SOP questions answered, plus longer guides on documenting work
Short answers to the questions that come up around SOPs, and a handful of long pieces on getting process knowledge out of people's heads. Each one should be worth reading even if you never buy anything.
Looking for a tool rather than an answer? The free SOP tools include a generator and a format builder, and SOP software compared prices six of them at a team of 30.
7 August 2026 · 7 min readSomeone is leaving in two weeks. Here is what to capture, and in what order.You cannot document everything a departing colleague knows, so stop trying. A triage order that captures the expensive knowledge first, plus the questions that pull it out of someone's head fastest.7 August 2026 · 6 min readFive people start next month and you have nothing to hand themYou will not document everything before they arrive, so pick correctly. What to write before day one, what to capture during onboarding itself, and which tasks are cheaper to leave undocumented.7 August 2026 · 9 min readHow to write an SOP people actually followMost SOP advice hands you a template. Templates are not the hard part. The hard part is writing steps that survive contact with someone who has never done the task, and handling the points where the process forks.7 August 2026 · 6 min read"Show us your documented processes": what diligence actually wantsAn investor or auditor asking for documented operations is not asking for a folder of documents. They are testing whether the business runs on systems or on specific people. Here is what satisfies that, and what does not.13 August 2026 · 6 min readA process just failed and a customer felt it. Fix the process, not just the ticket.The ticket gets closed, the apology gets sent, and the process that caused it stays exactly as undocumented as it was yesterday. What to write down while everyone still remembers why it happened.7 August 2026 · 4 min readSOP vs work instruction, procedure, and job aid: the differenceAn SOP describes a process across roles. A work instruction tells one person how to perform one task. A job aid is the reminder for someone who already knows.7 August 2026 · 3 min readWork instructions vs standard work: what is the difference?A work instruction tells you how to perform a task. Standard work defines the agreed best sequence and timing for it, and exists to be improved.7 August 2026 · 3 min readSOP vs manual: the difference, and what an operations manual addsAn SOP is one procedure. A manual is the compiled set, plus the context that makes them navigable: structure, ownership, and how they relate.7 August 2026 · 3 min readPolicy vs procedure vs guideline: what is the difference?A policy states the rule and why. A procedure states the steps that satisfy it. A guideline is advisory. Mixing them makes it unclear what is mandatory.7 August 2026 · 3 min readSOP vs runbook: what is the difference?A runbook is an SOP for operating and recovering a system, written to be followed under pressure by whoever is on call.7 August 2026 · 3 min readSOP vs user guide: the difference is obligationAn SOP tells your team how your organisation does something. A user guide tells someone how to use a product. Different reader, different obligation.7 August 2026 · 4 min readWhat is an SOP, and why do they matter?A standard operating procedure documents how a recurring task gets done: what starts it, who does what, in what order, and what to do when the answer changes the path.7 August 2026 · 5 min readOperations manuals and procedures: what goes in oneAn operations manual is the organised set of procedures a business runs on, plus the context that makes them navigable. Here is the format, and the mistake that kills most of them.7 August 2026 · 4 min readWhat are work instructions?A work instruction tells one person how to perform one task correctly at their station, in enough detail that they need nothing else open.7 August 2026 · 5 min readProcess documentation best practicesMost process documentation advice is about formatting. The practices that decide whether documentation gets used are about scope, specificity, and what happens when it goes stale.