annual review business plan

Annual Business Planning Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

What is an Annual Business Plan?

An annual business plan is a document that sets out the goals and objectives for a company over the course of a year. It provides a roadmap for how the business will operate and achieve its desired results. A simple business plan template will help guide you in creating a comprehensive annual plan.

Steps to Create an Annual Plan

There are seven steps to creating an annual business plan:

• Define the company’s overall vision and strategy.
• Set specific, measurable goals and objectives for the year.
• Identify the resources needed to achieve these goals.
• Create a timeline for each goal and objective.
• Assign responsibility for each goal and objective to specific individuals or teams.
• Review and revise the plan on a regular basis.
• Each of these steps is important in creating a well-formulated annual plan. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Defining the Company’s Overall Vision and Strategy

The first step in creating an annual plan is defining the company’s overall vision and strategy. This involves deciding where the company wants to be in the future and outlining the steps needed to get there. It’s important to be realistic in setting these goals and to make sure they are aligned with the company’s overall strategic vision.

Setting Specific, Measurable Goals and Objectives

Once the company’s overarching vision has been defined, it’s time to set specific, measurable goals and objectives for the year. These should be attainable but challenging and should align with the company’s overall strategy. Each goal should have a target date for completion, as well as a specific metric that will be used to measure progress.

Identifying Resources Needed To Achieve Goals

Next, it’s important to identify the resources needed to achieve these goals. This includes everything from manpower and funding, to office space and equipment. It’s also important to assign responsibility for each goal/objective to specific individuals or teams. This helps ensure that everyone is aware of their role in achieving the desired results.

Creating a Timeline

Once goals have been defined and resources have been identified, it’s time to create a timeline for each one. This will help keep everyone on track throughout the year and ensure that tasks are completed in a timely manner. A Gantt chart can be helpful in organizing this information visually.

Assigning Responsibility

Finally, it’s important to assign responsibility for each goal/objective to specific individuals or teams. This helps ensure that everyone is aware of their role in achieving the desired results. By assigning clear responsibilities, tasks can be delegated efficiently and everyone will know who is responsible for what outcomes.

Reviewing and Revising Plan Regularly

It’s important to review and revise your annual plan on a regular basis. This ensures that the goals are still relevant and achievable and that the resources required are still available. It also allows for any necessary adjustments to be made if something isn’t working as planned. A good rule of thumb is to review the plan quarterly or more often if needed.

Parts of the Annual Strategic Plan Template

There are four key parts to the annual plan template:

1. Vision and Strategy

The first step is to define the company’s overall vision and strategy. This will provide a framework for all of the other steps in the process.

2. Goals and Objectives

The next step is to set specific, measurable goals and objectives for the year. These should be aligned with the company’s vision and strategy.

3. Resources

The third step is to identify the resources needed to achieve the goals and objectives. This includes things like budget, staff, and materials.

4. Timeline

The fourth step is to create a timeline for each goal and objective. This will help ensure that everything is completed on time and within budget.

The Importance of a Well-Formulated Annual Strategic Plan

The importance of a well-formulated annual plan cannot be overstated. It provides a clear roadmap for the company’s operations and sets forth a clear vision for its desired results. Additionally, it helps to ensure that all employees are aware of the company’s goals and objectives and are working towards the same end.

The Difference between an Annual Plan and A Company’s Broader Strategic Vision

The difference between an annual business plan and a company’s strategic vision is that the former is more focused on the specific goals and objectives to be achieved over the course of a year, while the latter is more concerned with the company’s long-term direction. An annual business plan lays out a roadmap for the company’s operations over the course of a year and sets specific targets to be met. A company’s strategic plan, on the other hand, is more concerned with the overall direction of the business and its long-term goals.

Ultimately the difference between an annual plan and a company’s broader strategic vision is that the former is more focused on the specific goals and objectives to be achieved over the course of a year, while the latter is more concerned with the company’s long-term direction.

Best Practices for Annual Planning

There are a few key best practices that businesses should keep in mind when planning their annual operations.  

First and foremost, it is important to be realistic about what can be accomplished in a year. Businesses should establish achievable goals and objectives, and then create a plan of action to achieve them. This includes setting timelines and specific tasks that need to be completed in order to reach the goal. 

Another key element of effective annual planning is creating a budget and sticking to it. Budgets help businesses stay accountable and track progress toward their goals. 

In addition, effective annual planning should always include regular review and course correction as needed. Businesses should routinely assess their progress, make necessary adjustments, and ensure they are still on track to meet their goals.

When it comes to business annual planning, there are a few best practices that can help your organization make the most of the process. Here are a few tips to get you started:

•  Set realistic goals. It’s important to set realistic goals for your annual planning process – this way, you’re more likely to achieve them. Be honest with yourself about what’s achievable and what’s not, and make sure your team is on the same page.
• Make a roadmap. Once you’ve set your goals, create a roadmap for how you’ll achieve them. This will help keep everyone on track and ensure that you’re making progress toward your targets.
• Use data to inform your decisions. When making decisions about your annual planning, use data to inform your decisions. This will help you make informed choices based on evidence rather than intuition alone.
• Communicate regularly. Make sure to communicate regularly with your team throughout the annual planning process – this will help keep everyone updated on what’s happening and ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal.
• Celebrate successes along the way. Celebrate successes along the way – this will keep everyone motivated and help ensure that the process is fun as well as productive.

Annual Contingency Plan Example

Sometimes it’s helpful to have a contingency plan or clause in case things don’t go as expected. Below is a sample contingency plan.

“In the event that we are unable to achieve our sales goals for the year, we will implement a number of contingency measures. These measures may include reducing our advertising budget, downsizing our workforce, and suspending operations at certain locations. We will only implement these measures if absolutely necessary and we are confident that they will help us to get back on track.”

Strategic Business Plan Example

Below is an example of a strategic business plan.

“Our long-term goal is to become the leading provider of XYZ products and services in our industry. To achieve this, we will need to increase our market share, expand our operations into new markets, and continue to innovate our product offerings. We are confident that we can achieve these goals and become the industry leader.”

Annual Business Plan Template

Executive summary.

The executive summary is a brief overview of the company’s annual plans while taking into account the company’s broader vision. It should include a description of the company, its products, and services, its marketing and sales strategy, its operations plan, and its financial plan.

Company Overview

The company overview section of the annual planning document should provide a brief history of the company, its mission and vision, and its current status.

Products and Services

This section of the annual plans should describe the company’s products and services in detail. It should also include information on the company’s competitive advantages and any new products or services that will be launched in the coming year.

Marketing Plan

The marketing plan section of the company’s strategy should outline the marketing and sales strategy for the entire organization for the coming year. It should include information on the company’s target market, its branding and positioning strategy, its advertising and promotion budget, and its sales goals.

Operations Plan

The operations plan section of the annual business plan should describe the company’s methods for manufacturing, distribution, and other aspects of its operations. It should also include information on the company’s capacity, its supply chain, and its quality control procedures.

Financial Plan

The financial plan section of the annual business plan should include a summary of the company’s financials, the budgetary approval process, contingency plans, as well as the broader visions and plans for funding and investment.

With regards to financials, you want to include past and projected Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements. Also, if you are seeking external financing, document the amount of funding you need and the key expected uses of these funds.

Annual Goals

When creating your business plan, it’s important to set annual goals and objectives. This will help you track your progress and ensure that you’re on track to reaching your long-term goals. Some things you may want to consider when setting your annual goals include:

• Increasing revenue
• Expanding your customer base
• Improving product or service quality
• Reducing costs
• Developing new products or services
• Enhancing marketing efforts
• Expanding into new markets

One of the most important aspects of any business plan is setting annual goals. These goals should be attainable, yet ambitious, and should help to guide your business in the right direction. Some things you may want to consider when setting your annual goals include increasing sales, expanding your customer base, improving productivity or efficiency, reducing costs, or developing new products or services. Whatever your goals may be, make sure to document them and track your progress throughout the year. This will help you ensure that you are on track to meeting your targets and achieving success for your business.

The appendix of the annual business plan template should include any supporting documentation that is relevant to the plan, such as market research reports, financial projections, and product specifications.

Every company should have an annual business plan. This document helps you track your progress, set goals, plan forward, and make necessary adjustments throughout the year related to key results. Without a business plan, it is difficult to make informed decisions about where to allocate your resources or measure your success. If you need help getting started, we have a great business planning template that can get you on the right track. By following our simple tips and using our template, you can create a comprehensive business plan that will help ensure your success in the coming year. 

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How to Create a Profitable Annual Business Plan [+Free Template]

Published: February 09, 2023

The beginning of a new quarter is the perfect time to start planning the next year for your business. Start the next year or quarter off on the right foot by creating an annual business plan for your company.

Q4 often brings a flurry of business-related activity. And while all this activity helps fill the pipeline, it can distract you from reflecting on past performance and preparing for the year or quarter ahead.

Fortunately, you can write an annual business plan at any time of the year. Start your plan now to set your team up for success.

What is an annual business plan?

An annual business plan is just that — a plan for you and your employees to help achieve the company’s goals for the year. Think of an annual business plan as the guide to complete all of your company’s overall goals outlined in your initial business plan.

The first business plan you wrote for your business is the blueprint and the annual business plan is the detailed instructions to keep your business running long-term.

Usually, an annual business plan contains a short description of your company, a marketing analysis, and a sales/marketing plan.

Because an annual business plan is for the year, you’ll want to review your business at the end of four consecutive quarters and revise your plan for the next four quarters.

Why is annual business planning important?

Even though the fourth quarter might be a busy time of year, don’t put off creating an annual business plan.

Not only will your annual business plan keep you on track, it will also help you map out a strategy to keep your employees accountable. You can then more easily achieve the overall goals of your business.

Here are some reasons why it’s well worth creating an annual business plan for your company.

You can measure your success.

An annual business plan is the best way to measure your success. And I’m referring to the collective “you” here because it takes the entire company or all of your employees to make new business efforts effective.

An annual plan not only sets expectations for you but also for others within your company who need to contribute to the business’s success.

You can reflect on the past and plan ahead.

Creating an annual business plan allows you to reflect on the past 12 months.

As you reflect on the previous year, you’ll be able to get a good idea of what your business is capable of doing and set accurate, attainable projections based on previous numbers.

You’ll define your business goals.

Your annual business plan will shed some light on what the heck you do at your company. For those who are not routinely involved in new business, it can seem like a black hole of mystery.

Sharing your plan — whether to an executive committee, department heads, or even the entire staff — adds clarity and gives everyone something to aim for.

You can impress your boss.

If you head a department that could benefit from an annual business plan, don’t wait to be asked before you start writing. Get on your CEO’s schedule to review your outline and discuss your intentions for putting this plan together.

Sometimes the hardest part is getting started. You can get the ball rolling with the basic template that follows.

Annual Business Plan Template

Each section of your annual business plan will help tell the story of your company and clearly define your company’s goals for the year.

Let’s take a look at each section of the annual business plan template .

Executive Summary

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How To Create an Effective End of Year Business Review

“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.” ~Maya Angelou

With the end of 2019 rapidly approaching, business leaders have likely started to plan for the year ahead. But to know where you’re going, it’s important to look at where you’ve been.

It’s a fair assessment that entrepreneurs are naturally more prone to plan for their futures than to evaluate their pasts. Year-end business reviews allow them to jump-start the new year with solutions to prior issues and strategies for continued growth moving forward.

Think of an effective end of year business review as an executive summary for the entire year. What were the key takeaways? The presentation should include high-level information such as an evaluation of goals, achievements, rates of growth, obstacles and setbacks, future goals and financial data. While it might be easier to simply list all of the year-end parameters in a single, lengthy report, that type of presentation is unlikely to impress audiences — regardless of whether they're clients, employees, management or investors.

It goes without saying that the business review will be created for naught if nobody pays attention to it. Instead, it's important to create a visually appealing presentation to not only grab the audience's attention, but to retain it, too. Beautiful.ai’s PowerPoint alternative makes creating business presentations easy so they're always on-brand and professional. Themes can be customized with specific fonts and color palettes, as well as company logos, so each slide automatically mirrors the others.

Of course, even an impressive and cohesive visual presentation can bore audiences if it doesn't include valuable information. Traditional PowerPoint presentations filled to the brim with numbers, statistics and bullet points can put even interested audiences to sleep. So, avoid death by PowerPoint and make your annual business review “beautiful” by including the following key elements.

Download the free, customizable End of Year Business Review Template here.

Company Overview

A high-quality annual business review should feature an overarching summary reflecting the big picture for the company. The business summary might highlight the brand’s founder, co-founders, business leaders and other decision makers, while also summarizing the company’s product offerings, including any digital editions, intellectual property rights and international business ventures. This is also a good place to talk about the company's mission, values, and overall culture. It sets the stage (literally and figuratively) for the information to come later in the presentation.

2019 Business Goals

Before the year’s goals can be evaluated, audiences need to know what they were. The second portion of the year-end business review should summarize the year’s goals. The list of goals can be obtained from the prior year’s annual review (if that's available), but keep in mind they may have been modified or updated throughout the past 12 months. Explain what each goal was, and why it was chosen (its importance), before you dive in to the results.

Beautiful.ai’s presentation software makes creating a list of goals simple. Just add a common header to a carousel slide, and add each goal to its own sub-section.

Accomplishment of Goals

It's important to celebrate a company’s successes. Once you've mapped out what the year's goals were, you can talk about if and how you accomplished them. No annual business review could possibly be complete without featuring the year’s highlight reel. What goals were accomplished, and what were the missed opportunities, in the previous 12 months? What can be learned from the company’s successes?

Likewise, what challenges did the company face, and what can be learned from missed opportunities? To keep audiences engaged , we animated the bulleted lists, so the items automatically appear in succession.

We recommend trying our animated bullet points, or the timeline or diagram templates to tell your story. Simply enter your content and our Smart Slides will do the rest.

Key Performance Indicators and Results

Numbers tell a big part of a company’s story, and they are a vital piece of the annual business review puzzle. After all, how can anyone ascertain a company’s performance without analyzing some type of data? This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) and results come in to play.

Here you will present data on the company’s performance in the form of financial statements, rates of growth and retention, customer satisfaction metrics and any other data that supports the business' story over the past year. KPIs are an easy way to assess performance throughout the year, so you should know exactly where you stand when it comes time for the end of year review.

Creating infographics using Beautiful.ai’s templates makes data visualization simple. Just add your data into our Smart Slides and watch it automatically align into timelines, bar graphs, pie charts and much more. Not only will audiences stay more engaged, but the data will be more digestible.

Opportunities for Next Year

Once your annual business review has covered the company’s performance over the course of 2019, it’s time to start paving a pathway through 2020. A round-up of upcoming company goals is a key element to any actionable year-end review. Objectives from the prior year might remain in place, if they weren't met, or you may shift your goals based on accomplishments, failures, or changing market conditions.

