SOPs How to write and maintain the standard operating procedures your team follows, and when to use one instead of an automation.

Operations, Workflows, SOPs. Written procedures with an owner, a schedule and a status. You need the SOP capability.

Automation Or SOP

The distinction is simple and worth getting right:

• An automation is executed by the platform. Use it for mechanical, rule-based steps.
• An SOP is executed by a person. Use it where judgement is needed, where the steps involve systems outside the platform, or where a regulator expects a documented procedure.

Most real processes are both: an SOP describing what a person decides, with automations handling the mechanical steps around it.

Writing One

1. Give it a title that names the outcome, not the department. "Onboard a new client" beats "Client procedures".
2. Describe the objective and the steps. Start with why it exists in one sentence, then the steps in order.
3. Set the recurrence - how often it runs.
4. Set the status - Active or Draft. Draft while you are writing; Active once the team should follow it.
5. Save.

What Makes One Get Used

Procedures nobody follows are worse than none, because they create the impression of a controlled process. Three things separate the two:

• Write for someone doing it for the first time. The author always knows too much. If a step says "process the invoice as usual", it is not a procedure.
• Name the decision points. The value of a written procedure is telling someone what to do when it is not routine.
• Date it and own it. An unowned SOP rots quietly and is then followed anyway, which is the worst outcome.

Reviewing

Set a review cadence and hold it. A quarterly pass over the active list asking "is this still how we do it" is enough. When a procedure changes in practice, update it that week - the gap between practice and documentation is where audit findings come from.

Common Questions

Can an SOP trigger an automation? Not directly - an SOP is a document. Build the automation separately and reference it in the steps, so the person knows what the platform is doing for them.

Where do compliance documents go? Compliance is now run by NearSync and is not part of your Operations area. SOPs are your own internal procedures.

Should every process have one? No. Write them for processes that are important, done by more than one person, and not obvious. Everything else is overhead.