Are your processes buried in emails, job roles evolving without documentation, and critical tasks passed on through word-of-mouth?
These inefficiencies don’t reflect your team’s efforts. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to keep everything aligned with steady growth.
An operations manual template can change that. Think of an operations manual as your business’s playbook—that comprehensive guide containing all the “how-tos” your team needs to keep things running smoothly, regardless of who’s at the helm.
This blog post offers a curated list of free operations manual templates that can streamline standard processes and build a reliable resource for your team.
Free Operations Manual Templates to Streamline Processes
- What Are Operations Manual Templates?
- What Makes a Good Operations Manual Template?
- 24 Operations Manual Templates
- 1. ClickUp Employee Manual Template
- 2. ClickUp Employee Handbook Template
- 3. ClickUp Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures Template
- 4. ClickUp Standard Operating Procedures Template
- 5. ClickUp Process and Procedures Template
- 6. ClickUp New Hire Onboarding Template
- 7. ClickUp Company Culture Template
- 8. ClickUp HR Handbook Template
- 9. ClickUp Process Flow Whiteboard Template
- 10. ClickUp Company Policy Template
- 11. ClickUp Incident Action Plan Template
- 12. ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template
- 13. ClickUp Operational Plan Template
- 14. ClickUp Training Rollout Plan Template
- 15. Business Operations Manual Template by Template.Net
- 16. Construction Manual Template by Template.Net
- 17. Driving School Training Manual Template by Template.Net
- 18. Freelance Work Manual Template by Template.Net
- 19. Real Estate Manual Template by Template.Net
- 20. Operations and Maintenance Manual Template by Template.Net
- 21. Software User Manual Template by Template.Net
- 22. School Operations Manual Template by SweetProcess
- 23. Nonprofit Operations Manual Template by SweetProcess
- 24. Warehouse Operations Manual Template by SweetProcess
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Are Operations Manual Templates?
Operations manual templates are pre-structured documents that help organizations document their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), workflows, policies, and responsibilities in an organized format.
Here’s what they typically include:
- Company overview: Core values and organizational structure
- Roles and responsibilities: Detailed descriptions of team roles and responsibilities
- SOPs: Step-by-step instructions for recurring tasks (e.g., onboarding, inventory management, customer support processes)
- Communication protocols: Ways to handle internal and external communication
- Compliance and safety guidelines: Policies for regulatory compliance and workplace safety
- Tools and systems: List of tools/platforms and their user manuals
- Crisis management plans: Ways to deal with emergencies or system failures
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good Operations Manual Template?
Let’s understand what to look for in a high-quality operations manual template:
- Built-in prompts and examples: Pick a template with helpful prompts and examples to guide what to write in each section, so you are never starting from scratch ✅
- Clean and easy to navigate: Look for consistent formatting with clear section breaks, editable tables, and space for notes or checklists ✅
- External resources and visuals: Choose a template that lets you embed screen recordings, GIFs, walkthroughs, or diagrams, and interlink relevant resources (web links or internal documents) for added context ✅
- Collaborative editing: Go for a template that supports real-time collaboration with permission-based access and version control to track changes ✅
- Tool compatibility: Pick a template that integrates with your project management tools and work instructions software to assign tasks, track progress, and update manuals easily ✅
Summarize this article for me please24 Operations Manual Templates
There are various operations manual templates built for startups, nonprofits, schools, warehouses, freelancers, and several other industries.
Each template stands out for its unique features. Let’s find one that best fits your requirements.
1. ClickUp Employee Manual Template
The ClickUp Employee Manual Template is a designated space for documenting your company overview, individual roles and responsibilities, and employment policies.
With this template, you can:
- Write detailed job descriptions, duties, and responsibilities using pre-defined prompts
- Track the documentation workflow with Custom Task Statuses such as “Draft,” “Needs Review,” and “Approved”
- Embed screen recordings or videos within the manual to explain role-specific workflows
✅ Ideal for: Startup teams building their first structured training and employee alignment manual
🍄 Fun Fact: NASA’s operations manual was so big, it needed a ‘Cheat Sheet’. The Apollo mission had such a complex operations manual that astronauts carried a condensed ‘get home safe’ version on their suits.
