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What an automated access review should do
An access review, also called access certification, asks an accountable reviewer to decide whether a person still needs a particular group membership, application assignment, role or other entitlement. Automation can create recurring reviews, notify reviewers, collect decisions and apply those decisions to connected resources.
That does not automatically amount to a complete audit of every employee’s access across every platform. Coverage depends on which resources are included and whether their assignments are represented in the review system. Treat each review as a decision about its stated scope—not as certification of an employee’s entire access footprint.
CISA’s Identity and Access Management: Recommended Best Practices for Administrators recommends removing entitlements that are no longer needed, automating account disablement and removal through identity governance, and periodically reviewing and reconciling accounts and privileges. Those are governance principles; they do not guarantee that a particular product can remove access from every application.
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Plan the review before turning on automation
Define the population and resources
List the groups, applications, roles, access packages and identities to include. Identify whether employees, contractors and guests are in scope, and note any resources whose assignments are not connected to the review system. A review of one application or group cannot certify access elsewhere.
Microsoft Entra ID Governance documentation describes reviews for groups, applications and access packages, and recommends planning around the resources and review tasks. Map the assignments you intend to review to those resources before setting a recurring schedule.
Choose reviewers who know the work
Assign a manager, resource owner or another person with enough context to judge whether access remains justified. Microsoft’s deployment example uses business-group program managers to review access to a resource. Decide in advance how to reassign a review if its reviewer changes roles, leaves or lacks the necessary context.
Set cadence, deadline and reminders
Choose a recurring cadence based on the sensitivity of the access and how quickly business needs change. Microsoft’s example configuration uses a monthly review with a 48-hour completion period; those figures illustrate one setup, not a universal recommendation.
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Notifications should tell reviewers what resource they are deciding about, what action is required, when the decision is due and what happens if they do nothing. Set an escalation or reassignment path for missed reviews instead of letting silence become an accidental approval or an unexpected revocation.
Set the decision and nonresponse policy
Before automating outcomes, decide which choices reviewers can make, whether a reason is required and what the system does when the deadline passes without a response. These are access-control decisions, not merely workflow settings.
- Approval: retain the reviewed access.
- Denial: remove the reviewed access if the resource and integration support applying that result.
- No response: explicitly choose whether to leave access unchanged, remove it, approve it or apply a recommendation, where the product offers those options.
- Exceptions: decide how reviewers document a business need that does not fit the standard choices and who resolves it.
Microsoft documents choices including no change, remove access, approve access and take recommendations. It warns that choosing removal or recommendations together with automatic application can revoke all access to the reviewed resource when reviewers fail to respond. Automatic removal on nonresponse may reduce stale access, but it can also interrupt legitimate work if a reviewer misses a deadline. Pilot the policy, check reviewer coverage and reminders, and use it only when the business accepts that consequence.
Automate application, then verify the change
- Configure the review scope. Select the resources and identities to review, and confirm that the assignments represented there match the intended population.
- Configure reviewers and timing. Set accountable reviewers, a recurring schedule, a deadline, notifications and a route for reassignment or escalation.
- Set outcomes and nonresponse behavior. Choose what happens for approvals, denials and unanswered reviews. Do not enable automatic removal until the consequences are understood.
- Run a limited pilot. Use a bounded resource or population first. Check that reviewers receive the request and can make an informed decision before applying outcomes at scale.
- Apply and inspect results. After the review closes, confirm in the target group or application that denied access was removed as intended. Record the decision and whether it was successfully applied; investigate failures or resources that require manual remediation.
Microsoft Entra ID Governance documents an option to apply review results automatically after the review duration ends, and Graph API tasks for automating access-review operations. A recorded decision is not proof that a downstream application accepted the change. Verify the membership or assignment in the target resource, especially where integrations or connector behavior may differ.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsDistinguish removing an entitlement from removing an identity
Removing someone from a reviewed group or application is narrower than blocking or deleting their directory account. A directory-level action can affect access beyond the one entitlement under review, so do not treat these operations as interchangeable.
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Microsoft documents an external-user workflow in which a denied guest is blocked from signing in and the directory identity is removed after 30 days. The guidance says to validate first that the guest no longer has resource access that should be preserved. This staged deny-and-delete flow is not immediate removal of just one resource assignment. Test the action and recovery window against the organization’s guest lifecycle requirements.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Platform examples and what to verify
| Platform example | Documented capabilities relevant to this workflow | What to confirm in your environment |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Entra ID Governance | Recurring access reviews; review planning for groups, applications and access packages; automatic application of results; Graph API automation. | Confirm the resources and integrations covered, the behavior of automatic application, and current tenant licensing. Microsoft says an Entra ID Governance license is required for inactive-user reviews and user-to-group affiliation recommendations. |
| Okta Identity Governance | Access certification campaigns can be launched manually through the Admin Console or APIs, or triggered automatically by specific security events. | Confirm campaign coverage, reviewer routing, nonresponse behavior, automatic application to connected resources, and applicable licensing. |
These documented examples are not a complete feature, cost or suitability comparison. For any platform, evaluate the same operational questions:
- Coverage: Which directories, groups, applications, privileged roles and entitlements are included?
- Decision routing: Who can review, and how do delegation and reassignment work?
- Automation: Can reviews and reminders run on a schedule or in response to events, and are decisions applied to connected resources?
- Nonresponse: Does unanswered access remain, get removed, get approved or follow a recommendation?
- Evidence: Can administrators distinguish completed reviews from failed removals and inspect decisions, exceptions and application status?
- Dependencies: Which connectors, configuration choices and license entitlements are required?
Product capabilities, integration behavior and licensing can change. Confirm current terms and feature availability for your tenant before designing a workflow around them.
Close the gaps the automation cannot resolve
Use review reports and operational records to identify assignments outside the configured scope, failed removals, overdue decisions and resources that need manual remediation. Reconcile those gaps against the access sources the organization actually uses rather than assuming that a successful campaign covers every platform.
A reliable process makes its boundaries visible: reviewers know what they are certifying, nonresponse has an intentional consequence, and administrators can verify that a decision reached the target resource. Expand beyond the pilot only after those checks work for the resources and identities in scope.
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