Published 31 Jan 2023
What is a Checklist Template?
Checklist template is a tool that businesses use to ensure that tasks are systematically organized, promptly accomplished, and efficiently done. It helps give an overview of the current status and trends of assignments within a team or organization. Checklist templates are also useful in performing various types of processes and improving practices such as inspections, audits, or quality checks.
Cleaning Checklist Template
This general cleaning template can be used by organizations to conduct regular cleaning inspections and assessments of an area or place. With this ready-to-use template, users can do the following:
- Evaluate if employees are wearing proper uniforms and practicing good personal hygiene.
- Assess if the different areas in the establishment are left clean, organized, sanitized, and presentable.
- Attach media-based evidence such as images or videos for a comprehensive inspection result.
- Create corrective actions and add further recommendations after each inspection.
- Generate reports instantly and share them with important stakeholders in various formats such as weblink, PDF, Word, or CSV.
To see more cleaning-related checklists, click here.
Checklist templates can come in the form of traditional pen and paper checklists, in PDF, or even in digital versions. They are used to review steps that are part of a specific task and help guarantee that these steps are done according to the ideal business process.
In this article
- Benefits of Using Checklists
- Examples of Checklist Templates
- Introducing SafetyCulture’s Public Library
- How to Create a Checklist Template Using SafetyCulture
- Checklist Templates
Benefits of Using Checklists
Using checklists helps confirm that tasks are completed based on the timeline specified and promotes high-level visibility across the organization by ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
Integrating the use of checklists in business strategies also helps monitor a company’s compliance with industry standards and regulations. Additionally, if an industry is mainly exposed to safety hazards, a simple checklist can be used as a tool for reducing errors and preventing accidents by proactively addressing the identified issues.
Although the traditional pen-and-paper forms of checklists are beneficial, companies can now incorporate the use of digital checklists into their business strategies for a more efficient operation.
Examples of Checklist Templates
The elements of a checklist template vary depending on the needs of the team, project, or business. Each checklist is specifically made to correspond to recognized issues or priorities, and tailored based on the desired outcome of audits. Since there are various kinds of checklists, the following are just some examples of them:
GMP Food Manufacturing Audit Checklist
This Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) audit checklist for food manufacturing uses the Yes, No, N/A response set and aims to help ensure that food manufacturing processes are done according to specified quality standards and protocols.
More about Good Manufacturing Practices here.
HACCP Plan Template
This Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan template is used in conducting hazard analysis and in defining critical limits and critical control points in food production. It also helps in identifying biological, chemical, and physical hazards in the storage, transportation, use, preparation, and sale of perishable goods in relation to production.
More about HACCP plan here.
Incident Report Template
This incident report template can be used by businesses and safety managers to report any injuries and accidents, near misses, damages to property and equipment, health and safety issues, security breaches, and misconduct in a workplace.
More about incident reports here.
Risk Assessment and Control Template
This risk assessment template can be used as a tool for identifying and controlling risks in businesses. It includes a risk matrix with the consequence, the likelihood of hazard injury, and a hierarchy of controls.
More about risk assessment here.
6s Lean Checklist
This 6s lean checklist follows the 5s principle of Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain, but also adds the concept of Safety. It helps in identifying hazards and potential risks while performing tasks and allows you to capture photos or media as evidence for higher-level visibility.
More about 6s Lean here.
Introducing SafetyCulture’s Public Library
The Public Library stores thousands of templates that cater to various industries and business needs. It’s also a combination of checklists uploaded by SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) staff and other SafetyCulture users from diverse industries. Public Library also features templates in non-English languages such as Spanish, French, and German, and even lets you print digital checklists as PDFs. Browse and filter templates from the Public Library using these three ways:
- Featured topics such as cleaning, Covid-19 related, corrective actions, or most downloaded, among others
- Categories such as agriculture, construction, emergency services, or general, among others
- Search bar at the top part of the page through the use of industry-related keywords to find the template that you need
Public Library also lets you filter results based on relevance, the most number of downloads, or the most recently uploaded templates. If you want to know more about this feature, please refer to the Public Library pages in our knowledge base.
How to Create a Checklist Template Using SafetyCulture
SafetyCulture is a powerful inspection and audit tool that industry leaders use in creating checklist templates and conducting inspections according to business needs. SafetyCulture helps ensure that a comprehensive checklist will contribute to the effectiveness of a project, endeavor, or business process. Below are the three ways to create a checklist using the SafetyCulture app:
Upload and convert
Upload and convert lets you upload existing checklists in the form of Word, Excel, or PDF, and allows you to convert them into digital templates using SafetyCulture. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Log in to the SafetyCulture web app.
