Operations handbook
How your business runs, written down and easy to find.
We sit with the people who do the work, follow it from start to finish, and write it down as procedures your team can search. Know-how stops living in one or two heads.
- Fee
- Fixed, quoted on the first call
- Sold
- On its own, or as the Phase 0 deliverable
- You end up with
- A Handbook your team signs in to
- Hosting
- We host it
- Coverage
- Canada and the US
- Commissions
- None
Sound familiar?
- One or two people hold the whole operation in their heads
- Ask how an order gets shipped and you get three different answers
- New hires learn by shadowing whoever has time that week
- An audit is coming and the written procedures are years out of date
- You are looking at new software, and nobody has written down what it must do
How we help, in three steps.
We sit with the people who do the work
Short sessions with the people in each area, following real work from start to finish. We look at the spreadsheets, the workarounds and the steps nobody ever wrote down.
We write it down and build the Handbook
Each piece of work becomes a journey across the teams it touches. Each task becomes a procedure with the steps, who does them and the system each one happens in. Every role gets its own page, and every system is mapped to the steps that depend on it.
We hand it over with an owner on every page
Each procedure gets a named owner and a date, and each role names a backup. Your team signs in and searches it. It is yours to keep and to keep current.
What you get
Know-how stops leaving when people do
What sits in one person's head is written down, dated and owned, so a resignation or a retirement is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
New hires get a reading list, not a shadow
Someone starting opens their role and sees the procedures to read, in order, plus who to ask when they are stuck.
One answer to how we do this
The same task is done the same way across shifts and sites, because there is one written version everybody can find in seconds.
The start of your list for new software
Every system is mapped to the steps that run in it. If you do go shopping later, you already know what the new one has to handle.
Questions
Can we get this instead of the usual Phase 0 documents?
Yes. On a Phase 0 engagement the Handbook can replace the PDF report and the spreadsheets as the thing you are left with. Same work, same fixed fee, delivered as something your team actually opens and uses rather than a file that goes in a folder.
Do we have to be planning a new system?
No. Most businesses that need this are not buying anything. They are trying to stop depending on a few people's memory, train new hires properly, or get ready for an audit. It is sold on its own.
Is this software we have to buy from you?
The Handbook is the deliverable, not a product licence, and the work is a fixed-fee project. We take no commissions from software companies and have no stake in whatever systems you run.
Who hosts it, and who keeps it up to date?
We host it, so there is nothing for your IT to install, run or maintain. Your team keeps the content current: every procedure has a named owner and every change is dated and confirmed by the person responsible. We can stay involved if you want, and that is a separate conversation.
Will this get us through an ISO or customer audit?
We are not auditors and we do not certify anyone. What we do is write down how the work actually happens, with owners and dates, which is usually the part businesses are missing when an audit is coming. Your auditor decides what satisfies the standard.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee, agreed on the first call once we know how many areas of the business it needs to cover.
For your team, the detail:5 Signs Your Operations Aren't ScalableWhen Knowledge Lives Only in Someone's Head, Resignation Feels Like a Disaster
Next step
Want to see one before you decide?
A 45-minute call with an advisor. No pitch. We will walk you through a real Handbook and tell you plainly whether your business needs one.
Or call +1 365-773-2006