Work through daily prompts in the Starter Kit. Bring your answers together into a plan your backup person can use.
Sign up for the cohort waitlist and get 10% off the Starter Kit. Confirm your email to claim the discount. Already joined? Get your waitlist discount.
Enter it once. Bring it together. The person you name on Day 3 appears on your Day 15 handoff sheet. Keep working through the prompts, then print your plan for the person who may need it.
Download a sample plan (PDF, 2 pages)Real workbook output, with fictional business details.
The question is rarely who does my job. It is more specific than that.
You don’t need everything documented to start. You need to know what matters most.
Documentation isn’t the same thing as continuity. A document nobody can find, understand, or use isn’t much of a backup plan.
Four steps to a usable plan.
What can’t wait? Name the first 24 hours’ priorities and who handles them.
Who needs to know? Set the contact order and day-to-day decision authority.
What would someone else need? Make access, deadlines, money, and client commitments easy to find and follow.
Can they actually do it? Test one real handoff and fix what breaks.
Ten statements across the five areas where owner dependency usually bites. This isn’t a grade. It’s a flashlight.
0out of 20
Well covered. You are further along than most owners. What follows is your thinnest area, not a failing grade.
Partly covered. The structure is there in places. One area is noticeably thinner than the rest, and that is where the next hour is best spent.
Thin in most places. Someone stepping in would be guessing about a lot of this. That is common, and it is fixable in a defined order.
Almost everything runs through you. Nearly nothing here could continue without you right now. Start with one area rather than trying to fix all five.
Each area is scored out of 4. Your lowest one is what the next step below addresses.
Knowing the gap is the easy part. Almost every owner who reads a score like this agrees it matters and then does nothing for another year, because nothing on the calendar makes them. That is the whole reason the Quickstart is four dated sessions with other owners in the room, and not a workbook you mean to open.
If the work stops when you stop, the first question is not who does your job. It is who is responsible for what, and whether that person knows it.
Do this next: Name one backup person for the three things only you do today, and tell them.
Don’t worry about yet: Cross-training your backup on everything you do.
A capable stand-in can do good work and still miss the thing that was due Friday. Priorities and commitments have to be visible outside your head.
Do this next: Write the next 30 days of client deadlines in one place someone else can open.
Don’t worry about yet: Building a full client service calendar for the year.
A plan nobody can open is not a plan. Access is usually the first thing to break and the slowest thing to fix under pressure.
Do this next: List your five most critical systems and confirm your backup person can actually get into each one.
Don’t worry about yet: Documenting every system in your business.
Money keeps moving whether or not you do. Payroll runs, bills come due, and clients still need invoices.
Do this next: Pick the one payment that would hurt most if it was missed, and arrange who can make it without you.
Don’t worry about yet: Handing over full financial control or rewriting your bookkeeping.
Silence is what clients notice first. Someone needs both the words to send and the authority to decide.
Do this next: Draft the two sentences your backup would send clients in week one, and say who is allowed to send them.
Don’t worry about yet: Scripting every possible conversation.
Start here, or get help with a specific situation.
I just want to understand where I stand.
Free Continuity Quick Check: three minutes, nothing sent anywhere
I want to work through it myself, on my own schedule.
30-Day Starter Kit, $199. Join the cohort waitlist for 10% off the kit.
I know I need to do this, but I need structure and accountability.
Quickstart waitlist: $799 a seat, less what you actually paid for the Starter Kit. Comped and review copies earn no credit.
Choose your own schedule or guided group work.
$199 one time. Available now.
$799 per seat. Scheduled cohorts.
What you actually paid for the Starter Kit comes off your seat. Pay $199 for the kit, then $600 for the cohort. Discounted purchases earn the amount paid; comped and review copies earn no credit.
Three situations we hear about constantly, from owners who had no plan and owners who did.
“I put off creating a backup plan for years. Then I was hospitalized for 3 weeks with no warning. I lost $15,000 in client work and nearly lost my biggest account because nobody could access my systems. Having a backup plan in place would have saved me thousands.”
“After my father passed away suddenly, I spent months trying to piece together his business affairs. As a business owner myself, I immediately created my own backup plan. The peace of mind for my family is priceless.”
“When my partner had emergency surgery, I was able to step in and keep her business running because we had completed this backup plan process. Her clients were amazed at how smoothly everything continued during her 6-week recovery.”
Cohorts run several times a year as a 30-day sprint. Dates go to the waitlist below before they go anywhere else, because the group is capped at 8.
How the cohort runs and what a seat includesSessions are recorded, with summaries afterwards. Plan to attend at least three of the four for the live work time.
The full schedule shape, on the cohort pageThe Quickstart is specifically designed for accountants, bookkeepers, tax pros, fractional CFOs, and other small business advisors running small firms serving multiple clients.
You will get an email when dates are set, with the schedule, the price, and a link to reserve a seat. Joining the waitlist does not commit you to anything.
The guided, interactive format ensures you actually complete your plan rather than just thinking about it. The accountability, community support, and “study hall” work periods are specifically designed to overcome procrastination on this important but often-delayed task.
No. This is short and medium term continuity for an unexpected owner absence. It is not succession or estate planning, and it is not legal, insurance, or tax advice.
No. Prioritizing comes before documenting. The point of the 30 days is to find the critical few and make those usable.
Ask-a-CPA is Nancy McClelland’s membership community for bookkeepers who want to work better with the CPAs and tax pros their clients use, and Jennifer has taught a continuity workshop for its members. The Quickstart is a separate Spire Consulting Services program, open to everyone, member or not, so you don’t need to join anything to take it.
Join the Ask-a-CPA communityPlan Ahead is led by Jennifer Dymond, CPA, a business continuity expert with over 15 years of experience guiding small to medium-sized sustainable businesses through financial operations. Her practical, interactive approach ensures you walk away with a functional plan.
Jennifer runs Spire Consulting Services, where the same work happens one firm at a time. The Quickstart is the group version: same material, same result, a fraction of the cost.
Need individual help? Pick a service below. Jennifer replies with questions and a time to talk; no payment here.
Look at my specific situation with me.
Continuity Clarity Session, $495, 80 minutes
Guide me while I build my own plan.
Accountability Coaching, from $1,350, a 3-session package
Help me design or build the system.
Strategic consulting, from $1,800, scoped to the business
Test whether a plan I already have would work.
Tabletop Exercise, $895, a facilitated simulation
Hear about cohort dates first, or choose a service for a personal reply. No payment here.
Your seat includes the Starter Kit. See dates and registration on the cohort page.
Cohort announcements only, not a newsletter. Choose a service to email Jennifer too.
Get the Starter Kit for $199, or sign up for the cohort waitlist below and get 10% off the kit. Confirm your email to claim the discount. Already joined? Buy with your waitlist discount.
Unsubscribe from the waitlist in any email.
Find your first gap and start with the Starter Kit today. Prefer guided work? Join the next Quickstart cohort.
