The SOP Template Library: 100+ Free Templates by Industry (2026)

If you searched for “SOP template library,” you’re probably in one of two situations. Either you’re just starting to document your business processes and want a practical starting point, or you’ve been at it for a while and you’re filling gaps in specific areas you haven’t gotten to yet.

Either way, this page exists to give you the templates you need by industry — not a generic list that applies to no one in particular.

What you’ll find here: 26 industry sections, each with the core SOPs that business type actually needs. Where we’ve published a full template guide for an industry, I’ll link to it. Where we haven’t yet, I’ll give you the list of processes to document so you can build them yourself.

One framing note before you dive in: a template is a starting point, not a finished product. The goal isn’t to have documents — it’s to have your team doing things consistently. The template gets you to first draft. Your specifics make it real. If you’re not sure whether to start with a template or a blank page, read this first.

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Table of Contents

1. How to Use These Templates
2. Restaurants and Food Service
3. Healthcare and Medical Practices
4. Dental Offices
5. Veterinary Practices
6. Cleaning Businesses
7. Construction Companies
8. Electricians
9. Plumbing Businesses
10. HVAC Businesses
11. Roofing Businesses
12. Landscaping Businesses
13. Accounting and CPA Firms
14. Law Firms
15. Real Estate Brokerages
16. Property Management
17. Ecommerce Businesses
18. Marketing Agencies
19. MSP and IT Services
20. Fitness Studios
21. Salons and Barber Shops
22. Daycare and Childcare
23. Churches and Nonprofits
24. Auto Repair Shops
25. Trucking and Logistics
26. Customer Support Teams
27. Franchises
28. Building Your Own From Scratch

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How to Use These Templates {#how-to-use-these-templates}

Before you grab a template and start filling in blanks, a quick orientation on what actually works.

Start with the process that causes the most pain. If your kitchen runs clean but new servers destroy the customer experience, start with the server training SOP — not the opening checklist. The best SOP is the one that solves a real, current problem. If you’re not sure which process to document first, this guide walks through how to decide.

Templates give you structure; your team gives you accuracy. Every template in this library covers the standard processes for that business type. But the person who actually does the job knows things the template doesn’t — the specific software you use, the names of your suppliers, the sequence that only works in your space. Plan to sit down with the person who does the job and add those details. A template that hasn’t been localized to your operation isn’t ready to use.

Write for the person who doesn’t know. A good SOP is specific enough that a competent new hire could follow it without asking you questions. If your SOP still requires someone to “use their judgment” at every step, it’s an outline, not an SOP. That’s fine as a starting point — but push toward specificity.

Keep it short. Most SOPs don’t need to be more than one page. If yours is running to five pages, you’re probably documenting more than one process. Split it.

For a deeper guide on what makes an SOP actually usable, see How to Write a Clear SOP.

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Restaurants and Food Service {#restaurants-and-food-service}

Restaurants run on repetition. The same opening sequence, the same prep routine, the same closing checklist — every single day. When those processes are written down, your staff stops guessing, your health inspection scores stop surprising you, and you can actually take a day off without the kitchen burning down.

Food service has a specific challenge that other industries don’t: high staff turnover. The average restaurant turns over most of its hourly staff every year. If your processes live in your head or in the head of one long-tenured shift lead, you’re rebuilding from zero every time someone quits.

Core SOPs for restaurants:

• Opening checklist (equipment on, walk-in temps, prep stations, POS system)
• Closing checklist (equipment off, cleaning log, cash drawer, locking sequence)
• Food prep standards (yield weights, portioning, labeling and dating)
• Temperature monitoring and HACCP log
• New server onboarding and steps-of-service
• New kitchen hire orientation
• Health inspection readiness checklist
• Customer complaint handling
• Reservation and waitlist management
• Delivery and third-party app order handling
• Waste log and daily par-level check
• Shift handoff between FOH managers

Full template guide: Restaurant SOP Template: 10 Processes Every Restaurant Needs Documented

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Healthcare and Medical Practices {#healthcare-and-medical-practices}

Medical practices operate in a compliance environment that makes documentation mandatory, not optional. HIPAA, OSHA, payer credentialing, and state licensing all assume your practice has written protocols. The question isn’t whether to document — it’s whether your documentation is actually usable or just checking a regulatory box.

