How to Write SOPs From a Screen Recording (and Cut Steps First)

Most businesses know they need SOPs. Very few have time to write them.

The usual approach is to sit down with a blank document and try to remember every click. It takes hours, and it still misses things, because the person doing the task does half of it on autopilot.

There's an easier way. Record yourself doing the task, talk while you do it, and let AI turn that into a first draft.

But the recording isn't the valuable part. The valuable part is what you do with the draft before anything gets automated.

Why "cut steps first" matters

Every business has steps that exist only because of an old workaround. A form that gets printed and scanned back in. A spreadsheet copied into another spreadsheet. An email sent to yourself as a reminder.

If you automate a process without looking at it, you keep every one of those steps. They just run faster. That's how businesses end up paying for tools that do pointless work.

This is where I stand on AI: don't let it outsource your thinking. AI can write the SOP. Deciding which steps deserve to exist is your job.

Step 1: Pick one task and record it

Choose an admin task that happens often and that one person currently "just knows". Good first choices:

• New client intake, from enquiry to first booking
• Making a roster change and letting everyone know
• Following up an unpaid invoice

Then record it:

• Use the screen recorder you already have. Most computers include one.
• Talk as you go. Say what you're doing and why. "I check this field because funding type changes which form we use." The why is what a new staff member needs most.
• Do the task for real, but use test or made-up details. Never record real client information.
• Keep it to one task. Ten to fifteen minutes is plenty.

Step 2: Transcribe and draft with AI

Get a transcript of the recording. Many AI tools can transcribe audio, and some accept video directly. Then give the transcript to your AI tool with the prompt below.

Below is a transcript of me doing one admin task while explaining it.
Turn it into a draft SOP.

Business: [type of business, e.g. NDIS provider, allied health clinic]
Task name: [e.g. new client intake]
Who will use this SOP: [role, and how experienced they are]
Tools involved: [list the software and systems you use]

Format:
1. Purpose (one sentence)
2. When this task starts and when it's finished
3. Numbered steps, one action per step
4. For each step, add a column: "Why we do this" (from what I said;
   write [NOT EXPLAINED] if I didn't say)
5. Decisions a person must make, listed separately
6. Questions you'd ask me where the transcript is unclear

Rules:
- Do not invent steps or tools I didn't mention.
- Do not include any client details.
- Plain Australian English, short sentences.

Transcript:
[paste transcript]

Every step marked [NOT EXPLAINED] is worth a closer look. Often nobody knows why it's there.

Step 3: The review (this is the real work)

Print the draft or open it next to a blank sheet. Go through each step and ask:

• Why does this step exist? If the answer is "we've always done it", circle it.
• Is this information already somewhere else? If it's typed twice, one of those is probably unnecessary.
• Who actually needs the output? If nobody reads the report, stop making it.
• Is this a decision or a task? Decisions stay with a person. Tasks might be automated.

Step 4: Keep, cut, automate

Make three columns and put every step in one of them.

Two rules for the automate column:

• Every automated step ends with a named person who checks the result or owns the next step.
• Start with one. Automate the most repetitive step first, check it works for a few weeks, then do the next.

Since 2017 I've worked inside an NDIS and aged care provider, first on marketing and then on the systems behind it. When I built referrer lists and follow-up sequences there, I did them by hand first and brought AI in later. Doing it by hand is how you find out which steps matter.

Step 5: Test it on someone else

Give the updated SOP to a staff member who doesn't usually do the task. Ask them to follow it exactly while you watch, without helping.

• Wherever they hesitate, the SOP is unclear. Fix it.
• Wherever they ask a question, add the answer.
• Wherever they do something different and it works better, consider changing the SOP.

Then save it where your team can find it, with a "last reviewed" date and an owner.

A note on clinical procedures

This method is for admin and operational tasks. Clinical procedures need a clinician to write and sign off, and they're outside the scope of this guide. And a well-written SOP doesn't on its own mean you meet any particular standard. Check your obligations separately.

Checklist

• One task chosen
• Recorded with narration, using test details only
• Transcript turned into a draft SOP with the "why" column
• Every step reviewed: keep, cut or automate
• Each automated step has a named person checking it
• Tested by someone who doesn't usually do the task
• Saved with an owner and a review date

What a person must still decide

• Which steps are worth keeping. AI can't tell a workaround from a safeguard. You can.
• Where judgement is needed. Anything involving a client's wellbeing, money or a complaint stays with a person.
• Who owns the SOP and when it gets reviewed.
• Whether to automate at all. Sometimes cutting steps is enough.

Write it down, cut it back, then automate what's left. In that order.

If you'd like this set up for you, that's what the free check is for.

General information only — not clinical, legal or financial advice. No client is named and nothing here describes a patient or participant. Written by Aishah Shah, Western Sydney.