IT disaster recovery plan, Pellcrest Accounting
IT disaster recovery plan template with systems, RTO and restore steps
An IT disaster recovery plan has to say which systems come back first, how much data each one can afford to lose, and the exact steps to restore them, so that a failed server or a ransomware attack becomes a procedure rather than a panic. This plan for a 22 person accounting practice ranks 11 systems by RTO and RPO and pairs them with a backup schedule, four restore procedures, contacts and a test log.
The document, page by page
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Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Cover
- Contract cover with the practice, the plan and the review date.
- 1. Purpose and scope
- What the plan covers, four headline figures and the meaning of RTO and RPO.
- 2. Systems, RTO and RPO
- Eleven systems in three tiers with location, targets and owner.
- 3. Backup schedule
- Six backup jobs with frequency, location, retention and immutability.
- 4. Declaring a disaster
- Who declares, the trigger, and an hour by hour response timeline.
- 5. Restore steps
- Numbered steps for server failure, ransomware, office loss and one file.
- 6 to 8. Contacts, test log and after a restore
- Who to call, four tests with target and actual times, and the checks that close an incident.
How to adapt this document
First, list every system staff use in a normal week, then set RTO and RPO by asking what a day without it costs and how much retyping you could bear; most small firms end up with three tiers like these. Second, match the backup schedule to the RPO, because an hourly RPO with a nightly backup is a promise the plan cannot keep. Third, run one restore test before you file the plan and write down the real time it took, even if it misses the target.
What makes this document work
Two numbers for every system
Each of the 11 systems carries an RTO and an RPO: identity and email must be back in 4 hours with no more than 15 minutes of lost mail, while the archive of closed files can wait 7 days. Grouping them into three tiers sets the restore order before anything breaks.
Built for ransomware, not just hardware
The backup schedule keeps three copies on two kinds of storage, with cloud copies that cannot be changed or deleted for 30 days. The ransomware steps start with disconnecting and calling the insurer before touching a machine, then search backwards for the last clean restore point.
The test log admits a failure
The October 2025 exercise missed its 8 hour RTO by 3 hours because the cloud machine was undersized. The log records the fix and books a retest for 13 July 2026, which is the evidence that the targets in section 2 are real.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between RTO and RPO?
The recovery time objective is how long a system can be down before it must be working again. The recovery point objective is how much recent data you can afford to lose, measured back from the failure. A system with a 4 hour RTO and a 1 hour RPO must be restored by lunchtime with no more than an hour of work missing.
Why keep an immutable backup copy?
Ransomware often looks for backups and encrypts or deletes them before demanding payment. A copy that cannot be changed or deleted for a set period, even by an administrator account, survives that attack. It is usually the copy that makes recovery possible without paying, which is why this plan keeps immutable copies of the server, email and practice data.
Do cloud software vendors back up my data for me?
They back up their platform, which protects against their failure, not necessarily yours. If a staff member deletes a client or a bad import overwrites records, restoring one customer's data can be slow or impossible. Exporting your own copy on a schedule, as this practice does daily, keeps that recovery in your hands.
Who should be allowed to declare an IT disaster?
One named person and a deputy, usually the practice or office manager and a partner or director. Declaring starts restores, client messages and insurance notices, so it needs authority and a clear trigger, such as a key system down longer than its RTO or any sign of ransomware. Waiting for consensus wastes the first hour.
What should happen after systems are restored?
Record the restore point used and the work staff had to redo, check whether any client data was seen or copied, send any notices required, compare actual recovery times with the targets, and change the plan where it fell short. Doing this within a week, while memories are fresh, is what makes the next recovery faster.
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