I wasn’t sure if I should post this under “Use Cases” or “Tips and Tricks” but I have a quick question for the community.
We are a small but fast-growing construction company. Over the past year or so, we decided to really think about systematizing our business. As part of that, we developed many SOP documents using Google Docs. Most of our SOPS have a manual section and a final checklist that allows our staff to quickly check for any major mistakes. Still a work in progress but we’ve gotten good results overall.
A few months ago, we upgrade to the premium version of Asana. It’s great but we are also now suffering from decision paralysis. We now have access to all these interesting features on Asana and we are having a hard time deciding whether we should modify how we create our SOP documents so that they are built in directly to Asana.
One example: in the past, we created an SOP for preparing Purchase Orders and sending it to our vendor. When we broke out the process, we discovered that we would need to take 40 to 50 individual steps to prepare the PO, save it on our Google Drive Folder, enter it into QBO, and have it ready to send it to our vendor. So we worked on this a few times and we are now at a point where our staff can correctly handle this about 92.5% of the time without any supervision.
We’re now debating whether it makes sense to keep these on Google Doc or whether we should just build out these procedures directly into Asana as a Template. On one hand, we see the benefit of keeping things the same if we are getting good results. On the other hand, we intend to continue to develop these SOPs into other areas of the business. We also want to give our staff the ability to develop their own SOPs as they work on new projects.
Unfortunately, our team has been going back and forth on what the future path is. Should we stick to what we’ve done? Should we try to incorporate our SOPs directly into Asana (as some companies seem to do)? Or should we go totally into another direction (e.g. Process.St).
I know there is probably no one answer to this but I would appreciate any thoughts!
We’re fairly new to Asana as well, and already had a really robust set of procedures in Word Documents. We now use a combination of the two. There are still Word Documents laying out the process, which we keep updated, but more for reference and training. We use Asana to actually move ourselves through the work on a daily basis. We like the benefit of being able to look back to see exactly how the work was done - through comments and changes to tasks if/when things go out of process - and to check in on progress.
Is the Quickbooks component an import or a manual data entry. Seems like the answer may have some effect on the decision albeit might be compatible with a CSV export.
We use the board style projects to build “resource guides” for different topics & save SOP’s there (some as google docs so we can track versions & some are committed directly to Asana if they’re less involved). Previously we had used Confluence for this, but we found articles getting lost because the search function is so difficult to use. Asana is much easier to parse through quickly.
If you’re not using the Google Docs integration already then I would encourage you to check it out. Linking your existing Google Docs stuff to your tasks is a cinch and takes the pressure off making a format decision… you can keep all your Google stuff where it is and transition at your own pace depending on the specific tasks; i.e. move the checklist aspect to Asana with links to your manual-type-stuff in Google docs, at least until you figure out what format you prefer.
I believe your confusion is coming from conflating procedure with tasking. You need both and either Google Drive or Asana can provide both.
Google Drive with written procedures, that can then be used as checklists.
Asana with templates and assigned tasks.
I would recommend that you decide what tool you want to use for procedures and what tool you want to use for tasking. And stick to that as much as possible, to avoid confusion. (You don’t need people wasting time trying to figure out where to go for what.)
I would also suggest that Asana is the better tasking tool in most situations. I can imagine a few scenarios, like manufacturing or limited access to computers, where a printed out checklist and a clipboard that is passed with the work being done from person to person being better than Asana. But I believe in most scenarios Asana functionality is clearly better.
For documenting procedures. I can see arguments for both Google Drive and Asana templates. It will depend a lot on your organization and how you work. Both will allow for shared access, editing, and creation. Asana templates should make it easier to go from procedure to tasking. But if Google Drive makes more sense for your organization, as was already mentioned Google Drive docs can be easily attached to Asana Tasks.
Great question and I often see people make this mistake… it’s always best to keep your SOP management and project management separate - then simply link to your SOP within the task description inside Asana.
I had the same decision to make, and went with keeping it all in Asana.
I created a project called Standard Operating Procedures.
Set up headings for each section of my business
Then listed all my SOPs (and copy & pasted from Google Drive where they’d been kept previously).
Now, staff can grab them easily if needed.
Even better, I’ve copied the link to, say, Reconcile Superannuation and have pasted it into the Description section of the recurring task for each client relating to superannuation. This way, although staff may not need it, the direct link is right there in the task if they need the SOP.
Finally, my reason for keeping it all in Asana. I also have a Client Manual for each client. This is merely a section with tasks listed underneath (eg payroll, superannuation, accountant). It has information particular to that client. I also use the link here, so it was keeping it consistent to have a recurring task for Superannuation…then in the description have a link to the SOP in Asana and a link to the superannuation section of the client manual in Asana.