategies for disaster recovery.

Business Continuity Plan Checklist

Perform regular audits of your organization’s BCP with a business continuity plan checklist. Whether small or medium business, this checklist can be used to ensure BCPs are up to date and reflect current high-impact operations.

Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Small businesses and other organizations can use this BCP template as a planning tool that can guide them on what to do during crises. This ready-to-use document specifically indicates aspects such as the emergency planning team, plans for coordinating with customers and suppliers, critical operations, and who’s in charge of them, among others.

School Business Continuity Plan Template

This generic school business continuity plan template is especially useful for academic organizations. It is customizable and can be modified to meet the needs of users. 

Business Continuity Procedure Template

Use this generic BCP template to easily provide a continuity plan for you, your team, and your business. To get started, you can specify the overall threat and its risk level, review cycle, response, plans, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).

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9 Professional Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Templates

Written by: Idorenyin Uko

Crises are inevitable in business—be it natural disasters, pandemics, human error, system failures or other unforeseen events. PwC's 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey revealed that 96% of business leaders encountered disruption in the past two years and 76% stated that the impact on operations was medium to high.

As a business leader who wants to stay ahead of the game, resilience should be a top priority. You don’t want to get caught off guard during disruptions—you could lose thousands of dollars or your reputation could take a hit. That’s why it's super important to create a business continuity plan that helps you proactively anticipate and respond to crises.

A well-crafted business continuity plan (BCP) template is your organization's roadmap for surviving unexpected disruptions. It outlines the steps necessary to keep your business operational during and after a crisis.

In this article, we’ll provide nine professional business continuity plan templates to get you started and cover how to create an effective business continuity plan.

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan, what should a business continuity plan include, types of business continuity, how to write a business continuity plan, business continuity plan faqs.

• A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a document that outlines the procedures an organization must follow during a disaster or other significant event that may disrupt business operations.
• A disaster recovery plan aims to restore IT infrastructure, systems and operations after a crisis. In contrast, a business continuity plan is designed to ensure that essential business functions are available during and after a crisis, including personnel, facilities, processes and technology.
• There are different types of business continuity, such as operational, technology, economic, workforce, safety, environmental, security, reputation management and regulatory and compliance continuity.
• Follow these business continuity planning steps to prepare for uncertainties: assemble a team, define your goals and scope, engage key personnel in different departments, identify critical business functions and threats, analyze the impact of each threat and conduct a business impact analysis.
• Visme provides a wide range of professionally designed templates, AI tools, an online whiteboard, analytics and advanced features for efficient business continuity planning. Create a team account to collaborate with stakeholders, brainstorm and create a plan that is robust and easy to implement and update.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a playbook that explains the procedures your company must follow to maintain or resume operations in the event of a risk or crisis. These risks may include cyberattacks, civic unrest, human errors, pandemics, natural disasters or other threats.

This plan covers your essential business processes, human resources, assets, business partners and more. It also specifies the systems and processes that need to be sustained and describes how to maintain them to minimize downtime during unplanned events.

With a solid BCP plan, your team can quickly respond to risks and crises, reduce downtime, maintain customer confidence and protect your brand reputation. It also helps your company continue to meet its obligations to customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

A business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan are both essential components of any company's risk management strategy. Together, they are considered business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR).

However, they are not the same!

A disaster recovery plan focuses on restoring IT infrastructure, systems and operations after a crisis, while a business continuity plan covers all aspects of business operations, including personnel, facilities, processes and technology.

That said, a disaster recovery plan is a crucial element for maintaining business continuity. And the action items in your organization's disaster recovery plan should be informed by the business continuity plan.

If you want your business continuity plan to be effective, remember to incorporate these key components.

