Financial agents present the highest risk category for autonomous AI actions. A malformed transaction can result in direct monetary loss, regulatory violations, and reputational damage. This template defines a tiered approval structure that scales oversight with risk.
Tier 1: Automatic Approval (under $100)
Low-value, routine transactions that match predefined patterns.
- Subscription renewals within 10% of previous amount
- Recurring vendor payments that match historical patterns
- Internal budget transfers between pre-approved cost centers
- Logging: Full audit trail with receipt
- Review: Batch review by finance team weekly
Tier 2: Single Approver ($100 to $5,000)
Mid-range transactions require one authorized approver.
- Non-recurring vendor payments
- Employee reimbursements
- Software license purchases
- Approver: Finance team member or department manager
- Timeout: 4 hours (denied if no response)
- Escalation: Notify finance lead if pending over 2 hours
Tier 3: Dual Approval ($5,000 to $50,000)
Significant transactions require two independent approvers.
- New vendor onboarding with initial payment
- Equipment purchases
- Contract renewals
- Approvers: Department head AND finance team member
- Timeout: 24 hours
- Escalation: Notify CFO if pending over 12 hours
Tier 4: Executive Approval (over $50,000)
High-value transactions require executive sign-off.
- Capital expenditures
- Multi-year contracts
- Strategic investments
- Approvers: CFO or CEO
- Timeout: 72 hours
- Escalation: Board notification for amounts over $500,000
Cross-Cutting Controls
All tiers share these requirements:
- Every transaction generates a hash-chained receipt
- Receipts include the agent's reasoning, the policy evaluation, and the approver identity
- Duplicate transaction detection prevents repeated submissions
- Daily reconciliation compares agent-initiated transactions against expected patterns
- Monthly audit reviews a random sample of auto-approved Tier 1 transactions
The threshold values in this template should be adjusted based on your organization's risk tolerance, transaction volume, and regulatory requirements. Start conservative and loosen thresholds only after sufficient data demonstrates reliability.