The SOPs that matter most in a medical practice fall into two categories: patient-facing workflows (scheduling, intake, rooming, discharge) and back-office operations (billing, authorizations, supply chain, staff training). Most practices have some version of the former and weak versions of the latter.

Core SOPs for medical practices:

• Patient scheduling and appointment confirmation
• Check-in and insurance verification
• Patient intake and rooming (vitals, chief complaint, EHR documentation)
• Prescription refill request handling
• Prior authorization workflow
• Medical records request and release (HIPAA-compliant)
• Billing and claim submission workflow
• Denial management and appeals process
• Controlled substance log and DEA compliance
• OSHA bloodborne pathogen exposure protocol
• New staff onboarding and HIPAA training
• Emergency and after-hours protocol

Full template guide: Medical Practice SOP Template

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Dental Offices {#dental-offices}

Dental offices have tighter physical workflows than most healthcare settings — every operatory runs on a specific sequence, every instrument has a sterilization protocol, every patient interaction has a handoff point. When those sequences vary by staff member, treatment quality varies and chair time bleeds away.

The front desk and clinical sides of a dental practice also have completely different documentation needs. Front desk SOPs live in the scheduling, insurance, and collections world. Clinical SOPs live in infection control, instrument management, and patient safety.

Core SOPs for dental offices:

• New patient intake and onboarding sequence
• Daily scheduling protocol and block scheduling rules
• Operatory setup and breakdown (by procedure type)
• Instrument sterilization and autoclave log
• Patient check-in and insurance verification
• Treatment presentation and case acceptance follow-up
• Billing, posting, and end-of-day reconciliation
• Accounts receivable and collections follow-up
• Supply ordering and inventory management
• OSHA compliance and annual staff training
• Patient emergency protocol (medical emergency in chair)
• End-of-day close and alarm procedure

Full template guide: Dental Office SOP Template

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Veterinary Practices {#veterinary-practices}

Veterinary practices share the compliance environment of medical practices — controlled substances, state licensing, OSHA requirements — but they also deal with species-specific protocols, surgical prep workflows, and the emotional complexity of communicating bad news to pet owners.

Staff turnover is also a real problem in vet medicine. Documenting your workflows protects the practice when a trained technician leaves and reduces the time a replacement needs to become productive.

Core SOPs for veterinary practices:

• New patient and new client onboarding
• Appointment scheduling and reminder workflow
• Patient check-in and triage
• Exam room setup and patient handling by species
• Surgical prep and post-op monitoring protocol
• Controlled substance log and DEA compliance
• Anesthesia monitoring and recovery
• Medical records documentation standards
• Client communication: diagnosis, treatment plan, and pricing
• After-hours emergency referral protocol
• Inventory and supply ordering
• End-of-day close and medical waste disposal

Full template guide: Veterinary Practice SOP Template

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Cleaning Businesses {#cleaning-businesses}

Cleaning is a business where your product is consistency. Clients aren’t paying for a heroic deep-clean on week one — they’re paying for the same clean every visit, delivered by whoever shows up, whether that’s you or a crew member they’ve never met.

That consistency is only possible if your cleaning sequence is written down. Without it, every tech has a different order, skips different things, and uses products differently. With it, you can hire, train, and scale without being on every job.

Core SOPs for cleaning businesses:

• Residential cleaning checklist (room-by-room, by frequency)
• Commercial cleaning checklist (office, medical, retail variants)
• Move-in/move-out deep clean protocol
• Product and chemical usage guide (what goes where, dilution rates)
• Equipment inspection and maintenance
• Client onboarding and walkthrough
• New hire orientation and first-job shadow process
• Quality control inspection checklist
• Customer complaint and re-clean protocol
• Time tracking and job completion sign-off
• Key and access code management

Full template guide: Cleaning Business SOP Template: 10 Processes Every Cleaning Company Needs

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Construction Companies {#construction-companies}

Construction documentation sits at the intersection of safety compliance, project management, and subcontractor coordination. OSHA requires written safety programs for most construction activities. But beyond compliance, the companies that run tightest margins are usually the ones with the best job-site SOPs — because unclear processes mean rework, and rework kills profit.

