Get your policies in order.Keep them there.

Most departments do both — upload what exists, draft what doesn't. There is no separate plan for either, and no limit on how many SOPs you write or keep.

NFPA 1500 has called for written standard operating procedures as part of a department's occupational safety and health program since its first edition in 1987. It is a consensus standard until your state or your AHJ adopts it — and many have.

We barely have any SOPs. Is this for us?

That is the department this helps fastest. You don't need a manual to start — you need a list, and SOPReady opens with one: 95 fire-department policy topics, with everything you have nothing on file for already selected. Pick what your department needs, get a draft for each one written from your own apparatus, staffing and rank titles, change any line you disagree with, and approve them at whatever pace your department actually moves. Nothing requires an upload and nothing has to happen all at once.

Can we keep the SOPs we already have?

Yes, and nothing overwrites them. Upload your PDFs or Word files and they stay exactly as written — SOPReady matches each one to a topic and credits it, so your gap list only flags topics you have nothing on file for. Drafting something new is always your call.

Who reviews a generated SOP before it counts?

You do. Every generated SOP is created as a draft. A department admin has to open it, edit what needs editing, and approve it before it can be distributed or acknowledged — there is no setting that skips that step. Approving locks that version and records who approved it and when.

I don't trust AI to write safety policies.

It isn't being trusted with the decision. AI writes a first draft; your authorized reviewers edit it and approve it, and nothing becomes department policy without that approval. A draft can contain errors or cite something that doesn't apply to you — that is what the review step is for. Read it the way you'd read a draft from a committee before you sign it. Your SOP content is not used to train AI models: Anthropic does not train on Claude API data by default, and we have not opted in.

What do our members actually have to do?

They get an email with a link, open it on their phone, read the SOP, and tap to acknowledge. No app to download, no password to remember, and no account to create for a new-hire packet. If someone hasn't acknowledged, you see exactly who, and you can send that member a reminder from the same screen.

What does an acknowledgment actually mean?

That a named member opened that SOP and confirmed they acknowledged it. SOPReady records the member, the exact SOP, the version they signed and the timestamp. It is a distribution-and-receipt record: it is not a quiz, and it does not establish that someone understood the policy or followed it on a call. Revise the SOP and acknowledgments of the old version stop counting toward the current one, so members acknowledge again.

How is this different from Word or Google Docs?

A word processor writes and stores documents perfectly well. What it doesn't do is everything after the writing: hold one current approved version, send it to your roster, record who acknowledged which version and when, show you which policy topics you have no document for, and hand you all of that as one report two years later. That lifecycle is the product. The drafting is just how you get a first document into it.

We already use another policy-management platform. Where does this fit?

Keep it. We don't replace a policy platform and we don't integrate with one — if you need a single system of record, that's a real reason not to buy this. SOPReady is narrower on purpose: fire departments only, one SOP lifecycle end to end, and pricing published on this page by roster size instead of quoted after a sales call. Some departments run both; compare them directly.

Can the town pay by purchase order or invoice?

Yes, and you don't have to ask anyone to find out the price first — that is on the pricing section above. For the paperwork: Settings → Billing has a formal quote PDF with a blank PO line for your finance office, or email hello@sopready.com and a W-9 and a written quote come back, with an invoice against your purchase order on NET 30 carrying your PO number. On tax, we don't claim an exemption on your behalf — send us your exemption certificate if you have one and we'll put it on your account. The annual invoice covers your fiscal year in one line; if your treasurer would rather spread it, the same subscription can be invoiced in 12 monthly payments against the same PO, at the same annual total.

The manual is written. What are we paying for next year?

The work that comes back. A revision needs fresh acknowledgments: the version your members signed last year stays attached to that version rather than counting for the new one. Every new hire signs for the SOPs in effect before their first shift — one link, no account to create. A generated SOP carries a review date twelve months out, with an email 30, 14, and 7 days before it, so a stale policy is a decision instead of an oversight; mark it reviewed with no changes needed and the date moves while every signature it already had still counts. None of that happens once.

What happens when the 30 days are up?

Nothing is charged, because the trial never takes a card — there is nothing on file to charge. Everything you built during it stays exactly where it is, and your records are never held hostage: you can still sign in, read every SOP and every past version, see the approvals and the acknowledgments you collected, read the audit trail, run the reports and export the whole record as a ZIP. What pauses is changing things — writing or approving SOPs, sending them to your roster, collecting new acknowledgments, adding members. Your department goes read-only until a subscription starts, and everything resumes the moment one does. There is no deadline to decide and nothing is deleted on a timer, so if your budget year starts in July the account will still be there in July.

What counts toward our roster size?

Every current member of your department who needs to read and sign SOPs, counted once each — career, volunteer, paid-on-call, probationary, officers. Rank and status don't change the count. Former members you deactivate stop counting, and their signed acknowledgments stay on the record exactly where they are. Roster size sets your price and is locked after signup, so email us to change it rather than editing it yourself.

What happens if we cancel?

You keep your account and your data. Canceling takes effect at the end of your current term — you keep working normally until then, and nothing is cut off early. After that the department goes read-only: you can still sign in, read every SOP and every past version, see the approvals and acknowledgments you collected, read the audit trail, run the reports and use Settings → Export data, which gives you a ZIP with the full text of every SOP, your roster, every acknowledgment with its member and version, and your audit trail. What pauses is changing things — writing or approving SOPs, sending them to your roster, collecting new acknowledgments, adding members — and it all resumes if you restart. We don't delete a canceled department's data on a timer — that record is often exactly what you need afterwards for an insurance carrier or a city council. Email hello@sopready.com when you want it deleted and we'll remove it from our active systems and confirm.

What does it cost?

Free for 30 days, no credit card. After that your price follows your active roster, and you can read it on this page right now — enter your roster size in the pricing section above and the exact annual total is there, with no sales call and no waiting on a quote. $3,000 a year covers a department with up to 25 active members, and each member above 25 adds $24 a year, so there is no band to land in and no rounding. At 201+ members we quote individually. Every subscription is a one-year agreement, paid once a year or in 12 equal monthly payments that come to the same annual total. After the first year it keeps going unless you cancel: paid annually it renews for another year at the same price, paid monthly the commitment is done after the twelfth payment and billing just carries on monthly at the same rate.