Shared profiles look practical

One profile for a whole department saves licences and explanations. It works until something happens that needs tracing — and then the audit trail points at "warehouse" instead of a person.

The second drawback is quieter: a shared profile cannot be revoked when someone leaves, because the others still use it. The password gets changed "soon", and usually does not.

The register is dull and indispensable

You need one list: system, person, access level, who approved it and when. It can live in the access management system itself or, at smaller scale, in a structured document — what matters is that there is one and it is maintained.

The practical test of its quality: how long it takes you to answer "who has access to payroll data". If the answer requires phone calls, you do not have a register.

The three moments that change access

Joining: the new person gets the rights of their role, not a copy of their predecessor's rights — otherwise permissions accumulate across generations.

Moving: old rights are revoked, new ones granted. Skipping the first half is why long-serving employees often have access to half the company. Leaving: everything drops on the last working day.

Wire it into the process, not into goodwill

Everything described so far fails the same way — it relies on someone remembering. The durable answer is to have access changes triggered by an event that already exists: a signed employment contract, a transfer order, a leaving date.

Then the register maintains itself, because it is a consequence of the process rather than a separate task. We covered automating this flow in detail in the offboarding article.

Frequently asked questions