Small construction companies often operate with verbal hand-me-down procedures. The foreman knows. The owner knows. Nobody wrote it down because they’ve always done it that way. That works until the foreman leaves, a subcontractor does it differently, or an inspector asks for documentation you don’t have.

Core SOPs for construction companies:

• Project kickoff and pre-construction checklist
• Site safety orientation for new workers and subs
• Daily job-site safety inspection log
• Subcontractor selection, vetting, and onboarding
• Material procurement and delivery coordination
• Change order request and approval process
• Daily progress log and photo documentation
• Punch list and project closeout procedure
• OSHA incident reporting and investigation
• Client communication cadence (schedule updates, approvals)
• Equipment inspection and maintenance log
• Final walkthrough and certificate of occupancy checklist

Full template guide: Construction Company SOP Template

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Electricians {#electricians}

Electrical contracting is heavily licensed and inspected, which means documentation is already part of the job. Permits, inspection cards, load calculations — these are required outputs. The SOPs that most electrical businesses are missing are the operational ones: how jobs get scheduled, how materials get pulled, how crews get dispatched, and how invoices get out the door.

Core SOPs for electricians:

• Estimating and bid preparation workflow
• Permit application and inspection scheduling
• Material takeoff and purchase order process
• Job-site setup and safety check
• Daily labor and materials tracking
• Rough-in and trim-out inspection checklists
• As-built documentation standard
• Change order process (field-initiated)
• Punch list and final inspection
• Customer walkthrough and sign-off
• Invoice and payment collection
• Equipment and tool calibration log

Full template guide: Electrician Business SOP Template

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Plumbing Businesses {#plumbing-businesses}

Plumbing businesses — whether residential service or commercial new construction — share the challenge of dispatching skilled labor to jobs where the actual scope is unknown until you’re there. The SOPs that matter most are the ones that govern job quoting, scope-change communication, and closeout, because those are where miscommunication becomes a lost invoice or an unhappy customer.

Core SOPs for plumbing businesses:

• Service call intake and scheduling
• Technician dispatch and route optimization
• Jobsite arrival and customer greeting protocol
• Diagnostic and estimate presentation
• Scope change and upsell communication
• Permit-required work documentation
• Material sourcing and emergency supply runs
• Job completion and sign-off
• Invoice generation and payment collection
• Warranty and callback protocol
• New technician onboarding and ride-along
• Vehicle inspection and tool inventory

Full template guide: Plumbing Business SOP Template

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HVAC Businesses {#hvac-businesses}

HVAC has a strong seasonal demand pattern that amplifies every operational gap. When the first heat wave hits in June, your call volume doubles and whatever process weaknesses you have get exposed immediately. The companies that scale cleanly through summer have documented dispatch, PM scheduling, and technician workflows — so new hires can be productive in days, not weeks.

Core SOPs for HVAC businesses:

• Service call intake and scheduling (by priority: no-heat, no-AC, PM)
• Technician dispatch and van stocking
• Preventive maintenance inspection checklist (by equipment type)
• System diagnosis and repair protocol
• Refrigerant handling and EPA 608 compliance log
• New equipment installation checklist
• Customer communication: diagnosis, estimate, approval
• Warranty claim submission
• Seasonal maintenance agreement enrollment
• New hire orientation and field training program
• Shop and vehicle inventory management
• End-of-day debrief and job closeout

Full template guide: HVAC Business SOP Template

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Roofing Businesses {#roofing-businesses}

Roofing is a project business, which means every job has a start and a finish. The SOPs that matter most are the ones that govern what happens between the estimate and the final payment — because that span involves subcontractors, material deliveries, inspections, and weather. Every handoff point in that chain is a place where something can go wrong if it isn’t documented.

Core SOPs for roofing businesses:

• Lead intake and estimate scheduling
• Roof inspection and measurement process
• Proposal generation and approval workflow
• Material ordering and delivery coordination
• Crew briefing and job-site setup
• Safety checklist (fall protection, equipment inspection)
• Shingle or material installation quality checklist
• Mid-job inspection and photo documentation
• Final inspection and punch list
• Customer walkthrough and warranty documentation
• Insurance supplement and adjuster communication
• Invoice and payment collection protocol

Full template guide: Roofing Business SOP Template

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Landscaping Businesses {#landscaping-businesses}

Landscaping is another business where the product is consistency — the client wants the same lawn every week, not a variable outcome depending on which crew showed up. Documenting your service sequences is what makes that consistency possible without you being on every job.

