Best 10 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Templates for Business Operations

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set the stage for businesses to operate smoothly by outlining necessary processes and protocols. An SOP template serves as an invaluable resource, offering a structured and easy-to-follow framework that can drastically streamline the creation of these documents. Having this structure in place not only saves time but ensures consistency and compliance across all operations.

Before you venture into crafting your own SOP, consider exploring the following SOP templates in Notion. These resources are designed to simplify the process and inject efficiency into your operational workflows.

What Should Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Templates Include?

Choosing the right Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) template can streamline your business processes effectively. Here are key components to look for in a high-quality SOP template:

  1. Clear Structure: The template should have a well-organized format that guides the user step-by-step, making it easy to follow and implement.

  2. Roles and Responsibilities: It should clearly define who is responsible for each step within the procedure. This clarity helps in accountability and efficiency.

  3. Revision History: A section for documenting revisions and updates is crucial to keep the SOP current and relevant over time.

  4. Visual Aids: Including diagrams, flowcharts, or images can enhance understanding and provide a quick reference that complements the written text.

Selecting an SOP template with these components ensures a practical and comprehensive approach to documenting and following your business processes.

What Should Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right SOP template is crucial for streamlining operations without adding unnecessary complexity. Here are key elements to steer clear of when selecting a template:

  1. Overly Complex Instructions: Avoid templates that include convoluted processes that could confuse users, leading to errors and inefficiencies.

  2. Excessive Detail: While detail is important, overly meticulous templates can be cumbersome. Opt for clarity and brevity to enhance usability.

  3. Rigid Structure: A template that doesn’t allow for some level of flexibility can hinder rather than help. It should adapt to varying operational needs.

Selecting a template that avoids these pitfalls will ensure smoother implementation and better adherence to procedures across your team.

1SOP

Our SOP Template simplifies the process of creating and following standard operating procedures, ensuring tasks are performed consistently and efficiently. It helps reduce errors and streamline workflows by providing clear, step-by-step instructions. This template is a key tool for maintaining high-quality standards and improving team productivity.

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2Standard operating procedure

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a detailed document that delineates the step-by-step processes and operational guidelines crucial to your company’s tasks and activities. SOPs, serving as comprehensive procedure templates and process manuals, are invaluable for bolstering consistency and operational efficiency across various functions—from management SOPs to financial SOPs. These documentation standards provide clear, actionable instructions ensuring that all departments uphold quality and compliance in their performance.

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3Project Management SOP

The "Project Management SOP" template offers a structured approach for managing projects within your organization, ensuring each phase is executed seamlessly. It covers everything from initial planning and stakeholder analysis to execution, monitoring, and the final closure of projects. This template is designed to streamline project workflows, improve stakeholder communication, and facilitate continuous improvement in project management practices.

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4Standard operating procedure (SOP)

Developing standard operating procedures allows you and your team to carry out business processes faster and more accurately. Use this template to make working asynchronously easier and have a searchable record of procedures ready for your next new-hire.

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5Simple Standard Operating Procedure

Streamline your team's efficiency with Notion's Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) template. Perfect for creating comprehensive procedure templates, operational guidelines, and process manuals, this tool sets the bar for documentation standards. Whether for performance SOPs, management SOPs, security SOPs, or financial SOPs, it ensures best practices are clearly defined and accessible.

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6Simplify Business Process

This template combines the most important findings on process management from theory and practice! Create a common understanding of your business processes by providing your team with important information, responsibilities and documents in an easily understandable way. This will finally make your workflows tangible and everyone will know what needs to be done.

The template is deliberately kept very simple at first. If you need a smart version with databases, automation and more, please get in touch!

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7Real Estate Agency Operations Manual

A neatly structured, ready-to-use operations manual on Notion built for real estate business owners who want a clean, organized, and easy-to-navigate, go-to knowledge hub for their business and team.

✨ Your Operations Manual is a one-stop shop for documenting how your business runs. It includes your SOPs, workflows, guidelines, checklists, templates, best practices... It tells your employees: "This is how we do things here".

Think of it as your "business playbook".

***

✔️ This is a pre-built template hosted on Notion that includes 13 thoughtfully structured main sections and over 60+ pre-written SOPs, based on industry best practices and standards.

✔️ Covers the following sections with subsections and more: Business Overview, Organizational Chart, Job Descriptions, SOPs Hub, Checklists & Templates, Tutorials & Training, New Hires Onboarding Quizzes, and more!

✔️ Comes with our "Template-to-Tailored Roadmap" to help you make it your own—step by step. Designed to help you extract, organize, and standardize all your systems in one place.

✔️ Suitable for any size of real estate agency: Whether you’re an independent agent or managing a multi-agent brokerage, this template will help you get organized and standardize your operations with ease.

✔️ Inspired by the principles of the book "The E-Myth" — built to help you systemize your business so it can run without relying on you every step of the way.

✔️ Streamlines training and delegation, creates operational consistency, and reduces repetitive questions by guiding your team straight to your Operations Manual.

✔️ Expand and update it with new SOPs as your business grows.

✔️ Keeping your business operations organized doesn’t just help your team—it ensures you deliver a consistent, professional experience to your clients, every time.

✔️ For you if:

- Your systems currently live in your head, and you don't know how to extract or organize them,

- Your business know-how is scattered across disconnected and/or outdated Word documents or random Google Drive folders,

- You or your team constantly get lost while searching for SOPs, documents, or key information, or

- You want to delegate more, but your systems aren't documented clearly enough to let go.

✔️ Built with a function-first design in Notion: easy to use, clean, no-code, and no design skills needed.

✔️ One-time fee, lifetime access—no ongoing subscriptions or monthly “SOP storage fees” for overpriced software.

