SOP outline template: the sections, in order, and what goes in each

Pick the size of outline

Not every procedure needs every section. A 6-section outline is enough for a routine task; most business processes want 9; regulated or safety-critical work needs all 15. The table shows which sections each version keeps.

• Short: A routine task done by one person or one team, with little risk if a step is missed.
• Standard: Most business processes: several roles, an approval or two, and records an auditor may ask for.
• Regulated: Quality-managed, safety-critical or inspected work where deviations, training and signatures must be documented.

The full SOP outline

Each heading is a section of the finished SOP. Under it: what the section must achieve, then the questions to answer in your notes. Badges show which outline sizes include it.

1. Document control Short Standard Regulated

   Document number, version, owner, approver, effective date and next review date, so anyone holding a copy can tell whether it is the current one.

   • What number does this SOP get in your numbering scheme?
   • Who owns it, and who approved this version?
   • When does it take effect, and when is it next reviewed?
2. Purpose Short Standard Regulated

   One or two sentences on the result the procedure guarantees, written as an outcome rather than an activity.

   • What goes wrong if this is done badly or not at all?
   • What does done correctly look like?
3. Scope Short Standard Regulated

   Where the procedure starts and stops, which sites, products or teams it covers, and the cases it deliberately leaves to another procedure.

   • Which event starts the procedure, and which ends it?
   • Which locations, systems or teams are in and out?
   • Which similar cases follow a different SOP?
4. Definitions and abbreviations Regulated

   Terms a new starter or an auditor could misread, defined once so every step uses them the same way.

   • Which words have a special meaning here?
   • Which abbreviations appear in the steps?
5. References Standard Regulated

   The related SOPs, forms, system guides, policies and external requirements a reader needs open while doing the work.

   • Which forms or system screens are used?
   • Which other SOPs hand work to this one or receive work from it?
   • Which law, regulation or customer contract sets a requirement here?
6. Roles and responsibilities Standard Regulated

   Every role that acts in the procedure, by job title rather than by name, with what each one is accountable for.

   • Who performs each step?
   • Who approves, and who checks?
   • Who is the backup when the usual person is away?
7. Safety and precautions Regulated

   Hazards, required protective equipment and the conditions under which the person must stop and escalate rather than continue.

   • What can injure someone, damage equipment or corrupt data here?
   • What protective equipment or access is required?
   • When must the person stop work, and whom do they tell?
8. Equipment, materials and systems Regulated

   The tools, materials, software and settings needed, with what to check before use.

   • Which equipment or system is used, and which version or model?
   • What must be checked or calibrated before starting?
9. Procedure Short Standard Regulated

   Numbered steps in the order they happen, each one action that starts with a verb and names the role doing it, with the deadline, threshold or system in the step itself.

   • What is the first action, and who takes it?
   • Where does the work wait for an approval or a decision?
   • What numbers (amounts, times, limits) decide the next step?
10. Deviations Regulated

    What to do when the procedure cannot be followed: who may approve a planned deviation in advance, and how an unplanned one is recorded and investigated.

    • Who can approve doing it differently, in advance?
    • How is an unplanned departure recorded, and by when?
11. Controls and checks Standard Regulated

    The checks that stop mistakes and fraud, such as approvals, segregation of duties, reconciliations and second-person reviews, with who performs each.

    • What single error would hurt most, and what catches it?
    • Which step must never be done by the same person who did the previous one?
12. Records Short Standard Regulated

    The evidence the procedure leaves behind, where each record lives and how long it is kept.

    • What would prove to an auditor that each step happened?
    • Where is it stored, and for how long?
13. Training Regulated

    Who must be trained before doing the work, how competence is confirmed and when retraining is due.

    • Who needs training before they may perform the steps?
    • How is competence shown, and recorded?
14. Revision history Short Standard Regulated

    Version, date, a one-line description of what changed and who approved it, newest last.

    • What changed in this version, and why?
    • Who approved it?
15. Approval signatures Regulated

    Names, roles, signatures and dates of the people who prepared, reviewed and approved this version.

    • Who prepared, reviewed and approved this version?

From outline to first draft in five passes

1. Interview. Sit with the person who does the work and answer the outline questions in their words. Record what actually happens, including the workarounds.
2. Sequence. Put the actions in the order they occur and mark every point where work waits: for an approval, a document, another team or a decision.
3. Assign. Give each action exactly one role. If two roles share a step, split it into two steps.
4. Quantify. Replace every "quickly", "large" or "if needed" with a deadline, an amount or a condition someone can check.
5. Test. Hand the draft to someone who has never done the task and watch them follow it. Each question they ask points at a missing detail.

Then move the result into a Word SOP template or the online builder, which checks every step for a role and for vague timing.

A worked outline: purchasing card reconciliation

This is what an outline looks like after the interview pass, before it is polished into steps. It uses the standard outline.

Notice what the notes already contain: dates, amounts and a role for every action. Turning them into numbered steps is now mechanical.

Outline, SOP, work instruction or checklist?

For a routine repeated every shift, an SOP in checklist form often replaces the separate checklist; see the store opening and closing example.

When the safety section is not optional

The regulated outline adds a safety and precautions section. In some work the law expects it. Where employees service or maintain machines that could start up or release stored energy unexpectedly, OSHA's hazardous energy standard says energy control procedures must be developed, documented and utilised, so the outline for that kind of task must capture the lockout steps rather than leave them to memory.

Source: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147(c)(4), checked 1 October 2026.

Where to go next

• Four complete SOP examples, one per format, to see the outline turned into a finished procedure.
• The SOP manual template, for numbering and controlling many SOPs together.
• The SOP library: the purpose, scope, roles and opening steps of 36 business SOPs.