What are SOPs, in the plural? The set of standard operating procedures a business runs on: the written, approved way each repeatable task is done, from onboarding a person to closing the month to shipping an order. One SOP is a document; the set is the operations manual, and a business of ten people that starts counting usually finds twenty to forty procedures it did not know it had. The operations manual template on this site counts them, department by department.
One procedure per repeatable task that matters
The test for whether a task needs an SOP is whether doing it differently each time costs money or doing it wrong once costs more. Order fulfilment, complaint handling, month-end close, new starter onboarding, opening and closing, batch release: each runs often or matters, and each is a procedure with an owner.
The set has a structure
Procedures group by department or function, sit beside the policies that govern them and the forms they use, and are numbered so a procedure can refer to another. The manual template prints the chapters, the entries and the pages from your counts so the set is designed before it is written.
The set decays unless it is reviewed
Every procedure has a review date, and a set of forty reviewed on a twelve-month cycle is a few reviews a month, which is a habit; the same forty reviewed together every three years is a project nobody starts. RunbookDesk Pro puts the date on each and reminds the owner.
What each one carries
Purpose, scope, roles, materials or systems, the numbered steps with decision points made explicit, the records produced, and the version history. The EPA's SOP guidance, cited below, describes that shape; the standard operating procedure template sizes each one.
Questions people ask about what are sops
How many SOPs does a business need?
As many as it has repeatable tasks that cost something when done wrong. Count them with the operations manual template; the number is usually larger than expected.
Are SOPs the same as an operations manual?
The manual is the set of SOPs plus the policies and forms around them. The tools here size both.
What is the difference between SOPs and work instructions?
An SOP is a procedure across roles; a work instruction is one task for one operator with pictures. Most SOPs point at several work instructions.