How to Create an SOP (as an Ancillary Company)

Simplifya's SOPs feature makes it easy for you to create clear and thorough SOPs for your clients.

Creating an SOP

To create a new SOP for your company, navigate to the SOPs module and click the “Create New SOP” button. A modal will open and you’ll be prompted to enter/select a few things before you can start fleshing out your SOP. All of these can be edited later:

SOP Name (required): Enter a name for your SOP. We recommend devising a naming convention for your SOPs and committing to it. This will make it easier to locate and sort your SOPs.
Effective Date (required): The Effective Date can mean two different things:
- The date a regulation went into effect: If your SOP pertains to regulatory requirements and you’re planning on citing those requirements in your SOP, the Effective Date can mean the date in which those regulations went into effect (or will go into effect).
- The date an internal policy went into effect: The Effective Date could also just mean the date in which you want your team to start using the SOP. Perhaps you’re implementing a new company policy (that’s unrelated to regulatory requirements) on a certain date, and your team needs to start using that SOP on the date specified.
Last Revised Date: This is an optional field, and you may actually choose to leave this empty for now and then add a Last Revised date when you’ve actually made edits to your SOP. If you’re creating a new SOP in order to create a digital version of an already existing SOP at your company, this gives you the opportunity to enter a date for the last time changes were made to the SOP. You can edit this field each time substantive changes are made to this SOP.
Select Category: This is an optional field. You can select a category for your SOP. If you select a category, you will be able to filter your SOPs by category on the Manage SOPs

After clicking the “Create SOP” button on this modal, your SOP will be created and you’ll be taken to a new screen where you can finish editing it.

Editing Your SOP

The Edit SOP screen is where you can edit all aspects of the SOP.

Manage Access

By default, all users on your account will be able to view this SOP. You can limit this access by state and/or by location.

By State: If you select a state, only users tied to locations in that state will have access to this SOP.
By Location: If you select a location (or locations), only users tied to the selected location/s will have access to this SOP.
By State and By Location: You can further limit access by selecting a state and then also selecting locations within that state.

Providing Context in Your SOP: Headers and Documents

To help make your SOP as clear as possible, we’ve added optional fields for SOP headers and you can also add reference documents that may provide more context to your SOP. Users viewing or completing an SOP can refer to the documents you attach.

Headers: Each SOP has a set of six (6) header fields giving users important context about why the SOP needs to be done (e.g., "Purpose" or "Policy") and background information necessary for completing it (e.g., "Background"). Completing these fields will provide more clarity, direction, and guidance to anyone that is assigned this SOP to complete. If completed properly, these headers will significantly cut down the time it takes to complete an SOP.

Files: To add a reference document to your SOP, just click the “Upload Files” button. You can add multiple files, each up to 20 MB in size. Files added to an SOP can be viewed and saved by employees conducting an SOP assignment.

Adding the Content of your SOP

When adding the content of your SOP, you have a few options for how to enter the content:

Task List: This is the default option. You can create a list of tasks that the reader/assignee should complete. Jump ahead to learn how to add and group tasks in a task list.
Narrative: Rather than creating tasks, you can add one large block of text for the content of your SOP. This is ideal if your SOP is mainly informative and does not require the reader or assignee to complete any tasks. To add your content in Narrative format, simply click the Narrative icon and start typing!
Document: Maybe you already have an existing SOP document that you'd just like to upload. If so, you're able to upload a PDF of your own SOP document. When viewing the SOP, the reader will be prompted to open the PDF to see the content of your SOP. To add your own document, simply click the Document icon, select the file to upload, and save!

Adding a Task List

To get started creating a task list, all you have to enter your first task and click the “Save” button. You can add more tasks by clicking the button.

You can group tasks by creating a Task Header (click the “Make Header” checkbox) and adding or dragging tasks into the header.

To rearrange your tasks, just click, drag, and drop it to where you want it. You can also move entire sections by dragging the Task Header.

You can add regulatory citations to any Task or Task Header to give even greater context to a person that has to complete this SOP.