Creating a New Version of an SOP

Simplifya makes it create, maintain, and track new versions your SOPs when you need to make updates to your company's procedures. With a few clicks, you can create a carbon copy of any of your existing SOPs, make the necessary changes to the new version, and update all existing assignments to the new version so your team members are completing the latest version of your SOP. 

Why Create a New Version?

Many states and local jurisdictions require a new version of an SOP when a substantive change is made, and that you also must keep all previous versions of the SOP on file. Any time you're making significant changes to one of your SOPs, it's a good idea to create a new version.

We recommend you create a new version if you're:

• Adding or removing a task
• Adding or removing a section header
• Adding or removing a citation
• Making more than grammatical changes to any of the SOP header fields

On the other hand, the following changes likely will NOT require a new version:

• Grammar or formatting changes to header fields or tasks that don't change the meaning
• Changing the name of an SOP
• Editing the "Effective Date" of your SOP

How to Create a New Version of An SOP

On the "View/Edit SOP" screen for an SOP, click the ellipses menu in the top right and then click the "Create new version" option.

You'll then be prompted to enter an "Effective Date" for the new version of your SOP.

Why the Effective Date of a New Version is Important

Many times, states or local jurisdictions will release rule changes that are to become effective at a future date, sometimes months later. This allows your business to get a head start on updating any SOPs that are affected by these rules changes. 

You can go ahead and create a new version of your SOP that incorporates the rule changes and set the Effective Date to the future date that the changes become effective. This will keep your existing SOP as the "Current" version until the future date of your new version comes, at which point the new version you created will become your current version. 

This also impacts any existing SOP assignments. SOP assignments will always be for the "Current" version of your SOP, so your team is completing an SOP that pertains to the current regulations (and not upcoming regs).    

Note: While the "Effective Date" is designed to give employees an indication of which version of an SOP they should be using, the system does not prevent employees from using the "Conduct Now" button on previous versions of your SOPs.

After clicking the "Create New Version" button, your new version will be created, and it will be given the same name as the previous version, but will have an incremented version number. Previous versions will appear grayed out on your SOPs table as a way of providing a visual indicator of older versions, but is still accessible and can still be completed. 

Note: Your SOPs table has a filter for "Versions" and defaults to showing "Current Versions." You can also view "Previous Versions" (all of which will appear grayed out), "Upcoming Versions" (SOPs whose Effective Date has not come yet. These will appear in green text on your table), or "All Versions."

How Do Version Numbers Work?

When a new version of the same SOP is created, the number of the new version will increase by 1 whole number. This is true regardless of which version the new version is created from.

For example, let's say you have an SOP and over time you have created two new versions of it, so you have a version 1, version 2, and a version 3. If you create a new version of this SOP, it will be version 4, and that is true whether you create that new version from version 1, version 2, or version 3. 

We recommend using the latest version to create the new version, since that will have the most recent changes you've made to the SOP. 

Note: If you change the name of an SOP, it will retain the same versioning.