Essential records provide the agency with information it needs to conduct business under other-than-normal conditions, and to resume more normal business afterward. These records, combined with other components of a business continuity plan, allow the agency to continue functioning under a range of adverse conditions, whatever their intensity and duration.

We use the term "essential records" in this course, but these records also go by other names. The federal government refers to them as "vital records" and the business community often calls them "mission-critical or business-critical records." We use "essential records" as synonymous with all of these terms.