2. ClickUp Employee Handbook Template
The ClickUp Employee Handbook Template is a wiki-style page with built-in sections to outline your company’s purpose, core values, code of conduct, guidelines, work hours, ADA policies, and more. It helps to build and organize comprehensive manuals that are simple to update as needed.
With this template, you can:
- Organize policies and procedures into nested pages so that every aspect, whether it’s onboarding, perks, or compliance requirements, stays clear and easy to navigate
- Use ClickUp’s Assign Comments to tag team members whenever someone has a question, and provide answers right inside the employee handbook
✅ Ideal for: HR teams and managers who want to communicate workplace policies and values
3. ClickUp Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures Template
The ClickUp Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures Template enables you to set clear expectations and provide practical clarity on handling daily tasks across your company.
With this template, you can:
- Build process documentation for onboarding, attendance, remote work, offboarding, and workplace behavior
- Define business practices around communication, confidentiality, compliance, and managing conflicts
- Set up ClickUp Automations to alert stakeholders when a policy needs review, approval, or a legal update
✅ Ideal for: HR teams and operations managers who want one master resource to clarify business processes and policies
🚀 Something to consider: Apart from the fact that templates do a lot of the early legwork for you, one of the main draws of using templates is the consistency they bring to your documentation and processes. Learn more with the quick video! 🎥
4. ClickUp Standard Operating Procedures Template
The ClickUp Standard Operating Procedures Template helps standardize common business procedures for onboarding, training, transfer, promotion, and offboarding, regardless of the team or department.
With this template, you can:
- Add flowcharts inside ClickUp Docs or ClickUp Whiteboards as a visual guide for each SOP, so that the same processes are followed consistently
- Maintain a centralized SOP tracker using Table View to monitor ownership, review dates, and updates in one place
- Standardize handoffs between departments (like HR to IT during onboarding) by assigning tasks with dependencies and deadlines to avoid delays
✅ Ideal for: Operations leads or small business owners who want to standardize internal workflows across teams
💡 Pro Tip: Add a quick RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) table at the top of each SOP to avoid confusion about ownership and keep decision-making clear.
5. ClickUp Process and Procedures Template
The ClickUp Process and Procedures Template gives your team a central way to document, track, and follow business processes across functions. It ensures consistency and efficiency in executing tasks organization-wide.
With this template, you can:
- Organize procedures visually with easy-to-read Kanban boards that show where each task stands, i.e., To Do, In Progress, or Complete
- Access four custom ClickUp Views, i.e., Process Flowchart, Documentation List, Documentation Stage, and Timeline
- Automatically track task progress with a visual bar that updates as subtasks, checklist items, and assigned comments are completed
✅ Ideal for: Operation teams and department heads managing multi-step internal processes across teams
🍄 Fun Fact: Many family businesses use operations manuals that have been passed down and updated for over 50 years. It’s like your business’s DNA in document form.
6. ClickUp New Hire Onboarding Template
The ClickUp New Hire Onboarding Template offers a checklist that HR teams can follow to ease the onboarding process of a new hire. From day zero to week four, it covers step-by-step tasks the employee must follow.
With this template, you can:
- Assign tasks such as document collection, account setup, workspace prep, and training to the right teams or individuals
- Set priorities so that teams and individuals can focus on time-sensitive onboarding tasks first
- Switch to Calendar View to schedule orientation sessions, equipment handoffs, and policy briefings in a timeline format
✅ Ideal for: Fast-growing teams that want to deliver a consistent onboarding experience across roles and departments
📚 Read More: Free Work Instruction Templates in Word and ClickUp
7. ClickUp Company Culture Template
Want to outline your organization’s unique fundamentals for a transparent view and better understanding for your employees? The ClickUp Company Culture Template accurately documents everything from your mission, values, history, organizational chart, and core culture and offerings.