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• Business Impact Analysis (BIA): This section should pinpoint the critical business functions—the essential processes and activities that keep your business running. You should also determine business processes that can be interrupted without major consequences.
• Risk Assessment or Threat Analysis: In this section, identify potential threats or risks that could disrupt these essential processes. These could include natural disasters (floods, fires, etc), cyberattacks, power outages or a global pandemic. Then, prioritize these threats based on their likelihood of occurring and the potential severity of their impact.
• Continuity Strategies and Procedures: Develop detailed plans for recovering critical business functions after a disruption. This may include communication protocols, data backup and recovery procedures, alternative work arrangements, evacuation plans, emergency contacts, etc. Be sure to address all aspects of business continuity, including people, processes, facilities and technology.
• Business Continuity Testing and Maintenance: Your plan should include regular testing and maintenance of your business continuity strategy. Business continuity exercises—like simulations and drills—are great for spotting weaknesses and making sure your strategy is effective and reliable. Conduct these exercises regularly and update the plan periodically based on what you’ve learned from them or to reflect changes in your business, technology and the threat landscape.
• Crisis Management/Recovery Team: In your plan, assemble a recovery team responsible for implementing the BCP during a crisis. Outline the roles and responsibilities of each team member, along with the training and resources required to handle crisis situations. The team should have regular meetings to go over the business continuity plan and identify any adjustments to be made.
• Employee Training and Awareness: It is essential that all members of the business recovery team receive training so they know what to do before, during and after an emergency. Your plan should highlight the type of training they need, the resources needed to implement it and how to assess its effectiveness.
• Crisis Communication Plan: Establish internal and external communication protocols during a crisis. Outline who will be responsible for communicating with employees, customers, vendors, suppliers and other stakeholders. Also, describe how information will be disseminated—text, email, social media, phone call, etc.
• Backup or Alternative Work Locations: The business continuity plan should include a list of alternate locations where operations can continue if primary facilities are inaccessible and the details of those locations. Don't forget to list any physical assets, like computers needed at the backup location to keep things running smoothly.
• Technology : Explain how you’ll maintain access to critical systems like emergency power, data backup and redundant systems in your plan.
• Continuous Monitoring and Review: Establish a process for monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of the BCP on an ongoing basis. This includes updating the plan to reflect changes in the business environment, technology or regulatory requirements.
• Documentation and Documentation Management: Maintain detailed documentation of the BCP, including policies, procedures and contact information. Ensure that this documentation is readily accessible to key personnel and regularly updated as needed.
• Operational Continuity: This type of continuity plan focuses on ensuring services, processes and infrastructure required for operations continue to function during and after a disruption. Operational continuity helps minimize downtime and financial losses.
• Technology Continuity: For companies that heavily depend on technology, this continuity plan keeps their IT systems and data (networks, servers, databases and applications) up and running and secure. IT continuity plans typically include strategies for data backup, system redundancy and recovery procedures.
• Economic Continuity: This continuity plan guarantees that your business will remain financially stable, liquid and profitable in times of disruption. It involves taking steps to ensure the organization is prepared to withstand potential scenarios that may negatively impact your bottom line such as accessing emergency funds, managing cash flow and securing lines of credit.
• Workforce Continuity: This plan involves having enough employees with the right skills and knowledge to handle the workload, especially during times of crisis. Workforce continuity plans may include company succession planning , cross-training employees, implementing remote work options or leveraging technology to automate specific tasks.
• Safety Continuity: Safety continuity addresses the well-being and safety of employees during a disruption. This involves guaranteeing their safety, providing support services, creating a comfortable work environment and ensuring employees have the tools they need to succeed.
• Environmental Continuity: This type of BCP ensures your team can operate effectively and safely in their work environment. Environmental continuity may include identifying potential threats to your physical office or headquarters and developing response strategies to protect against natural disasters, fires or other hazards that could disrupt operations.
• Security Continuity: Security resilience is about maintaining the safety and security of employees, critical assets and information during disruptions, natural disasters, cyber-attacks, etc. Security continuity strategies include implementing redundant security measures, creating backup systems, identity and access management, securing endpoint devices, regular security awareness training and developing incident response plans.
• Reputation Management: This plan focuses on protecting and preserving the organization's reputation and brand image during and after a crisis. Reputation management plans include strategies for managing public perception, addressing negative publicity and rebuilding stakeholder trust.
• Regulatory and Compliance Continuity: This business continuity plan addresses compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards during and after a disruption. These may include strategies for ensuring ongoing compliance, maintaining documentation and addressing any regulatory issues that may arise.

9 Business Continuity Plan Templates

Here are nine business continuity templates you can customize to fit your branding and business planning needs.

1. General Business Continuity Plan

This lilac-themed business continuity plan is the perfect tool to prepare your company for risks or unplanned disruptions. It has dedicated sections for key contacts, communication guidelines, threat analysis, recovery phases and training and awareness.

By filling out these sections, stakeholders have a set of guidelines and procedures to follow during emergencies. You can adapt it to suit your company’s risk management strategy—no matter your business size or niche.

