Process vs procedure: one refund, written at each level

The short answer

A process is what, a procedure is how: who does what, when and in which order; a work instruction is how one task is done, step by step.

The process comes first. A procedure is always the way of carrying out a process, so there is nothing for it to specify until the process exists.

Below the work instruction sits the job aid: a one-page reminder cut from a work instruction or an SOP, for someone who has done the task before.

The task: a Northwind refund

Northwind is a made-up online shop with 12 people. Its support team issues refunds in Paynest, the web-based payments dashboard the shop uses. One rule shapes the task: support refunds up to 200 EUR alone; above that, finance approves in the ticket first. It is the same refund as in Process documentation, the job aid and example 2 of SOP examples.

Three parties take part: the customer, a support agent and finance. Three are enough for the process level to mean something; with one person doing everything, process and procedure collapse into a to-do list.

The refund as a process

Trigger: a customer asks for money back on a paid order. Result: the money returned, the customer told, the refund matched to the bank statement.

1. Request Customer
2. Check Support
3. Approve Finance
4. Refund Support
5. Reconcile Finance

Five boxes, a role under each, and nothing else: no tool, no screen, no deadline. That matches the ISO 9000:2015 definition (clause 3.4.1) of a process as a "set of interrelated or interacting activities that use inputs to deliver an intended result" (nlfnorm.cz term list).

This level changes only when a box or a role is added or removed, for example if a manager had to approve large refunds.

The refund as a procedure

Scope: refunds on paid orders that a customer asks for. Not for unpaid invoices, which are voided instead, and not for chargebacks, which go to finance directly.

The issue step names its work instruction instead of holding the clicks. Everything in the table is something a screenshot cannot show: an owner, a deadline, the order of the steps, the 200 EUR threshold, the chargeback exception.

ISO 9000:2015 (clause 3.4.5) defines a procedure as a "specified way to carry out an activity or a process" (Johner Institute). Note 1 to that clause adds that procedures can be documented or not (Auditor Training Online). A team that always refunds the same way has a procedure even before anyone writes it down.

This level changes when a deadline, an owner or an exception changes.

The refund as a work instruction

One procedure step, the support agent issuing the refund in Paynest, is six clicks and entries: type the order number in Search orders, click the order's row and check that it is Paid, open Actions, choose Issue refund, type the reason in Refund note, click Save refund. Three of the six, as recorded on order 10428:

This level breaks when the panel is redesigned. The two levels above do not: the refund still goes request, check, approve, refund, reconcile, and support still refunds the same day. How to write and maintain this level is covered in SOP vs work instruction.

Rule of thumb: what, how, how exactly

To decide where a sentence belongs, ask what would make it wrong:

A process can run with no written procedure, and many do. Advisera's rule for when to write one: "when you have a process that needs to occur in one specific way, and you have specified how it is to happen, you have a procedure" (Advisera 9001Academy). Work that depends on judgement, such as answering an unusual complaint, often needs only the process.

Is an SOP a process or a procedure

A procedure: the name says so, standard operating procedure. An SOP is a procedure that has been written down and agreed.

In small teams one SOP often carries the clicks as well. That works, but the clicks age fastest, so keep them in their own section or in a linked guide, where a screen change touches one place. What is an SOP lists what goes in one.

What a written procedure contains

A written procedure (in German quality management, a Verfahrensanweisung) usually has six parts. Here they are for the Northwind refund:

ISO 9001:2015 does not require a document of this name. It replaced the terms "documented procedure" and "record" with "documented information" (ISO 9001 Help, checked 4 October 2026), so whether a procedure is written down is the organisation's decision.

How other pages draw the line

The pages that rank for this question agree that a procedure is the how. They differ on where the clicks go:

• Two levels. The procedure holds the clicks too, and there is no separate work instruction. Navvia: "A process describes what, while a procedure describes how", a procedure being technology specific (Navvia).
• Three levels. The quality-management pyramid this page uses, with the work instruction as "the most detailed description of a task" (Due Process Consulting).

Under two levels, merge the procedure and work instruction sections above into one document.

A policy sits above all three and says what must always be true, such as "a refund over 200 EUR needs a second approver". Where a policy ends and a procedure starts is shown on one rule in Policy vs procedure.

Process vs procedure examples

Each procedure line names a who and a when. None names a button; that would be a work instruction.

In law and medicine

In US law, procedural due process is the constitutional requirement that governments "abide by certain procedures" to protect people's essential interests (Cornell LII). A medical procedure is a treatment. Neither sense is about documenting work.

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