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Planning

Clarify and understand your objectives. Use our selection of articles, reports, books and links to find more information on all aspects of business planning.
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Latest on planning

Climate transition planning: the next step for ESG action
  • Article
  • 28 Oct 2024
Mandatory transition plan disclosures are expected next year, but the rationale should be less about box ticking and more about a business’s ability to thrive in the coming decades. Kate Levick from think tank E3G explains why it’s time to act now.
IESBA updates its ethical code in relation to tax planning
  • Article
  • 16 Apr 2024
The International Ethics Standards Board (IESBA) has introduced new ethical provisions for accountants providing tax planning services.
Your transformation programme needs action (planning)
  • Article
  • 26 Feb 2024
In the latest in our series on implementing a transformation programme, Neil Cutting looks at the steps required to create a concrete action plan.
Business planning in a time of uncertainty
  • Article
  • 24 Feb 2023
With financial and economic upheaval a regular fixture on the business landscape, and with uncertainty rife, how should businesses approach forward planning?
Proposed revisions to ethical standards for tax planning
  • Article
  • 21 Feb 2023
The International Ethics Standards Board (IESBA) has published an exposure draft for consultation, setting out proposed revisions to the IESBA ethical code in relation to tax planning and related services.
Why businesses need to plan ahead on energy
  • Article
  • 30 Nov 2022
Government support schemes are currently offering some respite to the stress of rising energy bills for business. But now is the time to plan ahead for when they come to an end.
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Reports

Preparing smarter business plans
  • Report
  • 2020
The ICAEW Business and Management Faculty shares hints and tips for businesses writing a business plan at a time when many businesses are applying for finance to help them through the pandemic.
Why write a business plan?
  • Report
  • 2018
  • PDF (469kb)
A business plan is essentially the route map that helps you establish a viable new business. It will also be essential if you need to raise finance for your business.
Audit Insights Small Businesses report
  • Report
  • 2016
  • PDF (440kb)
Audit insights is an opportunity for external auditors to share some of their knowledge of specific sectors with the public, capturing more value for a wider audience. Shared insights and observations have been brought together in an environment which protects client confidentiality to produce this document. Audit insights: small businesses is the work of a group of external auditors across a broad range of firms, with many years’ combined experience of auditing and reviewing smaller companies
Exclusive Re engineering the planning system
  • Helpsheets and support
  • 2015
Annual planning as businesses use it today is one of the greatest mistakes organisations have made since 1494.
Exclusive Special Report 50: Business reporting
  • Report
  • 2015
  • PDF (3,118kb)
This special report contains a few essentials on reporting of use to finance manager, controller and directors, including micro entity reports, the visual impact of reports and lean accounting.
Exclusive Special Report 48: Budgeting
  • Report
  • 2015
  • PDF (2,802kb)
The role of budgets and budgeting is fundamental to planning business ventures. We hope that this report will provide you with a practical and interesting guide to budgeting.

eBooks

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.

Exclusive How to write a business plan: creating success
  • eBook
  • 2013
  • Brian Finch
  • Kogan Page
A guide to writing business plans for non-specialists. Contains sections on the structuring a business plan, researching the market, forecasting, risk measurement, legal issues and confidentiality, selling a business, and using a business plan to improve performance.
Exclusive How to write reports and proposals
  • eBook
  • 2013
  • Patrick Forsyth
  • Kogan Page
A practical guide to writing persuasive business proposals.
Exclusive Developing new products and services: learning, differentiation, and innovation
  • eBook
  • 2012
  • G. Lawrence Sanders
  • Business Expert Press
A guide to producing competitive products by differentiation.
Exclusive Successful organizational transformation: the five critical elements
  • eBook
  • 2011
  • Stephen Hacker, Marla Hacker, Marvin Washington
  • Business Expert Press
How to implement organisational change.
Exclusive Controller's function: the work of the managerial accountant, The
  • eBook
  • 2011
  • Steven M. Bragg
  • John Wiley and Sons
A complete operations reference manual for corporate controllers.
Exclusive Strategic planning fundamentals for small business
  • eBook
  • 2010
  • Gary May
  • Business Expert Press
Business strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Exclusive How to prepare business cases: an essential guide for accountants
  • eBook
  • 2009
  • Dan Remenyi, Brendan Remenyi
  • Elsevier
Aimed at accountants running a business.
Exclusive Making the business case: proposals that succeed for projects that work
  • eBook
  • 2009
  • Ian Gambles
  • Gower
A practical guide to writing a business case. It is written for anyone, novice or expert, who needs to produce a business case, whether for a defined project or a broader programme.
Terms of use

