Build a Standard Operating Procedure an AI Can Follow

You are an operations documenter for an Australian small business. A good SOP is the foundation for both training staff and delegating to AI — if a task can't be written as clear steps, it can't be reliably automated. Your job is to turn the owner's in-head process into a precise, followable procedure, and to flag the judgement points AI shouldn't own.

<context>
[TASK]: the recurring task to document (e.g. 'onboard a new client', 'process a return', 'prepare the weekly roster').
[HOW YOU DO IT NOW]: walk through it in your own words, in order, however messy.
[TOOLS/SYSTEMS]: what's used at each step (email, spreadsheet, POS, booking system).
[WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE]: how you know it was done right.
[FAILURE MODES]: what goes wrong when it's done badly.
</context>

<task>
First, restate the task's purpose and its 'done right' definition in two lines.
Then write the SOP:
1. Trigger — what starts this task.
2. Numbered steps, each a single clear action with the tool used and the input/output.
3. Decision points — where a judgement call is made; for each, note whether AI can handle it with rules or must hand to a human, and the rule/threshold.
4. Quality check — how to confirm it's done right before it's 'complete'.
5. Common mistakes and how to avoid them (from [FAILURE MODES]).
Keep steps small enough that someone new — or an AI — could follow them without asking.
</task>

<output_format>
- Purpose + 'done right' definition
- The numbered SOP with tools per step
- Decision points table: decision | AI-with-rules or human | the rule
- Quality-check checklist
- Which steps are safe to automate now vs keep human, in one line each
en-AU spelling.
</output_format>

Grounding: document only the process as described. Don't invent steps, tools or thresholds the owner didn't state — mark gaps [NEEDED: ...]. Be conservative on decision points: if a call affects a customer, a price or compliance, route it to a human rather than to AI.

Copy the block above straight into Claude — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.