When getting a project approved, you need to submit all pertinent information to stakeholders and then get their approval to start. This means listing the project’s background, timeframes and expenses in an easily digestible document.
Traditionally, this has been done in Microsoft Word or on paper, but by using Process Street you can generate as many proposals as you like just by running a checklist of this template and filling in the form fields. When the stakeholders sign off on the document, all they need to do is click the checkbox next to their name, and Process Street will log the activity.
Check out the project proposal template below, and when you’re done, scroll down for a breakdown of the steps and how it all works:
In many industries it is important to have documentation which shows you have been adhering to ISO guidelines. This can help you clinch major clients and demonstrate your professionalism.
However, when you’re starting out with your first SOPs it can be difficult to know where to begin.
That’s why we’ve pulled together a range of the best free and premium SOP templates for you to work from.
Simply go through the available SOPs below and pick out the one best suited to your needs. We’ve included Microsoft Word templates and Process Street ones too. You’ll also find a guide for writing SOPs to help you get started.
Given that it can be intimidating writing standard operating procedures, we have provided a number of industry-specific examples plus suggestions for how you can pull together basic SOPs even if they’re not documented according to ISO standards.
Read through the following sections to get completely clued up:
Our team (and customers) used Trello for years before transitioning to Airtable several years ago. We were having a tough time adjusting (old habits die hard), and my Process Street colleague Ben Brandall was trying to get to the bottom of why.
That’s why I’m writing this post. After having used both apps personally and professionally for more than three years, I’ve been able to get to grips with who these apps are designed for and what makes them useful.
Most of all, you can learn from this to see which app would suit you instead of spending years testing them out yourself.
It’s 9:00 am. I grab my morning coffee, boot-up my laptop, and join the 1 billion others logging into Google Drive today.
I go straight to my Google Docs templates folder. As a content writer for Process Street, these templates include planning templates, review templates, and templates designed to record my research.
Suffice to say, my Google Docs templates are the backbone of my content creation process.
As a content writer for Process Street, I’ve built up an extremely efficient writing process that combines the convenience of Google Doc templates (via Google Drive), the clarity and reliability of Process Street workflows and Pages.
By merging Process Street and Google Drive into a simple, repeatable process for content creation, I know I can work productively and consistently meet my deadlines.
For me, Process Street + Google Drive = Success.
That’s why in this article, I’ll show you how you can recreate my process and build your own streamlined automations. I’ll be covering:
Way back in 2013, in a converted horse stable in Buenos Aires, the first version of Process Street was just starting to come together.
From day one, we were inspired by the concept of a repeatable checklist. We still love checklists. And we’re still guided by that initial concept. But we’ve come a long way.
Over the years, we’ve evolved checklists into Workflows and grown our Workflows product in new and exciting ways. Workflows continues to be a cornerstone of the Process Street platform with even more exciting developments in the works.
Now, we’re excited to announce Pages: a new, companion product to Workflows. It’s the latest step in evolving Process Street from a repeatable checklists tool to a complete, modern process management platform.
This is a guest post written by Ashley Ferro, a freelance content writer & copywriter specializing in SEO content marketing.
It’s all too common to find yourself wading through your organization’s shared folders in search of the file you’ve been asked to review:
PROJECT-PROPOSAL-NEW-v5.doc
Project_proposal_2020_final+edits.doc
THIS_is_the_final_proposal_(old-version).PDF
Why does this happen? Why can’t everyone just use proper file naming conventions? The reasons can be lack of proper internal policy or procedure for naming and organizing files, lack of any consideration for folder or information architecture, and just plain carelessness.
With a small amount of effort, you can establish proper file naming conventions and avoid this kind of document spaghetti. The more organized you can be with your internal information, the more efficient and effective you can be in your business goals.
Just imagine – seeing neat, intuitively named folders, knowing which folders contain the documents you’re looking for, and – take a seat – having confidence that the file you’re about to click on will be what you expect it to be.
Condescending sarcasm aside, I am of course talking about paper forms. But this article isn’t about paper forms, per se; it’s about how you can get rid of paper forms in your business with form automationsoftware.
If you are a healthcare provider that comes into contact with Protected Health Information (PHI), HIPAA compliance is not voluntary. You simply have no option but to comply with HIPAA policies and procedures.
This can feel daunting, especially if you consider the continuous rise in data breaches experienced by the healthcare industry, particularly in the US.
