Your Delegation of Authority says who should approve what. Operational authority mapping checks who actually can — inside each real system: the ERP, the procurement tool, the banking portal. The gap between the two is where control quietly breaks.
From paper authority to system reality
On paper, a manager approves up to a limit. In the system, the button that releases the payment is a permission — and permissions drift: people change roles, cover for each other, keep old access. Mapping operational authority lines the real system rights up against the DoA and surfaces the mismatches before an auditor does.
Cover and delegation
When an approver is on leave, their authority has to pass to a named alternate — temporarily, traceably, and without creating a conflict. Undocumented “just approve it for me” cover is one of the most common ways segregation of duties silently fails.
Every temporary hand-off of authority is a control decision, not a favour.
The tie to access & segregation of duties
System approval rights are access permissions — the same data our Segregation of Duties analyzer reads. Mapping who can approve what, in which system, is the input that lets you spot the person who can request, approve, and pay without anyone else in the loop.
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