Standard Operating Procedure Template (Free Template)
Use this template when one task keeps getting done three different ways. It suits any small business with a team: a café closing out the register, a cleaner turning over a rental, a salon opening the front desk. Fill it in for one task at a time, from the moment someone starts to the moment they can walk away. A good SOP is short enough to read on a phone and clear enough that a new hire can follow it on day one without asking you.
Free, no sign-up. Edit it, print it, share it with your team.
What you'll need
- The task you want to write down
- 15 minutes with the person who does it best
- A phone to take photos
The steps
Name the task in plain words, starting with a verb.
"Close the espresso machine" works better than "Espresso machine closing procedure". Staff search for what they need to do.
Write down who does it and when.
For example: "Closing barista, after the last customer, before mopping." This stops two people doing it, or nobody.
List what they need before they start.
Tools, products, keys, codes. If they have to walk to the back halfway through, the list is missing something.
Watch the best person on your team do the task once without interrupting.
Take a photo at each point where something changes: a switch, a setting, a finished result.
Write one action per step, in the order it happens.
Start each step with a verb: wipe, check, count, lock. If a step has the word "and" in it twice, split it.
Add numbers wherever someone could guess.
How long, how many times, which setting, how full. "Rinse for 10 seconds" beats "rinse well".
Mark the steps where a mistake costs money or hurts someone.
Add a short "watch out" note to those steps only. If every step has a warning, nobody reads them.
Watch out: Keep warnings to the steps that matter, or staff learn to skip them all.
Attach a photo to every step where seeing beats reading.
A photo of the right setting on a dial or the finished shelf saves a paragraph of text.
Describe what "done" looks like.
The last step should let someone check their own work: "Counter is empty, dry and nothing is plugged in except the fridge."
Hand it to someone who has never done the task and watch them follow it.
Every time they stop or ask a question, fix that step. This test matters more than anything else on this list.
Put the SOP where the work happens.
A QR code at the station or a link in your team chat. A binder in the office doesn't count.
Set a date to review it and write it at the top.
Every 6 months, or whenever equipment, products or the menu change.
How to adapt it
- Start with the task that causes the most mistakes or questions, not the easiest one.
- Write for someone on their first day. If a word needs explaining, use a simpler one.
- Keep each SOP to one task. "Opening" and "closing" are two SOPs.
- Ask the person who does the task best to check your draft before you share it.
Turn this template into training your team will actually open
In ShowHow, your staff read each step on their phone, with photos, in their own language, and you see who has confirmed it. Start from this template or film yourself doing the job.