Business Continuity Plan

Imagine a cyberattack shuts down your primary bank portal hours before payroll is due. At the same time, your treasury team can’t access internal systems, and employees are already asking when they’ll be paid. This is when a business continuity plan becomes critical.

For financial professionals, business continuity planning is an essential part of organizational infrastructure. It’s how you protect liquidity, maintain trust and ensure the organization can meet its obligations under pressure. When payments, funding or financial systems are disrupted, treasury is expected to keep the business moving, even if the disruption occurs outside normal business hours or without warning.

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What is a business continuity plan

A business continuity plan defines how an organization will continue operating during a disruption. It covers the processes, people and communication required to maintain critical functions. At its heart, it answers three critical questions:

What functions must continue no matter what?
What happens if primary systems or partners fail?
Who makes decisions, and how are they communicated?

Disruptions can take many forms, from geopolitical events and natural disasters to cyberattacks and infrastructure failures, and organizations must always be prepared to respond. Business continuity aims to ensure that essential activities — such as making payments, accessing cash and managing risk — can continue even when normal operations are unavailable. This includes crisis management, alternative operating procedures and coordinated communication with employees, customers and partners.

Modern business continuity planning requires an agile approach to risk management, building flexibility into processes, monitoring emerging risks and enabling rapid, cross-functional decision-making. Rather than planning for a single scenario, organizations must be prepared for a range of disruptions — often occurring simultaneously and without warning.

Importance of business continuity plans

Disruptions today are often complex, fast-moving and interconnected. A single failure, whether internal or external, can quickly cascade across systems, partners and operations. For treasury, in particular, the impact of disruption is immediate. If payments stop or liquidity becomes constrained, the organization's ability to operate is at risk.

During the AFP webinar “Are You Ready for a Crisis? Business Continuity Planning in Uncertain Times,” treasury leaders warned that even when internal systems remain operational, external dependencies can fail.

Marlys Green, Treasury Controller at PDS Health, recounted an experience in which a cyberattack on a key healthcare payments provider halted incoming cash flows, requiring their teams to quickly shift to alternative providers and restore operations.

How to create a business continuity plan

Effective business continuity plans start with a clear understanding of what must continue no matter what. The plans should then be documented, distributed and understood across the organization.

Identify mission-critical functions. Determine which activities are essential to operations, such as payments, cash visibility and funding.
Assess risks. Evaluate potential disruptions, from cyberattacks to loss of physical access, and consider both likelihood and impact.
Establish contingency measures. Define backup processes, such as alternative banking channels or manual payment methods.
Prioritize corrective actions. Treasury needs to decide what matters most in a disruption, whether it’s liquidity, regulatory obligations or customer impact. This becomes especially important when multiple risks unfold at once.
Develop a communication plan. Ensure there are clear ways to communicate with employees, customers and partners, including when primary systems are unavailable.

Business continuity plan vs. disaster recovery plan

Business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans are closely related but serve different purposes. What it comes down to is continuity vs. restoration.

Business continuity plans focus on maintaining operations during a disruption.
Disaster recovery plans focus on restoring systems and infrastructure afterward.

A disaster recovery plan is typically owned by IT and covers such questions as:

How quickly can systems be restored?
Where is data backed up and how is it recovered?
What are the recovery time objective and recovery point objective?

In contrast, a business continuity plan addresses how the business continues to function while those systems are unavailable. For treasury, that distinction is critical. A disaster recovery plan may restore access to a bank portal or treasury management system, but a business continuity plan ensures that, while it’s waiting, the organization can:

Execute critical payments (e.g., payroll, debt obligations, suppliers).
Access cash positions through alternative channels.
Maintain liquidity and funding.
Communicate with banks, vendors and internal stakeholders.

Treasury's role in business continuity planning

Treasury plays a central role in business continuity planning due to its oversight of cash and liquidity. It is responsible for safeguarding an organization's ability to operate, particularly in regard to maintaining cash flow, making critical payments and accessing financial systems. It must coordinate with banking partners, treasury technology providers and internal teams to resolve disruptions.

Some best practices to help ensure operational readiness include:

Maintaining backup banking relationships and providers.
Automating processes where possible to reduce manual dependencies.
Defining roles and responsibilities clearly across teams.
Testing plans regularly to identify gaps.
Focusing on both technology and people.

Resources for business continuity planning

People Side of Business Continuity
Underwritten by Kyriba, this guide explores how developing a strong culture of support is critical to minimizing the operational risks associated with personnel shortages.

Best Practices for a Resilient Treasury Function
Make sure you’re prepared to take on whatever challenge comes your way by equipping yourself with these best practices for a more resilient treasury function.

FAQs about business continuity plans

What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?
The purpose of a business continuity plan is to ensure an organization can continue critical operations during and after a disruption.

What does a business continuity plan typically include?
It typically includes identification of critical functions, risk assessments, contingency measures, communication plans and defined roles and responsibilities.

How do you test a business continuity plan?
You test it through exercises such as tabletop scenarios, simulations and live testing of processes and systems.

How often should a business continuity plan be tested?
At a minimum, it should be tested annually, and ideally more frequently, especially after major operational changes.

Who is responsible for the business continuity plan?
Responsibility for the plan is shared across the organization, with treasury playing a key role in maintaining financial continuity and liquidity.