SOP examples

Real Standard Operating Procedure samples from the industries we see most. Use them as-is, adapt for your team, or generate a custom SOP in seconds.

Restaurant

Daily opening checklist (coffee shop)

Purpose: Ensure the café is safe, stocked, and ready to serve customers within 30 minutes of opening.

Scope: Opening shift lead and one barista, Monday–Sunday, 30 minutes before doors open.

Disarm the alarm and switch on all overhead lighting.
Power on espresso machine, grinders, and water filter. Allow 20 minutes to reach temperature.
Check fridge and freezer temperatures; log any reading outside 1–4°C (fridge) or below -18°C (freezer).
Restock milk, syrups, cups, and lids from the back of house.
Count opening cash float and confirm against the prior shift close. Discrepancy >$5 — notify manager.
Wipe down counters, espresso machine, and POS screens.
Pull and taste the first espresso shot; adjust grind if extraction is outside 25–30 seconds.
Unlock the front door at opening time and flip the OPEN sign.

Marketing agency

Purpose: Move a new client from signed contract to project kickoff within 5 business days.

Scope: Account manager owns the process; involves finance, design lead, and project manager.

Send the welcome email and onboarding form within 24 hours of contract signature.
Create the client folder structure in shared storage (Brief, Assets, Deliverables, Reporting).
Set up billing in the finance system and send the first invoice.
Schedule the kickoff call with the client and assigned project manager.
Confirm logins, brand assets, and access to ad accounts received.
Run internal kickoff with design and PM teams to assign roles.
Deliver kickoff deck and project plan within 5 business days of signature.

E-commerce

Purpose: Process every refund request within 24 hours of submission while protecting margin.

Scope: Customer support team for all orders under $500. Higher-value refunds escalate to the support lead.

Acknowledge the request within 2 hours via the support inbox.
Confirm order ID, purchase date, and reason for the refund against the order system.
Verify eligibility against the published refund policy (30 days, unused condition).
Approve and issue the refund through the payment processor for eligible requests under $500.
Escalate ineligible or high-value requests to the support lead with a one-line summary.
Send the resolution email to the customer with the expected refund timeline.
Log the request, resolution, and reason code in the CRM for monthly reporting.

SaaS support

Purpose: Route inbound bug reports to engineering within one business day with enough context to fix.

Scope: Tier 1 support agents triage every report submitted via the in-app form or email.

Acknowledge the report in the support inbox within 1 hour.
Reproduce the issue in the staging environment using the steps provided.
Capture browser, OS, account ID, and console errors; attach screenshots or screen recording.
Classify severity (S1 outage, S2 broken core feature, S3 bug, S4 cosmetic) using the severity matrix.
File the issue in the engineering tracker with template fields populated.
Notify the on-call engineer in #eng-support for S1 and S2 issues.
Reply to the customer with the ticket reference and expected response window.

E-commerce

Purpose: Receive, verify, and shelve incoming supplier shipments within 24 hours of arrival.

Scope: Warehouse team for all inbound POs from approved suppliers.

Pull the purchase order from the inventory system before unloading.
Inspect the shipment exterior for damage; photograph any visible issues before opening.
Count cartons against the packing slip; flag shortages or overages on the PO.
Open a sample carton from each SKU and verify product matches the PO description.
Scan or enter each SKU and quantity into the inventory system.
Move stock to its assigned bin location; update bin if relocated.
File the signed packing slip and notify accounts payable that the PO is received.
Email the supplier within 24 hours for any discrepancy >2 units or 5% of PO value.

Real estate

Purpose: Take a property from signed listing agreement to MLS-live within 5 business days.

Scope: Listing agent and brokerage admin for every new residential listing.

Save the signed listing agreement to the property folder in shared storage.
Schedule photography and 3D tour for within 3 business days of signature.
Confirm seller disclosures, HOA documents, and prior inspection reports are on file.
Measure or verify square footage and room dimensions; reconcile with tax records.
Draft MLS copy: headline, 250-word description, and feature list.
Have the listing agent review and approve MLS copy and photo selection.
Publish to MLS, sync to brokerage website, and trigger syndication to portals.
Send the listing-live email to seller with a link to the public listing.

Retail

Purpose: Reconcile physical stock with the inventory system every Sunday before close.

Scope: Store manager and one associate. Estimated time: 90 minutes.

Print the current stock report from the POS system.
Count each SKU section by section; record the physical count on the printed sheet.
Flag every SKU with a variance greater than 2 units or 5% of stock.
Investigate flagged items: check the back room, returns shelf, and pending transfers.
Enter adjustments into the POS system with a reason code (damage, theft, miscount).
File the signed count sheet with the weekly close paperwork.
Email the variance summary to the regional manager by Monday 9am.

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