Each page of this plan is decorated with stunning visuals and graphics that drive visual appeal and hook your audience until the end. This template is customizable—you can edit content, change images, apply custom colors and add or remove pages.

Invite stakeholders to view, comment on or edit this plan in real time or asynchronously with Visme’s collaboration tool . Team members can also leave feedback, reply to or resolve comments.

Use the workflow tool to assign roles or different sections of the plan for team members to work on and manage progress, deadlines and corrections—all in one place.

 2. Business Continuity Plan Flow Chart

Unlike our previous example, this template is packed with stunning visuals, flowcharts and tables that illustrate your business continuity plan.

This business continuity plan example outlines the different stages of managing hard failure, from impact analysis to risk assessment and preventive measures. You’ll also find information on critical functions and key contacts and resources.

Notice how the first flowchart illustrates the link between different business functions and their threat types. There's also a table that lists the threat type, likelihood and impact. With Visme, you can easily visualize any business process with flowcharts , diagrams , charts , graphs , maps and other data visualization tools .

From a design perspective, this template is incredible. The visual hierarchy is top-notch and beautifully executed. The white text on a dark background creates a striking visual contrast that grabs readers’ attention and guides their eyes to the most important information.

3. Construction Business Continuity Plan

If you run a construction firm, this business continuity plan has everything you need to enhance your company’s resilience. It outlines all the procedures for responding to different scenarios, ensuring your company can continue operations even during adverse conditions.

This template isn’t set in stone. With our intuitive editor, you can easily adapt it to similar industries, such as architecture, engineering, project management, manufacturing, real estate development and more. This plan accounts for the project transition protocol, stakeholder communication plan, project review status, team support and training and contingency measures to be taken during a crisis.

The fusion of geometric shapes and a contemporary design layout will give your document a dynamic flair. Moreover, the black, white and red color blend creates a visually striking aesthetic.

4. Business Continuity Plan Framework

Use this business continuity framework to protect your company’s reputation. It demonstrates you have taken proactive steps to ensure operational continuity in the event of a disaster. You can replicate it to address other business continuity types such as technology, workforce, security or safety.

This template features key sections of your BCP framework: introduction and conclusions, key contacts, incident response, resource allocation, review and improvement.

The contemporary design grabs attention with its sleek layout and excellent typography, setting the stage for a fantastic reading experience.

But it's not just about aesthetics. The use of stunning images and visual assets helps illustrate the plan's critical components. Visme has an extensive library of graphics and visual assets, such as 2D and 3D icons , shapes, lines, 3D characters, stock photos and videos to make your BCP engaging and easy to understand.

5. SaaS One Pager Business Continuity Plan

Prepare for any emergencies or disruptions, such as application downtime, in your company's operations with this stunning BCP framework. This template—designed with SaaS, tech or e-commerce companies in mind—is here to help you plan for the worst and ensure your business stays up and running.

Not only does it mark the threat level as high, but it visualizes each phase of your BCP, objectives and action plan for each phase in a table format.

With its user-friendly business continuity plan checklist, you can easily prioritize operations and responses, identify critical recovery phases and create a complete restoration plan.

Do you have a draft of your plan in a Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel? Rather than filling out your table manually, you can copy and paste data into your project. You also have the option to embed your table or connect it to live data . Feel free to change the table theme or design, edit headers and cells and more.

6. Cybersecurity Business Continuity Plan

Use this cyber security business continuity plan to minimize the impact of cyber attacks or other security breaches. It ensures critical business operations can continue in the face of a security incident. With a subtle mix of white and accent colors, this template creates a minimalist look that draws the reader’s eye to your message without distractions.

The document starts with an intro that explains what the BCP is about. It further outlines roles and contact details for key personnel as well as internal and external communication guidelines.

Next up is the threat analysis and risk management plan and contracts for suppliers and partners. The final part of this IT continuity plan explains the recovery phases, procedures for responding to cybersecurity incidents and a training and awareness plan.

Remember to customize this plan to align your company’s branding with Visme’s Brand Design Tool . This sends a message that continuity planning is an integral part of your company's values and operations, rather than just a generic set of procedures.

To do this, just input your website URL; the wizard will pull in brand assets and save them in your brand kit . That way, you don’t have to manually add them every time you create a design. The best part is that you’ll have beautiful, branded templates crafted specifically for you.