By sharing your new objectives, you're holding your team accountable to work towards them. To that end, once you've defined your goals for the upcoming year, it's time to explain how you and your team plan to achieve them. Put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

2020 Execution

It’s not enough to simply create a list of goals for the upcoming year. You must also share how those goals will be met. An effective end-of-year business review should include a plan of execution for the upcoming year. What processes will be put in place to meet next year’s goals? What budget will be allocated to implement these plans, what team members or resources are required, and what's the estimated timeline?

Of course, even the best-laid plans do tend to go awry. Part of planning the execution of goals is anticipating what obstacles might be encountered along the way, and planning how to overcome those hurdles should they occur. 

When using Beautiful.ai’s presentation software, there’s no reason a company’s business review should ever become just another cookie-cutter report. The end presentation will always be clean, concise and attractive to audiences regardless of your design skills.

Samantha Pratt Lile

Samantha is an independent journalist, editor, blogger and content manager. Examples of her published work can be found at sites including the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Buzzfeed.

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Best practices for your small business annual review

Want to know how to end the year strong as a small business? Running a small business involves keeping track of a lot. From financial quarterly reports to where you set down your coffee cup, it’s only natural that things might slip past you every once in a while. Luckily, as you prepare to close the book in 2021, you have an opportunity to take account of your year in its entirety.

We’re talking about your annual business review.

This performance review should outline everything your business has been through over the past 12 months, including your biggest successes as well as your more trying moments. From accountability to data-driven analysis, read on for everything you need to know to make your business performance review a hands-down success.

#1 Revisit your goals

What did you set out to do? Whether you’re aiming at being the top-selling business in your neighborhood or setting a goal to earn a prestigious award in your industry, every business needs clearly outlined short and long-term goals.

Your yearly business review is a good opportunity to see how many of those long-term goals you’ve reached and start to look for business tips for the New Year .

Pair the analysis of your key performance indicators (KPIs) with a few self-reflective questions such as:

• What challenges did we face?
• What new skills did we learn?
• How can we avoid the mistakes we made for the upcoming year?
• How can we repeat our successes?

These open-ended questions leave room for a dialogue to be had with your entire team, allowing for a constructive environment for team building and brainstorming about what can be improved upon in the year ahead. 

#2 Examine the fundamentals of your business

Every business offers a product or service to its customers, and the yearly review is a good time to reexamine how well your fundamental business practices are functioning.

The day-to-day experience of running a business is often filled with addressing client personalities, operations management, and upcoming projects. Consider this as an opportunity to do a deep dive into the core of your business and find areas with the potential for improvement.

Review the basics of your business practice such as:

• The value propositions of what you offer – Identify your customer needs and how your business aims to fulfill them. Get specific and try to elaborate on why your business, in particular, is the best pick for your customers.
• Quality control inspection – Take a good look at what you’re providing your customers. Are you delivering the same (or better) quality of service? High standards are hard to live up to, but keeping a close eye on the caliber of your goods or services is important for any strong and successful business.
• Your best-selling product or service – Ranking your offerings by popularity is a clear way to identify your successes. Explore the reasons why certain products or services are more in-demand than others—from marketing choices to price models—and you may figure out a formula for success across the board.

#3 Make financial evaluations

Perhaps the most important part of your review is determining where you stand monetarily at the end of the year. While it often takes time for small businesses to begin turning a profit, documenting your progress is essential.

To properly evaluate your businesses finances, pay special attention to the following figures:

• Cash flow – Money comes in, money goes out. Sales and expenses are at the core of your business, so getting a specific figure for your overall cash flow is key to understanding the economics of a business. Compare your cash flow to the previous years for a greater perspective on your financial forecast in the year ahead.
• Cost base – Are you getting the best price for your business materials? Reflect on your cost base and compare it to your prices. You may find you need to raise (or lower) the cost of your products to keep up with costs.
• Financial growth – As your business expands are you taking on new costs and sale opportunities? A larger staff, a second location, and new technology can all be growth expenses necessary for earning more income. Go over the various factors for expansion in your business and where they’ve taken you over the course of the year.

If your small business doesn’t have an accountant on staff, consider hiring an outside professional to assist with the financial section of your annual review. While you may have a good idea about your business’s general health, a financial expert may be able to paint a clearer picture of your year in review. 

#4 Revise the data

It’s time to crunch the numbers. Taking a look back at your company’s annual data can be of use when identifying potential red flags in your protocol or hard-to-track successes you may not have otherwise discovered. Besides basic accounting and management software, there are plenty of tools to explore your business analytics. 

Massachusets-based restaurant owner , Duncan Russell, calls himself “Super data-driven,” adding, “I’m working on my inventory management sheets, I have a personal order guide that I created, and I have checklists for everything.” Find a system that works for your industry or consider updating the one you currently use.

To start, consider reviewing data including:

• Engagement levels – Just because you’re sending out promotional materials, doesn’t mean customers are clicking. By keeping tabs on clicks and sales, you can see what marketing strategies were most successful over the past year. Use this information to help redesign your marketing plans for next year.
• Location data – By tracking geolocation data on your website, you can determine where your sales and leads are coming from. This may give you a better idea of your demographics and general customer-base, for a stronger, more personalized marketing strategy.
• Feedback – Allowing your audience to share their feedback is one of the fastest ways of tapping into specific, actionable data. You can create online or in-person surveys and offer rewards for product reviews. Redesign your services according to the feedback you receive, and you may see a significant boost in sales and repeat buyers.
• Visibility – Did your customers discover you from a search engine, a personal referral, or a social media platform? Knowing what avenues guide customers to your business can be particularly useful when determining what mediums of marketing work best. Whether it’s a matter of connecting with your audience via direct messages or getting the word out by posting fliers at the local community center, the road to success looks different for every business.

#5 Study your market

Part of designing your business plan likely included a market analysis. While much of what you discovered may still hold true, not everything goes according to plan. 

Much of what you outlined may have changed since your initial analysis. As part of your annual review, it can be helpful to identify the various factors that have made an impact on your market. You can leverage this assessment to discover ways to pivot your business toward wider success.

Take the time to study aspects of your target market, such as:

• Customer needs -  As business trends evolve over time, so, too, do your customers’ needs. Now is an opportune time to reflect on how your systems can better support your customers’ pain points. Matt Vigh, a real estate coach and co-owner at Prospect Boomerang Coaching , for example, is choosing to focus on simplifying transactions for his buyers and sellers. Vigh says, “I want us as an industry to use tech to help with transaction details so that as agents, we can truly focus on the needs of the people! Now we can stop being trapped in the whirlwind of transaction and get caught up in the relationship with the people who are doing the transaction.”
• Economic changes – While the general economy has national (and international) consequences, you don’t necessarily need to focus on country-wide economic shifts. Sometimes your local economy has a lot more impact on how your business performs. Whether there are more job opportunities or a general increase in local wages, there’s the potential for it to have major effects on your business.
• Competitor status – How many competitors have you inspired? While imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, it can make for more difficult business when you’re competing against similar small businesses. Thoroughly review where your business stands in comparison to competitors. Reinforce the reasons why customers choose you over the competitors or carve out a new space in which to insert your competitive advantage. 

This could also be a perfect time to reach out locally, speak to your community, or establish a social connection. One Washington-based real estate group has found more success in teaming up with local businesses, stating, “We continually look for opportunities to partner with local businesses and be part of the community.” Tap into the neighbors and businesses in your zip code by creating a Business Page with Nextdoor . 

#6 Lay the framework for a new strategy

Much of your annual review is about reflecting on the past year, but the process wouldn’t be complete without evaluating your plan for the year ahead.

With a solid grasp on how your business has evolved over the past 12 months, it’s worth it to consider developing new strategies for things like:

• Your bottom line – Setting realistic financial goals for the next year can be helpful to see your business plan in the long term. Whether you’re looking toward doubling potential profits or hoping to gain a percentage or two, having a clear target always helps.
• Potential upgrades – New computers, redesigned software, or improved communication services could be key to your business strategy for next year. Solicit feedback from your team to find out what resources they need to increase their productivity.
• Non-financial goals -  While making money is a necessity for a business to survive, it can be helpful to craft non-financial goals to add another layer to your company’s mission. Consider the Hawai'i-based lumber company that, in addition to building a profitable business, is committed to sustainability and local sourcing. What values drive your business forward? Find ways of weaving them into your business model as you complete your annual review. 

#7 Share your success with your neighbors on Nextdoor

An annual review is more than just accounting for everything you’ve done in a year, it’s an occasion to celebrate all your hard work and look forward to future success. Whether you’re sharing the year’s highlights, updating your audience about what to expect in the new year, or asking for feedback from local customers, tap into the tools available to you on your Nextdoor Business Page .

Nearly 1 in 3 households are on Nextdoor, making it the best place to start a conversation with your neighbors. By becoming a Neighborhood Sponsor, sharing special promotions, and making new connections on Nextdoor, next year’s annual review might have even more to celebrate.

Sources: 

The Berkshire Edge. BUSINESS MONDAY: Christo’s Famous Pizza in North Adams has a new owner and a new vibe. https://theberkshireedge.com/business-monday-christos-famous-pizza-in-north-adams-has-a-new-owner-and-a-new-vibe/  

South Pasadenan. South Pasadena Homes | Derek Vaughan. https://southpasadenan.com/south-pasadena-homes-derek-vaughan/  

Yahoo Finance. Parker Ranch and Kamuela Hardwoods Announce New Company Focused on Sustainably Sourced Specialty Hardwoods. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/parker-ranch-kamuela-hardwoods-announce-001200888.html  

EIN Presswire. Simpson Group Brings Unique Real Estate Expertise and Concierge-Level Service to Snoqualmie Valley. https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/556904373/simpson-group-brings-unique-real-estate-expertise-and-concierge-level-service-to-snoqualmie-valley  

Info Entrepreneurs. Review your business performance.

https://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/en/guides/review-your-business-performance/

Get Nextdoor updates

Free Annual Plan Templates: Excel, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Google Slides

By Kate Eby | January 17, 2024

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We’ve collected the top annual plan templates in Excel, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Google Slides. Use the templates to build a 12-month strategy that streamlines the annual planning process based on the company’s vision for goal-setting. 

Included on this page, you’ll find an  annual plan slide template , a  yearly planning template with Gantt chart , an  annual planning template with a calendar , and more. You’ll also learn about the  differences between an annual and a strategic plan , as well as  how to create an annual plan .

Annual Plan Templates vs. Strategic Plan

An annual plan and a strategic plan serve different purposes for building and organizing a growth strategy. A strategic plan focuses on a company’s direction and long-term goals. The annual plan defines actionable steps to achieve yearly goals. 

Review the matrix below to understand the differences between an annual plan template and a strategic plan template.

Simple Annual Plan Template

Download a Simple Annual Plan Template for

Excel | Microsoft Word

Ease your way into annual planning with this simple template that organizes any company’s annual goals, objectives, timelines, and budget. Complete the  Overview, Strategies, and  Global Priorities sections to build a foundation for goal-setting. Then use the table to list objectives, timelines, owners, budgets, and statuses. Reuse this template year after year to save time and to streamline the annual planning process.

Annual Plan Slide Template

Download an Annual Plan Slide Template for 

PowerPoint | Google Slides  

Use this annual plan template to outline and present a high-level one-year plan to stakeholders. Objectives are organized by quarters, so it’s easy to follow their timelines. Add more slides, including the company’s marketing plan, sales plan, or strategic plan to create a comprehensive presentation of the company’s overarching goals.

Yearly Planning Excel Template with Gantt Chart

Download the Yearly Planning Template with Gantt Chart in Excel  

Use this yearly planning template with a Gantt chart to list annual objectives. This template is similar to the simple annual plan, but adds a Gantt chart to provide a visual representation of each deliverable’s timeline. Enter the start date and due date for each objective. The template will automatically populate the dates into a Gantt chart making it easy to track each objective’s progress and ensure the plan stays on course.

Annual Planning Template with Calendar

Download an Annual Planning Template with Calendar 

Excel | Microsoft Word  

Track important deadlines with this annual planning calendar template. This template has all the features of the simple annual plan template but adds a calendar. The calendar format provides space to enter details under any day of the year. Promote timeline transparency and guarantee deliverables meet their due dates by sharing this template with your team.

How to Create an Annual Plan

Create an annual plan by first reviewing the previous year’s wins and losses to determine where to focus the upcoming year’s efforts. Brainstorm annual goals, list the actions to achieve them, and assign the action steps to team members. 

Start drafting an annual plan in Q4 to prepare for the upcoming year. Follow the steps below to create an effective annual plan that drives revenue and growth to any business.   

• Review the Previous Year Meet with stakeholders and review the previous year’s plan and successes. Identify areas that need improvement. This review process will help determine where to focus efforts next year. You can skip this step if it’s the company’s first time creating an annual plan.
• Download an Annual Plan Template Download the simple annual plan template. Using a template will help ensure you don’t miss any vital sections of the plan.
• Enter the Company’s Vision Statement The vision statement describes the company’s long-term aspirations, so keep it at the forefront of the decision-making and goal-setting processes.  
• Brainstorm Annual Goals Collaborate with stakeholders and determine what you want to achieve in the upcoming year. Use last year’s wins and losses to set realistic goals that align with the company’s vision statement.
• List Objectives List the action steps required to meet the goals. Categorize them into sections, such as marketing, financial, customer experience, product, etc. 
• Set Timelines Set a start date and end date for each objective. Annual plans are often broken down into quarters, but it’s not uncommon to set monthly and weekly timelines. 
• Determine a Budget Determine a budget based on financial projections. This step helps allocate resources teams or departments will have available to them, which will make planning more realistic.
• Identify Metrics Decide what metrics to use for tracking and monitoring results. The data these provide is important for measuring if objectives are being met.
• Assign Responsibility Assign a team, department, or individual to each deliverable to ensure nothing is missed.  
• Share with Team Members Share the annual plan with team members to create alignment and build motivation around working toward specific goals.

Elements in an Annual Plan

Elements in an annual plan include everything necessary to outline a comprehensive plan for growing any company. Here is a list of elements found in a general annual plan:     

• Budget: The funds allocated to each goal or objective.
• KPIs:  The tools and metrics used to measure the success of the objectives.
• Objectives: Objectives are the action steps to achieve the goals.
• Owner: The owner is the team, department, or individual responsible for completing an objective.
• SMART Goals:  This represents a type of goal-setting where each should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Learn more about  setting SMART goals .
• Strategies:  List the marketing strategies, operational strategies, and sales strategies to provide a comprehensive framework that drives coordinated efforts.
• Timeline:  The length of time dedicated to each deliverable. Deliverable timelines are typically quarters, but they can also be monthly or weekly.
• Values and Mission Statement: These document the foundation for decision making and goal setting.

Different Types Of Annual Plans

Different types of annual plans support specific areas such as budgeting, marketing, operations, and more. Choose an annual plan from the list below that best fits your company’s needs and growth strategy.

Free Annual Sales Report Templates

Use an  annual sales report template to track yearly sales activities and trends.

Free Annual Business Budget Templates

Use an  annual business budget template to evaluate business expenditures vs. revenue over a one-year period.

