The SOP format that works is the one a reader can navigate without having read it before, and that means the same seven sections in the same order every time: purpose, scope, roles and responsibilities, materials or systems, the procedure itself, the records it produces, and the version and review history. The standard operating procedure template on this site counts those sections from your steps and adds one for every decision point, because a decision buried in the middle of a step is the line that gets read two ways.
The header carries the identity
Title, document number, version, owner, approver, effective date and review date sit at the top of the first page, because they are what a reader checks before trusting the rest. A procedure with no version on it is one nobody can tell is current.
The procedure section is numbered steps with roles
Each step is one action, numbered, starting with the role that does it. Sub-steps are lettered under the step they belong to. A decision point is its own numbered step that says if this, go to step X, otherwise step Y, and the format on this site adds a section per decision so the branches are findable.
Records and history close it
What the procedure produces, where it is filed and how long it is kept sits after the steps; the version history, with what changed and who approved it, sits last. The EPA's SOP guidance, cited below, describes the same closing sections for regulated procedures.
Short procedures, shorter formats
A five-step procedure does not need seven pages. The format holds the sections; each can be a sentence. The template's reading-time figure is the check that the format has not outgrown the task it describes.
Questions people ask about sop format
Is there a standard SOP format?
There is a conventional shape, the seven sections above, described in guidance such as the EPA's; there is no single mandated format for a business outside regulated work.
Should the SOP be in a table or in prose?
Numbered steps with the role first, in prose; tables suit the roles section and the version history.
Where do I put the forms?
As numbered attachments after the version history, referenced from the step that uses them.