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title: "Segregation of Duties — Identity Glossary | IDSync"
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3.  Segregation of Duties 

Identity Governance

# Segregation of Duties (SoD)

Segregation of duties is a control that prevents any single user from holding combinations of permissions that would enable fraud — for example, creating a vendor \*and\* approving payments to it.

Last reviewed 3 months ago

Key points

-   Core control for SOX, PCI-DSS, and financial audits
-   Expressed as conflicting-role rules (e.g. 'cannot have AP create + AP approve')
-   Detected and enforced by IGA tools
-   Critical in ERPs (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Workday)
-   Violations require either role change or compensating control

## What it is

Segregation of duties (SoD) ensures that risky business processes require collaboration between multiple people. No one user can both initiate and approve the same sensitive action.

Classic example: in accounts payable, the person who can create a new vendor must not also be able to approve payments to that vendor — otherwise they can pay a fake vendor they created.

## How it works

The IGA platform maintains a rule library of conflicting roles or fine-grained permissions. When new access is requested or during access reviews, the tool flags conflicts. Resolution is either:

-   Deny the request
-   Remove conflicting existing access
-   Document a compensating control (e.g. monthly transaction review by an independent party)

## When buyers care

-   SOX and other financial-controls audits
-   ERP deployments (SAP and Oracle GRC are entire product categories)
-   Healthcare, government, and defense compliance regimes
-   Detecting toxic combinations across multiple systems (not just within one app)

## Common misconceptions

-   **SoD is not only about money.** Production-deploy + prod-data-access is a similar toxic combination in engineering.
-   **Role-based access alone doesn't enforce SoD.** You need explicit conflict rules across roles.

## FAQ

### Who owns SoD rules?

Usually a partnership between Internal Audit, Finance, and Security/IAM. Rules are reviewed annually.

### Best tools for SoD?

SAP GRC and Oracle Risk Management for ERP-heavy shops. SailPoint, Saviynt, and Pathlock for cross-app SoD.

IDSync provides educational buyer guidance based on publicly available information, editorial review, and user-submitted data. Vendor information should be verified before purchase. [Who we are, our methodology & disclosure policy](/about).

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