Free Operational Plan Templates

Use an  operational plan template to lay out specific actions and resources needed to reach certain milestones.

Annual Report Template

Use this  annual report template to document the company’s yearly accomplishments, impact stories, financial data, and donor list.

Annual Marketing Report

Use this  annual marketing report template to document the total projects delivered, KPIs, and marketing financial overview.

Create Your Annual Plan in Smartsheet and Get Gantt Chart and Calendar Views

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

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Annual Planning

A strong annual plan builds on the company’s broader strategic vision and core values while still providing specific goals, metrics, and budgets to guide managers and employees. If it’s doing its job, the annual business plan is also flexible enough to adapt to an unpredictable and often volatile market.

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What is annual planning?

An annual business plan is a road map for a company and its employees. It contains milestones that carry the plan forward through a series of smaller goals that lead to a broader vision of where the business aims to be by the end of the year.

When a new year arrives, many people make plans and resolutions for the coming 12 months. They look back at the previous year and consider what worked for them and what they want to improve. Then they plan what goals they want to achieve, from getting out of debt to losing weight to learning a new language. Similarly, a company or organization will use an annual business plan to tighten its belt, improve performance, and reach specific goals over the coming year.

Whether using an annual business plan template or working from scratch, a company will review the expectations and results from the previous year in order to create an annual plan that gives everyone in the organization a sense of where they’re headed and how they will get there.

Why annual planning is important.

An annual business plan empowers workers to set specific business goals based on the company’s overarching strategy, and it also holds teams accountable for achieving stated goals.

The annual plan connects directly to where a company wants to be in 3 to 5 years and defines what’s critical to achieve over the next year to progress toward longer-term targets.

A well-formulated annual plan also keeps the workforce united and focused, energizing them to be more productive.

Additional benefits of an annual business plan include:

• Providing a stronger connection to the strategic plan
• Putting the mission of the organization into daily practice
• Providing workers with a clear sense of direction in their departments or roles

What’s the difference between an annual plan and a strategic plan?

In the strategic planning process , an organization describes or affirms its mission, deciding what it wants to achieve over the next few years (vision) and setting strategic priorities to help make that vision a reality.

The strategic plan works hand in hand with the annual business plan. The former provides an overarching vision of what the company wants to achieve, and the annual plan provides the nuts and bolts of the necessary work to be done over the coming year.

So, the annual business plan depends on the strategy for its priorities, and the strategy depends on the annual plan to execute its ideas about the organization’s vision, mission, purpose, and goals. Logistics, projects, allocation of resources, and timing are covered in the annual plan.

Preparing to create an annual plan.

Before you can look ahead, you need to first look back, take what you’ve learned, and recommit yourself to your company’s values and priorities. Thus, reviewing your old plan and assessing its results against expectations is an important first step.

You should also review your company’s:

• Mission statement: This is a guiding declaration that describes what your company does and differentiates you from your competition.
• Vision statement : This is an aspirational statement about what your company wants to become—an important factor in setting the annual plan’s priorities.
• Core values: These are the principles, beliefs, and philosophies that shape your company’s culture and support your vision for the future.
• Financial information, including budgeting: This is important because annual planning is connected to the budgetary approval process for the next fiscal year, including anticipated revenue, expenses, and growth predictions.
• Key problems and issues: By understanding what went wrong the previous year and the issues it faced, a company can offer remedies in its annual plan to improve future outcomes.

What is included in an annual plan?

There are many annual business plan templates you can use to make your plan. Generally, they contain these elements:

Stated goals (SMART)

Your yearly plan should include both SMART and stretch goals.

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals are an enduring staple of the business world, helping to clarify your ideas, focus your efforts, ensure your time and resources are used productively, and increase your chances of success. Stretch goals, as the name suggests, require above-and-beyond effort and innovation to pull off, with the promise of a greater payoff. Include a mixture of both in your annual plan.

Budget and financials

An annual plan also includes projections for the coming 12 months, forecasting income and outlays. Your projections will help you plan for cash flow dips, pinpoint financing needs, and decide the best timing for projects.

Part of this involves developing monthly financial projections by recording expected income based on sales forecasts and anticipated expenses for labor, supplies, overhead, and so on. It’s wise to prepare a projected income (profit and loss) statement and a balance sheet projection.

You can also use the projections to determine financing needs, if any. Well-prepared projections will make it easier to qualify for a loan.

Timelines and checkpoints

To reach where you want your business to be in a year, take your larger goals and split them up into smaller goals set on specific timelines. As you set your deadlines, include metrics that will indicate how successful you’ve been in achieving your goals.

Clearly outlined expectations and responsibilities

An annual business plan works best if it’s aspirational but achievable, with practical goals that are spelled out in clear language, indicating which individuals, teams, or departments are responsible for which parts of the plan. Given that almost 50% of employees in the United States don’t know what is expected of them at work, a little bit of clarity can go a long way.

Vision for what the business looks like at the end of the year

As much as annual business plans are about the practical implementation of a company’s strategy, it’s also important to keep the organization’s aspirational future vision in mind. Having a clear vision of what successful completion of your annual planning goals looks like increases your chances of success.

Contingency plans

What happens if your company’s cash flow gets into trouble? It’s a good idea to set up emergency financial reservoirs before they’re necessary. Maintaining a cash reserve or keeping room in a line of credit are both good contingency measures. Remember to compare your actual financial results to your projections throughout the year, so you can spot financial problems before they spiral out of control.

Creating an annual plan is easier when you use the right tools. These can include an annual business plan template that organizes planning efforts and a wide variety of software solutions for writing business and strategy plans.

As you execute your annual plan, it’s also a good idea to rely on a work management platform with strategic planning tools that allow you to collaborate productively, create content, and manage complex processes. Using features like Workfront's Scenario Planner , you can simplify the annual planning process, adapt to market shifts with continuous planning, compare scenarios for risk and effectiveness, and stay ahead of the competition.

Armed with the right tools, plans, and processes, you can create a well-conceived and executed annual business plan that ensures the year ahead lives up to your expectations.

Quarterly and Annual Business Reviews: Why They Can Make or Break Your Success

The business review is one of the most underrated tools in a services company's arsenal. Quarterly business reviews highlight new ways to help clients achieve their goals, uncover risks and opportunities you're equipped to address and ensure customer leadership sees you as a critical piece of their growth strategies.

If you already do regular annual or quarterly business reviews with clients, you know how valuable they are. If not, you're about to learn what you're missing.

What Is a QBR?

A quarterly business review, or QBR, is when you sit down with customers on a quarterly basis to review how well you're contributing to their success. They ensure customer satisfaction and keep engagements on schedule, at or under budget and on track to meet agreed-on KPIs.

Here, we'll discuss the elements of both annual and quarterly business reviews, sometimes called "executive business reviews" or "health checks."

You can mix and match elements from each category, but in any case, these should be topics of regular conversation with your clients — because you don't want to be just a service provider. You want to be a partner in your customers' businesses such that they see you as intrinsic to their success. That increases client stickiness and opens the door to expanding the relationship.

Get a quick overview of quarterly business reviews and how to use them to solidify client relationships:

Is a QBR really needed?

Not all services businesses need to conduct frequent or in-depth business reviews. If you supply coffee to the breakroom, you can probably get away with a monthly email check-in. But if you provide a business-critical service, like technology, accounting, legal or marketing, you need to understand how your service plugs into the customer's business strategy.

Key Takeaways

• The real work is done at the annual review; QBRs are quick checks of KPIs and the relationship overall.
• Remember the old adage to keep goals S.M.A.R.T.
• Want to reduce churn? An agreed-on, documented set of goals is key.

What Are the Benefits of a QBR?

There are three main benefits of a quarterly business review.

They provide a measuring stick.

A well-defined performance-to-plan analysis gives customers a solid understanding of where they are on their journeys to new revenue opportunities , lowered risk or both — and how your services helped get them there. It also makes the customer equally invested in and accountable for certain shared metrics, such as profit margin. Yes, your service should aid them in achieving goals, but the real work is up to them. Business reviews allow you to track mutual KPIs so both you and the client have skin in the game. On that note ...

They track overall success metrics.

Business reviews should include KPIs with realistic timelines, budget allocations and responsible parties. A "scorecard" reflecting this ensures everyone is clear on expectations and that your services are steadily moving the client toward goals. For example, if you're a digital marketing agency tasked with recruiting new prospects, confirm there's a sales strategy to close the leads you bring in. That way, the blame for a lack of new customers isn't laid completely at your feet.

In that example, a relevant sales KPI is conversion rate, or the percentage of qualified leads that become paying customers. If the goal is, say, a 10% conversion rate and you're sending along plenty of prospects but your client's sales team isn't closing deals, then maybe you can help with sales coaching.

They solidify customer commitment and engagement.

A business review should highlight successes to date and map improvements that can lead to greater growth. This shows the customer that you understand how your individual contributions support its business strategy and that you're looking for new opportunities to engage, which can increase loyalty and minimize your own churn.

How Do You Prepare for a QBR?

The most important step in conducting a quarterly business review is preparation, which starts when the engagement begins. Service providers should gather a ton of critical information in the customer discovery process, but many skip that step.

Gather this data at the start of the relationship to make conducting annual or quarterly business reviews a smoother process.

Gather contacts and an org chart

Identify the people you'll interact with directly and the influencers who will play a part in executing and evaluating the strategy you propose. If you deal day-to-day with an operations manager who doesn't have a finger on the pulse of the company's overall strategy, ask for an introduction to the COO or whomever can define KPIs that tie directly to business objectives. In our previous digital marketing example, a conversation with the VP of sales will reveal how you can better assist in closing deals.

Set business plan objectives

Understand how your customer's goals align with your own capabilities and business objectives. If you're a managed service provider with an SLA for regular data backups, you should know exactly which types of data you're backing up, compliance regulations to which that backup should adhere, how quickly your customer needs to get back online after a cybersecurity incident to meet its own SLAs and more. Be very clear on how your services and success metrics align with customer needs.

Share success stories

Understand what success looks like for your customer. Where have they had wins? Where have previous service providers fallen short and lost credibility? What could they have done differently, and/or what did they do correctly that the customer expects you to repeat?

Learn about unresolved issues you're expected to handle or that your service will touch

Clearly it's important to identify outstanding issues that your team will pick up and run with, but successful firms go beyond that. If you provide digital marketing services to support sales, it's important to know whether the company has a CRM integration underway or if it's revamping its sales training, for example.

Set solid timelines for success

Make a template to assess early wins that looks something like this:

Customer pain point: How we will address it: How we will define success: Timeline for results:

In subsequent business reviews, assess whether the problem is resolved. Demonstrably removing pain points wins trust for upsells.

Know which KPIs will prove wins

Relatedly, and particularly in smaller shops, clients often want to hand over a general bucket of responsibilities without taking time to nail down exact metrics to track over the course of the engagement. Don't ever skip this step. It's vital to both business reviews and the relationship overall. You can't meet a client's needs if you don't know exactly what you're aiming for.

After you've collected the above information in your customer discovery, digest it and create a broad plan for how you'll steadily help the customer achieve the goals you've outlined. Then, turn those findings into an annual plan that you will track against on a quarterly basis. Don't make the plan super prescriptive — you and the customer will review and refine it together as you talk about business goals and conditions change.

Finally, sit down with your customer and conduct the actual QBR.

Annual business reviews vs. quarterly business reviews (QBRs)

The annual review, done at the beginning of the engagement and repeated yearly, can be an onerous process, and it will outline what success looks like. Quarterly business reviews (QBRs) should be much quicker and more to-the-point. Our main advice for both: Come prepared so you can make the most of every minute spent with the customer. Your contacts likely have many service providers demanding their time. Respect that, and you'll stand out.

What Is an Annual Business Review?

An annual business review is where you really get to know your customer's business. Note: The past 18 months showed that goals and tactics can change quickly in a weird and unpredictable business environment, so you may need to perform in-depth reviews more often if conditions change dramatically.

At least annually, sit down with your client for ideally two hours — and no less than one hour. Steps in an annual business review include:

Discuss business objectives.

We can't say this enough: Continually align the goals for your engagement with the customer's business strategy. As clients grow, you want to go along for the ride. If you don't know what "good" and "better" look like, then you don't know where to plug in. Don't be satisfied with what's working today. To capture a recurring customer for the long haul, look for areas in which you can contribute in the future.

Review past business goals.

Look at the previous year's goals, whether this is your first business review with this client or not. If it's your first rodeo, look at the top goals your client set with your predecessor so you know what you're getting into. And if you've done an annual business review with this client before, discuss whether the goals outlined last year have been achieved and why or why not.

Set Top 3 business goals for the coming year.

Focus this discussion on overall business strategy, not just the part your service will play. That breadth allows you to identify opportunities to provide additional services.

Identify opportunities for the coming year.

Which customer segments or sales channels is your customer targeting? Which new verticals or geographic markets are they expanding into? Which new products or services are they announcing? Internally, do they have future products on the drawing board? Challenges with suppliers? Which new systems are they implementing? Again, these insights help you employ your services to drive everyone forward.

Tease out barriers to success.

You never know where you'll uncover a need for additional services or ways to use your expertise to overcome a business challenge. Maybe clients are having trouble supporting new customers or scaling a service. Maybe it's staffing or supply chain visibility or margin pressure — issues that are pressing now and likely will be for the next year or so. Maybe the client's org structure is out of whack and needs fine-tuning. Getting a peek under the hood at what isn't working is just as important as understanding what is — maybe more so, because it presents problems you can potentially solve.

What Should the Content of a QBR Include?

As discussed, you need a mutual understanding of what "good" looks like so your offerings are aligned with the customer's needs. This piece shouldn't take long, because ideally, you came prepared with an understanding of how the partnership will work.

The content of a QBR should include an outline of three areas:

The customer's strategic goals and where they expect your help. In our digital marketing example, the customer's goal might be to get 300 new customers this year from a specific vertical that will help them expand into new markets.

Your own strategic goals and how they align with what's outlined in your SLA or service contract. Say your digital marketing agency is implementing a new marketing automation software or integrating multiple systems into a more comprehensive solution that will serve your clients better. How does that goal tie in to what your customer is expecting?

Joint strategic goals that you and the customer outline together. Perhaps the client's team has determined that to get those 300 new customers, it needs 2,000 marketing qualified leads. Now you know their overall strategic goals and how they expect you to contribute, before discussion in your quarterly business review.

What are SMART Goals?

Here's where you take the knowledge accumulated so far and lay out the areas in which planning, accountability and investments of money and time will drive the engagement.

Outline three to five strategic initiatives that will grow various parts of the business via your direct touch. Typically, these items require action in the short-term but may not show immediate ROI.

If your assignment is to drive new-customer acquisition with your digital marketing services, then you probably shouldn't expect to help the sales team deliver 100 new customers in the first couple of months. What's the goal for the year, and how can you work toward it?

