User Clearance
A clearance says what level of classified record somebody may reach within a particular scheme.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Security:
- User Clearance — clearances, who granted them and when they expire
- Classification Levels — the ranks a clearance is compared against
- Classification & Clearance — the console
What a clearance records
- The scheme it applies to.
- The person, by the platform's three-part identity.
- The clearance rank.
- Granted by and granted at.
- An expiry.
Per scheme, not global
Somebody can hold a high clearance for commercial sensitivity and none for personal data. That is usually correct — a finance director needs contract terms, not case files — and a single global clearance cannot express it.
Clearances expire
The expiry is the most important field. Clearance is granted for a role or a piece of work, and both end; without an expiry the clearance outlives the reason, and organisations accumulate people cleared for things they stopped doing years ago.
Set one always. Annual is a reasonable default, aligned to a review cycle you already run.
Grant to the role, review on change
Base the clearance on what the person needs to do, and review it when they change role. A promotion or a move to a different team is the natural moment — and it is the moment most often missed, because clearance is rarely on anybody's leaver or mover checklist.
Add it to that checklist. It costs one line and prevents the commonest form of accumulated over-access.
Granted by is not bureaucracy
It answers who authorised this, which is exactly what an audit asks. It also creates a small, useful moment of accountability at the point of granting.
Do not clear people to make an error go away
When somebody cannot open a record, the tempting fix is to raise their clearance. Sometimes that is right. Often the record is misclassified, or the person genuinely should not see it, and raising clearance solves the immediate complaint while quietly widening access to everything else at that level.
Check the record's classification before changing anybody's clearance.
Review what the top clearances can reach
A yearly look at who holds the highest clearances, and why, is the single most valuable review here. The list is usually short, and it is usually longer than anybody expected.
Worked example
An organisation grants clearances annually, aligned to appraisals. A review finds four people cleared at the top level who moved to roles that no longer need it — two years earlier. Their clearances are reduced rather than revoked, keeping the access their current work needs, and clearance is added to the internal-move checklist so it does not recur.
Recommendations
- Always set an expiry.
- Put clearance on your movers and leavers checklist.
- Check the record's classification before raising anybody's clearance.
- Review the top clearances annually.