7. Healthcare One Page Business Continuity Plan

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Disruptions in healthcare operations can have severe consequences not just for your patients but also to your reputation. Even during a crisis, you can’t compromise on the availability of medical supplies, equipment and critical personnel.

This business continuity plan is the key to ensuring you aren’t caught off guard. It prepares you for events such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks or disease outbreaks while minimizing the disruption to patient care.

This one-page business continuity plan analyzes the impact of each natural disaster, along with an immediate recovery strategy and long-term plan—all in a tabular format. With this detailed plan, you can keep critical systems and processes operational and continue to provide essential care and services during and after a crisis or disaster.

Keep stakeholders engaged and enhance their experience with animation and interactive elements like links, popups, hover effects, animated icons, illustrations and special effects. For example, you can link your one-pager to a website or document that contains detailed information about the plan.

8. Nonprofit Business Continuity Plan

Nonprofits need a continuity plan to continue serving their communities even in the face of adversity. This business continuity plan is designed to minimize the impact of unexpected events so your organization can continue operations and fulfill its mission.

This business continuity gap analysis template thoroughly details the organization’s financial status, cost reduction strategies, fundraising opportunities and grants, communication and transparency with stakeholders and continuous review and revisions of the plan.

If you need help tailoring the content to your project, take advantage of Visme’s AI Writer . Input a detailed prompt and watch the tool generate high-quality drafts, proofread your existing text or modify the tone to appeal to your audience.

9. Roles and Responsibilities Business Continuity Plan

This business continuity plan for leadership change is crucial for succession planning . With this template, your organization can continue operations smoothly, even during a transition period.

In this template, you will find the details for key contacts, a transition planning strategy, service delivery continuity and financial stability. Use it as a reference to guide and prepare for unexpected events that could impact leadership or key roles, such as sudden illness or other unforeseen circumstances.

This BCP design template is a stunning work of art. From the color scheme to the layout, every element is crafted to evoke emotions. Each page has beautiful visuals that strike the perfect balance between professionalism and aesthetic appeal.

Download the report in PDF or image format and share it offline with stakeholders. Alternatively, generate a shareable online URL or HTML code to embed it on your landing page or website.

Monitor how your readers engage with your plan using Visme Analytics . Gain insight into metrics, such as views, unique visits, average time and average completion.

A well-crafted business continuity plan (BCP) is your organization's roadmap for surviving unexpected disruptions— big or small.

However, business continuity management is not just about putting together a checklist of actions.

To truly prepare for the unexpected, you must approach BCP development with a proactive, strategic and intentional mindset.

In this section, we’ll break down the steps involved in writing an effective business continuity plan.

1. Assemble a Business Continuity Team

Start by forming a dedicated team responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining your business continuity plan.

Your team should work together to identify potential risks, develop plans for mitigating those risks, test them and be ready to implement them in the event of a crisis. It's important to ensure that the team is diverse, well-trained and has the resources to manage a crisis effectively.

This team should include representatives from various departments across your organization, such as IT, operations, human resources, finance, communications and legal. It’s advisable to have a high-level executive, such as a CEO, COO or CFO, who will not only provide leadership and support but also act as a link between company executives and the rest of the team.

Appoint a dedicated BCP coordinator or manager who will serve as the primary point of contact for the BCP team and coordinate activities across departments. You’ll also need a communications expert to handle information sharing related to the plan. Depending on your company size, you may need to bring in risk management experts, external consultants or advisors.

2. Define the Goals and Scope of the Business Continuity Plan

A well-defined Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should spell out what you aim to achieve, what your plan will cover and specific benchmarks for success.

For example, your goal(s) could be to minimize downtime for critical business functions, protect essential data and IT infrastructure from loss or damage, ensure the safety and well-being of employees during a crisis and minimize financial losses caused by disruptions.

Your scope should discuss the breadth and limitations of your plan. What type of disruption does it cover—natural disasters, cyberattacks, power outages? Which business functions are included—IT, finance or customer service? What level of detail will be provided—a high-level overview or step-by-step procedures?

Defining your goals and scope provides clear direction for the recovery team and ensures that your BCP aligns with the overall business objectives.

3. Engage Key Personnel in Different Departments

For your BCP to work, all different departments in your organization need to get involved and work together. This ensures all aspects of the business are considered and potential risks or vulnerabilities are properly addressed.

Start by mapping your critical business functions and identifying the departments that support them. Within each department, pinpoint key personnel who play a crucial role in those functions.

