What documenting a process means.
Three words that often get mixed up, and are worth separating before you start.
- Process
- A set of tasks that leads to a result. The month-end close is a process: it ends with the month's accounts closed and the report delivered to management.
- Task
- What a role does, with a frequency and a duration. Bank reconciliation is a task in the month-end close: the accountant does it every month, in a full working day.
- Procedure
- How a task is done, step by step, and with which system: import the bank statements into the accounting software, reconcile the transactions, explain the differences.
Documenting a process means writing down these three layers. With them in writing, a new person can do the task, an absence doesn't bring the work to a halt, and management questions (where the time goes, what to automate, where the risk is) get answers.
The problem is common: in a Panopto survey (2018), 42% of the knowledge each role needed was known only to the person in it.
The method, in six steps.
List the tasks and choose where to start.
Start with the list, not the manual: every task in the company, area by area, with the role that does each one, how often and how long it takes. That's the company map (in the haulage company in our demo, 72 tasks in 9 areas). Begin with the tasks that:
- only one person knows how to do;
- take up the most hours a year;
- are costly when they go wrong: tax, payroll, customers;
- are about to change, with a new system or someone leaving.
Talk to the person who does it.
The procedure is written with the person who does the task, not from memory by whoever coordinates it: ask them to show you, with the system open. Write down what's done today, even if it isn't ideal; improving it comes later.
Always write with the same structure.
The same fields for every task, so they're quick to read and easy to compare:
Who does itThe role, not the name: it survives changes of staff.When it startsA date or an event (an invoice arrives).Frequency and timeHow often, and how long each time.What goes inThe documents and data it needs.How it's doneOne step per action, with its verb and its system.What comes outThe result and who it goes to.If it goes wrongThe exceptions and who they're escalated to.Who approvesIf there's an approval, whose.The right level of detail: a colleague from the same area can do the task without asking. The verbs (import, reconcile, approve) also show what can be automated.
Confirm it with the team.
The person who does the task reads it and confirms it; whoever receives the result confirms what reaches them. If two people do the same task differently, there's a decision to make. Only what's confirmed counts.
Bring it all together in one place.
The list, the tasks and the procedures in the same place and linked to each other, with an owner for each process and the date it was last confirmed. Folders of loose files scatter the knowledge again.
Keep the documentation alive.
Update it when a system, a person or a rule changes, and keep a record of who changed what and when. An out-of-date procedure misleads whoever follows it: review each process at least once a year.
Example: the month-end close.
This is what a task looks like written with this structure: bank reconciliation, the first of the six tasks in the month-end close at Transportes Atlântico, the fictional haulage company in our demo.
Bank reconciliation
- 1
Import the bank statements into the accounting system.
Get · AccountingHigh - 2
Reconcile outstanding receipts and payments.
Check · AccountingHigh - 3
Explain the differences and post the adjustments.
RecordHigh
Scheduled · monthly, first week
Items unidentified for more than 15 days are escalated to the Finance Director.
Transportes Atlântico (Demo), fictional company · automation potential of each step
The whole process, in the order it's done
- Bank reconciliationAccountant8 h
- Post payroll into the accountsAccountant2 h
- Record the month-end accrualsAccountant4 h
- Reconcile customer and supplier accountsAdministrative Officer6 h
- VAT returnAccountant4 h
- Management reportFinance Director12 h
The same information serves three people: the colleague who covers for the accountant during holidays follows the steps; management sees that the close takes 36 hours a month and what can be automated; and an AI assistant answers "how do we do the bank reconciliation?" with these steps and their source.
Word, wiki or knowledge base.
The format matters less than the method, but each one has its limits.
DocumentsWord, PDF · to get started
Easy to start, hard to maintain: versions multiply, and you can't add up hours or see who does what. It's the classic procedures manual.
Wiki or intranetTo share
One place, easy to edit, but every page is written its own way: questions such as how many hours the close takes still go unanswered.
Structured knowledge baseTo decide and for AI
Every piece of data in its own field (who, when, how long, which system), with its source and confirmed by the person who does the task. The documents, the map and the AI's answers all come from it. It asks for more method at the start.
What about BPMN? It helps with processes that have many decisions and handovers between areas; for most tasks, the list of steps is enough and the diagram is generated from it. That's how CorpWorkflow works: a base confirmed by the team, from which the map, the procedures in PDF and the BPMN are produced.
Frequently asked questions.
How long does it take to document a company's processes?
It depends more on the number of tasks than on the size of the company. What takes longest isn't the writing: it's fitting in the conversations with the people who do each task. That's why it pays to start with the list and a few tasks, and build from there.
Who should write it: the person who does the task or someone else?
The person who does the task knows it best; someone else usually writes it better, because they ask about what the person doing it no longer notices. Ideally, one person writes and the person who does the task confirms it.
Does it help with ISO 9001 certification?
It's a foundation: the standard requires the documented information needed for processes to work (clauses 4.4 and 7.5), and processes and procedures confirmed by the team are that foundation. Certification has other requirements, such as quality objectives and internal audits.
Does documenting processes help a company use AI?
It's the starting point. Without the procedures in writing, an AI assistant answers in generalities or makes things up; with them confirmed, it answers the way your company works and says where the answer came from (see the same question, with and without the procedure). Gartner expects 60% of AI projects without AI-ready data to be abandoned by the end of 2026.