This chapter of "Principles of School Business Management" focuses on issues and organizational realities that affect the planning conducted by school business offices. The chapter deals first with theories of planning and then considers their relationship to the organizational context in which they will be implemented. Among the theories reviewed are the rational-technical, the disjointed-incremental, the "mixed-scanning" method of combining these first two theories, the organizational development theory, and new theory directions taken in the 1980s. These broad considerations are followed by a discussion of the societal and governmental issues that the planning efforts of local school districts can anticipate but not control, such as statutory and administrative laws, auditing and evaluation requirements, case law, categorical funding programs, demographics, and economic and political developments. The chapter concludes by providing a simple, schematic presentation of planning that clarifies the relationships among key factors in the planning process without serving as a limited, practical model. The factors addressed include public school and environmental values; organization for planning; assessment, forecasting, goal-setting, and development of strategies; and the implementation and evaluation of the process. Fifty-six footnotes cite relevant sources. (PGD)