Why You Should Document Your Business Processes

Why is it important to document business processes? Do you think that business processes should only be documented once they are ready to hand over or once they have been signed off? Some may argue that business owners or entrepreneurs should have their business processes in place way before you take on team members or hire a Virtual Assistant. Here we discuss the reasons why it’s important to document business processes.

As your team begins to grow you’ll find you start moving into new workflows, the time it takes to document these business processes becomes essential to the success of your business. Documenting the process as you go along can help you to decide if changes need to be implemented, or if parts of the process need to be eliminated.

5 Benefits of documenting your business processes

• Documenting ensures smooth and reliable workings in the future
• Improves business performance
• Enables you and your employees to learn whilst you work
• Identify past mistakes and refine steps going forward
• Improves overall quality of work

Business processes are extremely useful. Not only do they lay out clear instructions for great working practice, but they are also like your very own working bibles. They are contingency plans, a way to ensure that work still carries on as normal even if you have a staff member off sick, out of the office, or even if you have a new starter. Business processes are advanced ‘how to guides’ which outline your working structure and are perfect for having in place before handing over to a Virtual Assistant or hiring a new member of staff.

Types of business processes to document

There are many types of business processes that require documenting – here are a few below that you may recognise:

• Follow up lead journey
• Onboarding clients
• Performance reviews
• Content creation
• Email marketing
• Customer complaint resolution process
• Equipment inspection
• Maintenance procedures
• Service delivery process.
• Billing process
• Collection process
• New employee
• Individual team processes and tasks

It might be that you have a need for a process but are unsure how to correctly document it. Here are 10 useful steps that will help you to hit the ground running.

10 Steps to documenting your business processes

1. Process name?–?Give the process a name that is easily identifiable
2. Process boundaries?–?Identify where the process will start and where it will end and how you come to that conclusion
3. Process outputs – What do you hope to see as a result
4. Process inputs?–?Identify what sources you need such as software, the internet, or stationery
5. Processing activities?–?Using sticky notes write down one activity on each note. Activities include things like ‘sign paperwork’
6. Process order?–?Using the sticky notes create a timeline/ order in which these activities need to be completed – this will help you to visualise the business process
7. Review the process – Take a minute to review everything you have put together – have you clearly integrated tips from step 2? It is important that you have included your goal beginning and end in the process
8. Process roles – You should now have your completed business process – now it is time to assign a role to an employee throughout each of the activity steps
9. Formatting process – It is time to format your business process in a software program so it is easily accessible, and you can edit it should you need to
10. Review of the business process?–?This is the stage where you will present the documentation of your business process to your team – you can discuss the process flow and any reservations the team might have

Documenting business processes – can reduce decision fatigue. If you outline the process and get in front of creating the documentation you will only need to do it ONCE! It will save you time in the long run – you can go from reinventing every time to simply following instructions until you have them memorised.

How do you prepare your business processes? Do you have a regimented routine, or do you fall victim to ‘just winging it? Do you believe that documenting your processes saves you time? Do you have business processes in place?