Authority Monitoring and Reporting: Metrics That Reveal Drift Before It Hurts

This article pairs with the Operating Model for Authority Management (Q&A) for governance structure and Avoiding Sync Drift for system reconciliation patterns.

Authority programs don't typically fail all at once. They degrade gradually: a few expired delegations here, an out-of-date signatory list there, a workaround that becomes "how we do it."

Definition: Authority monitoring is the practice of tracking key metrics — such as expiring delegations, HR status mismatches, exception volume, and recertification status — to detect governance drift before it results in operational incidents or audit findings.

Good monitoring catches drift early, before it becomes an operational incident or audit issue. West Monroe's 2026 Speed Wins research found that 73 percent of C-suite executives believe cutting decision time in half would unlock 5–25 percent of revenue. Authority monitoring directly supports this — by catching drift early, organizations prevent the slow-decision symptoms (stalled approvals, manual workarounds, audit reconstruction) that erode speed.

What to measure (and why)

The best metrics are actionable. Here are practical categories that reveal drift quickly.

The authority monitoring dashboard

1) Expiring and expired delegations

• Delegations expiring in the next 14/30/60 days
• Delegations already expired but still referenced in workflows
• Temporary coverage older than a defined threshold (e.g., greater than 90 days)

Why it matters: temporary authority that never expires is a top driver of drift.

2) HR status mismatches

• Delegations assigned to inactive or terminated users
• Role changes that should trigger authority review but haven't
• Duplicate or conflicting role mappings

Why it matters: HR churn is constant; authority needs to keep up. The EY/Society for Corporate Governance study found that 90 percent of companies struggle to keep DOA policies current — and the HR-authority timing gap is the most frequent source of stale delegations.

3) Exception volume and patterns

• Exceptions by decision type (contracts, payments, procurement)
• Repeat exceptions that indicate a missing rule
• Exceptions lacking required evidence or approvals

Why it matters: exceptions are either healthy governance or shadow governance, depending on how they're run.

4) Approvals outside expected authority bands

• Approvals by individuals below the expected authority level
• Over-escalations (approvals routed higher than necessary)
• Rubber stamping patterns (same person approves everything)

Why it matters: both under-approval and over-escalation are signals of misalignment. McKinsey found that 72 percent of senior executives said bad decisions were as frequent as or more common than good ones — approval band anomalies are often an early indicator of authority structures that don't match operational reality.

5) Signatory and access recertification status

• Signatory list recertification completion
• Bank entitlement reviews and removals
• High-risk signer coverage tracking

Why it matters: execution authority is where financial and fraud risk concentrates. The Cygnetise 2021 report found that most organizations still manage signatory authority through spreadsheets and manual processes — making recertification status a critical health indicator.

6) Change velocity and backlog

• Change requests by category
• Time to approve and publish changes
• Backlog and aging of requests

Why it matters: if change management is slow, teams will route around it. West Monroe's research found that 44 percent of executives cite bureaucratic processes as the top cause of slow decisions — a growing change backlog is an early warning that the authority program is becoming the bottleneck it was designed to prevent.

Our recommendation: Start with just two metrics — expiring delegations and HR status mismatches — and review them weekly. These two indicators alone catch the majority of authority drift. Add exception volume and approval band analysis in month two, and recertification tracking in month three. Organizations that try to monitor all six categories from day one typically build dashboards that no one reads.

How to operationalize reporting

• Define owners for each metric. Metrics without owners become dashboards no one reads.
• Set thresholds and triggers. Decide what triggers an investigation or a required update.
• Review on a cadence. A short monthly review meeting beats an annual scramble.
• Close the loop. Every exception should resolve into a decision: accept risk, create a rule, or change a process.

Where Aptly helps

Aptly supports reporting and monitoring by maintaining structured authority and delegation records with effective dates, ownership, and audit trails. That makes drift visible and manageable, rather than something you discover during an audit or incident.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most important authority metric to track?

HR status mismatches — specifically, delegations assigned to people who have changed roles or left the organization. This single metric catches the most common source of authority drift and is the easiest to automate through HRIS integration. If you can only track one thing, track this.

How do you get leadership to pay attention to authority metrics?

Frame metrics in terms of risk and speed, not governance process. Report "12 expired delegations are blocking payment approvals this week" rather than "delegation recertification is at 85 percent." Leadership responds to operational impact and business risk, not compliance percentages.

How often should authority metrics be reviewed?

The highest-risk metrics (expiring delegations, HR mismatches) should be reviewed weekly. Exception patterns and approval anomalies benefit from monthly analysis to identify trends. Recertification status is typically tracked quarterly. A single 30-minute monthly meeting covering all categories is sufficient for most organizations — the key is consistency, not duration.

What tools are needed for authority monitoring?

At minimum, you need a system of record that maintains delegation records with effective dates and an HR feed that flags role changes and terminations. Purpose-built authority management platforms like Aptly provide these capabilities natively, along with reporting dashboards that surface drift indicators automatically. Organizations using spreadsheets for authority management typically cannot implement meaningful monitoring because the data isn't structured or timestamped.