“Figures from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal show a major increase in healthcare data breaches in 2019. Last year, 510 healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records were reported, which represents a 196% increase from 2018.” – Steve Alder, 2019 Healthcare Data Breach Report
It gets worse.
If your organization violates HIPAA regulations, you can face a jaw-dropping fine. Take, for example, the 2014 case in which the New York Presbyterian Hospital accidentally disclosed the records of 6,800 patients, making them available online and fully Google-able.
“The enactment of the Final Omnibus Rule in 2013 doubled the maximum fine for a single violation of HIPAA from $25,000 to $50,000 per compromised patient record. This meant that when the New York-Presbyterian Hospital inadvertently disclosed the unsecured records of 6,800 patients on the Internet, the potential fine for the violation of HIPAA could have been as much as $340 million. Fortunately (for the New York-Presbyterian Hospital) the breach of PHI was settled for $3.3 million.” – Marc Ladin, The Importance of HIPAA Compliance: 7 Things You Should Know
Here are some other examples of HIPAA violations:
The University of California Los Angeles Health System was fined $865,000 for failing to restrict access to medical records.
North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota had to pay $1.55 million in a settlement, for failing to enter into a Business Associate Agreement with a major contractor.
The Memorial Healthcare System received a $5,500,000 penalty for insufficient ePHI access controls.
The Memorial Hermann Health System had to pay $2.4 million in a settlement for disclosing a patient’s PHI in a press release.
If you think these are one-off cases, you are sorely mistaken.
A report by the Ponemon Institute found that 90% of surveyed healthcare institutions had at least one data breach within the past two years. What’s even more concerning is the continuous rise in the costs incurred by healthcare organizations facing a breach.
The researchers found for the ninth consecutive year, the healthcare sector is still the hardest hit financially by data breaches.
“Over the past five years, the average cost of a data breach has increased by 12%. The global average cost of a data breach has increased to $3.92 million. The average breach size is 25,575 records and the cost per breached record is now $150; up from $148 last year. Data breach costs are the highest in the United States, where the average cost of a data breach is $8.19 million – or $242 per record. The average cost of a healthcare data breach in the United States is $15 million.” Steve Alder, 2019 Cost of A Data Breach Study Reveals Increase in U.S. Healthcare Data Breach Costs
All things considered, I think it’s clear why HIPAA compliance is so essential for not only protecting sensitive patient information, but also for minimizing the risk of a data breach that could result in a huge fine, not to mention lasting damage to the organization’s reputation.
Process Street’s HIPAA policies and procedures templates
Not to worry though. With the correct processes in place, you can maintain compliance without having to deal with any unwelcome surprises. It’s also not expensive to set up an effective solution.
This Process Street template pack provides ten checklists that have been designed for the sole purpose of helping your institution maintain compliance with HIPAA policies and procedures.
By integrating these checklists into your HIPAA management efforts, you will increase accountability, transparency, and provide your team with the tools they need to execute important workflows.
Following a pre-planned meeting agenda can decrease meeting time by 80%.
Despite this, less than half (37%) of U.S. meetings follow a set agenda.
Why, when the time savings of doing so are substantial? When time = money, it doesn’t take a genius to visualize the knock-on effects this has to an organization’s bottom-line.
Using a Meeting Minutes Template will establish processes to clearly define and set the meeting agenda before the meeting has begun, saving you both time and money.
In addition, a Meeting Minutes Template offers legal protection, provides meeting structure, documents state ownership, drives action, serves as a reference point, helps avoid repetition, and offers a platform for open communication.
Sounds good right?
So good that the content creation team here at Process Street give you this comprehensive guide, so you can effectively record meeting minutes in your business and line of work. You are provided with our free Meeting Minutes Template, to be used in conjunction with 3 more top meeting process templates.
Click on the relevant subheader below to hop to that section. Alternatively, read all to discover our secrets for how you can become a pro meetings note taker 🤓.
Without documentation, software is just a black box. And black boxes aren’t anywhere near as useful as they could be because their inner workings are hidden from those who need them in the open.
Software documentation turns your software into a glass box by explaining to users and developers how it operates or is used.
You’ve probably seen documentation before, but if you need a refresher, here’s an example from Slack‘s API:
As you can see, Slack explains everything about its API in excruciating detail. Any related pages are linked, there’s a sidebar with easy-to-access topics, and screenshots of what the user can expect to see.
To explain software documentation in more detail, we will cover the following topics in this Process Street post: