RACI chart example for a Shopify ops team (with SOPs)

The short answer

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. A RACI chart lists recurring tasks down the side and people across the top, and marks each person's role on each task. Responsible does the work. Accountable owns the outcome and signs it off. Consulted gives input before the decision. Informed is told afterwards.

The one rule that makes a chart work: exactly one Accountable person per task. Two means nobody really owns it.

Below is a filled-in example for a Shopify DTC ops team. The point it makes is simple: a chart only holds if the Accountable person is also the one who updates the procedure when the tool underneath it changes, and if the Responsible person actually has the permission to do the job.

The chart

Treat these names as a starting point, not a standard. On a small team one person will fill several boxes. What should not bend is one Accountable name per row, and knowing which tool each row lives in, because the tool decides who can act at all.

The refund row

The agent issues the refund. The support lead is Accountable. Finance is consulted above whatever amount you set as your approval threshold, and the store owner is informed.

This row needs a named person, not a shared inbox, because a refund is a commitment that can't be taken back. Shopify says you can't cancel or reverse a refund once it's started from the admin. If one is issued by mistake, the only fix is a new draft order to collect the payment again, which means asking the customer for money.

Names need permissions

A Responsible person who doesn't have the permission to do the task is a gap, not a role. So write the Shopify permission next to the name, because the two change independently.

To issue a refund at all, someone must be the store owner or hold the Orders permission for the payment method: Refund to original payment method, or Refund to store credit.

In-person returns on Shopify POS split even further. Staff need Return and exchange orders, and there are separate permissions for Return ineligible items, Create unverified returns, Complete in-progress returns and Manage item restock. That is five switches behind one row of the chart, and a person can hold some without the others.

The return rules row

The ops manager sets the rules, the head of ops is Accountable, and finance is consulted on any restocking fee.

In Shopify these live under Settings > Policies: the return window, return shipping costs, an optional restocking fee and final sale items. They apply even when returns are processed by hand. And Shopify doesn't deduct return fees from refunds automatically, so this row quietly hands a task to the refund row: whoever issues the refund has to subtract the fee.

There is a legal side too, and it varies by place. New York, for example, requires stores to post their refund policy, and if none is posted, to accept returns within 30 days of purchase. Check the rules where you sell.

The Klaviyo row

The email coordinator builds, the marketing owner is Accountable. The split works because in Klaviyo, each message in a flow has its own status: Live, Manual or Draft. The coordinator builds messages and leaves them off; the owner sets them live.

Write one rule into this row. To stop a message, set it to Draft rather than deleting it. Klaviyo's own advice is that changing a message from Live to Draft stops it while keeping its analytics. Deleting it loses them.

Keeping the chart current

A chart stops matching reality for three reasons: the tool behind a row changes, a policy or legal rule changes, or a person changes. None of these happen on a schedule, which is why a quarterly review finds them late.

The person problem is the sneakiest. A chart written in November describes a team that may not exist in January. If the Accountable person was a seasonal hire, that row now has no owner. If the Responsible person was a contractor whose access was removed, the row has no one who can do the work, but the name still sits there looking valid.

So check every row twice a year, before peak season and after it. Three questions per row: is the Accountable person still on the team, does the Responsible person still have the permission, and when was the procedure last reviewed?

If one name fills most of the Accountable column, that is a risk worth measuring.

From chart to procedure

A RACI chart tells you who is involved. It does not tell anyone how to do the task. So every row should point at exactly one written procedure.

This is where ReccordSOP helps. Record the task once and it becomes a step-by-step SOP with a screenshot of each step and the clicked button highlighted. Record it again months later and it compares the two and shows which steps changed, instead of replacing the old version. The owner gets an email when a published SOP goes 90 days without a review, and you can send a procedure as a checklist run that records which version each person followed. You own everything you create. What it will not do is run the task, change your Shopify or Klaviyo settings, or decide who belongs in which column.

Three ways a chart still fails, even with procedures attached. Two people marked Accountable, so nobody signs off. An Accountable person with no permission, who can approve but then has to wait for someone else to click. And a chart kept in a different place from the procedures, so the names and the steps drift apart separately.

Start with the three rows where a mistake costs most: issuing a refund, setting return rules, and setting a Klaviyo flow live. Put one name in the Accountable column for each, then check in Shopify and Klaviyo that the Responsible person has the permission the row needs. Then record those three procedures. The free plan covers 3 SOPs in total, which is exactly those three.