How to Write an SOP Your Assistant Will Actually Use

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are the difference between an assistant who needs you for every decision and one who runs your recurring work on their own. Most leaders avoid writing them because they imagine thick binders. Good SOPs are short, practical and — importantly — mostly written by the assistant, not you.

What makes an SOP useful

A useful SOP is:

• Short. One to two pages. If it's longer, split it.
• Action-oriented. Numbered steps, starting with verbs.
• Specific. Names the tool, the field, the folder.
• Decision-aware. Spells out the judgment calls and who makes them.
• Owned. Someone keeps it current.

The record-convert-test method

1. Record (you, 5–10 minutes)

Do the task once while recording your screen and narrating what you're doing and why. Don't script it. Say things like "I always check this first because…" — those asides are where the judgment lives.

2. Convert (assistant, 30–60 minutes)

The assistant watches the recording and writes the SOP using a standard template (below). They note any questions.

3. Review (you, 10 minutes)

Read the draft, answer questions, correct anything wrong. Resist adding detail that isn't needed.

4. Test (assistant)

The assistant does the task using only the SOP. Anything they had to guess becomes an edit.

5. Maintain (assistant)

Whenever the process changes, the assistant updates the SOP and notes the date. Review the SOP library quarterly.

The template

Title: [Task name] Owner: [Who maintains this SOP] Last updated: [Date] Frequency: [Daily / weekly / monthly / on trigger] Trigger: [What starts this task] Time required: [Estimate] Tools: [Systems and access needed]

Outcome: One sentence describing what "done" looks like.

Steps 1. … 2. … 3. …

Decision rules - If X, then Y. - If unsure about Z, escalate to [person] via [channel].

Quality check: How to verify the task was done correctly.

Common mistakes: Two or three pitfalls to avoid.

Example: Weekly pipeline report

Outcome: The sales leader receives an annotated pipeline report by 4 p.m. CT every Thursday.

Steps 1. Run the "Weekly Pipeline" report in the CRM. 2. Export to the shared spreadsheet, "Pipeline" tab. 3. Compare with last week's tab; calculate new, advanced, pushed, won and lost. 4. Flag any deal with a past close date or no activity in 14 days. 5. Write a five-bullet summary of notable changes. 6. Send to the sales leader in Slack with a link.

Decision rules - If a deal's amount changed by more than 20%, note it in the summary. - If the report fails to run, message the RevOps owner and tell the sales leader before 2 p.m.

Quality check: Totals match the CRM dashboard.

Which SOPs to write first

Start with recurring, high-frequency tasks:

1. Inbox triage rules
2. Scheduling rules
3. Meeting brief preparation
4. Travel booking preferences
5. Expense report submission
6. Weekly report assembly
7. CRM post-call update (sales)
8. Month-end close checklist (bookkeeping)
9. New-hire onboarding logistics (operations)
10. Vendor invoice processing

Ten good SOPs usually cover most of an assistant's recurring work.

Where to keep SOPs

Use one shared, searchable home: Notion, Confluence, Google Docs in a dedicated folder, or your project tool's knowledge base. Link SOPs from recurring tasks so the instructions are one click away.

Common mistakes

1. Writing SOPs nobody reads. If an SOP isn't used during the task, it's documentation theater.
2. Too much detail. Explain judgment, not every click.
3. No owner. SOPs decay without one.
4. Writing them all before starting. Write as you delegate, one task at a time.

Why this matters beyond delegation

A good SOP library makes your business more resilient. When someone is out sick or leaves, the process doesn't leave with them. It also makes it easier to scale: new team members ramp faster, and you can see which processes are worth automating.

A worked example: an SOP for booking travel

Here's a complete SOP written with the template above. It's short enough to follow, but specific enough that someone new could do it right the first time.

Title: Book domestic business travel for the CEO Owner: Executive assistant | Last reviewed: [date] | Time: ~30 minutes per trip

Trigger: A meeting outside the home city is confirmed on the calendar.

Inputs: Meeting address and time, the CEO's traveler profile (loyalty numbers, TSA PreCheck or Global Entry number, seat preference), and the travel policy.

Steps:

1. Check the calendar for the day before and after to see if the trip can combine other meetings.
2. Search flights arriving at least 3 hours before the first meeting. Prefer nonstop. Aisle seat, front third of the plane.
3. Choose fares within policy (economy under 3 hours; premium economy or better over 3 hours if available within budget).
4. Hold, don't book. Send two options to the CEO in Slack with time, price and airline.
5. After approval, book using the company card stored in the booking tool, never one typed from email.
6. Book a hotel within 15 minutes' walk of the meeting from the approved list, if possible.
7. Add flight, hotel and ground-transport details to a single calendar event with confirmation numbers.
8. Create a one-page itinerary in the travel folder.
9. Set a reminder for the night before to check flight status and send any changes.

Done looks like: One calendar event per travel day with every confirmation number, plus the itinerary PDF in the folder, sent at least 48 hours before departure.

Escalate if: No flight arrives with 3 hours to spare; price exceeds policy by more than 20%; the CEO hasn't approved within 24 hours of a fare hold expiring.

A quality checklist for any SOP

• [ ] Starts with a trigger, so it's clear when to use it
• [ ] Lists inputs and where to find them
• [ ] Numbered steps, each starting with a verb
• [ ] Includes decision rules ("if X, do Y") rather than "use judgment"
• [ ] Defines "done" in a way someone else could check
• [ ] States when to escalate and to whom
• [ ] Has an owner and a review date
• [ ] Has been tested by someone other than its author

The first ten SOPs most executives need

Keeping SOPs alive

Set a quarterly review. Ask the assistant to flag any SOP they had to work around in the last 90 days. Those are the ones that need updating. An SOP library that nobody updates becomes a trap, because people follow outdated steps confidently.

The bottom line

Record once, let your assistant convert it, review quickly, test and maintain. That's an SOP library built in minutes of your time per process.

ExecWing Operations Assistants typically start by documenting a client's top recurring processes. Read also: how to delegate to an EA.