Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free account planning checklist is for account managers, key account managers and the sales leaders who approve their plans, in B2B companies. One run is the annual plan for one key account. It reviews the account’s history, revenue, contract and renewal dates, health and open issues, reads the customer’s goals and initiatives from their public reports, and maps the decision makers, influencers, champions and blockers with the gaps between them. It finds the whitespace, sizes the cross-sell and upsell opportunities and records your competitive position. Then it sets goals for revenue, retention, expansion and relationships, and writes an action plan with owners, dates, the executive sponsor’s part and the resources you need. The sales leader approves the plan before anyone acts on it. You choose what to share with the customer, and the run ends with the first quarterly check-in. A renewal in the plan year links to the Customer Renewal Checklist, and each deal can follow the Sales Proposal Checklist.
An account plan is your strategy for one customer for the coming year: what you know about the account, what the customer is trying to achieve, who decides, where else you could help, who you compete with, and what your team will do about it, with an owner and a date for each action. It is written by your side for your side, approved by a sales leader, and shared with the customer only in the parts you choose.
Without one, a key account is planned in the account manager’s head. The revenue target is clear, but nobody has written down that the sponsor is new, that two divisions have never heard of you, or that the contract renews in the middle of the year. This checklist runs one plan for one account, once a year, from the account review to the first quarterly check-in. The meetings with the customer and the deals inside the plan have checklists of their own.
Asks: where can this account go this year, and what will each of us do to get it there?
When: once a year, about six weeks before the plan year starts, with a check-in each quarter.
Output: an approved plan with goals, an action plan with owners and dates, and a record of the first quarterly check-in.
Asks: what did the customer achieve last quarter, and what do both sides commit to next?
When: each quarter, in a meeting with the customer, in the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) Checklist.
Output: goals scored and agreed with the customer, which feed the next check-in of this plan.
Asks: is this proposal approved and true, and will this contract renew?
When: when an opportunity in the plan reaches a proposal, in the Sales Proposal Checklist, and from 120 days before a renewal, in the Customer Renewal Checklist.
Output: a signed deal or renewal, which the plan counts towards its goals.
Nine phases take one key account from the start of planning to the first quarterly check-in of the plan year. Strategic and key accounts add a planning workshop, strategic accounts add a review with the executive sponsor, and an account with several buying units adds a map of the units and an owner for each. An account at risk adds an at-risk case, a gap with a decision maker adds executive sponsor outreach, a competitor in the account adds a response plan, and a renewal in the plan year adds a task to plan it. The sales leader’s approval is the gate: nothing after it can be completed until it is given. A joint review with the customer or a written summary adds its own tasks.
Start about six weeks before the plan year begins. Enter two dates on the first task: Phases 1 to 8 count in business days from the day planning starts, and Phase 9 counts from the first day of the plan year.
Look back before you look forward: the history, the revenue, the contract, the account’s health and what is still open. An account at risk adds a task to open an at-risk case, and several buying units add a map of the units.
Plan around the customer’s goals, not your quota. Read what the customer says about itself in public, then check your reading with the people you know.
Know who decides, who influences and where you have no relationship. A gap with a decision maker adds a task in Phase 7 for the executive sponsor to reach them.
Whitespace is the business the account could do with you but does not yet. Size each opportunity in the same way, then choose the few worth pursuing this year.
Know who else the customer could buy from, including doing the work themselves. A competitor already in the account, or being evaluated, adds a task to plan your response.
Set a small number of goals for the year and give every action an owner and a date. Strategic and key accounts start with a planning workshop. A relationship gap, several buying units and a renewal in the plan year each add a task.
The sales leader approves the plan before anyone acts on it, and nothing after the approval can be completed until it is given. Then decide what to share with the customer: a joint review meeting adds two tasks, and a written summary adds one.
This phase counts from the first day of the plan year. Start the first actions on day one, then check progress about three months in and change the plan where the account has changed.
The usual parts of a key account plan, what each should say, where the information comes from and the gap that most often weakens it. This is a practical guide drawn from common sales practice, not a standard: keep the parts that fit your accounts and your sales process. The order matches the phases of the checklist.