Remember the old adage and keep goals S.M.A.R.T.: S pecific, M easureable, A ctionable, R elevant and T ime-bound.

Maybe your customer wants to double down on cross-selling to existing customers. You can glean KPIs specific to the client with questions like: How much revenue does the team expect from this initiative? How many customers are they targeting? By when do they expect to achieve this goal? Your shared metrics come from questions like: Which specific actions are marketers taking to move that initiative forward? Finally, where do you plug in? Only after outlining these with the customer can you define an SLA, commit to a certain benchmark and gain a solid understanding of how the engagement should proceed over the next year.

Concluding items

This is where you plot a plan of attack. Outline open items that will drive the business toward its goal — there are probably several of these, as the annual review is a kickoff for the coming year. Note any follow-up items that arise from the business review. Maybe you need to look into a new platform or research new technologies. Write those items down to hold everyone accountable.

Then, you and your customer need to literally sign off on the plan. Legally binding in court? Probably not. But the action alone solidifies a joint commitment to the objectives, KPIs and strategies outlined in the review. Plus, it makes it harder for customers to come back during a QBR with new goals you've never heard of and say you've known about them all along. If they try to throw a curveball, you have a mutually agreed-on strategy to point back to.

How Do You Conduct a QBR?

You do the heavy lifting in the annual business review. It isn't a light load, but it makes quarterly check-ins with the client quicker because you've already identified objectives, initiatives and KPIs. QBRs allow you to confirm that you and the customer are tracking toward those items. Unless your customer has a major strategic shift to fill you in on, the review's purpose is simply to keep you on track and help you identify wins, talk about KPIs, review open projects and get set for the next quarter.

Where can I find a QBR template?

We'll detail the elements of a QBR below. We've also distilled them into a handy template:

Get the QBR Template

Wow your clients and cement long-term relationships with our template for a quick yet thorough quarterly business review.

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Lay out the agenda.

Recap wins and misses..

Take a minute or two to talk about wins or success stories, as well as anywhere you or the client might have fallen down on the goals that you put your John Hancocks next to at the end of the annual review.

Discuss rearview-mirror metrics.

Glance at previous quarters to make sure you're tracking toward goals. If you've promised a certain number of MQLs for the year, calculate how many you've delivered, how many you have to go and your momentum. If you're an IT service provider, did you meet or exceed SLAs? How many tickets did you close? How long did it take, on average, to close them? CPAs will want to know whether quarterly taxes have been filed, the accuracy of forecasts and how fast their team responded to inquiries, for instance. Confirm you're tracking metrics that matter.

Review open projects.

Again, this shouldn't take long. Ideally, your project managers are having quick check-ins with customers at least monthly, making the QBR a time to wrap up results and progress with a tidy bow. Show how you're achieving mutually-agreed-on goals.

Then, review areas of improvement you and your team have identified while working through the engagement. After all, it isn't the client's job to identify other areas in which you can help them. Maybe they're done with their CRM integration; now you have a new marketing technology platform to suggest. Moving into a new vertical? Perhaps you have an idea for sales team training or events they should attend to learn more.

If you've identified or hope to identify opportunities for an upsell or cross-sell, bring in the account's sales rep — if the timing is right. The presence of sales can pressure a client into stubbornness.

Talk about unresolved issues.

Some items slowing progress may be on the client side, and some might be in your court. Regarding the latter: Has a hiccup on your end slowed progress? Clients are generally far more forgiving of delayed initiatives when those delays are addressed regularly vs. sprung upon them at the last minute.

Don't assume responsibility for issues on the customer's side that you can't fix. That trap is difficult to escape once you land in it. Are you waiting on the client to complete an integration? Is their HR team taking longer than anticipated to hire for a key role? Address any items that are outstanding, above budget or beyond deadline to avoid surprises. Identify ways you can help, but don't fall on your sword for issues that aren't in your control. Who within the organization is ultimately responsible for the client's initiatives? Who influences decisions that may be holding them up? Refer to the org chart if needed.

Unresolved issues may come up when discussing rearview-mirror metrics and open projects . If so, make a note and come back to them in this section. This advice applies to all sections of the QBR: If changes in business objectives come up in earlier sections of the review, make a note of it, and then touch on/clarify those changes in the appropriate section to ensure everyone is on the same page. There's no such thing as too many notes on your part.

Cover changes in business objectives.

Prepare for your client's business objectives to shift as the year progresses. It might frustrate you, but it will undoubtedly happen. Stay flexible, and talk about objectives on a regular basis so you can prepare for a shifted set of goals in the coming quarter.

Evaluate progress on last quarter's goals.

Map the objectives laid out in your annual business review to a KPI scorecard that holds everyone accountable to moving the engagement forward.

Should you collect customer feedback in QBR?

Essential to the QBR is a quick-and-dirty scorecard that lists objectives and how you’re meeting them. Keep the scorecard short and simple, using an “ABC;” “red, yellow, green;” or “percent complete” scoring system to indicate the initiative’s relation to the goal. The format should be easy to understand at-a-glance.

Again, your contacts have enough service providers to deal with. So don’t waste their time, and come with the scorecard mostly filled out with goals and metrics that you’ve continually tracked throughout the quarter.

See an example of a QBR scorecard in our QBR template .

Discuss pain points in the relationship.

Ask your client: Does your team respond to emails quickly? Are service issues resolved fast enough? Are there any complaints? Where can processes or communication be improved? Have you proven your value this quarter?

Touch on the future state.

Do this, but do it very quickly. You've already talked about changing business objectives and how you can help, so this is just a recap to cement yourself in the client's mind when they're creating a strategy for future endeavors. Do you see additional places you can plug into the customer's business in the future? This could look like expanding the number of departments you touch or appropriate additional services you might be able to provide. You're just planting the idea in the client's head, not making a sales pitch.

Sign the scorecard, and close it out.

At the close of the QBR, sign off on the completed scorecard to hold everyone accountable to the metrics, strategies and goals you're working toward. This level of accountability is invaluable in keeping the relationship even-keeled and on track. Review your call cadence with the client and ask if they have any questions.

How long should a QBR take?

A QBR should take 30 minutes at most. The above may seem like quite a bit to run through in half an hour, but a few elements make it possible: First, you've been updating this information and thinking through each of the points throughout the quarter. Second, you've been keeping track of KPIs in your scorecard and have come prepared to breeze through that piece — if your client is strapped for time, the scorecard is where you should focus your efforts. Third, the more you do QBRs, the better you'll get at them and the faster they'll go.

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The Bottom Line

As a services company, keeping customers satisfied is pivotal in reducing churn. And it's difficult to know whether you're meeting expectations if you don't regularly check in with customers. Without the business review process, you're floating in space without any sense of True North, just guessing about the right actions to take.

You might think that you know your stuff, but there are always accounts that will say they're dissatisfied one day out of the blue, and you'll wonder where you went wrong. Avoid that by checking in with your clients regularly and using customer relationship management (CRM) software to keep an eye on satisfaction. Plus, doing so ensures you're aligned with customers' overall business objectives so that you can continue to provide value and more deeply enmesh yourself into said strategies. Who doesn't love being needed?

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How to create a successful annual business plan

Here is what you need to know to create an effective and comprehensive annual plan for your department or company:

What is the purpose of annual planning?

An annual plan acts as a roadmap for your company. Annual planning allows you to go into a new fiscal or calendar year with specific and measurable goals set, budgets finalized, and a plan for how to measure progress on and achieve your company’s organizational and financial goals. Through this process, you develop the vision of where you hope that your company will be at the end of the year and the map of how you will get there.

You can also use annual planning to set goals and plans for individual departments or teams within an organization. Create marketing plans, human resource plans, and more to keep each segment of your business on track, reset your goals, and get your teams aligned towards common goals and initiatives. Since trends, consumer habits, and other factors change frequently, it’s good to create a fresh one-year plan each year.

Annual plans complement strategic planning while providing more short-term (one year) goals that are often tied to financial goals as well as the annual budget. Strategic plans often have more overarching goals that work to advance the company’s mission over three years or longer. Your annual plan will likely include goals that play into these longer-term goals in your company’s strategic plan.

Evaluating existing and prior year goals

Start your process by evaluating your current starting point. Take time to look back at last year’s annual plan and evaluate whether you achieved your set goals or fell short in certain areas. Attempt to determine why you fell short on specific goals and what steps you could take to prevent a repeat of that issue. This will help you set realistic goals for the new year.

This is also a great time to review your company’s:

Mission statement. This is a statement that describes the purpose of your organization. What does your business do and what does it hope to accomplish?

Core values. These are the principles, beliefs, and values that your organization’s culture is built on. These values shape how you do business, and as such, should shape your annual plan.

Strategic plan. Your strategic plan should detail your business plan and long-term goals while taking market conditions into consideration. Your annual plan should complement your overall strategic plan.

Financial reports. Review the prior year’s budget reconciliation, cash flow statements, and year-end reporting. If you have access to budgets or financial forecasts for the upcoming year, review them now. If not, they’ll need to be created later in the annual planning process.

Keep all of these documents handy, as you may need to reference them as you move through the annual planning process.

Create an updated SWOT analysis

It’s also time to update or create a SWOT Analysis chart for your company. A SWOT analysis is typically depicted as a four-quadrant square with the following quadrants:

Strengths. List out the things that your company already does well and your internal strengths. Perhaps you have a large Instagram following with a strong network of influencers promoting your product. Maybe you have unique branding, patents, or technology that set you apart from competitors. This section is your highlight reel from prior years and can also include strengths like new products or developments being released in the new year.

Weaknesses. Now it’s time to consider what can be improved. List out your company’s internal areas of weakness. A good way to identify weaknesses is to look at customer feedback. Do customers like your product but complain about the processing and delivery times? A weakness can also be staffing-related such as high turnover or taking too long to fill open positions. A common marketing weakness may be lack of media mentions or ranking low in Google search results for your product or business type.

Opportunities. These are external opportunities that you can take advantage of in the coming year. Are there new trends or technologies that could boost the success of your business? Is it time to start marketing your products to Gen Z? Are there changes in government regulations or laws going into effect in 2022 that could have a positive impact on your business?

Threats. Explore potential external threats to your company’s growth and success in the coming year. Maybe the current supply chain problems mean that you will have manufacturing or delivery delays in 2022. There could also be legal changes that negatively impact your business. Threats could also come in the form of major competitors or market saturation. Knowing what may threaten your success will help you build a plan to overcome these challenges, so be thorough with your market analysis.

After creating a company-wide SWOT analysis, consider breaking things down even further and creating a SWOT analysis on specific aspects or segments of your business.

For example, a marketing SWOT chart can help you identify what you need to adjust in your marketing strategy for the new year. Many businesses, especially small businesses, may have strong Facebook and Instagram accounts but weaknesses in the area of SEO. Reaching new audiences and market segments through TikTok may be an opportunity if your business has not jumped onto the platform yet. A new year is a great time to do a SWOT and update your ideal customer or target demographics to evaluate opportunities for expansion.

Goal setting with SMART goals

It’s a good idea to start off the new year by setting goals for your employees, departments, and the company overall. This creates trackable metrics to measure your company’s success at each level throughout the year. The best way to create goals is to use the SMART goal system.

Specific. Aim to make your goals specific and to identify who will be involved in the goal. A general goal would be to increase brand awareness. Specific goals would be growing your LinkedIn following to 10,000, obtaining 10 media mentions, or ranking one the first page of Google results for a specific target keyword. Within each of those specific goals you could identify who is responsible for them; a social media manager, PR or media relations team member, an SEO consultant, or in a small business, it may just be a digital marketing manager. Regardless, it’s helpful to define who is involved and who will oversee progress.

Measurable. Define how you will measure the success of each goal. What metric will you use to track progress towards the goal?

Attainable. Your goals should be realistic. They can be somewhat ambitious, but avoid including stretch goals that are unlikely to be achieved within the year with your anticipated staffing levels, budget, and level of consumer awareness. Of course, start-ups would love to score a major investor or have their company go viral and generate a huge amount of buzz with consumers, but unless you have reason to believe either of those is on the horizon, leave out goals that depend on unrealistic or unpredictable events. Also, leave goals that will take several years for your strategic plan.

Relevant. The goals that you set for this year should be relevant to your company’s vision, mission, and long-term objectives. This is why it’s helpful to start the process by looking at your mission statement, vision, and strategic plan.

Time-bound. All goals should have a clearly defined time frame including a specific deadline date. For annual planning, the timeframe may be one year, or you can break your goals down into monthly or quarterly goals and adjust the deadlines as such.

You’ll likely end up with a decently long list of goals for your company. As mentioned in the Specific criteria, breaking down your goals and defining who is responsible for them is important. Try to create goals that span the major business functions of your company such as product, operations, marketing, HR, and leadership . Set company-wide goals and then break them down by teams and later by individual contributors to ensure that everyone knows what goals they need to accomplish in order to help the business meet its overall yearly goals.

Budgeting and financial considerations

An important aspect of annual planning is financial planning. A good business plan should take financial constraints, budgets, and financial goals into consideration and plan accordingly. If you are a start-up and plan to go through a round of fundraising or have other major changes such as going public with an IPO, include those in your annual planning.

Your annual plan should include financial projections for the year. These projections will help you plan for financing needs, changes in cash flow, and evaluate the best timing for new projects or hiring. You’ll want to create sales forecasts to project your expected income. It’s also wise to forecast your anticipated expenses for things like labor, materials. supplies, and overhead.

You’ll also want to verify that you will be able to allocate the funds needed to accomplish the SMART goals that you created earlier. At this point, you may need to revise some of your goals to ensure that they are achievable within your financial constraints. Those that require a larger budget may need to be scaled down or saved for next year.

Contingency planning

Hopefully everything will go as planned, but it’s always good to have a contingency plan in place in case something goes awry. After all, we’ve all seen how unexpected challenges can derail business operations over the past two years.

Plan for potential emergencies or alternate scenarios. Does your annual business plan rely on covid conditions improving in 2022? Create a contingency plan in case there are more hiccups than expected during reopening or the return to the office.

Consider how your business could best handle supply chain issues, unexpected cash flow problems, and major IT or security concerns. If your headquarters is in an area prone to natural disasters such as wildfires or hurricanes, you should always have a plan in place for the safety of your staff, files, as well as assets that would be difficult to replace.

Putting it all together

There are a number of annual business plan templates available online that you can use to craft your final report. Larger companies often use specialized software for their annual business plan. If you plan to use the goals created during the annual planning process for performance management , a software solution may be best so that department leads and individual employees can track their goals throughout the year.

The report should open with an executive summary, although this is actually the last piece that you’ll typically want to write. The executive summary should act as an introduction to and a summary of the full report. Tailor it to your audience depending on whether the plan will be shared with employees, investors, or others.

A description of the product or services including new products, the team, and the company at present may also be included.

Then comes the meat of the report where you explain the goals you’ve created and your plan for achieving and measuring them. Your full report may be separated into marketing planning, financial planning, HR planning for organizational improvement, and other relevant sub-sections. This is where the zoomed-in SWOT analyses and department-level SMART goals will come in handy.

