As you become more familiar with processing work, and depending on a variety of factors, your work plan may need to be more or less formal. If it is a large project that has high research value and donor importance we may want to process to a higher level and it is more important that a work plan is filled out before work begins. If, on the other hand, it is an annual accrual with an inventory, it is easy to add to the existing description and a work plan is not necessary, though many of the steps outlined in this document may be quickly thought through before work takes place.