Landscaping also has a strong seasonal operations structure (spring cleanups, summer maintenance, fall leaf removal, winter snow if applicable) that benefits from calendar-based SOP sets.

Core SOPs for landscaping businesses:

• Mowing and maintenance visit checklist (by property type)
• Spring cleanup protocol
• Fall cleanup and winterization protocol
• Irrigation startup and shutdown
• New client property walkthrough and service agreement
• Chemical application log (pesticides, fertilizers — regulatory requirement)
• Equipment inspection and maintenance schedule
• Crew briefing and dispatch
• Customer communication and complaint resolution
• Invoice and payment workflow
• New hire training sequence

Full template guide: Landscaping Business SOP Template

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Accounting and CPA Firms {#accounting-and-cpa-firms}

Accounting firms have an unusual documentation problem: their work is intrinsically knowledge-intensive, which makes people assume SOPs don’t apply. They do. The processes around client communication, document collection, review routing, and billing are highly repeatable — and the variance in how different staff members handle them is exactly what turns busy season into chaos.

Firms that document their workflow get a secondary benefit: it becomes easier to evaluate whether client fees match the actual work involved, because you can see the steps.

Core SOPs for accounting firms:

• Client intake and engagement letter process
• Document collection and organizer workflow
• Tax return preparation workflow (by return type)
• Quality review and partner sign-off process
• E-file and extension workflow
• Client billing and invoice generation
• Accounts receivable follow-up
• New staff onboarding (software access, workpaper standards)
• Continuing education tracking and license renewal
• Year-end close and file archiving

Full template guide: Accounting Firm SOP Template: 10 Processes Every CPA Firm Should Document

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Law Firms {#law-firms}

Law firms are resistant to SOPs for a cultural reason: lawyers are trained to treat every matter as unique, which makes standardization feel like a threat to quality. In practice, the processes that benefit most from documentation are not the legal analysis — they’re the administrative and client-service workflows that happen around it. Intake, conflicts checks, billing, deadline tracking, file opening and closing. These are repeatable, and documenting them protects clients and reduces malpractice exposure.

Core SOPs for law firms:

• Client intake and initial consultation
• Conflicts check and clearance process
• Engagement letter and fee agreement workflow
• Matter opening in case management system
• Deadline and docket tracking protocol
• Client communication standards (response times, preferred channels)
• Document naming and version control conventions
• Time entry and billing workflow
• Trust account disbursement protocol
• File closing and records retention
• New associate onboarding
• CLE tracking and bar compliance

Full template guide: Law Firm SOP Template

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Real Estate Brokerages {#real-estate-brokerages}

Real estate brokerages run on agent activity, which means the brokerage’s job is largely supporting, tracking, and training individual agents. The SOPs that matter at the brokerage level are agent onboarding, transaction coordination, compliance review, and marketing standards — the things that protect the broker’s license and the firm’s reputation regardless of which agent is on the deal.

Core SOPs for real estate brokerages:

• Agent onboarding and licensing verification
• New listing intake and MLS entry checklist
• Buyer representation agreement and disclosure workflow
• Offer preparation and submission protocol
• Transaction coordination from contract to close
• Earnest money handling and escrow documentation
• Commission disbursement and split calculation
• Compliance file review (required documents by state)
• Agent marketing review and approval
• Open house planning and feedback capture
• Referral intake and tracking
• Agent production review and coaching cadence

Full template guide: Real Estate Brokerage SOP Template

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Property Management {#property-management}

Property management is a relationship business run on operational infrastructure. Tenant communication, maintenance coordination, lease renewals, and financial reporting happen constantly and across multiple properties simultaneously. When those workflows aren’t documented, things fall through cracks — a maintenance request that sits unanswered for a week, a lease that expires without a renewal offer, a unit turnover that takes three weeks instead of one.

