What is separation of duties?

Separation of duties is a control principle that divides a sensitive process across two or more people so that no single individual can complete it alone. In finance, it's the foundation of anti-fraud design: the person who creates a vendor shouldn't be the one who approves payments to it; the person who initiates a transfer shouldn't be the one who authorizes it. By requiring collusion rather than a single bad actor, separation of duties dramatically raises the bar for fraud and catches honest mistakes before they cost money. Maker-checker approval is the most common expression of it — one person makes, another checks. Financiar builds separation of duties into its spend management through maker-checker approvals, permissioned roles, and a full audit trail, so high-value actions always involve more than one accountable person.

Why one person shouldn't control a payment

Concentrated control is a single point of failure: a mistake or a fraud by one person passes unchecked. Splitting initiation from authorization forces a second set of eyes on sensitive actions, which is why it's a bedrock control in any serious finance function.

How it shows up in software

Permissioned roles (who can do what), maker-checker approvals (initiate vs authorize), and audit logging (who did each step) together enforce separation of duties. Financiar uses all three, so the larger the action, the more accountable parties are required to complete it.