The report should leave the reader with a clear picture of what you will achieve and how you will do it.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

• Collaboration

Productivity

• Remote Work
• Time Management

How to Complete Your Own Annual Review

Reflect on work, health, finances, and more with a personal year in review

At the end of each whirlwind year, it’s hard to decipher where the last 365 days went. An annual review is a moment (or two) to pause and consider how you spent your year –– the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

The highs and lows of a year

James Clear, a productivity expert and the author of Atomic Habits , has publicly shared a annual review from 2013 to 2019 :

Basically, my Annual Review forces me to look at my actions over the past 12 months and ask, ‘Are my choices helping me live the life I want to live?’”

In the absence of regular reflection, we move from year to year without celebrating our successes, learning from our failures, and assessing whether what we’re doing in life is what we actually want to be doing in life. Sitting down to review your life, one piece at a time, will uncover hidden lessons and important insights you can take into the next year.

This article will guide you through completing an annual review of all the important aspects of your life –– work, productivity, health, finances, relationships, and more –– including real-life examples for inspiration. By taking time to reflect and arming yourself with awareness, you’ll be better equipped to face the year ahead.

Download our annual review Todoist template

Download our annual review Todoist template to reflect and answer key questions about your work, productivity, health, finances, and more over the passing year.

Why you should do an annual review

Sitting down to do an annual review takes time, patience, and some tolerance for discomfort as we ask ourselves the hard questions. The end of the year – when holiday hecticness takes hold and we’re longing for a break – hardly feels like a time to dig through our year in search of answers. But an annual review is an opportunity to discover what may have been hidden and search for insights we can use in the year to come.

Dedicated time for reflection

Though there are 8,760 hours in a year, most of us spend scant few on targeted reflection. It’s one of those important-but-not-urgent tasks that fall to the bottom of our lists. Instead, we find ourselves on auto-pilot, defaulting to knee-jerk reactions and well-worn habits.

An annual review is a chance to take a handful of those hours and walk away with insights to inform the year to come. A quiet revelation that arises from your review might convince you to seek out a more fulfilling job or reconnect with a loved one. Without a force to knock us off our tired trajectory, we can default to doing the same things day in and day out. Your annual review can be that force.

Celebrate your accomplishments

Our minds are primed to focus on the negative. We fixate on what we should have said, the opportunity unseized, the promotion that could have been. Even when we do reach our goals, we forget our wins as quickly as they come, stretching out our hands for the next achievement.

Hedonic adaptation is a cognitive bias that keeps us forever chasing the next thing.

An annual review is time to consider what you accomplished throughout the year. Give yourself permission to recognize and celebrate your wins –– the big ones and the small ones, the ones you intentionally aimed for and the ones you never expected. You may be surprised at what you discover when you take the time to look.

Unearth opportunities for improvement

Sometimes we avoid reflection because we’re afraid of what we’ll find. The uncomfortable feeling that we’ve wasted a year leads us to either dwell in regret or simply ignore the past altogether as we set starry-eyed goals for the new year. Neither impulse gives us the opportunity for honest self-reflection and growth.

Instead, take an objective look at your year. Dig through artifacts like an enthusiastic archeologist seeking to understand rather than judge. Use your annual review to get at the root of “why” and search for opportunities to do things differently in the year ahead.

When you review your year as a whole, seemingly unrelated parts of your life come into focus at once, enabling you to connect the dots.

You might discover that poor sleep sidelined your side project or digital detractions got in the way of family time. While facing our shortcomings head on isn’t easy, consider this reframe to make it easier: get curious, not critical.

Set better goals

We’re capable of running faster, writing better, working smarter, and anything else we set our minds to. We should set audacious goals that make us uncomfortable. But our ambitious goals should also be grounded in reality.

Set reflection-informed goals

Assessing the past year will help you take an honest look at your current benchmarks and inform your next targets. If you completed 50 workouts by the end of year, doubling that number for the new year is an ambitious goal worthy of pursuit. But aiming to workout daily and set a 365-day streak is probably an exercise in self-deception. An annual review helps us set resolutions we can actually reach by taking an ambitious, but realistic approach to goal-setting.

How to do an annual review

There’s no single right way to do an annual review. If you started the year with a set of concrete goals, you could review them one by one. If you’re a personal documentarian, you might review your year month-by-month, flipping chronologically through journal entries, notes, and snapshots on your camera roll. If you’re a master of the quantified self method, looking through your recorded numbers is a great strategy.

Here's how a few other annual review enthusiasts conduct their own year in reviews:

• Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a productivity expert and the Founder of Ness Labs , conducts an annual review where she pulls out her highlights for the year, recounts challenges, and reflects on big life shifts and important learnings.
• Justin Duke, a technologist, divided his review into sections like "Personal", "Professional", and "Content", further subdividing each section to discuss areas like his health, side-projects, and favorite books and music. He ends his refection with five goals for the year ahead.
• David Perell, a writer and entrepreneur, penned a annual review that includes his highlights of the year, a reflection on his goals including a letter grade for each, goals for the year ahead, and further reflections on improvement, thing to celebrate, and open questions.

For many, the simplest strategy will be reviewing each area of your life that’s important to you. This is the method we recommend to get a holistic view of your year, from work to workouts to relationships and more. It’s the method we’ll walk you through in the rest of this guide.

Annual reviews are about reflection, but our memories are often faulty. Use the information and data at your disposal to look back on your year. Before diving into your annual review, here’s a quick summary of some of the information – or "artifacts" – you should have quick access to before you start digging into your year:

Everything you'll need for your annual review

If you don’t have some of the information above, don’t worry. An annual review is worth doing even without all the data above at your fingertips. As you go through, take note of the data you would have liked to have had access to and set up a system to start collecting it for next year. For example, if you’re having a hard time remembering what books you read this year, start keeping track of them with Goodreads . While you might not want to track absolutely everything, it’s worth setting up some systems to document areas of your life that you’d like to look back on.

The section ahead will walk you through the different areas of your life to review, what data you can uncover and reflect on, as well as questions to ask yourself as you revisit the past twelve months and look to the year ahead.

This will take a while, so set aside time during the end of the year or the early part of the new year to complete your annual review. Remember, life has different seasons. In one, you might be putting family above productivity or prioritizing finances over fun. While it’s worth assessing every area of your life, focus more time on the areas that are most important to you right now or that will be a priority in the new year.

Thinking is great, but writing is even better . Pull out a blank journal, a few sheets of loose paper, or go digital with a Google Doc, writing down notes to prompts and answers to questions as you work through each section. If you’re using the annual review Todoist template , try typing your answers in the comments section of each task.

Let’s dive in.

Between racing to meet deadlines, busy periods at work, and growing professional responsibilities, a year goes by at falcon speed. Spend time reflecting on the work you did in between the madness. Contemplate whether you’re moving forward professionally or feeling stagnant in your job or career.

📈 What data you’ll need : Turn to your work emails, your work calendar, or your company’s internal emails to get a full picture of what you did at work in 2023. If your company or department does monthly or annual updates, it’s worth looking back at those and situating your own role and responsibilities within the wider context. Look back on notes from 1:1s with your managers and/or reports.

• Consider your favorite projects : Think back to the work you did in the past year and reflect on the assignments or projects that felt challenging but energizing. Jot down anything that comes to mind – from onboarding a new team member to serving on a committee unrelated to your core role. Look for common themes to the kind of work you find most gratifying. Write out the action items it might take to experience more of those high moments in the new year, including any obstacles you might need to break through.
• Contemplate your biggest challenges : Consider any professional challenges that made you unhappy, stood between you and a career goal, or simply made your job harder. This could be anything from a strained work relationship to an abundance of busy work. Write down how you might minimize or eliminate these challenges in the new year. Don’t limit your scope of solutions – entertain the possibility of a new job or a new career path altogether.
• Think about your professional growth : Our jobs (and by extension our days, weeks, and even years) get stale when we’re not moving. Reflect on new skills you picked up in the past year or opportunities you had to stretch beyond your previous capabilities. If things stayed the same, consider whether that works for you or if it’s time to try out something new.

Ask yourself these questions about your work:

• In what moments did it feel like I was working within my zone of genius ?
• How did I expand my professional capabilities and skill set?
• What professional relationships made an impact this year?
• What did I work on this year that I’m the most proud of?
• How did I provide support to my colleagues on the job?
• What did I learn from any work mistakes I made?
• Did I manage to find work-life balance?

Working faster and checking off more tasks isn’t a worthwhile goal in itself. Instead, we should consider productivity in the context of what it allows us to do with our precious time and attention – from spending more time with our loved ones to getting a passion project off the ground. Use a portion of your annual review to consider how much you got done in the past year, both on a micro scale (daily) and macro scale (annual). Consider how effectively you spend your time and whether you’re making tangible progress in important areas of your life or falling prey to distractions.

📈 What data you’ll need: If you write to-do lists and tasks in a daily or weekly paper planner, flip through that. Alternatively, look through your notes app or whatever digital spot where you might keep track of your tasks (e.g. Bear, Notion, etc). If you’re a digital taskmaster, turn to your digital to-list app (like Todoist ) for a complete task history. You can also take a look back at your productivity with time tracking apps like RescueTime . To assess your distractions, look through your browser site history and Screen Time on your mobile device to build greater awareness of the time you spent on social media and entertainment. Sites like Netflix and YouTube will often have your watch history available too. 

Track and review your productivity in apps like RescueTime

• Consider your daily progress : Think about how much you’re getting done each day. Review any daily to-do lists you have on hand, whether they’re from earlier this year or just the other day. Pay attention to what you wrote down versus what you actually got done. Consider whether you’re structuring your day in a way that helps you focus on your priorities and move towards your goals. If not, take our quiz to find a productivity method that works for you – whether that’s time blocking , pomodoro , GTD , or something else entirely.
• Review your overall productivity : The biggest indicator of productivity is what you actually got done. Take note of your biggest personal and professional projects. Write down the important things you got done this year. These could be big projects you launched at work, the effort you devoted to a side project, time dedicated to community organizing, or anything meaningful you accomplished and feel proud of.
• Assess your digital distractions : Social media and online content can curtail our productivity and leave us with less time in a day. While Netflix and YouTube have their place in helping us unwind and enjoy entertainment, sometimes they distract and detract. Consider your time spent online over the last year. If your internet use veers toward excessive, think about the ways that time could be better spent. That doesn’t mean replacing your time on Twitter with work, but with activities that serve your bigger goals – whether that’s baking with your kids, cooking more at home , or creating the comic book you’ve been thinking about for years.

Todoist Tip: View your completed tasks in Todoist inside projects. See precisely what you got done across your different projects to assess your productivity.

Review your daily and weekly productivity in Todoist

Ask yourself these questions about your productivity:

• How much am I really getting done each day?
• How satisfied am I with what I accomplished this year?
• What factors may have contributed to accomplishing less than I wanted this year?
• When am I the most productive? How can I create these conditions more often?
• When am I least productive? How can I avoid these conditions more often?
• Do I have a healthy relationship with social media and technology?

Consider your overall wellbeing over the passing year – your physical, emotional, and mental health. Take a look at whether you ate foods that made you feel strong, healthy, and energized, or foods that left you feeling gross and depleted , mentally and physically. Examine your exercise and activity levels to see whether you made moving your body a priority. Evaluate your emotional and mental health, everything from your mood to the time you devoted to self-care .

📈 What data you’ll need: If you track your eating, consult paper food logs or digital food tracking tools (e.g. MyFitnessPal). Digital grocery orders and bank statements will also provide a trail of clues into your nutrition over 2023. Review your workout app of choice (e.g. Strava, Peloton, etc) to assess your exercise levels, note if you gained or lost fat and/or muscle or  you achieved new personal bests in any lifts or races. Check any other physical activity data you might have. Consult your journal to peer into your emotional health throughout the year. Check your calendar and to-do lists to see if you prioritized time spent on self-care and activities for emotional wellbeing (e.g. vacation time, coaching, therapy, etc). Look into any sleep data you might have from a wearable health device.

• Account for your workouts : Review your workouts (or lack thereof). Highlight any PRs or activity results you’re proud of –– from trying out Yoga to going on a walk a few times a week. Try to spot any important trends, like working out less during a stressful month in your life or being more active during spring and summer. Use any new insights to inform the activity goals you set for the coming year. Think back to any injuries and whether you gave your body enough time to recuperate. Don’t forget to think about rest. Consider sleep levels and think about whether you’re waking up rested each day. Consider your nutrition: Look back at what you ate over the past year and assess whether what you’re consuming is making you feel your best. Consider everything from your caffeine consumption to your alcohol intake. Note down nutritious foods you want to add more of to your diet and write down areas of improvement.
• Reflect on your mental health : Think about how you coped with the stresses of life over the past year. Note whether you felt any sadness, anxiety, or anger and how you dealt with those emotions in both healthy and counterproductive ways. Write down strategies to start or continue prioritizing your overall wellbeing in the coming year (e.g. journaling, meditation, therapy, exercise, etc).

Ask yourself these questions about health:

• Overall, has my health improved, deteriorated, or stayed the same over the past year?
• Were there stressful or challenging times over the year that impacted my health?
• Am I adequately prioritizing healthy eating, exercise, and sleep?
• What did I do for myself this year as self-care? Can I do more?
• Did I devote adequate time to my religious and/or spiritual growth?
• What kinds of activities left me feeling drained?
• What kinds of activities reenergized me?

The value of money is what it buys us in the way of our needs, wants, experiences, security, and flexibility. Assess your financial progress over the last year as a whole, including any progress on big goals – whether that was paying off a portion of your credit card debt or saving enough to start a small business. Consider whether you’ve stuck to a strict budget or gone beyond your spending limits instead.

📈 What data you’ll need: Take a look at your bank account balances and credit card statements online. If you have a dedicated budget, consult your spreadsheets or apps like YNAB or Personal Capital . Also check-in on any investments you may have made and whether they’ve gone up or down.

• Look at where your money went : Beyond the big numbers, get into the details and recount precisely where your money went. Look into categories like bills, food, clothing, entertainment, child care, home, and everything else. Take the time to assess your biggest categories and see if there’s room for adjustments and reallocations.
• Dig into how much you earned, spent, and saved : Look at the raw numbers –– note your income from all sources, the amount you spent, and any savings and/or debts. Consider whether these amounts are aligned with your financial goals. If not, jot down ideas for how you could be earning more, saving more, or spending less.
• Consider the utility of your income : Note some of the important things you did with your income this year and how you’ll use your money in the coming year.

Ask yourself these questions about your finances:

• Am I satisfied with how much I earned, spent, and saved?
• Did I accomplish or miss any large financial goals?
• What habits contributed to my financial success or failure?
• Am I using my income to serve my other goals in life?
• How much did I give to causes I care about? Am I happy with that number?
• What is the top thing I can do next year to be financially successful?