Core SOPs for property management companies:

• Tenant application and screening process
• Lease signing and move-in checklist
• Move-in inspection and photo documentation
• Maintenance request intake and dispatch
• Vendor selection and work order management
• Rent collection and late fee enforcement
• Lease renewal offer and negotiation
• Move-out inspection and security deposit disposition
• Unit turnover and make-ready checklist
• Eviction initiation protocol (when required)
• Monthly financial reporting to owners
• Annual property inspection

Full template guide: Property Management SOP Template

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Ecommerce Businesses {#ecommerce-businesses}

Ecommerce operations documentation is often deferred until things break — a fulfillment error, a return gone wrong, an inventory discrepancy that takes days to trace. By that point, the pain is real but fixing it is reactive. The businesses that scale ecommerce operations cleanly are the ones that document their fulfillment, returns, and customer service workflows before they need them.

Core SOPs for ecommerce businesses:

• Order fulfillment and pick-pack-ship workflow
• Shipping carrier selection and label printing
• Inventory receiving and put-away
• Inventory count and reconciliation
• Product listing creation (photo, copy, tagging standards)
• Promotion and discount setup checklist
• Customer service response protocol (by issue type)
• Return and exchange processing
• Damaged goods and carrier claim process
• Supplier purchase order and reorder triggers
• Marketplace account health monitoring
• New product launch checklist

Full template guide: Ecommerce SOP Template

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Marketing Agencies {#marketing-agencies}

Marketing agencies have a delivery problem that’s hard to see from the outside: the work looks creative and custom, but most agency deliverables follow a repeatable structure. Briefs, approvals, revisions, launches — the sequence is the same across clients. Documenting that sequence is what lets agencies scale headcount without the founder or senior team touching every account.

Core SOPs for marketing agencies:

• Client onboarding and kickoff process
• Creative brief and strategy document workflow
• Content calendar creation and approval
• Ad campaign setup checklist (by platform)
• Reporting and client dashboard update cadence
• Revision request intake and turnaround
• Quality assurance review before deliverable submission
• New hire onboarding and tool access provisioning
• Client off-boarding and file handover
• Vendor and contractor management
• Monthly billing and invoice generation

Full template guide: Marketing Agency SOP Template

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MSP and IT Services {#msp-and-it-services}

Managed service providers live and die by their ticketing and escalation workflows. Every client expects fast response; most MSPs are too small to have dedicated tiers. Documenting your triage, escalation, and communication protocols is what prevents a Level 1 tech from spending four hours on a problem that a Level 3 should have touched in thirty minutes.

MSPs also have a compliance angle: many clients require evidence of documented security and change management processes as part of their vendor agreements.

Core SOPs for MSPs and IT firms:

• Helpdesk ticket intake and triage
• Escalation path and L1/L2/L3 handoff criteria
• New client onboarding and network documentation
• Patch management schedule and execution
• Backup monitoring and recovery testing
• Security incident response procedure
• Change management and change control process
• New user provisioning and offboarding
• Monthly managed services reporting
• Hardware procurement and deployment
• Vendor and license management
• Client QBR preparation and delivery

Full template guide: MSP and IT Services SOP Template

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Fitness Studios {#fitness-studios}

Fitness studios compete on experience as much as programming. The way a new member gets greeted, toured, and onboarded into their first class determines whether they come back. When that experience varies by which staff member is working, you lose members who could have stayed for years.

The other documentation priority for fitness studios is safety and liability. Injury waivers, equipment inspections, and incident protocols aren’t just good practice — they’re what your insurance carrier expects.

Core SOPs for fitness studios:

• New member inquiry and tour process
• New member onboarding and intro program enrollment
• Class check-in and late arrival protocol
• Opening and closing checklist
• Equipment inspection and maintenance log
• Personal training session documentation
• Member pause, hold, and cancellation handling
• Instructor sub and class coverage protocol
• Incident report and injury response
• Membership billing and failed payment follow-up
• Social media and class schedule updates
• Facility cleaning and sanitation checklist

Full template guide: Fitness Studio SOP Template

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Salons and Barber Shops {#salons-and-barber-shops}

Salons and barber shops face a specific retention risk: the business is built around individual stylists, and when a stylist leaves, they often take clients with them. Documentation doesn’t prevent that, but it does protect the business by ensuring the client experience is tied to the shop, not exclusively to any one person. Booking protocols, front-desk standards, product recommendations, and the post-visit follow-up should all feel consistent regardless of which chair a client sits in.

