SOP Maker › SOP templates

Free SOP templates you can edit and print

The templates live inside the tool, not in a zip file. You pick a format, pick a starter procedure, and SOP Maker builds a numbered, printable document you then edit.

The seven document formats

When you create a document you choose one of these. Each starts you with a different set of sections, and you can add or delete any of them afterwards.

• Risk & PPE detail – hazards, PPE, safe system of work. The chemical and cleaning shape, and the one most hygiene procedures use.
• Machine SOP – purpose, responsibilities, numbered steps, process-map images, authorisation. For operating or stripping a specific piece of equipment.
• Safe Working Procedure – controls and safety information, then pre-task, task and post-task step tables.
• Work Instruction – scope, method, corrective action, contingency. Shorter and narrower than an SOP; see SOP vs work instruction for which you need.
• Toolbox Talk – a short safety briefing: topic, key points, hazards and an attendee list.
• Sign-off Sheet – a standalone register: the list of SOPs down one side, names and signatures across.
• Custom / blank – start empty and add only the blocks you want.

What a procedure is built from

Underneath the formats there are eighteen section types, and a document is just a stack of them in whatever order you put them: purpose and scope, key points, a golden-rule box, bullet lists, numbered steps, steps with a responsible person beside each one, step-by-step with photos, an image step with the text alongside, a tick-box checklist, PPE tiles, tools and equipment tiles, a caution box, an emergency and first-aid block, a responsibilities table, a process map, legal and references, free text, and a sign-and-date table.

A typical cleaning procedure uses six or seven of them. A one-page work instruction might use three. Sections you don't need get switched off rather than left empty, so the printed page has no dead headings on it.

The twelve starter procedures

Choose the Risk & PPE format and a second dropdown appears with twelve written-out procedures you can start from, all of them from cleaning and hygiene work: chemical safety and correct PPE, lock-off, tippers, access zones, working at height and confined spaces, moving parts, blades and sharp parts, trip hazards during cleaning, pressure washing and water near electrics, manual handling, communication and handover, and food safety linked to cleaning.

Each one arrives with its purpose, key points, hazards, the PPE tiles already chosen and a golden rule already written. They're a starting point from a real factory, not a filled-in example – you still have to make every line true for your site, your chemicals and your machines. Anything that isn't true for you gets deleted.

Read a finished one before you start

The clearest way to see what comes out is to read one end to end. This chemical safety and PPE procedure is a complete document in the Risk & PPE format: document-control header at the top, purpose and scope, key points, the golden rule, hazards, PPE tiles, safe system of work, a caution box, first aid, references, and a read-and-understood signature table at the bottom.

Your own SOPs are the best templates

The starters get the first one written. After that, the best template you have is a procedure you already approved – it uses your wording, your departments, your PPE and your house style, which no generic template can.

Every card in the Library has a Duplicate button for exactly this. It opens a new SOP from that one, carrying across all the sections, the hazard box, the PPE tiles, the sign-off columns, the department and the format.

What it deliberately leaves behind is the document control. The copy arrives as a Draft, with no SOP number, no issue date, and the authorisation cleared. That is not tidiness – the name of whoever authorised a procedure is printed on the page, and a copy that kept it would carry one person's approval onto a document they have never read. The copy has to be approved on its own terms. The original is untouched, and nothing is written to your folder until you save.

Adding your own starter cards

The 01_Templates folder inside your SOP folder holds plain editable files: your departments and their number series, your sites, your equipment lists, and the starter cards shown in the picker. Adding a card of your own is a small JSON file with a key, a name and a one-line description, and there's a README in the folder showing the shape. Editing those files is safe – the built-in starters stay available even if you delete or break one.

How to use any of them

Open the app, connect a folder, create a document, choose the format and the starter, then work through it with the job in front of you. If you want the method rather than the mechanics, the seven-step guide covers what to write and in what order.

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