✔️ Accessible on any device: Use it in the Notion app on your laptop, tablet, or phone.

✔️ Read real reviews from businesses like yours on our Wall of Love: https://bit.ly/walloflove-om

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8Small Business Operations Manual

A neatly structured, ready-to-use operations manual built for business owners who want a clean, organized, and easy-to-navigate, go-to knowledge hub for their business and team.

  • Suitable for
    any small business
    (
    Small business: Generally defined as a company with fewer than 500 employees and often under $10 million in annual revenue
    )

  • Operations Manual: Your one-stop shop for documenting
    how your business runs
    —aka your “
    business playbook
    ”. It tells your employees:
    "This is how we do things here".

  • Includes
    14 thoughtfully structured main sections

    and over
    60+ pre-written SOPs
    , based on industry best practices and standards.

  • Covers the following sections and more: Business Overview, Organizational Chart, Job Descriptions, SOPs Hub, Checklists & Templates, Training Tutorials, New Hires Onboarding Quizzes, and more!

  • Comes with "
    Template-to-Tailored Roadmap"
    to help you make it your own—step by step. Designed to help you
    extract, organize, and standardize all your systems
    in one place.

  • Inspired by the principles of the book


    "
    The E-Myth
    "—built to help you
    systemize your business

    so it can run
    without relying on you

    every step of the way.

  • For you, if:

    • all
      your systems currently live in your head
      , and you don't know how to extract and/or neatly organize them, or

    • your business know-how is
      scattered across

      disconnected and/or outdated
      Word documents

      or random
      Google Drive folders
      , and

    • you or your team constantly gets lost

      while searching for SOPs, documents, or key information.

  • Streamlines training and delegation, creates operational consistency, and reduces repetitive questions by guiding your team straight to your Operations Manual.

  • Function-oriented
    setup in Notion: easy to use, clean, no-code, and no design needed.

  • One-time fee, lifetime access
    —no ongoing subscriptions or monthly "SOP storage fees" to an overpriced software.

  • Read
    real reviews from businesses like yours

    on our Wall of Love ❤️:
    https://bit.ly/walloflove-om

  • Want us to build your SOPs and a
    custom operations manual for your business
    ? Check out our DFY service:
    https://bit.ly/custom-ops-manual

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9Restaurant Operations Manual

A neatly structured, ready-to-use operations manual on Notion built for busy restaurateurs who want a clean, organized, and easy-to-navigate, go-to knowledge hub for their business and team.

✨ Your Operations Manual is a one-stop shop for documenting how your restaurant runs. It includes your SOPs, workflows, guidelines, checklists, templates, best practices... It tells your employees: "This is how we do things here".

Think of it as your "business playbook".

***

✔️ This is a pre-built template hosted on Notion that includes 14 thoughtfully structured main sections and over 60+ pre-written SOPs, based on industry best practices and standards.

✔️ Covers the following sections with subsections and more: Business Overview, Organizational Chart, Job Descriptions, SOPs Hub, Checklists & Templates, Tutorials & Training, Our Recipes, New Hires Onboarding Quizzes, and more!

✔️ Comes with our "Template-to-Tailored Roadmap" to help you make it your own—step by step. Designed to help you extract, organize, and standardize all your systems in one place.

✔️ Suitable for any size of restaurant business: Whether you run a single location or manage multiple outlets, this template will help you get organized and standardize your operations with ease.

✔️ Inspired by the principles of the book "The E-Myth" — built to help you systemize your restaurant operations so it can run without relying on you every step of the way.

✔️ Streamlines training and delegation, creates operational consistency, and reduces repetitive questions by guiding your team straight to your Operations Manual.

✔️ Expand and update it with new SOPs as your business grows.

✔️ Keeping your restaurant operations organized doesn’t just support your staff—it ensures every guest receives a consistent, high-quality dining experience.

✔️ For you if:

- Your systems currently live in your head, and you don't know how to extract or organize them

- Your business know-how is scattered across disconnected and/or outdated Word documents or random Google Drive folders

- You or your team constantly get lost while searching for SOPs, documents, or key information

- You want to delegate more, but your systems aren't documented clearly enough to let go

✔️ Built with a function-first design in Notion: easy to use, clean, no-code, and no design skills needed.

✔️ One-time fee, lifetime access—no ongoing subscriptions or monthly “SOP storage fees” for overpriced software.

✔️ Accessible on any device: Use it in the Notion app on your laptop, tablet, or phone.

✔️ Read real reviews from businesses like yours on our Wall of Love: https://bit.ly/walloflove-om

More
A template preview for Restaurant Operations Manual

10BoutiqueGrow Standard Operating Procedures

Our BoutiqueGrow Standard Operating Procedures for Cannabis Cultivators is the perfect solution for those looking to ensure compliance and streamline their operations. With customizable templates, a range of features designed to make your life easier, and over 180 SOPs included, our Notion Workspace is the only tool you need to take your cultivation operation to the next level. Try it out today and experience the benefits for yourself!

A template preview for BoutiqueGrow Standard Operating Procedures

Closing Thoughts

Implementing these templates can streamline your processes, ensuring consistency and clarity across all operations. They reduce training time and improve compliance with industry standards.

Start integrating these SOP templates today to minimize errors and enhance productivity. Their adaptability allows for quick customization to suit your specific business needs.

What is a Process Map?

A visual representation of the sequence of actions or steps in a SOP, showing how tasks flow from start to finish.

What is a RACI Matrix?

A tool used in SOPs to clarify roles and responsibilities, ensuring everyone knows who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.

What is a Work Instruction?

A detailed, step-by-step guide that explains how to perform specific tasks mentioned in a SOP, often used for training purposes.

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