With this template, you can:
- Brainstorm initiatives for cultural growth and tie them back to your business strategy
- Collaborate with team members across departments to gather input and build shared cultural guidelines
- Use AI for documenting and refining core values, product documentation, mission, vision, and cultural principles
✅ Ideal for: Businesses building a shared culture to align people with the company’s core values
Here’s what a customer had to say about ClickUp’s templates!
8. ClickUp HR Handbook Template
The ClickUp HR Handbook Template is what you need to organize and maintain all your HR policies in one place. It allows you to organize everything an employee should know when they join an organization, like business values, company hierarchy, workplace rules, time-off policies, and performance expectations.
With this template, you can:
- Build robust workplace policies so that no necessary policy remains unaddressed
- Tag new employees to specific sections and tasks to help them find the answers they need
- Assign policy development responsibility to relevant team members and use Custom Statuses like Draft, In Review, or Approved to manage progress and visibility
✅ Ideal for: HR teams building a centralized document to communicate standard company policies
9. ClickUp Process Flow Whiteboard Template
If you want a visual representation of how things move from point A to point B, the ClickUp Process Flow Chart Template is a suitable option. Built using ClickUp Whiteboards, this template gives you a flexible space to sketch each step using shapes, arrows, and connectors.
With this template, you can
- Link shapes to a real task, tag team members, add deadlines, and track progress without leaving the chart
- Use the Hiring Flowchart View to visualize recruitment stages and spot bottlenecks early
- Map out multi-step workflows like hiring, onboarding, or approvals with checkpoints clearly marked and assigned
✅ Ideal for: Teams that want a visual, interactive way to build and share process maps
10. ClickUp Company Policy Template
The ClickUp Company Policy Template helps you document your company rules, workplace standards, and health & safety protocols concisely.
With this template, you can:
- Identify and decide which policies you need by using built-in prompts and examples that cover common workplace topics
- Link to detailed policy documents, embed introductory videos, and attach supporting materials to add depth and give employees full context
✅ Ideal for: Small businesses building a standard policy document for employees’ reference
💡Pro Tip: Use ClickUp Brain to quickly outline basic policies on behavior, leave, benefits, or compliance.
📚 Read More: How to Draft a Company Policy [With Examples]
11. ClickUp Incident Action Plan Template
The ClickUp Incident Action Plan Template enables you to outline roles, task sequences, contact details, and timelines for handling different emergencies.
With this template, you can:
- Assign tasks using an incident assignment list so everyone’s clear on their responsibilities during emergencies
- Create a step-by-step sequence and visualize the emergency action plan using a flowchart for easy understanding
- Use Calendar View to schedule check-ins, follow-up reviews, or tie compliance reporting deadlines to the incident timeline
✅ Ideal for: Teams managing emergency planning, crisis response, or operational risk to plan for different emergencies
📚 Read More: Free Runbook Templates for Streamlining Processes
12. ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template
The ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template is a wiki-style page to outline your plans to mitigate and respond to cybersecurity threats. It also offers a structured space to document your ongoing security efforts, including audits, incident logs, and compliance checklists.
With this template, you can:
- Identify vulnerabilities and document action steps by severity, using fields like Risk Level, Action Owner, and Deadline
- Link to related security protocols, compliance requirements, or previous incident records for full context
- Use the Risk Assessment Overview view to prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity and impact, so teams can focus on the most critical threats first
- Work from the Incident Response Plan view to coordinate roles, response steps, and timelines during an active security event
✅ Ideal for: IT teams and compliance managers responsible for identifying risks and coordinating emergency response efforts
13. ClickUp Operational Plan Template
The ClickUp Operational Plan Template is a checklist-style template that helps you run smooth business operations. It includes pre-built fields for assigning tasks, setting priorities, tracking deadlines, and identifying responsible teams to perform different operational tasks.
