What Is an SOP? Standard Operating Procedures Explained (2026)

An SOP, or standard operating procedure, is a documented set of step-by-step instructions that describes exactly how a recurring task should be performed inside an organization. SOPs turn tacit knowledge — the way your best employee does a job — into an explicit, repeatable process anyone can follow. In 2026, a modern SOP is rarely a static Word document; it's usually an AI-captured, screenshot-and-video-rich page produced with a tool like [Haiku](/reviews/haiku), [Scribe](/reviews/scribe), or [Trainual](/reviews/trainual). Good SOPs cut onboarding time in half, reduce mistakes on repetitive work, and make a business easier to audit, insure, and eventually sell. Bad SOPs — the ones written once and never opened again — are worse than none at all, because they encode outdated behavior. The best-performing companies treat SOPs as living documents, review them quarterly, and pick a tool that makes updating them as fast as capturing them the first time.