Relationships

The people we spend time with and the relationships we forge make the year what it is. During your annual review, reflect on the relationships in your life – spouses and significant others, children, parents, siblings, friends, and more. Think back to memorable moments with friends and family – whether that’s birthday parties over Zoom or socially distanced walks in the park. Consider your most meaningful conversations, both the heart-warming ones and challenging ones. Consider how much time you spent with the people you love and whether you’re prioritizing their presence in your life. If you’re lacking connection and community in your life, consider how you might create them.

📈 What data you’ll need: Look back to your calendar or to-do list to check for time spent with the people in your life. Review text messages, phone logs, emails, and even your social media messages. Flip through the camera roll on your phone. Refer back to journal entries where you may have mentioned the people in your life.

• Consider the most important people in your life : Jot down the names of the people whose presence in your life you value, even if those relationships aren’t always easy. Consider whether you’ve spent enough time with them in the passing year, your favorite memories, biggest learnings, and ideas for spending more or better time with them in the new year. If relationships with any of these people are strained, think through the effort it might take to repair those bonds and whether it’s a worthwhile pursuit.
• Think about how you support your loved ones : Relationships are a mutual dance of give and take. Consider how much you give. Write down the ways you’ve supported the people in your life and the times you may have fallen short. Contemplate how you could be doing more to show your loved ones you care – whether that’s thoughtful messages or arranging time to talk in between busy days and weeks.
• Examine your overall connection to others : Consider whether you feel supported in life or may be lacking meaningful connection. If you want to build new relationships in the new year, write down or seek out strategies for finding friends, pursuing dating, or building community.

Ask yourself these questions about your friends, family, and relationships:

• What relationships gave me energy?
• What relationships zapped my energy?
• Did I spend enough time with my loved ones?
• What things may I have prioritized over my relationships? Are those things worth it?
• What specific challenges did I encounter in my relationships?
• What were the best moments with my friends and family in the last year?
• Are there people I would like to get closer to in the new year?
• What new relationships would I like to develop moving forward?

Life is better as an eternal student . Consider where your curiosities took you in the past year. Whether you were actually in school, took online courses, listened to podcasts, or read books, think about what you learned. Count your personal learnings about yourself and your life in what you learned over the last year. Self-inquiry is just as important as the things you pick up in textbooks.

📈 What data you’ll need: Look to your calendar or emails for reminders of the courses or conferences you attended. Turn to your bookshelf or reading apps (e.g. GoodReads, Kindle, Audible, Pocket) to account for everything you read. Consult your notes or journal for any life lessons you picked up along the way, whether through reflection or conversations with others.

• Recount new knowledge or skills : Jot down the things you know now that you previously didn’t and what you can do now that you couldn’t before. Record learning milestones like building a personal website from scratch or cooking the perfect scalloped potatoes. List off the most impactful books or articles you read that expanded your mind, helped you think differently, or deepened your interest in a particular area. Write down any subjects or skills you want to prioritize learning over the next year.
• Consider your ideal learning environments : In thinking about what you learned, consider how you learned too. Note how and when you did your best learning – whether that was taking a formal course or working one-on-one with a mentor. Use this information to plan how you’ll pick up new skills and knowledge in the new year.
• Think about your personal life lessons : Write down your top personal lessons of the year – whether they were in the “relationship”, “work”, or “productivity” category. Experience is the greatest teacher; consider the experiences in your life that have helped shape you and shifted your perspectives this year.

Ask yourself these questions about your learning:

• Were there competing priorities that prevented me from learning as much as I could?
• What was the most personally impactful thing I learned this year?
• How and when did I do my best learning over the last year?
• What skill should I focus on developing in the new year?
• How am I a different person now compared to last year?

If you’re fortunate enough to have a quiet day or two between the end of this year and the start of the next one, take time to unearth and examine the work, productivity, health, finances, relationship, and learning you’ve done over the past 365 days.

Before forging head-first into the future, take time to reflect on the past.

In reflecting upon the year, do your best to examine and question, not dwell. You may have fallen short of your goals or experienced challenges that made for a hard year, but chances are you accomplished more than you think you did. No matter what you unearth in your annual review, you will have learned more about yourself and what you want in life and that counts for a lot. Reflect on the year gone by so you can move forward with renewed energy and optimism for all that’s to come.

Use our annual review Todoist template to run through your work, productivity, health, finances, and more over the last 365 days.

Fadeke Adegbuyi

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• 6 steps for operations leaders to build ...

6 steps for operations leaders to build a better annual plan

An effective annual plan is critical to keep your teams, departments, and company together, working toward the same goals. 

As an operations leader, you oversee how your organization runs its business. By reviewing how your company performed in the past year, you and your operations teams can identify which strategies worked—and which fell short—to build an effective annual plan designed to maximize the impact of every department.

Here’s what you need to know about building a successful annual plan.

Connect everyone's work to company-wide goals

87% of workers with individual goals tied to company-wide goals say their business is well-prepared to meet customer expectations. Discover how Asana can transform the way your organization aligns work to goals.

Annual plans drive clarity and accountability 

With an annual plan, departments can start the year off with a strong understanding of the overall vision and how their work contributes to larger business goals. Without an overarching plan, it can be difficult to understand how a specific project or initiative moves the business forward. 

Clear goals establish benchmarks for project progress

Your annual plan shouldn’t be a set-it-and-forget-it goal. Rather, periodically check project progress against your annual plan so you can see how your operations teams are doing. Doing this throughout the year will not only give you a sense of how your teams are tracking towards their overall goals—it can also help you understand if they’re ahead or behind schedule, and adjust accordingly. 

If you notice that a specific initiative is not on track to meet the strategic goals outlined in your company’s annual plan, you can use this data to pivot and double down on—or divest from—specific initiatives. 

Establish concrete goals for a specific time period

The more specific your goal, the more concrete your action plan. Providing detailed and specific goals gives your employees a clear understanding of what work to prioritize and what deliverables they’re responsible for. 

Make sure your goals are measurable, as well. Clear KPIs and OKRs demonstrate how tangible work connects back to larger business goals. 

6 steps for annual business planning

The annual planning process often takes place near the end of the calendar year or at the end of your company’s fiscal year. As you get closer to annual planning time, consider these six steps of the annual planning process. 

1. Reflect on previous strategies—and develop new ones

Before your business can start planning for next year, ask yourself, your stakeholders, and your operations teams: How did we perform against the strategies laid out in last year’s annual plan?

No matter the answer, use these recent data points to steer your decision-making when building your next annual plan. That could mean doubling down on big programs or initiatives born in the last year—or going a different direction entirely. 

A well-built annual plan factors in reflection on what did and didn’t work—and improves off of it.

2. Transform your business’s greatest needs into goals

After reflecting on last year’s performance, hone in on the most significant growth and improvement opportunities. Use this for guidance as you construct company- and department-wide goals.

It helps to have a consistent framework for goals across the business, to accelerate the goal-setting process and ensure greater understanding of goals within all corners of the organization.

The exact goal framework you use will depend on your company, but a few good ones to consider are: 

The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method , which helps your business set goals using the framework “I will [objective] as measured by [key result].”

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) , which use leading and lagging indicators to track how you’re performing towards your goals. 

The SMART goals framework , which helps ensure the goals your organization sets are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

3. Create an action plan to maximize impact

The next step is to create an action plan for your business to achieve the goals outlined in step three. Your action plan should outline the list of steps your teams need to take to accomplish their goals. Think of an action plan like the map you’ll use to arrive at your final destination. 

From there, delegate the work laid out in the action plan to specific teams and departments. Connecting the work that your operations teams complete to larger company goals makes it easier for each team to understand the impact their work has on the business.

4. Ensure the annual plan is everyone’s plan

Not everyone can be involved in building the annual plan for your company—but every team member should feel like their work is seen and accounted for in the plan. 

As the annual plan comes together, meet with leaders and employees across the business to ensure varying perspectives and priorities are factored into the final product. This step is critical for getting buy-in and generating excitement across the business. 

You don’t want to be in a position where you’re just telling everyone what the annual plan is—you want to bring every department along for the journey and get them excited about what they’re working toward in the coming year. Consider conducting a presentation to not only share the company plan and why this plan matters, but also to outline timelines and how departments will use it to achieve the company’s goals. 

5. Execute your strategy, monitor metrics, and adjust as needed

At this point, your organization’s annual plan is completed, but nothing is ever fully set in stone. As the year progresses, make sure you’re continually monitoring success metrics and KPIs. If the results of your strategies are not behaving as you expected them to, it’s important to adjust so your business will still hit the goals outlined in your annual plan. 

6. Repeat again for next year 

At the end of the year, it’s time to start the process over again. Align with your strategic plan, look back at the past year’s results, and create another plan to achieve those business goals. 

What does a good annual plan include?

Effective annual plans should contain components that are essential for completing the work outlined in the plan itself, and context for why this plan will be effective. Here are a few examples of components you would find in an annual plan:

Reports of the previous year’s performance: Your company’s annual plan for the upcoming year should be based on the data from the previous year’s performance. This provides context for your teams as to what they’re capable of doing within one calendar year.

Budget estimates: A common KPI investors track is return on investment (ROI). Knowing how much money different teams are spending makes it easier for your organization to calculate ROI and adjust strategies. Providing budget estimations also gives departments the context they need for the amount of resources they have at their disposal for the year.

Clear and specific goals: Annual plans should use the SMART goal framework so that your company can easily measure progress and report back on it later. 

Important milestones: Your business can accomplish a lot of work within one year—but to do that, each department needs to know how they're doing. Milestones operate like checkpoints, giving teams and departments a sense of direction and an idea of how they're pacing against annual goals.

Project buffers and contingency plans: Unexpected things happen all the time, and it’s better to be prepared than caught off guard. Develop a contingency plan for how your organization will get back on track in the event of an unexpected roadblock. Also set aside some resource buffers, such as a small portion of your company’s budget, to accommodate for unexpected expenses.

Gear up for next year

After a year of hard work, it’s time to reflect back and plan for more great things in the future. While annual planning takes time, collaboration, and thoughtful strategy, the efforts show in the form of your business success. 

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is annual planning.

Annual planning is the act of developing a strategy for the upcoming year based on the learnings from the current year’s performance. This provides an opportunity for your operations teams to iterate on strategy from the past year and incorporate those learnings into your upcoming plans. 

In essence, your annual plan should contain: 

The goals your business needs to achieve

A strategy for how your organization will hit those goals

Clear tactics for what each department will work on

Any important milestones that benchmark progress

What’s the difference between annual planning and strategic planning? 

Strategic planning and annual planning are both important business planning methods that help set your team's strategy for the future. However, the scale of these planning strategies are different.

Strategic planning is the long-term strategy for your business. This encompasses a basic roadmap of how business should develop within three to five years. You will use your strategic planning process to inform your annual plan. 

Annual planning represents all of the goals and strategies that you want your business to achieve, similar to a strategic goal. The main difference here is that an annual plan only encompasses one calendar year, instead of a few years. If you think of it like a pie, annual planning is just one slice of the larger strategic plan pie.

When should your operations teams start annual planning?

Begin your annual planning process during Q4, so you can begin day one of Q1 with your plan in hand. If that’s not an option, do your annual planning as close to the start of the new year as possible. 

There are two benefits to planning earlier. First off, you’ll beat the end-of-year crunch, and avoid the stress that traditionally comes with the end of the year. Additionally, if you run an efficient annual planning process with your leadership team, your operations teams will still be free to execute on high-impact projects throughout Q4.

Related resources

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to effectively manage goals

Beat thrash for good: 4 organizational planning challenges and solutions

Use critical success factors to support your strategic plan

How To Create An Effective Annual Operating Plan (+Template)

Do you even need one? Perhaps your organization excels at executing business strategies, keeping everything on track while you monitor performance in real-time.

That's the hope, isn't it?

But let's be honest. You wouldn't be here reading this article if you were confident in your existing annual operating planning process.

So let’s dive in and explore the step-by-step process to create your annual operating plan. This guide also includes a free planning template that will help you flesh out the plan’s details. 

What Is An Annual Operating Plan? 

An annual operating plan (AOP) is a forward-looking blueprint that translates your business strategy into actionable steps. It’s a detailed roadmap that outlines your organization's strategic objectives, annual budget, detailed action plans, and resource allocation for a specific fiscal year. 

With an AOP (also known as the annual business plan), you get a 10,000-foot view of how to allocate project resources and what risks to manage so you can execute key priorities. The plan serves as a bridge between high-level business goals and day-to-day operations.

💡What is the difference between a business strategy and an annual operating plan (AOP)? Business strategy outlines the choices you need to make for your organization to win. AOP involves budget allocation, timelines, and deliverables, empowering your team to execute your strategy successfully.

Benefits Of An Annual Operating Plan

Organizations can realize the full benefits of an annual operating plan when it's tightly integrated with their strategic plan and financial budget. Here’s how:

Maximized resource efficiency and utilization

An AOP ensures efficient resource allocation to projects and initiatives that align with the business strategy and financial budget. It helps you direct human, financial, and other assets toward achieving strategic objectives , minimizing resource waste by linking daily operations with long-term goals. 

Alignment and focus on key business priorities 

An annual operating plan provides a clear roadmap toward a shared vision and helps everyone in your team understand their roles in meeting business objectives. It promotes collaboration and communication while eliminating silos, fostering a unified, goal-driven work environment.

Controlled strategy execution 

By defining specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and milestones in your AOP, you can easily assess whether the company is on track to achieve its goals. These metrics will help you identify areas that require immediate course correction to stay aligned with the overall strategy.

Confident, data-driven decisions 

A well-rounded AOP provides you with data to help you make the right decisions. These insights empower proactive responses to opportunities and challenges, ensuring that all team actions are focused on outcomes.

How To Create An Annual Operating Plan? 

Here’s a step-by-step guide for you to follow:

Step 1: Do the initial research and analysis

To kick off the planning process, assess the current state of your organization. Review the previous year's performance, considering various data sources, including financial statements and operational reports . 

By doing a thorough business review , you ensure that your annual operating plan for next year is grounded in reality. 

This helps you create a holistic plan that considers your business’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses. It also sets the stage for subsequent operational and financial planning —more on this later in the article.

👉How Cascade helps you:

With Cascade’s extensive library of 1,000+ integrations , you can centralize all your business data in one place. This simplifies data analysis and gives you easy access to past performance for an objective and thorough review. 

Step 2: Consult with key stakeholders to understand the needs 

The effectiveness of your annual operating plan (AOP) hinges on its alignment with your overarching company goals. Without it, you’re just creating a set of plans that, when executed, will have little to no impact on the overall business strategy. 

To ensure organizational alignment , discuss with the CEO and CFO about key business priorities. Also, meet with other key stakeholders like department heads to gather insights on departmental needs and priorities.

Their input will help you set realistic and achievable objectives and also get them fully onboard when the time comes to put the plan in motion.

👉How Cascade helps you:  

Cascade’s Metrics Library helps you tie metrics with your business objectives so you can have total visibility of what’s happening across the organization and achieve data-driven organizational alignment from top to bottom. 