With this template, you can:
- Categorize tasks by plan phase, delivery team, and priority using Custom Fields for better organization and filtering
- Use the Timeline View to lay out task durations across weeks or months to see estimated completion time and potential overlap areas
- Monitor capacity and task load in Workload View to prevent over-allocation and adjust assignments before delays happen
✅ Ideal for: Operations teams that require coordination, phase tracking, and team-wide visibility to manage ongoing business activities
📮 ClickUp Insight: More than half of all employees (57%) waste time searching through internal docs or the company knowledge base to find work-related information.
And when they can’t, one in six resorts to personal workarounds, digging through old emails, notes, or screenshots just to piece things together.
ClickUp Brain and ClickUp Connected Search eliminate the search by providing instant, AI-powered answers pulled from your entire workspace and integrated third-party apps, so you get what you need without the hassle.
📚 Read More: Best Operations Management Software Tools
14. ClickUp Training Rollout Plan Template
The ClickUp Training Rollout Plan Template helps you effectively plan, schedule, and track your company-wide training programs. It brings together your training goals, delivery methods, timelines, training materials, and assigned facilitators in one place to ensure a consistent rollout.
With this template, you can:
- Categorize training sessions by delivery method (virtual, in-person, or self-paced) and assign trainers, owners, and deadlines using Custom Fields
- Use the Modality View to organize sessions by format and coordinate logistics like trainer availability, tools, or room setup accordingly
- Attach training decks, video links, or reference guides directly to each session task so that employees can access them at their convenience
✅ Ideal for: HR teams or L&D leads managing multi-stage training programs across departments or roles
15. Business Operations Manual Template by Template.Net
The Business Operations Manual Template by Template.net is a doc-style manual necessary for teams responsible for running technical systems or managing equipment in day-to-day operations.
With this template, you can:
- Document how to set up and configure hardware or software correctly, with lists and images
- Provide troubleshooting steps to help resolve recurring technical issues without external support
- Outline the full process to operate equipment or systems safely and correctly
✅ Ideal for: Product-based businesses or technical teams creating internal guides
16. Construction Manual Template by Template.Net
The Construction Manual Template by Template.net supports documentation of the end-to-end construction process, allowing you to carefully plan and sequence every scheduled phase.
With this template, you can:
- Outline construction planning steps like site selection, budgeting, and legal checks using a checklist format
- Set transparent processes for core construction activities such as site prep, foundation work, framing, plumbing, and handover
- Establish quality control and safety protocols to help on-site workers understand compliance requirements
✅ Ideal for: Construction businesses that need a comprehensive guide to map their key business activities
💡 Pro Tip: Add emergency procedures and safety drills to your construction operations manual template. Clear instructions during a crisis can save lives and reduce liability.
17. Driving School Training Manual Template by Template.Net
The Driving School Training Manual Template guides you in building comprehensive training manuals for new drivers and trainees. It includes pre-defined sections to outline traffic rules, driving theories, practical in-car lessons, and everything in between to deliver a consistent training experience throughout the academy.
With this template, you can:
- Embed instructional videos and diagrams to explain driving foundations and safety protocols in a more engaging, easy-to-follow format
- Break down your curriculum into theory-based and on-road modules to explain the entire learning path to the trainees
- Define clear learning checkpoints to track each student’s progress and evaluate their preparation for the test
✅ Ideal for: Driving schools and instructors who want a ready-to-structure training manual that covers both classroom and in-car learning
18. Freelance Work Manual Template by Template.Net
The Freelance Work Manual Template allows you to set up and run a freelance business with more structure and consistency. From finding freelancing platforms and registering your business to setting your rates and managing clients, it lets you think through every aspect of freelancing.
With this template, you can:
- Set up a standard client onboarding flow that covers contracts, timelines, deliverables, and communication practices
- Ensure you’ve handled registration, taxes, and legal basics before starting work
- List the platforms, outreach methods, and proposal steps you’ll consistently use to onboard new clients
✅ Ideal for: Freelancers who want to build a well-documented foundation before taking on clients
19. Real Estate Manual Template by Template.Net
The Real Estate Manual Template outlines everything about property acquisition, sales procedures, client communication, documentation, and marketing through a structured document.