Core SOPs for salons and barber shops:

• Appointment booking and confirmation workflow
• Client intake and consultation checklist
• Service menu and pricing standards
• Product recommendation and retail sales process
• New client experience protocol (greeting, tour, expectations)
• End-of-visit rebooking and review ask
• Chair rental and booth renter agreement process
• Stylist/barber onboarding
• Sanitation and tool sterilization protocol (state-required)
• Cash handling and end-of-day reconciliation
• Retail inventory ordering and stocking
• Customer complaint and service recovery

Full template guide: Salon and Barber Shop SOP Template

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Daycare and Childcare {#daycare-and-childcare}

Childcare facilities operate in one of the most heavily regulated small business environments. State licensing, health department requirements, child-to-staff ratios, and mandatory reporter training all require documented procedures. The SOPs that go beyond compliance are the ones that make a daycare a place parents trust — consistent pickup authorization, allergy communication, incident documentation, and parent communication standards.

Core SOPs for daycare and childcare:

• Child enrollment and parent onboarding
• Pickup authorization and identity verification
• Allergy and dietary restriction documentation
• Daily health check and illness exclusion protocol
• Medication administration log (state-regulated)
• Incident and injury report process
• Fire and emergency evacuation drill documentation
• Diaper changing and sanitation protocol
• Nap time and rest period procedures
• Food preparation and snack service (if applicable)
• Parent communication and daily report
• Staff-to-child ratio monitoring and coverage

Full template guide: Daycare and Childcare SOP Template

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Churches and Nonprofits {#churches-and-nonprofits}

Churches and nonprofits have a documentation challenge unique to volunteer-driven organizations: the people doing the work aren’t employees, they rotate frequently, and they often don’t have a formal onboarding process. That makes written SOPs more valuable, not less — because you can’t rely on weekly check-ins or performance reviews to keep processes consistent.

For nonprofits, there’s an additional accountability layer: donors and grant-makers increasingly expect written financial and program controls. Documented processes are part of what separates a professional nonprofit from one that looks ad hoc.

Churches — core SOPs:

• Sunday morning setup and teardown
• Volunteer check-in and role assignment
• Kids ministry check-in and child safety protocol
• AV and livestream setup
• Offering collection and counting
• New member welcome and follow-up
• Benevolence fund request and approval

Full church template guide: Church SOP Template: 12 Processes Every Church Needs Documented

Nonprofits — core SOPs:

• Program intake and participant eligibility
• Volunteer recruitment and onboarding
• Grant application and reporting calendar
• Donation processing and donor acknowledgment
• Board meeting preparation and minutes
• Financial controls and expense authorization

Full nonprofit template guide: Nonprofit SOP Template

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Auto Repair Shops {#auto-repair-shops}

Auto repair shops lose money in two places: in the shop, where inefficient workflows mean technicians spend time on admin instead of wrench time; and at the front desk, where inconsistent write-up, estimate, and authorization processes mean declined work and comeback repairs. Documenting both sides — the service workflow and the customer communication workflow — is where the biggest gains are.

Core SOPs for auto repair shops:

• Vehicle check-in and inspection write-up
• Multi-point inspection process and documentation
• Customer authorization and estimate approval
• Parts ordering and return process
• Technician workflow and lift assignment
• Quality control check before vehicle return
• Customer notification (ready for pickup, upsell approval)
• Payment collection and invoice close
• Warranty and comeback repair protocol
• New technician onboarding and certification tracking
• Shop opening and closing checklist
• Tool and equipment inspection log

Full template guide: Auto Repair Shop SOP Template

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Trucking and Logistics {#trucking-and-logistics}

Trucking operations are driven by compliance — hours of service, FMCSA regulations, DOT inspections — but the companies that run most profitably are the ones where dispatch, driver communication, and load management are also documented. An undocumented dispatch process is how loads get double-booked, drivers go to the wrong terminal, and detention time accumulates.

