What are SOP's is asked with an apostrophe often enough to be its own question, and the answer is the same: SOPs are standard operating procedures, the written and approved way each repeatable task in a business is done. Each has an owner, a version, numbered steps with the role first, and names the records it leaves. The plural is the point: a business has a set of them, one per task, indexed in an operations manual. The standard operating procedure template on this site sizes any one of them from its steps.
One per task
An SOP covers one task from a trigger to a finished state: order dispatch, month-end close, complaint handling, new-hire onboarding. A business has as many as it has repeatable tasks whose failure costs something, typically twenty to forty for a small one. Each has an owner by position and an approver, and the operations manual template on this site sizes the index that holds them.
What each holds
A control block with owner, approver, version and review date; purpose and scope in a sentence each; the roles; the numbered steps, one action each, the role first, the system and form named; decision points as their own steps; and the records the steps produce. The template prints those sections with the reading time and the training minutes across the team.
What they are for
Doing the task the same way whoever does it; training a new hire in a week rather than a season; and showing a customer, auditor or regulator how the task is done, with the records to prove it was done that way. A procedure with a signed version, read sign-offs and a review date is that evidence.
What they are not
Not policies, which are commitments; not checklists, which are cut from the procedure's steps; not manuals, which index the set; and not statements of purpose, which share the letters and nothing else. The set of SOPs is kept current by reviewing each on its date and whenever its system or form changes. RunbookDesk Pro keeps the set with its versions and review dates.
Questions people ask about what are sop's
How many SOP's should a small business have?
One per repeatable task whose failure costs something. Start with the task that runs most often or fails most expensively.
Who writes them?
The owner of each process, from a walkthrough with the person who does the task best, with that person reading every draft.
Is there a free template?
Yes: the standard operating procedure template and the example builder both work without an account.