- Select Templates from the menu on the left-hand side.
- Click + Create template on the upper-right corner of the page.
- Click Upload and convert form. This will open a window to your computer file directory.
- Navigate through your directory and double-click the Word, Excel, or PDF file you want to convert. This will start the template conversion.
- Track the progress of the template conversion with the progress bar on the page.
- Check if the Template Editor loads with your form now as a SafetyCulture template once the template conversion is complete. Please note that while our Template Editor does its best to interpret the form in the conversion process, you may need to take a look at our template-building guide, so you can edit your template further and give it the finishing touch.
- Upload the finished template to the Public Library so that your teammates and other industry professionals can use it anytime, anywhere, for free. Here’s how it works: How to upload and remove templates from the Public Library.
For more information about this, please refer to our knowledge base page.
Create
This option lets you create your own template from scratch and gives you full control of how the template would look. Follow the steps below to be able to do this:
- Log in to the SafetyCulture web app.
- Select Templates from the menu on the left-hand side.
- Click + Create template on the upper-right corner of the page.
- Click the option of blank template.
- Add your template title, description, and title page details.
- Start adding questions to your checklist template.
- Organize your questions into sections and pages to streamline the inspection experience.
- Add a logo to your template by clicking Report on the top of the page and uploading the image at the right side of the Report tab.
- Upload the finished template to the Public Library so that your teammates and other industry professionals can use it anytime, anywhere, for free.
For a more comprehensive and detailed guide about this, please refer to our knowledge base page.
Download and customize
This download and customize option, as the name suggests, lets you download templates from the Public Library, and use them as is or customize them according to your needs. To do this, you can go directly to the Public Library and select templates from there or follow the steps below:
- Log in to the SafetyCulture web app.
- Select Templates from the left-hand side menu.
- Select Public Library tab on the top of the page.
- Search for a template by keywords in the search field, filter by industry from the drop-down menu, or browse through the list.
- Choose to download and immediately start a new inspection or edit the template. If you want to edit the template, click Edit questions.
- Edit the template based on your needs and specifications.
- Proceed with the inspection as normal.
For more information about this, please refer to our knowledge base page.
Another important feature of creating checklist templates using SafetyCulture is that it allows you to select the best set of responses according to determined standards and based on your desired outcome. While typically used responses are Yes or No, Compliant or Non-Compliant, and Pass or Fail, you can always create and customize on your own. For more information on this, refer to this knowledge base page.
Additionally, if you want a more accurate insight into the result of your inspections or audits using checklist templates, you can make use of SafetyCulture’s Scoring feature. This lets you incorporate a score to every response, which also allows for a more comprehensive and measurable result that, over time, you can use for analysis of performance and continuous improvement.
Further, raise your collaborative capabilities with Integrations. This feature lets you connect SafetyCulture to your teams’ other tools and allows for a more streamlined process between software programs.
If you want to know more about SafetyCulture’s features and capabilities, please visit our Knowledge Base.
Checklist Templates
Risk Assessment Checklists
This collection of risk assessment checklists helps in identifying risks, implementing control measures, and mitigating the risks’ possible effects.
GMP Checklists
This collection of templates includes GMP checklists that help ensure ideal manufacturing practices for food, pharmaceutical, medical, and cosmetic products.
5s Lean Checklists
This collection of 5s audit checklists can be used by organizations as a guide in implementing and conforming to the 5s principle (sort, systematize, shine, standardize, and sustain).
COVID-19 Cleaning and Personal Hygiene Inspection Checklist
Use this template to ensure that your organization is compliant with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guideline for cleaning and hygiene in preventing the spread of Covid-19. This template also includes the following:
- Main processes in ensuring the staff’s knowledge on the importance of regular disinfection and a note on the main Covid-19 symptoms to look out for.
- Guide on cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and a note on how to use a household bleach solution as a disinfectant.
- Steps on the hand hygiene and proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- A section for sign-off to add any comments or specify recognized issues.
Audit Checklist for IT
Use this Information Technology (IT) site audit checklist to gather essential information about the current status, health, and security of an organization’s IT assets. This checklist includes a review of internet details, router details, firewall details, inbound basic rules, IP address reservations, wireless access points, network switch details, server details, and many more. It is also ready to use and easily customizable.
SafetyCulture Content Specialist
Jaydee Reyes