Core SOPs for trucking and logistics companies:

• Driver qualification and onboarding (FMCSA-required)
• Pre-trip and post-trip inspection documentation
• Hours of service monitoring and ELD compliance
• Load planning and dispatch workflow
• Customer communication: pickup window, delivery confirmation
• Incident and accident reporting protocol
• Drug and alcohol testing administration
• Breakdown and roadside assistance protocol
• Fuel card management and IFTA reporting
• Carrier packet and broker onboarding
• Invoice and factoring submission
• Driver performance review and CSA score monitoring

Full template guide: Trucking and Logistics SOP Template

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Customer Support Teams {#customer-support-teams}

Customer support SOPs matter whether you have two people handling support or twenty. Without them, response quality is entirely dependent on who picks up the ticket — and your newest hire is fielding the same complex situations as your most experienced rep, with no framework for handling them. Documented escalation paths, response templates, and resolution workflows are the difference between a support team and a support lottery.

Core SOPs for customer support teams:

• Ticket intake and initial triage
• Response time standards by channel and priority
• First-response template library (by issue category)
• Escalation path and criteria
• Product defect vs. user error decision tree
• Refund and credit authorization levels
• Escalation to engineering or product teams
• Customer follow-up and satisfaction check
• Knowledge base article creation from resolved tickets
• Shift handoff and queue review
• Monthly CSAT and resolution-rate review
• New support rep onboarding and certification

Full template guide: Customer Support SOP Template

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Franchises {#franchises}

Franchises exist because a documented, repeatable system works well enough to be replicated at scale. The franchisor’s operations manual is the foundational SOP library — but it’s rarely sufficient on its own. Franchisees also need location-specific SOPs for hiring, scheduling, local marketing, and vendor relationships that the corporate manual doesn’t cover.

If you’re building an operations manual for your franchise system — whether you’re the franchisor writing the master or a franchisee adapting it — the structure is the same as any SOP library, just with the additional layer of brand standards enforcement.

Core processes for franchise operations documentation:

• Franchise disclosure and pre-opening checklist
• Grand opening run-of-show
• Brand standards compliance review
• Local marketing approval workflow
• Franchise reporting and royalty submission
• Franchisee support request escalation
• Area representative field visit checklist
• New franchisee onboarding and training program
• Operations manual update and distribution process

Related guide: Franchise Operations Manual: How to Build One That Actually Gets Used

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Building Your Own From Scratch {#building-your-own-from-scratch}

Not every process fits a template. If you’ve gone through the industry sections above and your most important process isn’t covered — or the template is so different from what you do that it’s more work to adapt than to write from scratch — here’s the short version of how to build an SOP without a starting point.

Step 1: Watch someone do the job. Sit down with the person who does the process best and watch them do it from start to finish. Take notes on what they actually do, not what they think they do. People routinely leave out steps they’ve automated to muscle memory.

Step 2: Write it as a numbered list. Each step is one action. “Review the file” is not a step — “open the client folder in Google Drive and confirm that the intake form and signed engagement letter are both present” is a step. The more specific, the more useful.

Step 3: Have a different person follow it cold. Give your draft to someone who doesn’t do this process and ask them to follow it without asking you any questions. Watch where they get stuck. Those are your documentation gaps.

Step 4: Add the decision points. Most processes have forks: “if X, do Y; if Z, do A.” Those need to be in the SOP, or the person following it will have to guess.

Step 5: Keep it to one page. If it’s longer than one page, you’re probably documenting more than one process. Split it at the natural handoff point.

For a complete walkthrough of this method — with examples — see How to Write a Clear SOP.

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A Note on Tools

Templates are starting points. The goal is to get your team using your processes consistently — and for that, a Google Doc or PDF eventually creates its own problems. People can’t find the right version. You can’t tell who’s read what. There’s no way to know if the SOP was actually followed.

What’s the Process For is built for exactly this situation: you put your SOPs into a structured format, your team accesses them when they need them, and you can see which processes are actually being used. It’s not an enterprise platform — it’s sized for teams of 5 to 50 who need something better than a shared folder but don’t need the overhead of a big workflow suite.

If you want to try it with your team, you can start free at whatstheprocessfor.com. No sales call required.

The templates in this library are a starting point. The work is getting your people to use them. That part is operational, not technical — and it starts with writing the first one.