SOP Template: Sections, Formatting, and Examples

Every SOP your team writes should start from the same blank page: the SOP template below has 11 sections, from a header block that names the owner and version to a revision history at the end. Paste it into a document, fill in what your task needs and delete the rest. Fixed headings mean a reader always knows where to look for the owner, the steps and the checks. There is no one correct SOP format, according to guidance published by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2007, and the agency’s own list of sections can be modified, reduced or expanded to fit the task.¹

SOPs are one of the everyday tools of process improvement, the work of fixing tasks a team repeats. This guide covers the blank form and how to fill it in; watching the task, writing alongside the team that does the work and testing the result are covered in the companion guide on how to write an SOP from scratch.

Prefer to watch? The video covers the same ground as this article.

VideoSOP Template: Sections, Formatting, and ExamplesWiserHours

The SOP template, ready to paste

The SOP template below follows the generalized format in the US EPA’s guidance and the typical layout in the UK Health and Safety Executive’s HSG48, trimmed for teams outside regulated industries.¹² Replace each bracketed prompt with your own wording.

The template writes roles as job titles because people leave and titles stay; a procedure that names “Priya” breaks the week Priya goes on holiday. The revision history sits at the end of the document, while the version and date sit in the header block, so a reader can see in one glance whether the copy in their hand is current. The EPA suggests putting the short title, ID, revision number, date and page count on every page after the title page, so the version in use is easy to identify.¹

What each section of an SOP is for

An SOP needs a header that identifies the document, a purpose and scope, the steps in order, and whatever the user needs to do them safely and well: roles, definitions, materials, checks and records. The two public guides behind this template, the US EPA’s and the UK HSE’s, list almost the same sections under slightly different names.¹²

Each section answers a question someone will ask. The header answers “is this the right, current document, and who do I ask?” The purpose and scope answer “should I be using this at all?” The EPA asks writers to open with a brief description of the purpose and the scope, so a reader knows what is covered before reading any step.¹ HSG48’s typical format adds precautions, special tools and the initial conditions that must be met before starting, which is why the template has a section for materials and access.²

Penn State Extension’s guide, written for dairy farms in the US, sets the floor lower: whatever the format, every SOP should carry a clear title, the name of the person responsible and the date it takes effect, with a list of materials for some tasks and safety precautions for any hazardous one.³

Picture an onboarding SOP at a design agency. Without a scope line, someone follows it for a freelancer who needs no laptop and no payroll record. Without a materials section, the new starter arrives before anyone has ordered the laptop. Both failures come from a missing section.

So before filling in any steps, write the header, purpose and scope. If you cannot say in two lines what the procedure is for and when it applies, the steps will not fix that.

Which sections a small team can drop

A small team can drop any section that has nothing to say for its task, as long as four parts stay: the header with its named owner, the purpose and scope, the steps and the revision history. The EPA’s guidance says not every topic on its list will apply to every procedure.¹

1. Header block: title, ID, version, owner, dates, approval
2. Purpose and scope, in two or three lines
3. Numbered steps
4. Revision history

Add when the task needs it (dashed bars):

• Roles, when more than one person does the task
• Definitions, when the steps use jargon or acronyms
• Materials, tools and access, when something must be ready first
• Safety or quality checks, when a mistake is costly or hazardous
• Decision points, when the user must choose a path
• Records, when someone needs proof the task was done

The split above is our reading of the guidance, not a rule from it. Definitions earn a place when the steps use jargon; roles when more than one person touches the task; records when someone, such as a client, auditor or manager, will later need proof it was done. A two-person studio backing up its files every Friday needs none of the three. A clinic booking interpreters for patients probably needs all of them.

Standards bodies take the same proportional view. ISO’s guidance on documented information for ISO 9001:2015, the international quality management standard, says the amount of documentation can differ from one organization to another with its size, the complexity of its processes and the competence of its people.⁴ A new edition, ISO 9001:2026, was published on 16 September 2026, with a three-year transition, so certified organizations should check the new text.⁵

How much detail goes under each step

Each step needs enough detail for a person new to this task, who understands the work in general, to follow it without supervision. The US EPA’s guidance sets that test and asks for steps that are concise rather than wordy, redundant or overly lengthy.¹ No study sets an ideal page count.

