# SOP — `[Name of the procedure]`

> One file per procedure. A fixed shape, because comparability is the point — anyone should be able to open any SOP in your company and know where to look.
>
> **Two rules that decide whether an SOP set is useful or decorative.**
>
> **The record is the data.** Every SOP produces a record as a by-product of doing the work — a log entry, a signed sheet, a tracker row. Then your metrics fall out of work you were already doing, instead of requiring a separate reporting exercise that stops happening by month three.
>
> **Operators correct it.** An SOP drafted top-down, or by an AI, is wrong in specific ways only the person doing the job knows: a missing step, the wrong approver, a number that changed last year. It is not real until they have marked it up.

---

## Header

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **SOP ID** | `[e.g. OPS-04]` |
| **Version** | `1.0` |
| **Effective from** | |
| **Last reviewed** | |
| **Process owner** | `[one named person who runs it]` |
| **Approver** | `[one named person who signs off exceptions]` |
| **Frequency** | `[per order / daily / weekly / monthly / on trigger]` |
| **Trigger** | `[what starts it]` |

## Definition

`[Two or three sentences. What this procedure is for and what it produces. Written for someone who has never done it.]`

## Scope

**Covers:** `[  ]`
**Does not cover:** `[  → which SOP handles that instead]`

## Process

| Step | Action | Who does it | Who approves | Record produced |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | | | | |
| 2 | | | | |
| 3 | | | | |
| 4 | | | | |
| 5 | | | | |

Every step names a person, not a department. "Operations checks it" is how a step gets skipped for six months.

## Quality checkpoints

| At which step | What is checked | Against what standard | What happens on a fail |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | |

## Output

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **What this produces** | |
| **Where the record is kept** | |
| **How long it is kept** | |
| **Which metric it feeds** | → [`stack/10-pulse`](../stack/10-pulse/pulse.md) |

## Exceptions

| Situation | What to do | Who decides |
| --- | --- | --- |
| | | |

## Related

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Other SOPs | |
| Systems and tools | |
| Forms and templates | |
| Regulatory requirement, if any | |

---

## Notes from the operator

*(Left blank on purpose. The person who does this work fills it in during review. This is where the SOP becomes true.)*

---

## Review log

| Date | Reviewed by | Changed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| | | |

**Review cadence:** monthly for the first quarter, then quarterly. Bring the team together, walk the SOPs, ask what is wrong and what has changed. Ask what is annoying — the annoying steps are where the workarounds and the errors live.