Annual Work Plan

Overview

An Annual Work Plan helps your board focus on the strategic and long-term priorities that drive the organisation forward.

By setting priorities in advance, boards can use meeting time more effectively, meet compliance obligations with confidence, and build strong governance practices.

This article explains how to create and manage an Annual Work Plan in BoardPro.

Create an Annual Work Plan

There are several ways to create an Annual Work Plan in BoardPro.

To get started:

From the BoardPro dashboard, click Annual Work Plan in the left-hand navigation.
The Annual Work Plan dashboard displays all existing plans and allows you to create a new one.

Create a blank plan

From the Annual Work Plan dashboard, click Create Blank Plan or Add > Create blank plan.
BoardPro generates an empty Annual Work Plan with a three-month setup.
Click Write your item… to begin adding items.

You can use your plan to:

Add fixed compliance deadlines.
Schedule strategic deep-dive sessions.
Space out policy reviews.
Link meetings as you build the plan.

Import an existing plan (Premium and Ultimate only)

If you have AI Assist enabled, you can import an existing Annual Work Plan created elsewhere. This is useful if you have been using a spreadsheet or template.

Important:
Your existing plan must include dates for the import to be successful.

Supported file formats:

PDF
CSV
Excel (.xls and .xlsx)
Google Sheets
Markdown tables
Word (.docx)

Import your plan

From the Annual Work Plan dashboard, click Add > Import existing plan.
Upload your file or drag and drop it into the window.
Wait while the file is processed. This can take up to one minute.
Review the timeline to ensure everything imported correctly.
Adjust dates or wording as needed.

You can then:

Click Write your item… to add new items.
Use the Add icon (or press Return) to add additional items.
Open the item menu to delete items.
Link groups of tasks to meetings.

Note:
BoardPro does not support colour-filled cells. If you use colour coding (for example, green cells to indicate timing), replace these with text before importing. Your plan must also include dates for the import to succeed.

Use a best-practice template

BoardPro can generate an Annual Work Plan based on governance best practices.

From the Annual Work Plan dashboard, click Add > Use template.

BoardPro creates a plan with pre-populated tasks across each month.

We recommend tailoring the generated plan by:

Reviewing the pre-populated tasks.
Deleting tasks that are not relevant using the three-dot menu.
Adding your board’s strategic priorities or meeting dates using Add item.

Edit your Annual Work Plan

You can update your Annual Work Plan at any time.

Edit the plan name

You can rename a plan in two ways.

From the Annual Work Plan dashboard

Click the three-dot menu next to the plan name.
Select Rename.
Enter the new name.
Click Save.

From within the plan

Click the plan name at the top of the page.
Edit the name.
Click outside the field to save.

Add, delete, and move items

To add an item, click Write your item… or Add item.
To add another item, click the Add icon or press Return.
To delete an item, open the item menu and select Delete.
To move an item, drag it within a month or into another month.

Add, delete, and move months

To add a month, click Add month at the bottom of the plan.
To delete a month, click the three-dot menu next to Link meeting and select Delete month.
To move a month, drag it using the handle beside the month title.

Link a meeting

Linking meetings connects high-level priorities to the detailed context of each meeting.

Open your Annual Work Plan.
Click the meeting link next to a month.
Select a meeting from the list or use the search.

The linked meeting appears with a direct link and an attendee list.

Change a linked meeting

Click the three-dot menu next to the calendar icon.
Select Change meeting.
Choose a different meeting from the list.

Unlink a meeting

Click the three-dot menu next to the calendar icon.
Select Unlink meeting.

Important:
A meeting can only be linked to one month at a time. Once unlinked, it becomes available to link elsewhere.