| Part of the plan | What it should say | Where the information comes from | Common gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account review | Revenue by year, products bought, contract and renewal dates, health and open issues | Your CRM, billing, the contract and customer success | Revenue figures with no reason for the change behind them |
| The customer’s business | Their goals, initiatives and the changes in their market, in their words | Their annual report and announcements, then your contacts | Goals written from your product’s point of view, not theirs |
| Stakeholder map | Who decides, who influences, who uses, your champions and blockers, and how strong each relationship is | Your contacts, the organisation chart and your team | Only the people you already know, so the gaps never show |
| Whitespace | The teams, sites and products not yet using you, and the opportunities, each sized the same way | Usage data, the account review and the customer’s initiatives | A long wish list with no value, timing or confidence against each item |
| Competitive position | Who else supplies the account, how the customer sees you against them and the risks to your position | Your contacts, lost deals and the customer’s procurement | Leaving out the customer doing the work in-house |
| Goals for the year | Revenue, retention, expansion and relationship goals, few enough to remember | The review, the whitespace and the stakeholder map | A revenue number with no relationship or retention goal behind it |
| Action plan | Each action, the goal it serves, one owner and a due date, plus the executive sponsor’s part and the resources needed | The account team, agreed in the workshop or with the account manager | Actions owned by “the team” or with no date |
| Review and follow-up | Who approved the plan, what the customer saw, and when progress is checked | The sales leader and the account manager | A plan approved once and never opened again |
Short beats complete. A plan the account team reads every quarter is worth more than a long one nobody opens after it is approved. This checklist ends each phase with a few fields to fill in and asks for a one-page summary before the sales leader’s approval.
Not every part is for the customer. Their goals, the joint actions and the dates you will meet are worth sharing, because the customer can correct them. Revenue goals, competitor notes and your view of individual people stay internal. The checklist asks you to decide which parts to share after the plan is approved.
The sales leader’s approval halts the checklist: the plan cannot be shared with the customer, and the quarterly check-in cannot be recorded, until the goals, the actions and the resources are approved. Strategic accounts add a review with the executive sponsor before it. See how approvals that halt a checklist work.
Two dates on the first task drive the run. Phases 1 to 8 count in business days from the day planning starts, so the plan is approved about four weeks later. The first actions and the quarterly check-in count from the first day of the plan year. Overdue alerts go to the person assigned, and each task is assigned from the people named on the first task.
The Reports Grid lists every account plan with its answers, such as the tier, the account’s health and the sales leader’s decision, with filters and export. The Tasks Grid shows each account manager, CSM and executive sponsor what is due this week. See analytics and reporting.
CheckFlow does not size opportunities, forecast revenue or replace your CRM. Your CRM, billing and your team’s judgement do that. CheckFlow makes sure every key account gets the same review, map and plan, with an owner and a date for each step, an approval before anyone acts, and a record of who did what and when. To plan every key account each year, start the checklists from a schedule; see recurring checklists.
This template plans one account for one year. Review the year with the customer each quarter with the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) Checklist, write each proposal the plan leads to with the Sales Proposal Checklist, and run a renewal in the plan year with the Customer Renewal Checklist. If the review finds the account at risk, open a case with the At-Risk Customer (Churn Prevention) Checklist, and check each deal’s stage with the Sales Pipeline Stages Checklist.
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
An account plan is a written strategy for one important customer, usually for a year. It records what you know about the account and the customer’s business, who decides and influences, where else you could help, who you compete with, and the goals and actions your team will take, each with an owner and a date. It is written by the supplier, approved internally, and reviewed every quarter.
A review of the account (history, revenue, contract and renewal dates, health and open issues), the customer’s goals and initiatives, a stakeholder map with your champions, blockers and relationship gaps, the whitespace and the opportunities in it, sized the same way, your competitive position, a few goals for the year, and an action plan with owners, dates, the executive sponsor’s part and the resources you need. A one-page summary helps the people who approve and use it.
List everyone who decides, influences, signs or uses what you sell, with their role, their part in decisions and how strong your relationship with them is. Mark your champions and anyone who prefers another supplier. Then compare the list with the customer’s organisation chart and recent announcements to find people who have joined, left or changed role. The gaps that matter most are decision makers nobody on your side knows well.
Whitespace is the business an account could do with you but does not yet: teams, sites or divisions that do not use you, and products they have not bought. Map each part of the account against your products, list the cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and size each one in the same way, with a value, a timing and how confident you are. Then choose the few that fit the customer’s own priorities.
Usually the sales leader the account manager reports to, because the plan commits the business to goals and to resources such as specialist time or the executive sponsor’s involvement. For the largest accounts, the executive sponsor often reads the plan before it is approved. In this template the sales leader’s approval is the gate, and strategic accounts add the executive sponsor’s review before it.
Share the parts the customer can improve: their goals as you understand them, the actions you will take together and the dates you will meet. A joint review meeting lets them correct your reading and often surfaces new contacts or projects. Keep revenue goals, competitor notes and your view of individual people internal. Some teams share nothing in the first year; the template lets you choose each time.
A common rhythm is to write the plan once a year and check it every quarter. A quarterly check-in compares progress with each goal, updates the stakeholder map and the opportunities, and changes the plan where the account has changed. Rewrite it sooner if something big happens, such as a merger, a new decision maker or a lost renewal.
An account plan is your internal strategy for the account over a year. A quarterly business review is a meeting with the customer about what they achieved last quarter and what both sides will do next. The two feed each other: the plan decides what you want from each QBR, and what the customer says in a QBR updates the plan. Run the meeting with the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) Checklist.
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