The difficulty is that one SOP has two readers: the newcomer who needs every move spelled out and the old hand who needs only a reminder. Penn State’s guide notes that detailed procedures cannot take the place of training, and that excessive detail can make experienced workers feel micromanaged.³

In the template, that means a step such as “Open the order in the order system” is enough for a team that does it daily; adding which browser to use and where the login is kept turns a short procedure into a manual nobody finishes. Write in full every step that must be done the same way each time, leave general skills to training, and split a long procedure into chunks; HSG48 suggests chunks so a user who is interrupted can find their place again.²

What are the three common SOP formats?

The three common SOP formats are simple steps, hierarchical steps and the flowchart, and the choice depends on two questions: how many decisions the user must make, and how many steps the task has. Penn State Extension’s guide sets out the rule: simple steps for short routines with few decisions, hierarchical steps for procedures of more than ten steps with few decisions, and a flowchart when the procedure requires many decisions.³

The guide also describes a graphic format that breaks very long processes into short sub-processes, and notes that some writers combine simple steps with a flowchart, which suits a procedure where only one step branches.³ HSG48 adds decision tables, written as “if condition X, then go to step Y”.²

Flowcharts suit decisions for a likely reason, though no source here tests it: prose makes the reader hold every condition in mind at once, while a chart asks one question at a time and shows where each answer leads. The only experiment we found that compared the two directly is old, but its result fits.

The study

Limited evidence

Flowchart instructions were understood more accurately and faster in a 1975 test

Kammann, at New Zealand’s University of Otago, started from a rule of thumb drawn from earlier studies: printed instructions are understood correctly only about two-thirds of the time, even with the text open in front of the reader. In the experiment, two flowchart formats did better than standard paragraph instructions on both comprehension accuracy and speed, and a later field trial showed the same pattern.⁶

The study tested comprehension of written instructions, not real work, and is half a century old, so it supports only a modest lesson. When your draft keeps saying “unless” and “except when”, turn that part into a flowchart or an if-then table, and keep the plain sequences as numbered steps. US federal plain-language guidance makes the general point: use lists for easy scanning and tables to make complex relationships clear.⁷

Two SOP examples from different settings

Both examples here are made up for illustration, one from a small online shop’s customer service desk and one from a café kitchen. Each keeps only the sections its task needs.

This one needs no definitions, roles or materials sections: one person does it with tools the whole team uses daily, and step 3 is the only decision. The check in step 2 comes before any money goes back out, which is where a mistake is cheapest to catch.

Here the hierarchy earns its place: an experienced cook reads the four main steps, a new one the sub-steps. The check in step 2 points to the café’s own food safety plan rather than writing a number into the SOP, so the limit lives in one controlled place.

Can I write an SOP in Word or Google Docs?

Yes. Nothing in the main guidance requires special software: the EPA accepts SOPs in hard copy or electronic format, and ISO’s guidance says documented information can be in any format and media.¹⁴ A shared document or a wiki page works, provided a few controls are in place, because they are what separate an SOP from a document that drifts.

Keep one master copy, and let most people view it read-only; the EPA notes that read-only electronic access protects against unauthorized changes.¹ Put the version and date in the header block, update the revision history with every change, and archive old versions where nobody will follow them by mistake. The template works the same in a document, a wiki or dedicated software.

Regulated work has its own required format

In regulated sectors, the regulator’s rules decide what an SOP must contain, and a general template is only a starting point. In EU medicines manufacturing, for example, the European Commission’s guidance on good manufacturing practice (GMP) says documents containing instructions should be approved, signed and dated by authorized people and be uniquely identifiable, and that SOPs should be written in an imperative, mandatory style.⁸

Food businesses that use HACCP, the hazard-control system set out in the international Codex food hygiene code, are expected to document their procedures, with documentation and record keeping appropriate to the nature and size of the operation.⁹ If you work in medicines, medical devices, food, aviation or another regulated field, start from your regulator’s or certification body’s format and check the rules where you operate.

Before an SOP from this template goes live

• Header block complete: title, ID, version, owner, dates, approval
• Purpose and scope written in two or three lines
• Format chosen: simple steps, hierarchical steps or flowchart
• One action per numbered step, each starting with a verb
• Every decision written as an if-then or drawn as a flowchart
• Empty sections deleted
• One master copy, with old versions archived

The bottom line

An SOP template does its job when everyone on the team uses the same one, filled in proportion to the task: the header, purpose and scope, numbered steps and revision history always, everything else only when it helps the person doing the work. Pick the format by the decisions involved, saving flowcharts for the steps that branch. Then keep one controlled master copy, in whatever tool your team already uses.