The short answer
A practical guide to writing standard operating procedures for a small business: what to document first, a simple SOP template, who should write them, and how to keep them in use.
In short: To write an SOP, pick one task that happens often and goes wrong when you’re away, have the person who does it record themselves doing it, then turn that into a one-page checklist with an owner, a trigger, the steps and what “done” looks like. Test it on someone new, fix the gaps, and review it every six months.
Most small businesses don’t have a documentation problem. They have an “it’s all in my head” problem.
I see it all the time. The owner is the only person who knows how to run payroll, chase a late payer or onboard a new client. Then they take a week off and the phone doesn’t stop. The fix isn’t a 60-page operations manual. It’s a handful of short procedures your team actually uses.
Writing them costs you time now. Not writing them costs you more later, every time someone is sick, leaves or needs training. Like most growth decisions, you pay either way. You just get to choose when.
What is an SOP?
A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a written set of steps for doing one task the same way every time. Good ones are short, specific and owned by someone. Bad ones are long, vague and written once for an audit, then never opened again.
Which processes should I document first?
Don’t start with everything. Ask yourself three questions about each task:
How often does it happen? Weekly beats yearly.
What does it cost when it goes wrong? A missed invoice or a wrong pay run costs more than a messy shared drive.
Does it stop when one person is away? If yes, that’s a risk, not an inconvenience.
Take a hypothetical Melbourne café owner who does the ordering, the rosters and the payroll herself. Her first SOPs aren’t the coffee recipe. The barista already knows that. They’re the Sunday-night roster, the supplier order and the fortnightly pay run, because those are the jobs that stop when she’s away.
In most small businesses, the first five are some mix of client onboarding, invoicing and debtor follow-up, payroll, month-end close, and handing a job over from sales to delivery.
How do I write an SOP, step by step?
Record it, don’t write it. Ask the person who does the task to share their screen and talk through it while recording. It’s faster, and it catches the steps people forget they do.
Turn the recording into steps. One action per line, in the order it happens. Use the actual names of the buttons, folders and templates.
Add the four basics at the top. Who owns it, what triggers it, how often it happens, and what “done” looks like.
Link, don’t copy. Point to the template, the login or the client list rather than pasting them in, so the SOP doesn’t go stale every time a template changes.
Test it on someone new. Give it to a team member who has never done the task. Every question they ask is a gap in the SOP.
Put a review date on it. Every six months, or straight away if the tool or the process changes.
What should an SOP template include?
Keep it to one page where you can:
Title: the task in plain words, such as “Send monthly invoices”.
Owner: the role responsible, not just a name.
Trigger and frequency: when it starts, such as “last business day of the month”.
Steps: numbered, one action each.
Done means: the check that proves it’s finished, such as “all invoices sent and the debtor report saved to the shared folder”.
Links: templates, tools and related SOPs.
Last reviewed: the date and who checked it.
Who should write the SOPs?
The person who does the task, with someone else editing. Owners often want to write them all, and that’s how you end up with a document that describes how the task should work rather than how it does. Your job is to approve the process, not type every step.
How do SOPs help when you hire or offshore?
This is where they pay for themselves. A new hire, local or offshore, gets up to speed far faster with clear procedures than by shadowing someone for weeks. And if you’re thinking about moving admin or finance work to an offshore team member, SOPs come first. You can’t hand over a process nobody has written down.
When we help businesses set up offshore roles, the documentation step often decides how smooth the first three months are.
How do I stop SOPs gathering dust?
Two habits. First, keep them where the work happens, next to the templates and tools, not in a folder nobody opens. Second, when something goes wrong, the fix includes updating the SOP. If the procedure didn’t change, the mistake will happen again.
And don’t try to write them all in one weekend. One procedure a week, written by the person who does it, gets you further than a big push that stalls in February.
Key takeaways
Start with the jobs that stop when one person is away.
Record it first, then write it: one page, one owner.
When something goes wrong, update the SOP, or it will happen again.
Read next: the hiring plan framework, questions to ask before your next hire, or see how offshoring works.
Getting the business out of your head is one of the first things we work on in advisory. Want to talk it through? Book a chat with Shehan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an SOP and a process map?
A process map shows the flow of a whole process, often across several people. An SOP gives the exact steps for one task. Most small businesses get more value from SOPs first.
How long should an SOP be?
As short as it can be while still being followed by someone new. One page is a good target. If it runs much longer, it is probably more than one task.
What tools can I use to store SOPs?
Whatever your team already uses every day, such as a shared drive, your project management tool or a wiki. The best tool is the one people open without being reminded.
Last updated: 7 November 2026.
General information only, based on the rules at the date above. It does not take into account your circumstances, so get advice on your own situation before acting.
Leader of the herd. Shehan's career has spanned professional services, finance, banking, and strategy. He started Elephant to connect busy, ambitious people with the proactive financial advice they need to make great life decisions. He built the kind of firm he always wished existed - and then showed up in trackie-dacks to run it.