Then, hold brainstorming sessions with these key personnel using Visme’s online whiteboard . The goal is to learn about their key processes, the systems and applications that support your operations, the potential threats they might face, and to develop recovery strategies relevant to that department. This collaborative approach ensures that resources are allocated to the most critical areas.

4. Identify Critical Business Functions and Threats

After gathering insights from brainstorming or interview sessions, develop a list of your organization's critical functions, processes and activities. These functions will vary depending on the industry, size and nature of the organization.

Once you’ve identified critical business functions, carefully assess and analyze the potential threats that could impact them. Threats can come from various sources, such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, supply chain disruptions, financial crises,  human errors and even more specific threats like losing a key supplier.

5. Analyze the Impact of Each Threat

Next, evaluate how each threat could disrupt your operations, considering factors like data loss, physical damage or employee displacement.

Evaluate the probability that each risk could occur by reviewing historical data, industry reports and expert opinions. Then, evaluate the potential impact of each risk on business operations.

When assessing the financial, operational and reputational impact of each risk, you may want to consider these questions:

• What is the potential impact on the company's reputation and brand image?
• How much revenue will be lost during the downtime?
• What are the potential costs of mitigating the risk?
• How would the risk affect the company's operations, such as production or delivery?
• How many stakeholders, suppliers or customers will lose confidence in the company?

Prioritize threats based on their likelihood of occurring and potential severity of impact. This activity will help you prioritize the most critical areas and develop appropriate mitigation strategies.

6. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

The BIA analysis helps you determine the maximum tolerable downtime (RTO) and acceptable amount of data loss (RPO) for each function. It analyzes the critical business functions within your organization, the major resources they utilize, their operational dependencies and the average time required for each function.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) refers to the maximum amount of time that a system, network or application can be down after a disruption or failure before the resulting impact becomes unacceptable.

The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum amount of data loss an organization can withstand in the event of a disaster or system failure.

Every organization has a unique Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). It all depends on the nature of its business, the industry it operates in, any regulatory requirements it needs to comply with and other operational factors.

What's more, different parts of a business can even have different RTOs and RPOs, which is why executives need to set them up based on their specific needs. This analysis helps prioritize your recovery efforts based on what's essential to keep your business running.

7. Develop Recovery Strategies for Each Risk

For each identified threat, develop detailed recovery strategies to ensure critical business functions can resume as quickly as possible.

For example, this might involve workforce redundancy plans, data backup and recovery procedures, alternative communication channels and plans for relocating operations to a backup site if necessary.

8. Document the Plan

Now that you have all the information you need for your business continuity plan (BCP), the next step is to draft it in a user-friendly format. That’s the beauty of pre-made templates—they can help you save time and effort.

Our templates are designed by professionals and include placeholder content that can inspire and fuel your creativity.

To get started, we recommend that you choose one of the templates we’ve shared above and customize it to meet your specific needs using Visme’s intuitive editor. You can easily edit the content, replace images, apply custom colors, input your fonts and logo and much more.

If you’re racing against the clock and need to create your BCP quickly, consider using Visme’s AI Document Generator . Write a detailed prompt explaining what you want to create, choose the design theme and watch the tool produce a plan with ready-made design and content.

If you’re creating BCPs for different risks or processes, duplicate the template and use our Dynamic Fields feature to do that.

Just create custom fields on each plan and you can make changes to multiple documents with a single click.

When drafting your plan, it’s essential to ensure that it is easily accessible to all relevant personnel and outlines the roles and responsibilities of team members during a crisis. That way, everyone knows their specific duties and responsibilities, increasing the chances of a successful response during a crisis.

9. Test and Revise the Plan

A BCP is only effective if it's tested regularly. Conduct tabletop exercises, simulations and drills to test the effectiveness of the BCP, identify weaknesses and ensure everyone understands their roles. Evaluate your company’s response to various scenarios and identify areas for improvement.

The BCP is a living document. Based on the outcomes of testing and exercises, document flaws and lessons learned and use them to update the BCP accordingly. Likewise, review and update it periodically to reflect changes in your business environment, technology or regulatory requirements.

Moreover, regularly train your employees on their roles and responsibilities during a crisis. Ensure they understand how to access and implement the BCP during a disruption. Read this article to learn how to create a successful training program that not only educates but engages your employees.

Q. Why Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is important because it helps your organization prepare for, respond to and recover from unexpected events that could disrupt normal business operations.