Step 3: Set a budget and allocate resources

First, look at your revenue goals and identify how much will you actually need to sell to hit your targets.

Collaborate with department heads to assess the availability of manpower, equipment, and other resources. Verify whether these are sufficient to meet your set targets.

List out expenses, covering everything from materials and labor to marketing and new equipment. This exercise provides a clear picture of how much of resources you’ll need to allocate across various projects and functions to fulfill the objectives of your annual plan.

👉How Cascade helps you: 

Cascade makes budget tracking possible with custom fields that can capture data and link them to objectives. The budget custom field is a numerical field type where you can set the allocated, forecast, and spent values. As you work on your plan, you can update the relevant values and see a progress bar of the allocation vs. actuals.

📹 Check out this short video and learn how to set your custom field for budget tracking:

Step 4: Prepare a plan 

In this step, you should define your metrics and go beyond mere measurement. Set concrete targets. Then, link these targets to initiatives , projects, and actions that will drive you toward those numbers. 

Whether your organization operates with multiple departmental plans or a single, unified annual operating plan, ensure each department head outlines key projects and action plans aimed at achieving their annual targets.

When setting your KPIs to track progress, don’t forget to focus on both leading and lagging indicators .

Cascade’s free operational plan template gives you a clear and simple plan structure that you can use to easily collaborate with other department heads or team leaders. It’s pre-filled with examples and fully customizable to fit your needs.

📚 Are you an organization with multiple business units, each requiring its own AOP aligned with a central strategic plan? Explore our case study to see how a customer uses Cascade for strategic alignment between AOPs of different business units and the organization’s overarching 3-year strategy.

Step 5: Review and approve

Ensure your AOP is well-rounded and considers the needs of different stakeholders . Have different departments review the plan to promote alignment and collaboration. This step also ensures everyone is on the same page from the start. 

After an internal review, secure approval from decision-makers, such as board members or executives, to gain buy-in at the highest levels. This buy-in makes it easier to implement your annual plan.

Step 6: Execute and monitor 

Everyone involved must start working on their assigned initiatives. Ensure every team member knows that their duties are time-bound and remains accountable for completing them.

To make sure you're staying on course, it's vital to keep an eye on the progress through the KPIs established earlier. Monitoring progress against objectives ensures that you stay on track throughout the year. 

💡 Tip: Set a regular schedule to review your annual operating plan. Depending on your needs, this could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually. 

Cascade can help with monitoring through its user-friendly dashboards and comprehensive reporting capabilities. 

Dashboards use chart widgets and graphs populated with real-time data so you can understand what’s happening in different time frames. 

Cascade’s reports empower decision-making by providing the context of the data presented.

Annual Operating Plan Example With A Free Template

Cascade’s Operational Strategy Template is suitable for organizations of all sizes, and you can use it for free. 

This template comes with pre-filled fields to guide you on where to enter your data so you can quickly set it up within minutes. You can choose your focus areas and write down the objectives. Then you can set the KPIs that will be measured and tracked as you progress with the plan. 

Once set, designate responsible team members and use Cascade's real-time dashboard for monitoring.

It’s a tried and tested template that aligns your employees with the business strategy and provides clear guidelines on how to execute it.

Execute Your Annual Operating Plan With Cascade 🚀

You can’t simply make an AOP without tying it to the larger picture. Executing a plan without clear alignment to the overall business strategy is futile. Yes, your company is busy, but you’re getting nowhere. 

With Cascade , you can centralize your strategy. By doing so, you can easily see how the execution aligns with your business strategy.  

With its dynamic dashboards, real-time reports, and various other features, you can create seamless plans, execute them, and not worry that they’re being completed in silos. Every action your teams take, and every small goal they achieve, is connected to a bigger strategy that helps achieve your organization’s long-term vision. 

Want to give it a try? Sign up today for free or book a 1:1 product tour with one of Cascade’s strategy experts. 

Annual Operating Plan FAQ

What should be included in an annual operating plan .

A well-structured annual operating plan should include:

• A clear set of strategic objectives
• Detailed action plans
• Performance metrics
• Resource allocation
• Risk mitigation plans

What is the difference between annual operating plans and budgets?

Annual operating plans and budgets are both financial planning tools used to manage performance. An AOP is a comprehensive blueprint that includes your overarching goals and the details to execute them, including the financial and human resources needed.

On the other hand, CFOs use budgets to focus mostly on the financial aspect of the organization’s plan and are highly numbers-driven. They provide detailed projections of revenue, expenses, and cash flows but lack the strategic depth of AOPs. Unlike AOPs, they’re also less flexible once approved and are primarily intended for financial and accounting teams. 

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Annual Plan Review

Written by True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®

Reviewed by subject matter experts.

Updated on May 23, 2023

Get Any Financial Question Answered

Table of contents, what is an annual plan review.

An Annual Plan Review is a systematic and regular evaluation of an individual's or a company's financial plan to ensure that the plan remains aligned with current goals and objectives. This review is typically conducted once a year and involves an in-depth analysis of various financial aspects, such as investments, insurance, and estate planning.

Importance of Conducting an Annual Plan Review

The importance of an Annual Plan Review must be considered. It enables individuals and businesses to monitor their financial progress, identify potential issues, and make necessary adjustments to stay on track to achieve their goals. The review process also serves as an opportunity to reassess priorities, evaluate investment strategies, and optimize tax planning .

Goals and Objectives of an Annual Plan Review

The primary goals and objectives of an Annual Plan Review include:

Assessing the current financial situation

Identifying areas for improvement

Setting new or revising existing financial goals

Developing an action plan to achieve these goals

Scheduling a Review Meeting

It's crucial to select a suitable time for the Annual Plan Review, ideally at the end of the fiscal year or the beginning of the calendar year. This timing allows for a comprehensive assessment of the previous year's financial performance and a fresh start for the new year.

Invite all relevant stakeholders , including family members, business partners, and financial advisors, to participate in the Annual Plan Review. Their input will ensure a thorough analysis of the financial situation and a collaborative approach to decision-making.

Gathering Necessary Financial Documents and Information

Before the review meeting, gather all necessary financial documents and information, including:

Financial statements

Tax documents

Investment statements

Insurance policies

Evaluating the Current Financial Situation

Analyze the previous year's financial performance by comparing actual results to the budget. Identify areas where the actual performance deviated from the budget and determine the reasons for these variances.

Understanding the reasons behind variances will help make informed decisions about adjusting the financial plan . This may involve cutting expenses, reallocating resources, or modifying investment strategies.

Assessing Investment Performance

Examine the current asset allocation to ensure it aligns with the individual's or company's risk tolerance and financial goals . This may involve adjusting the mix of stocks , bonds , and other investment types .

Assess the risk tolerance of the individual or company to ensure the investment portfolio reflects the desired level of risk. Depending on the risk appetite, this may require adjusting the investment strategy to be more aggressive or conservative.

Evaluate the portfolio's investment returns , comparing them to relevant benchmarks and considering the overall performance in the context of the individual's or company's financial goals.

Reviewing Tax Strategies

Examine the tax efficiency of the investment portfolio, identifying opportunities to minimize tax liability through tax-advantaged accounts, such as IRAs or 401(k)s , and tax-efficient investments, such as municipal bonds .

Review the available tax deductions and credits to ensure the individual or company takes full advantage of tax-saving opportunities.

Consider year-end tax planning strategies to minimize further tax liability, such as deferring income, accelerating deductions, or harvesting tax losses.

Reviewing Insurance Policies

Life insurance.

Determine the appropriate amount of life insurance coverage needed to protect dependents and meet financial obligations in the event of the policyholder's death.

Examine existing life insurance policies, compare the benefits and costs of term and permanent life insurance options, and consider making adjustments to ensure adequate coverage.

Health Insurance

Review health insurance options to ensure the individual or company has the most suitable coverage, taking into account factors such as premiums, out-of-pocket expenses, and network availability.

Analyze out-of-pocket expenses, such as deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance, to ensure they align with the individual's or company's financial situation and risk tolerance.

Property and Casualty Insurance

Review homeowner's or renters' insurance policies to ensure adequate coverage for the property, its contents, and liability protection.

Evaluate auto insurance policies to ensure appropriate coverage levels, considering factors such as collision, comprehensive, and liability coverage, as well as deductibles and premium costs.

Examine liability insurance policies , such as umbrella policies, to ensure sufficient protection against potential lawsuits and other liability risks.

Disability Insurance

Determine the appropriate level of disability insurance coverage needed to replace income in the event of a disability that prevents the individual from working.

Evaluate existing disability insurance policies, compare the benefits, costs, and coverage periods, and consider making adjustments to ensure adequate income protection.

Reviewing the Current Estate Plan

Reviewing wills and trusts.

Ensure that beneficiary designations on wills , trusts , and other financial accounts are up to date and accurately reflect the individual's or company's wishes.

Examine the provisions of wills and trusts to ensure they align with the individual's or company's intentions for asset distribution upon death.

Evaluating Power of Attorney Documents

Review financial power of attorney documents to ensure that the designated agent is still appropriate and capable of managing financial affairs in the event of incapacity.

Examine health care power of attorney documents to ensure that the designated agent is still appropriate and capable of making health care decisions in the event of incapacity.

Assessing Strategies for Minimizing Estate Taxes

Review estate planning strategies to minimize potential estate taxes , such as gifting assets , establishing trusts, or utilizing life insurance to cover potential tax liabilities.

Setting Goals and Revising Action Plans

Based on the outcomes of the Annual Plan Review, set new or revised existing financial goals, taking into consideration short-term, mid-term, and long-term objectives.

Create a prioritized list of action steps to achieve the financial goals, including a timeline for implementation and a clear plan for monitoring progress.

Identify the resources and support needed to achieve the financial goals, such as financial advisors, tax professionals, and estate planning attorneys.

Implementing Changes and Monitoring Progress

Implement the action plan by making necessary adjustments to investments, updating insurance coverage, and executing tax strategies.

Schedule periodic check-ins to track goal achievement and adjust the plan as needed, ensuring continued progress toward financial objectives.

An Annual Plan Review is a crucial aspect of financial planning that enables individuals and businesses to monitor their progress towards their financial goals, identify potential issues, and make necessary adjustments.

The review process involves a comprehensive analysis of various financial aspects, such as investments, insurance, and estate planning.

A thorough Annual Plan Review can help individuals and businesses assess their current financial situation, identify areas for improvement, set new or revise existing financial goals, and develop an action plan to achieve these goals.

By making Annual Plan Reviews a priority, individuals and businesses can maintain financial stability and work towards achieving their long-term objectives.

Remember to consult with professionals, such as financial advisors , tax services , and estate planning attorneys , to get the expert guidance needed to make informed decisions and optimize financial strategies.

Annual Plan Review FAQs

What is an annual plan review.

An Annual Plan Review is a process of evaluating and assessing an organization's goals and objectives over the past year and creating a plan for the upcoming year.

Who is responsible for conducting an Annual Plan Review?

An organization's management team is usually responsible for conducting an Annual Plan Review. However, sometimes a specific committee or group of individuals may be assigned to lead the review process.

What are the benefits of conducting an Annual Plan Review?

An Annual Plan Review can help an organization identify areas where they excel and need to improve. It can also help to ensure that the organization is aligned with its goals and objectives and can help to identify any new opportunities or challenges.

How often should an organization conduct an Annual Plan Review?

An organization should conduct an Annual Plan Review once a year, typically at the end of the fiscal year, to evaluate its performance over the past year and plan for the upcoming year.

What is typically included in an Annual Plan Review?

An Annual Plan Review may include reviewing the organization's financial performance, goals and objectives, and strategies. It may also include an analysis of the organization's strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

About the Author

True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®

True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.

True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide , a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University , where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.

To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon , Nasdaq and Forbes .

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Annual Internet Service Provider Review 2024: Methodology

• Annual ISP Review
• Methodology

Judging Internet Service Providers (ISP) is not a simple task. A variety of technology types, substantial regional variability, and the dozens of terms, policy, and feature variables attached to every internet plan make comparisons difficult. What one ISP considers important and the best-in-class often does not match what others are touting–and all of those likely don’t sync up with what consumers ask for. Choosing the right internet plan has become irrationally complicated.

That specific challenge is exactly why we endeavor to be as meticulous as possible with nearly 30 million data points and customer sentiment as our ultimate guide.

Internet service exists as a privatized utility for people in the US, and we think it’s those people who should decide what’s really important about that service.

The Annual Internet Service Provider Review uses our ISP datasets to take an accurate and comprehensive snapshot of the internet landscape. Using a mix of customer feedback and thoughtful analysis from our team of internet experts, we then select the appropriate elements to build scores in five key areas: Best Overall, Best Value, Fastest ISP, Most Reliable, and Best Customer Service. Our primary goal of this analysis is to provide valuable provider insights in sync with the perspectives and needs of internet customers.

About our data

The annual review rests on three proprietary datasets:

• Performance data from the HighSpeedInternet.com speed test
• Data from our annual customer satisfaction survey
• HighSpeedInternet.com’s internet plan index

HighSpeedInternet.com speed test & performance data

At HighSpeedInternet.com, we have our own speed test (available on our site and via Android and iOS mobile apps) which collects millions of ISP performance data points every year. The speed test data points with the most influence on our scoring include download speed, upload speed, latency, and jitter. The 2024 Annual Review incorporates over 28 million ISP performance data points.

Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey

Every year, HighSpeedInternet.com surveys thousands of internet customers to see how providers stack up. Our latest survey includes responses from over 7,000 internet customers from across the nation. We ask customers to rate their provider’s speeds, pricing, reliability, customer service, and overall quality. On top of ratings, customers also answer more specific questions, such as how often they experience outages and whether or not their provider has raised their rates.

Aside from provider performance, we inquire how customers feel about internet service in general and what factors have the most impact on their experience. These insights help us create balanced scores that are faithful to real-world customer needs and wants. For example, our methodology places the highest priority on pricing and value because that’s what our data says matters most to customers. Likewise, the next most influential factor is internet performance, because, again, our data suggests that’s the next most important factor to customers after price. These priorities make the annual review a genuinely customer-centric analysis.

Internet Plan Index

At HighSpeedInternet.com, it’s our job to know providers inside and out. We maintain a comprehensive database of hundreds of internet plans from every major internet provider in the U.S. We track every detail of every plan, including prices, speeds, data caps, terms, and policy. The index is essential for comparing the combined value of provider offerings.

Score anatomy

Fastest isp.

When customers think of internet speed, the overwhelming majority think of download speed: the performance metric most indicative of technical service quality. That’s why we use download speed—and only download speed—to determine our speed scores. Our fastest ISP award goes to the provider with the fastest average download speed, period.

Score anatomy: 100% average download speed

What about upload speed, latency, and jitter?

We 100% believe in the value of these measurements. Symmetrical speeds, low latency, and low jitter are all substantially rewarded in other areas of our methodology.

