Developing Governance Policies

Delegation of Authority, Segregation of Duties, and Beyond

Questions Worth Asking

  • Do we have a Delegation of Authority policy that clearly defines approval thresholds for financial commitments, contracts, capital expenditures, and hiring—and is it enforced in practice?
  • Have we performed a Segregation of Duties analysis against our ERP roles and access configurations, or are we relying on assumptions about who does what?
  • When was the last time our governance policies were reviewed and updated to reflect organizational changes, new regulations, or lessons learned?
  • If a regulator or auditor asked to see our policy framework, could we demonstrate that policies are not only documented but actively enforced and monitored?

The Challenge

Policies are the codified expression of an organization’s governance philosophy—they define who can approve what, who should not perform conflicting functions, and how the organization expects its people to operate. Yet in many companies, critical governance policies are either missing, outdated, or ineffective. Specific pain points include:

Common Pain Points We See:

  • Missing or vague Delegation of Authority (DOA). Unclear approval thresholds leading to unauthorized commitments, inconsistent practices across business units, and a lack of accountability when transactions go wrong.
  • Weak Segregation of Duties (SOD) controls. Role proliferation, ERP configuration gaps, and lean teams where one person wears multiple hats—creating classic fraud and error scenarios.
  • Policy-to-practice disconnect. Policies that exist on paper but are not communicated, trained on, or enforced in day-to-day operations.
  • Missing foundational policies. Gaps in areas such as information security, data retention, vendor management, ethics and compliance, and acceptable use—leaving employees without clear guidance.
  • Stale documentation. Policies that have not been reviewed or updated to reflect organizational changes, new regulations, or lessons learned from incidents.

The Cost of Inaction:

Absent or ineffective governance policies create an environment where fraud, errors, and unauthorized actions can occur without detection.

A missing DOA policy means financial commitments may be made by individuals without authority.

Weak SOD controls allow a single individual to initiate, approve, and record a transaction. And a lack of broader governance policies signals to auditors, regulators, and board members that foundational controls are missing.

How We Help

At Raayzel Business Consulting, We help organizations design, document, and implement governance policies that are clear, practical, and enforceable:

  • Delegation of Authority frameworks: Comprehensive policies defining approval hierarchies, monetary thresholds, escalation protocols, and conditions for sub-delegation.
  • Segregation of Duties analysis: Detailed review of ERP roles and access configurations, conflict identification, and design of mitigating controls where full separation is not practical.
  • Broad governance policy development: Information security, acceptable use, data classification, vendor risk management, code of conduct, whistleblower policies, and more.
  • Tailored—not templated: Every policy crafted to reflect your organizational structure, decision-making processes, and regulatory requirements.
  • Implementation support: Communication strategies, training plans, and ongoing monitoring recommendations to ensure policies are adopted and sustained.