BCPs outline the procedures and strategies a company should follow during a disaster, such as a cyber attack, natural disaster or any other unforeseen event that could affect the organization's ability to operate normally.

By having a BCP in place, businesses can minimize the impact of a disruption and quickly resume operations, which can help reduce downtime, prevent financial losses and ultimately protect the organization's reputation.

Q. Who Is Responsible for a Business Continuity Plan?

A business Continuity Plan (BCP) typically falls under senior management or a designated team within an organization.

This team is responsible for identifying potential risks and threats that could impact the organization's operations, developing a BCP that outlines the steps to be taken in the event of a disruption and ensuring that the plan is regularly reviewed and updated.

In some cases, organizations may choose to hire external consultants or engage with third-party service providers to develop and implement a BCP.

Q. How Often Should You Create a Business Continuity Plan?

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should be created, reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ensure that it remains relevant and effective.

The frequency of reviews and updates will depend on several factors, including the size and complexity of your organization, the level of risk it faces and any changes to the business environment or regulatory landscape.

Many organizations review their BCPs annually, while others may opt for a more frequent review cycle, such as quarterly or bi-annually. However, you need to update it whenever there are significant changes to your organization's operations, such as introducing new products or services, changes in the workforce or modifications to IT systems.

Q. Why Do Business Continuity Plans Fail?

Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) can fail for a variety of reasons, including:

• Insufficient planning: Failure to recognize all possible risks and threats, unrealistic assumptions regarding the consequences of a disruption or neglecting the requirements of key stakeholders.
• Poor communication: Communication breakdown can lead to a poor execution of the plan. Employees may not be aware of their roles and responsibilities or may not have the information required to make informed decisions during a crisis.
• Failure to Test the BCP: Not regularly testing and updating the BCP through drills, exercises or simulations can result in an inability to recognize weaknesses or gaps in the plan.
• Lack of resources: A lack of resources, including funding and personnel, can also contribute to the failure of a BCP, as it may be difficult to implement and maintain the plan without adequate support.
• Overlooking human factors: BCPs that fail to account for human factors, such as panic, fatigue, or misinformation during emergencies, may struggle to manage the psychological and behavioral aspects of crisis response.

Q. How Long Does It Take to Create a Business Continuity Plan?

The time it takes to create a business continuity plan can vary depending on the size and complexity of your organization. Generally, it can take several weeks to several months to develop a comprehensive plan. With Visme’s AI document generator, you can create one in a fraction of the time.

Q. What Are the Six Phases of Business Continuity Planning?

The six phases of business continuity planning are as follows:

• Project initiation and management: This phase involves identifying the scope of the business continuity plan and selecting a team to oversee its development and implementation.
• Risk assessment: This phase involves identifying potential risks and hazards that could disrupt business operations and analyzing their potential impact.
• Business impact analysis: Once potential risks have been identified, the next step is to conduct a business impact analysis to understand the possible consequences of a disruption to different areas of the organization.
• Design and development of the business continuity plan: This phase is where you create the business continuity plan, which includes detailed procedures and protocols to be followed in the event of a disruption. It also covers all areas of the organization and outlines the roles and responsibilities of each team member.
• Testing and training: It is crucial to test and train employees on the business continuity plan to ensure that it is effective and that everyone knows what to do in the event of a disruption. This could involve tabletop exercises, simulations or full-scale tests.
• Plan maintenance and improvement: The business continuity plan should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it remains effective and up-to-date. This could involve incorporating feedback from tests and exercises, updating contact information or revising procedures based on changes in the organization or external factors.

Streamline Your Planning & Documentation With Visme

A well-crafted BCP is the key to ensuring your business’ resilience and long-term success.

This article provides everything you need to develop a robust BCP that prepares your organization to respond to and recover from various disruptions effectively.

Now is the time to make it count. Visme offers an extensive library of templates, AI-powered tools, an infinite whiteboard, analytics and advanced features to streamline business continuity planning. You can easily collaborate with stakeholders, brainstorm and create a plan that’s not only robust but also easy to execute and update.

Get started on creating your business continuity plan today with Visme. Sign up now to ensure your business is prepared for any unexpected disruptions.

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10 Free Continuity Plan Templates in Word & ClickUp

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

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. 💪

While few businesses can predict a big disaster like the pandemic, companies with a recovery procedure in place can be better positioned to act faster in the future. When you invest in a business continuity plan (BCP), you can keep your team safe, avoid business disruptions, and protect your brand image.