With this template, you can:
- Document best practices for handling buyers, sellers, and listings to ensure consistent communication and client experience
- Create a checklist of legal and compliance tasks, including contracts, disclosures, and regional regulations
- Embed clickable web links directly into the document to reference property portals, listing tools, and contract templates
✅ Ideal for: Real estate companies and brokerage firms that need to document processes and maintain consistency across client interactions
20. Operations and Maintenance Manual Template by Template.Net
The Operations and Maintenance Manual Template helps you document processes for the effective operation and maintenance of equipment and systems at your facility.
With this template, you can:
- Develop robust troubleshooting guides and safety protocols that act as a single source of truth for the employees
- Build a scheduled maintenance log with task assignments to reduce breakdowns and extend equipment life
- Include images and videos to explain technical procedures, system components, or repair steps more clearly
✅ Ideal for: Facility managers, operations leads, or small business owners documenting how to run and maintain key systems
21. Software User Manual Template by Template.Net
The Software User Manual Template helps you build a comprehensive guide to provide support and training for deploying and managing software on a large scale.
With this template, you can:
- Invite team members to contribute walkthroughs, fix outdated instructions, and maintain documentation accuracy
- Add a troubleshooting section with annotated screenshots of common error messages and step-by-step solutions to help users solve issues without delays
- Explain how to use key features with clear instructions, visuals, and even screen recordings to support different learning styles
✅ Ideal for: Product managers building documentation that scales with the software and supports users
📚 Read More: Best User Manual Software (Reviews & Pricing)
22. School Operations Manual Template by SweetProcess
The School Operations Manual Template allows you to build an easy-to-follow manual covering end-to-end school operations.
With this template, you can:
- Document core procedures for student enrollment, staff onboarding, lesson planning, and emergency handling
- Standardize school-wide policies on attendance, safety, and internal communication for daily use
- Break down roles and responsibilities for teaching and support staff for clear accountability
✅ Ideal for: School administration departments who want to standardize operations, support internal reviews, or onboard new staff with minimal handholding
23. Nonprofit Operations Manual Template by SweetProcess
The Nonprofit Operations Manual Template helps you document how your nonprofit runs across all departments, such as fundraising, HR, finance, volunteering, etc.
With this template, you can:
- Develop and share a detailed document with board members, program partners, or grant providers to show how your nonprofit is structured and managed
- Outline repeatable processes for grant applications, donor follow-ups, financial tracking, and volunteer onboarding in one accessible manual
✅ Ideal for: Nonprofit teams that need a centralized guide that supports day-to-day work and accountability across the organization
24. Warehouse Operations Manual Template by SweetProcess
The Warehouse Operations Manual Template is built on Google Docs to record your operational processes across warehouse functions.
With this template, you can:
- Define job-specific duties for warehouse staff so every team member knows exactly what they’re responsible for
- Add safety checklists and equipment usage guidelines to reduce accidents and maintain compliance
- Standardize procedures for inventory handling, order fulfillment, shift transitions, storage, and more to avoid any delay or miscommunication
✅ Ideal for: Warehouse managers and supervisors who need a structured, ready-to-use manual to keep daily operations running smoothly
Summarize this article for me pleaseSimplify Operations with Free ClickUp Templates
Clear documentation keeps your teams aligned and business processes consistent. Whether you’re creating a manual for HR, employee training, or day-to-day operations, the right template saves time and organizes your documentation process.
But the real advantage comes when you pair them with the right tools (👀 read: ClickUp)
In addition to templates, it gives you an all-in-one workspace to organize and act on your documentation.
You can use AI to draft content faster, link related SOPs, turn instructions into tasks, assign them to team members, and automate recurring steps. And you need not bother switching platforms.
Sign up on ClickUp for free and turn your static manuals into a trackable, actionable system your team can follow and update in real time.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
