Lesson 56 - Advanced Accounting Course

Lesson 56: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

🧠 What Is Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR)?

🛡️ These two strategies help a company prepare for and survive emergencies.

• Business Continuity (BC): How to keep the business running during and after a disruption.
  
  

• Disaster Recovery (DR): How to restore IT systems, data, and operations after a disaster.
  
  

🔁 BC = Keep things running
💾 DR = Recover what was lost

🔥 Why Is This Important for Accounting?

• 💰 Accounting teams manage financial systems, payroll, taxes, and reporting.
  
  

• 🔐 A disaster (cyberattack, natural disaster, power outage) could stop operations or cause data loss.
  
  

• ⏳ Downtime = missed deadlines, legal problems, and financial loss.
  
  

💡 A solid BC/DR plan protects the company’s reputation, money, and clients.

🚨 Examples of Disruptions

🛠️ Key Elements of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) 

💾 Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Components 

📊 Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery – Quick Comparison 

🧾 Example Scenario

Scenario: A ransomware attack shuts down your accounting software.

Without BCP/DR:

• No access to payroll, invoicing, or financial reporting
  
  

• Missed deadlines → late payments, legal issues
  
  

• Data loss → manual recovery, client trust lost
  
  

With BCP/DR:

• ✅ Work shifts to backup laptops
  
  

• ✅ Accounting team uses cloud-based backups
  
  

• ✅ Systems restored in 3 hours
  
  

• ✅ No major impact on clients or deadlines

✅ Summary