A business continuity plan covers all the potential emergency situations that could impact your business. But it takes time to create a solid continuity plan—and you need to focus your energy on the meat of the plan, not on formatting.

Fortunately, BCP templates make it a breeze to quickly create contingency plans that leave no stone unturned. 🔍

In this guide, we’ll explain what a continuity plan template is, explain the key components of a BCP template, and share our top 10 free business continuity plan templates.

What Is a Continuity Plan Template?

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A continuity plan template is a structured document that helps your business continue operating even during an emergency.

At its core, a continuity plan template is all about preparedness. Whether you’re facing a natural disaster like a tornado or a human-made outage from a cyberattack, a BCP template gives you a roadmap to minimize business disruption and downtime.

This isn’t just for big enterprises, either. Small businesses are more susceptible to disasters because they have fewer resources, so it’s extra important for small businesses to create a continuity plan.

The downside is that creating a BCP takes time and resources, which is why so many businesses don’t have one. Luckily, following a ready-made template can shave hours off the BCP creation process. It also helps you look at several facets of disaster preparedness so you’re less likely to overlook something important.

Every business has a different definition of what constitutes an “emergency.” The good news is that you’ll still be able to follow the same emergency management formula with the right template. A solid business continuity plan should include these components at a minimum:

• Table of contents : List all sections in the template—with jump links—for easy access
• Introduction: Introduce the BCP’s purpose and scope. It’s also important to distinguish when you need to use this plan and when it’s time to contact emergency services instead
• Risk assessment : This section should identify potential threats that could affect your business. It should include a business impact analysis to measure how damaging that particular risk would be to your company
• Recovery strategies: Once you understand the potential risks, you can create a strategic plan for recovery. Check with your legal team to see if there are regulatory requirements for this step
• Stakeholder roles and contact information : List all team members and their emergency contact phone numbers. Include relevant contacts in human resources (HR), information technology (IT), and the management team. The plan should also specify which stakeholders are in charge of each part of the plan
• Communication plan : Specify how you’ll share information with staff members, senior management, business partners, and the public

10 Free Continuity Plan Templates

A business continuity plan keeps your business running even when the going gets tough. Creating a plan takes time, but with the right template, you can streamline formatting and get straight to the good stuff. Check out these 10 free continuity plan templates to speed up the continuity plan creation process. ⚡

Equipment failures, pandemics, and natural disasters wreak havoc on any business. You need a flexible business plan that works even when the worst happens. That might mean you’re only performing critical business functions, but that’s better than nothing, right?

You can’t predict every potential disaster, but the ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template is the next best thing to a magic crystal ball. 🔮

It includes several helpful sections for:

• Risk assessment
• Recovery strategies
• Process testing and reviews

This template even includes pretty visualizations and colors to draw your attention to the right places. Create custom statuses, fields, and views to make the template your own.

The ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template also integrates with your ClickUp project management tools so you can generate tasks, track time, create dependencies, and more without leaving your BCP template. 🤩

A contingency plan is different from a continuity plan. This type of BCP template identifies potential risks, lists possible solutions, and gives your team a strategic plan to respond to the most likely disruptions.

The ClickUp Contingency Plan Template gives your team an expert framework for:

• Analyzing risks
• Setting goals and desired outcomes
• Finding resources and personnel for executing a contingency plan
• Testing all alternative scenarios

The great thing about this template is that it provides a process for creating a unique contingency plan tailored to the risks you care about the most. It also identifies team members’ responsibilities and tasks for every scenario, making your next steps crystal clear.

We saw firsthand how easily a pandemic can cause massive business disruptions. But some disasters are more (and less) likely to have an impact on your business.

For example, if you’re in the Midwest, hurricanes probably aren’t on your radar. However, if your supply chain relies on materials brought in from the coast, you’re probably going to care a lot about hurricanes. 🌀

The ClickUp Probability and Impact Matrix Template will help you sort through which risks are most likely to disrupt your business. It even ranks these risks in terms of potential damage to help you prioritize your time and resources. This way, you prep for the most damaging (and likely) emergencies first.

This template is a must-have if your team struggles to make informed decisions or prioritize tasks. This business continuity plan template even includes a simple visualization you can share with other team members to make informed group decisions in less time. 🙌

A business impact analysis (BIA) identifies potential risks to your company. Once you identify the risks, the BIA logs all of the action plans you can activate in case of an emergency.

