Why a company needs regulations
A regulation records an agreement: who does what, when and by which rules in a process. It isn’t there for control’s sake, but to:
- take repetitive “how is this done properly?” questions off the manager’s plate;
- get new people up to speed faster;
- to have a baseline for optimisation — you can’t improve what isn’t written down.
Structure of a regulation: 8 sections
- Process name and purpose — in one sentence: why it exists.
- Process owner — the person responsible for the result and for changes.
- Boundaries — the starting event and the output.
- Participants and roles — roles, not names: “head of department”, “finance officer”.
- Steps — a short list of actions or a BPMN diagram.
- Rules and conditions — amounts, limits, exceptions, stand-ins during holidays.
- Deadlines and SLA — how much time each step gets.
- Metrics — how we measure that the process works.
Template: invoice payment approval
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Pay invoices on time and within budget |
| Owner | Chief financial officer |
| Start / result | Invoice uploaded to the system / invoice paid or rejected with a reason |
| Steps | Initiator → head of department → finance officer → (over ₴10,000) director → accountant |
| Deadlines | Each approval — within 1 business day, payment — within 2 days |
| Metrics | Average cycle time, % of overdue payments, % returned for rework |
How to write so it gets read
- One page. If it’s longer, split it into sub-processes.
- Active verbs: “checks the budget”, “approves”, not “a check is performed”.
- Diagram plus text. The diagram gives the big picture; the text gives the rules and exceptions.
- Write it together with the people who do the work. A regulation invented in an office breaks on day one.
- Date and version. Processes change — and so does the regulation.
Common regulation mistakes
- They describe the “ideal” without knowing how things actually work.
- They mix the process, the job description and company policy in one document.
- Responsibility is blurred: “the sales department approves” instead of a specific role.
- The regulation isn’t used in work — it lives separately from the systems.
A regulation that enforces itself
The most reliable regulation is the one built into the system. In Folck the regulation is attached to the process: the employee sees the rules at exactly the step where they must be followed, and the system won’t let an approval move on without the required fields. That’s how a document stops being paper and becomes an automated process.
Need help with documentation? We do process modelling and regulation together with your team.