Decision Log SOP for agencies

This SOP exists to make decision log work repeatable for agencies. The goal is not to document everything. The goal is to reduce the specific failure mode where decisions are made repeatedly because teams cannot find the rationale, owner, or date of the original choice.

The SOP should help a teammate understand what stage the work is in, who owns the next move, which note explains the context, and when the next review happens.

The workspace should keep a private internal layer while still making client-facing updates easy to prepare and trust. That means every SOP needs clear role boundaries without creating a governance layer nobody wants to maintain.

Use one accountable owner for each active item. Collaborators can contribute, but the workflow should never depend on a vague group owner.

Start with Proposed, Discussing, Decided, Revisit, Archived. These stages are enough to describe the work without turning the board into an admin project.

The SOP should state what must be true before work enters each stage and what must be true before it leaves. If the rule cannot be explained in one sentence, simplify it.

In Kanvly, the board handles movement and the note layer handles durable context. Decision owner, options considered, rationale, affected work, date, and revisit trigger should be preserved.

For agencies, this is especially useful because internal production, client approvals, account context, recurring retainers, and status updates all need different visibility. The SOP should tell people where to update status, where to write context, and where to review blockers.

Review the SOP during weekly account review with a client-facing update rhythm. Use the review to inspect stale work, owner gaps, blocked items, and repeated exceptions.

Measure approval cycle time, waiting items, overdue deliverables, client status prep time, and revision loops. If the SOP reduces those issues, keep it. If it creates extra admin without better decisions, shorten it.