For starters, log every potential emergency in an issue tracking template . From there, use the ClickUp Business Impact Analysis Template to quickly plug in criteria like financial impact, brand reputation, customer experience, and more. ✨

This continuity plan template helps teams get out of unproductive cycles of anxiety by focusing on plan activation. Instead of going with your gut in a crisis, this rubric-style template supports calm, objective decisions using quantified data.

Once you know the higher-priority emergencies that could affect your business, you might still need help prioritizing which ones to address first. Use the ClickUp Priority Matrix Whiteboard Template to get clarity on which disaster plans and tasks you should execute first.

You can use this template during the planning phase of creating a continuity plan or even when a disaster strikes. The Priority Matrix gets your team on the same page, ranks the urgency of various tasks, and visualizes everything for your group in a pretty graph. 📊

Every business continuity plan template should contain an emergency plan of some kind. The ClickUp Emergency Plan Template is useful not only for your continuity plan, but also for emergency signage throughout your building.

You’re free to customize the plan to your liking, but out of the box, the template includes:

• Evacuation plans
• Escape routes
• Assembly points
• Roles of key personnel
• Step-by-step procedures for different emergencies

Some businesses make a single emergency plan while others will need to create multiples. For example, you can create an emergency plan for fires and a separate one for tornadoes. 🌪️

Keep in mind that local, state, or federal laws will apply to emergency signs. Check with your legal team to ensure you display these signs per those requirements.

Some business continuity plan templates are designed for protecting business operations or the public, but it’s important to have a plan for protecting your employees too. The ClickUp Workplace Emergency Action Plan Template helps you do just that.

This is a more in-depth emergency plan that helps you:

• Communicate quickly and clearly with employees during all types of emergencies
• Define who is in charge of what in an emergency—before the emergency actually happens
• Store all emergency plans in one secure place

An emergency plan is great because it equips your employees with the skills and knowledge required to rise above an emergency. Some insurance carriers require businesses to have a documented emergency plan, so this can also help you secure coverage. 🌻

ClickUp is an all-in-one workplace solution, so storing your emergency action plan in the same platform as your tasks and chats makes it more accessible for the entire team.

Are you a Microsoft company? Then you’ll love the Word Business Continuity Plan Template by Disaster Recovery Plan Template. It’s a publicly available version of MIT’s Business Continuity Plan, so you can trust that it covers all your bases.

This free continuity plan template includes sections for:

• Introduction
• Design of the plan
• Organization of disaster response and recovery
• Business continuity plan
• Team management procedures
• Recovery procedures, including a notification list

Downloads are available for Word and Adobe PDF, but the template’s text is available on the website if you don’t want to download it.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulates the investment industry. Investments are all about risk management, so it’s no surprise that FINRA released a free Small Firm Business Continuity Plan Template .

A continuity plan is required if you’re a small brokerage firm or if you’re otherwise required to follow FINRA guidelines. Instead of wondering whether you’re compliant, follow FINRA’s continuity plan template for more peace of mind. 🧘

It includes sections for:

• Emergency contact personnel
• Office locations and alternate sites
• Firm policies
• Financial and operational assessments
• Mission critical systems
• Regulatory reporting
• Updates and annual reviews

You should still tailor the template to your unique needs, but the template will help you save a lot of time.

LegalTemplate’s Word Business Continuity Plan Template is no-frills, but it includes all the information you need to create your own business continuity plan.

We like that the site actually takes you through a structured process to create an incident response plan (IRP), emergency response plan (ERP), supply chain continuity plan, and other types of continuity plans that you might need.

LegalTemplates also throws in a few helpful tips for tracking your continuity plan goals over time . They say you need to review the checklist twice a year, practice implementing everything once a year, and do a formal revamp of your continuity plan every other year.

Improve Business Processes With ClickUp

Business continuity management is a must-have for businesses of all sizes. Whether it’s a natural disaster or other emergency, you need a plan long before the worst happens.

Rely on this list of free continuity plan templates to create a disaster recovery plan that helps you get back to normal business operations more quickly. 👔

Templates are helpful, but wouldn’t it be better if you could store your templates alongside your Tasks, Projects, Docs, Whiteboards, and more?

ClickUp combines all your work into one platform to save time and eliminate the hassles of switching platforms. See the ClickUp difference for yourself: Create your free ClickUp Workspace now.

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

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