Our value methodology looks for the providers that offer the best deals with a heavy preference for plans that make the most sense for the average household. We did this because it was an obvious cue from our research and customer survey findings. Money matters and when inflation is on the rise, millions of households look for budget-conscious solutions to everyday expenses, including their internet bill.

We start by gauging plan value with a cost vs. bandwidth ratio. Plans with advertised speeds below 940Mbps carry the most weight as we consider these plans to have the most impact. For plans with speeds of 940Mbps and above, score influence starts to drop dramatically. Gigabit plans and above are not only considerably beyond the needs of the vast majority, but their prices often don’t fit with households on any kind of budget.

In an effort to further favor affordability, we apply a flat reward to any ISP with an internet plan for $50 or less and for any ISP that provides unlimited data with 50% or more of their plans.

Score anatomy (approx.): 66% value ratio, 34% affordability & policy

Most Reliable

We can’t overstate the importance of internet reliability as internet service is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. While reliable internet certainly means fewer outages, it also means service that you can count on to operate smoothly. That’s why we choose our most reliable internet provider based on customer reliability ratings and key network health metrics, like latency and jitter which respond to efficient network management and consistent maintenance.

Finally, because certain technologies provide more consistent and reliable service, we factor in internet tech type as the final component of each reliability score.

Score Anatomy (approx.): 57% customer reliability rating, 33% network health metrics, 10% technology type

Best Customer Service

Our yearly survey allows us to keep an eye on which providers go above and beyond to provide quality customer interactions. Years of survey data tell us that customer service is one of the most important ingredients for happy Internet customers. Our research shows that high overall satisfaction and good customer service go hand in hand. ISPs with the best customer service receive both the highest customer service ratings and also the highest overall ratings. That’s why we use a mix of overall customer satisfaction and customer service ratings to gauge which providers perform best in this regard.

Score anatomy: 50% customer service rating, 50% overall satisfaction rating

Best Overall

Because internet service quality is multi-dimensional, our methodology considers every aspect of a provider, including its plan value, real-world performance, plan features, and the satisfaction level of its customers. Then we use survey data to determine which factors mean the most for you, the customer. Finally, our team of internet experts takes all that data, analysis, and customer feedback to create a balanced and meaningful snapshot of a provider’s overall quality.

While our overall score uses a combination of the methodology above, it also accounts for much more. We incorporate elements that, while important, do have a firm foothold in our more focused analysis. For example, service availability comes into question, as do meaningful features like symmetrical speeds and convenient account management.

Score anatomy (approx.): 40% pricing & value, 38% speed & performance, 17% customer feedback, 5% availability

Author - Austin Aguirre

Austin worked as a broadband technician installing and troubleshooting countless home internet networks for some of the largest ISPs in the U.S. He became a freelance writer in 2020 specializing in software guides. After graduating with a BS in technical communication from Arizona State University, he joined the team at HighSpeedInternet.com where he focuses on home network improvement and troubleshooting.

Editor - Aaron Gates

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Newsom and Democratic lawmakers detail first California budget cuts totaling $17 billion

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly announced an agreement Thursday to cut $17 billion from the state budget in April, providing the first details of their plan to begin to tackle the state’s massive deficit.

The plan calls for delaying $1 billion in grant funding for transit and intercity rail projects, saving $762.5 million by pausing hiring for open state jobs and pulling back $500 million from a program to help districts pay for K-12 building projects, among other proposals to trim the shortfall now, before additional cuts are made this summer.

“We are able to meet this challenge thanks to our responsible fiscal stewardship over the past years, including record budget reserves of close to $38 billion,” Newsom said in a statement. “There is still work to do as we finalize the budget and I look forward to the work ahead together to continue building the California of the future.”

The agreement marks a redo of a fumbled budget announcement made last month when Newsom and legislative leaders heralded a premature deal without disclosing an exact amount of funding they intended to cut or detailing a single program that would be affected.

Newsom and Democrats announce a plan to reduce the enormous budget deficit. How? TBD

Facing a shortfall of at least $38 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders said they have agreed to $12 billion to $18 billion in cuts but offered no details.

March 21, 2024

Lawmakers and the governor are scrambling to reduce California’s budget deficit, which Newsom estimated at $37.9 billion in January, before the fiscal forecast is updated in the coming weeks to likely show California in an even deeper budget hole. Estimates from the Legislative Analyst’s Office have suggested the deficit next year could be nearly twice as high as Newsom’s forecast.

Lower-than-expected revenues, delayed tax deadlines and overspending based on inaccurate budget projections created California’s grim financial picture. The state budget relies heavily on capital gains taxes paid by California’s highest earners, making state revenues subject to volatility in the stock market.

Republicans have criticized the lack of transparency into state budget negotiations and contend Democrats created the fiscal crisis by continuing to fund expensive programs, such as the expansion of Medi-Cal to all low-income immigrants, even as state revenues drop.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) called the budget deal “a swing and a miss from Democrats.”

“California’s budget has major league problems and Newsom is proposing JV solutions,” Gallagher said.

The first round of cuts could be voted on as early as next Thursday.

Democrats also agreed to pull $12.2 billion from state reserve accounts to cover the shortfall when the final budget is approved later on. The early cuts combined with the planned dip into the reserves will trim $29.5 billion off the deficit.

“We are all committed to delivering an on-time balanced budget, and this early action agreement is a critical first step to shrink the state’s shortfall,” said Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg).

Because the shortfall this year is so large, Newsom has urged the Legislature to take “early action” to begin to whittle away at the deficit now, long before the June 15 deadline to pass a budget.

The cuts Democrats agreed to make this month are largely considered the easier choices, allowing them to focus on tougher deliberations that will come later on this spring. Reducing the deficit before Newsom unveils his revised budget proposal in May could also lessen the public perception of the state’s fiscal woes by trimming the deficit figure before it is expected to grow.

Voters say California’s budget deficit is an ‘extremely serious’ problem, poll finds

What do voters think about the governor and potential solutions to the state’s looming budget deficit?

Jan. 18, 2024

The struggle to reach a consensus up until this point foreshadows the difficult work ahead in May and June for a Legislature and governor with little experience leading through a fiscal crisis as they weigh challenging choices that affect millions of Californians.

The agreement announced Thursday largely mirrors a plan the Senate put forward weeks ago to “shrink the shortfall” by $17 billion, which aligned with many of Newsom’s proposals to begin to offset the deficit.

The Assembly, where Democrats hold 62 of 80 seats under a new speaker , took a little longer to reach a consensus. This week, the lower house said it pushed back on some of the governor’s proposed cuts to housing and homelessness programs, which were ultimately left out of the early action deal. At the Assembly’s urging, the agreement also authorizes the administration to pause one-time spending from prior budget years that has not yet been dispersed.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said his chamber’s approach was the “right way to come at closing such a massive shortfall” and that he expects Newsom “to deliver challenging budget proposals next month to reduce the deficit in the long-term.”

The agreement, according to Newsom and legislative leaders, includes:

• Saving $762.5 million by declining to fill vacant state positions.
• Cutting $500 million from the School Facility Aid Program, which funds K-12 building projects.
• Delaying $1 billion in funding for the state’s Formula Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program.
• Delaying $550 million for a grant program to build facilities to expand preschool, TK and full-day kindergarten.
• Paying state workers on July 1 instead of June 30 to push $1.6 billion in payments into subsequent budget years.

The full list is available here . More details of the plan will be revealed when lawmakers introduce bill language, possibly next week.

More to Read

Newsom cuts $2.9 billion from California climate programs, delays an additional $1.9 billion

Jan. 11, 2024

Column: Newsom’s budget plan reflects his rosy view of the economy

How Newsom plans to fix California’s projected $37.9-billion budget deficit

Jan. 10, 2024

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Taryn Luna covers Gov. Gavin Newsom and California politics in Sacramento for the Los Angeles Times.

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Democrats book $27 million in ads in California congressional races

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April 7, 2024

Apple Savings Account Pros and Cons

Apple savings account review, apple savings account faqs.

• How Apple Savings Compares
• Why You Should Trust Us

Apple Savings Account Review 2024

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us and terms apply to offers listed (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate banking products to write unbiased product reviews.

no monthly service fee

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Competitive interest rate
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No minimum opening deposit
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No monthly service fees
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Only available for iPhones
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Only available for Apple Card users
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. No joint accounts
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Cannot access cash immediately
• Digital account
• To withdraw funds, transfer money from your Apple Savings account to your Apple Cash card or a linked account and wait for the transfer to clear
• Interest compounded daily, paid monthly
• Funds are FDIC-insured through partner bank, Goldman Sachs Bank, USA

Apple — the same company that brought you the Mac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone — now offers a high-yield savings account aptly named Apple Savings. The account pays 4.40% APY (Annual Percentage Yield), making it competitive with some of the best online banks .

There is no monthly service fee, a $0 minimum opening deposit, and no minimum balance requirements to earn interest.

Once you set up Apple Savings, any Daily Cash — the cash-back reward you earn from Apple Card purchases — is automatically deposited into your savings account, allowing you to earn interest on the Daily Cash. (You can choose a different Daily Cash destination, such as your Apple Cash balance.)

You also earn interest on deposits from linked external bank accounts or your Apple Cash balance. (Apple Cash is similar to Venmo and other peer-to-peer payment platforms.) You can track your account balance via the Savings dashboard in the Apple Wallet app.

Accessing your savings isn't as simple as visiting an ATM. To withdraw funds, you must transfer money from your Apple Savings account to your Apple Cash card or a linked bank account and wait for the transfer to clear. The process can take several business days, with some users reporting even longer delays. The long wait could be problematic if you need immediate access to your cash. 

Earn 5.25% APY on your savings. No monthly maintenance fees. No minimum deposit is required to open an account.

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. High interest rate
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No monthly service fee
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. ATM card included
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. May not be easy to deposit cash (Only cash accepting ATMs)

UFB Direct is an excellent option if you're searching for a competitive interest rate on a money market account or savings account. If you'd also like a checking account or CD, you might consider other institutions because UFB Direct doesn't have these accounts.

• Earn up to 5.25% APY*.
• No monthly maintenance fees.
• No minimum deposit required to open an account.
• Access your funds 24/7 with easy-to-use digital banking tools.
• Enjoy peace of mind with FDIC insurance up to the maximum allowance limit ® Certificate #35546.
• * The Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of 03/04/2024. The interest rate and corresponding APY for savings is variable and is set at UFB's discretion. This is a tiered variable rate account. Interest rates may change as often as daily without prior notice. Fees may reduce earnings.

Is Apple Savings Trustworthy?

Apple is not a financial institution. The Apple Card and Apple Savings are issued and provided by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, a Member FDIC bank. So even though Apple isn't a bank, deposits are insured for up to $250,000 for individual accounts — Apple doesn't offer joint accounts. Apple says on its website that any deposits you make above the $250,000 limit may be rejected or returned to you.

Apple has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, while Goldman Sachs has an A- rating . A solid BBB grade shows a company responds to customer complaints, maintains transparent business practices, and makes truthful advertising claims. However, remember that BBB ratings don't guarantee you'll have a good relationship with a company. 

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center , neither Apple nor Goldman Sachs has had any data breaches within the last five years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hasn't received any complaints about Apple in the past year, and Apple doesn't have any recent controversies.

However, the CFPB has received many consumer complaints about Goldman Sachs in the past year, mostly pertaining to credit cards and prepaid cards. 

Additionally, Goldman Sachs has been involved in several controversies in recent years. In 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission claimed Goldman Sachs Asset Management failed to follow its policies and procedures involving ESG (environment, social, and governance) investments; GSAM agreed to pay a $4 million penalty to settle the charges.

Yes, Apple introduced the Apple Savings Account in April 2023. It pays 4.40% APY, and it has no monthly service fee, a $0 minimum opening deposit, and no minimum balance requirements to maintain the account.

The Apple Savings Account pays 4.40% APY. This interest rate is significantly higher than the national average savings account interest rate , but you can find slightly higher rates elsewhere.

To set up Apple Savings, open the Wallet app on your iPhone and tap Apple Card. Next, tap the three dots and select Daily Cash. Finally, tap Set Up next to Savings and follow the on-screen instructions. If your Apple Card is restricted or locked, you may be unable to open the savings account. Likewise, if your Apple Cash or Apple Savings account is restricted or locked, you may not be able to transfer money to or from Savings.

You can usually transfer up to $20,000 out of the account per rolling seven-day period.

Yes. Only iPhone users with an Apple Card are eligible to open and use an Apple Savings account.

The Apple Savings account pays 4.40% APY right now.

How the Apple Savings Account Compares

Apple Savings Account vs. Synchrony High-Yield Savings Account

The Synchrony High Yield Savings Account is one of the best savings accounts right now. The bank has excellent CD rates, too.

Like Apple Savings, the Synchrony account has a $0 minimum opening deposit and no monthly service fee. However, Synchrony comes out ahead with a 4.75% APY and an ATM card — a rare feature among savings accounts. (Remember that Apple Savings users don't have immediate access to funds due to transfer delays.)

Synchrony may be the better choice if you want flexibility when accessing your cash. At the same time, Apple Savings could be a convenient way to save if you're an iPhone user with an Apple Card and are comfortable using the Apple Wallet app.

Earn 4.75% Annual Percentage Yield (APY). $0 minimum deposit. FDIC Insured.

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Competitive APY
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Comes with an ATM card
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No required opening deposit or minimum account balance
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. No physical branch locations
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Only reimburses up to $5 of out-of-network ATM fees per month

With a high rate and no fees, the Synchrony High Yield Savings Account is a great option for savers. But if you want to open a checking account to do all of your banking at one place, you may want to consider one of the best online banks instead.

• Access your cash online, by phone or via ATM
• Manage your accounts from virtually anywhere in the Synchrony app
• No minimum balance
• FDIC insured

Synchrony Bank Review

Apple Savings Account vs. Capital One 360 Performance Savings Account

The Capital One 360 Performance Savings account shares several features with Apple Savings. It has no monthly service fee, a $0 minimum opening deposit, and no balance requirements. They also offer similar savings rates.

What sets the two options apart is that Capital One offers other types of accounts, including a free checking account and CDs with competitive rates and no minimum deposit requirements.

Capital One may be more appealing if you want to open a checking account or CD at the same bank as your savings account. Meanwhile, loyal Apple users may prefer the convenience of a savings account linked to other Apple services.

Earn 4.35% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on any balance. FDIC Insured.

4.35% (as of 12/6/23)

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No opening deposit or minimum account balance
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Easy to save for various goals
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. 24/7 live chat
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Limited access to customer service by phone

Capital One is a strong bank overall. You'll earn competitive interest rates on online savings accounts and CDs.

• Over 280 branches in NY, LA, TX, MD, VA, NJ, and Washington, DC

Capital One 360 Bank Review

Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed Apple Savings

We rated Apple Savings using Insider's bank account methodology . We generally look at customer support, mobile apps, ethics, and other factors depending on the type of account we're reviewing. For example, we consider interest rates, service fees, and minimum opening deposits to review savings accounts, such as Apple Savings. 

Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards .

Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

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