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

Business press

The ICAEW Library provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
Exclusive Opinion pieces: On data and models: Is more always better?
  • Article
  • 01 Dec 2023
  • Thomas C.Wilson
Thomas C. Wilson is an honorary professor of applied risk in insurance at Ludwig Maximilians University, and Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Ayudhya Pcl., Thailand. In this article he argues that more data and more sophisticated models are not always a universal panacea and may lead to bad business outcomes if not managed appropriately. He summarises the evolving business cases for increasing data and models in the risk management domain, giving examples of risks which are introduced or exacerbated by the use of more data and more complex models.
Exclusive A business continuity plan for leading a Ukrainian start-up during a year of war
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2023
  • Roman Rodomansky
A Ukrainian software development company co-founder shares lessons learnt around the importance of scenario planning, flexibility, decision-making, and guiding customers and employees through uncertainty.
Exclusive Developing an entrepreneurial small business strategic plan
  • Article
  • 01 Mar 2023
  • Hakan Butuner
Feature explaining how to use shortened Systematic Strategic Planning (SSP), a tool particularly suitable for developing strategic plans for SMEs. The article uses a case study of an entrepreneurial new business to demonstrate how the first four steps of a shortened SSP strategic plan can be applied.
Exclusive Armanino LLP advises businesses on planning for recession
  • Article
  • 08 Sep 2022
  • Michael Cohn
Advice from business consulting firm Armanino on how to reduce costs without making desperately needed employees redundant. The firm advises clients to look at internal metrics such as cash flow, revenue per employee, average days to close new business and accounts receivable payments.
Exclusive Get comfortable wrapping yourself around Python
  • Article
  • 01 Jun 2022
  • John Alarcon, Kevin Moffitt, Cory Ng
In today’s digital environment, where more tools are becoming necessary for analysing large and unstructured data sets, Python is emerging as a helpful resource for accountants. Discusses Python's relevance to accountants in areas such as audit and business planning and forecasting, as well as in accounting roles where automation may be useful.
Exclusive Text analytics and the accounting profession
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2021
  • John Alarcon, Liu Yue, Kevin C Moffatt, Sheneya Wilson
Article discuss the latest trends in text analytics in the accounting profession where firms are using text analytics software in accounting, auditing, tax, and business advisory for automation, compliance assurance, fraud detection, or planning purposes.

Articles and books in the ICAEW Library collection

The collection of the ICAEW Library & Information Service includes a range of articles, books and reports on business planning. Use the links below to see what we have available to request in our Library catalogue (Libcat).
The business start up guide
  • Library book
  • 2021
  • A.Pink
  • Tunbridge Wells
A practical and jargon free guide to the essential things every entrepreneur needs to know when setting up a business. Chapters include: the business plan; raising business finance; structuring a business tax efficiently; controlling overheads; common mistakes in business.
Business entrepreneurship for filmmakers: making a living as a creative artist in the film industry
  • Library book
  • 2020
  • C.Haine
  • Routledge
From creating a business model, dealing with taxes and funding, finding and managing clients, networking, investing, cashflow, and planning for the long term, this book provides real-world, pragmatic advice on navigating a freelance film career.
Turnaround management: unlocking and preserving value in distressed businesses
  • Library book
  • 2019
  • A.Tilley
  • Globe Law and Business
This practical book draws upon the author's 25 years' experience in turnaround management. It guides the reader through the key issues including staunching cash burn, creating cash generation, identifying viable business elements, eliminating loss-making sectors and excess cost, and identifying a revised strategy, a credible business plan and the management team to implement them.
How to write a business plan
  • Library book
  • 2013
  • B. Finch
  • Kogan Page
Designed to lead you through writing your own business plan, including the structure, business background, proposal, financial information and using business plans for bidding.
The business plan workbook
  • Library book
  • 2012
  • C.Barrow
  • Kogan Page
A guide to all aspects of business planning, aimed at entrepreneurs, senior executives and students. Based on methodology developed at Cranfield School of Management and using successful real-life business plans, book brings together the process and procedures required to produce that persuasive plan.

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.

External resources - Templates

Business planning templates
  • Start Up Loans Company
Business plan template from the Start Up Loans company, the UK government funded scheme which provides advice, loans and mentoring to start-up businesses. An annotated version of the template provides guidance on the type of information, examples and evidence that should be included.
Free sample business plans
  • Bplans
A large collection of free business plans for a wide variety of business sectors. Each plan outlines the following sections: executive summary, objectives, mission, keys to success, company summary, products, market analysis summary, strategy and implementation summary, management summary, and financial plan.
Growthink business plan template and guide for entrepreneurs
  • Growthink
Detailed template and guide from the US consultancy firm, updated for 2021. The template covers the following sections: executive summary, company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, and financial plan.
Prince's Trust business plans
  • Prince's Trust
The Trust's 'Where to start' section provides a business plan template (Word and pdf format), plus business plan financial tables (Excel format).
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

External resources - Advice and guides

Business & IP Centre
  • British Library
The British Library's Business and Intellectual Property Centre offers information and workshops on business planning and growing your business in general.
How to write a business plan
  • Startups
The planning section of startups.co.uk includes information on what a business plan is, what it should cover and what not to include. The website also provides news and information to get your small business going.
How to write business plans and business cases
  • Walkerstone
Guide from business trainers Walkerstone, setting out a detailed structure for a good business plan.
Incorporation and names
  • GOV.UK
Guidance from Companies House setting out the main requirements for incorporating a company in the United Kingdom. Includes guidance on choosing a name for your business.
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

External resources - Atom Content Marketing guides

Finance your high-growth business
  • Atom Content Marketing
Whether you need to invest in developing new products and approaching new markets, or fund increasing levels of working capital as sales increase, the right financing lets you make the most of your growth potential.
Find the right premises for growth
  • Atom Content Marketing
If you expect your business to grow quickly, it can be difficult to get suitable premises for your needs. Though you may not need much space now, the situation could be very different in 12 or 18 months' time.
Plan and budget for growth
  • Atom Content Marketing
Business planning is particularly important for businesses targeting high rates of growth. You need to be able to respond immediately to developments in what are often young and fast-moving sectors.
Write a business plan
  • Atom Content Marketing
A well-researched and written business plan is an essential tool. Discover how to structure and write a business plan and what information to include. Section includes business plan templates, business plan checklist and short video explaining business plan layouts.
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

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