This page explains main features of the iDelegate app for Delegates.
To remind, a Delegate is a role to whom some authority has been delegated by their line and/or functional manager. A Delegator, by extension, is a Delegate who can delegate their authority further.
For more explanations on user roles please see How many actors are there in the iDelegate app?
This guide applies to both Delegate and Delegator roles.
Contents
1. Connecting to iDelegate
2. Navigation within iDelegate
3. Delegate dashboard
4. View Policies, Categories, Authorities
5. View and accept your own delegation(s)
6. Manage delegations of your team members
7. Make sure your team is in iDelegate
8. Change your password and profile
9. Search iDelegate
Connecting to iDelegate
You will receive an email from iDelegate once you are granted a Delegation of Authority. In the message you will find a link to connect to the iDelegate platform to review and accept your delegation.
Note: You are strongly advised to change your password as soon as possible in the Profile section of the app.
Navigating within iDelegate
Left side bar allows you to access all areas of the application. If you get lost, clicking on the top left logo will take you back to the dashboard.
In addition, navigation bar at the top can help you search within iDelegate [# Search iDelegate]. Clicking your name on the top right will log you out of the iDelegate platform.
Delegate dashboard
The dashboard displays key metrics about your Delegation of Authority (and those of your subordinates if you have any) and allows access to other areas of the app.
3.1 Metrics
You have several metrics to gauge reach and acceptance of your Delegation(s) of Authority (note that these can be customised for your organisation but the principle will likely remain the same):
Delegation Acceptance by Youshows at a glance how many delegations are granted to you and how many you have accepted so far.Delegation Assignment to Your Teamtracks how you cascade your delegations to your subordinates. It shows how many delegations you have granted vs how many assignments to your team you have in progress.Delegation Acceptance by Your Teamdisplays how many delegations granted by you have been accepted by your team members. This is a critical measure of accountability.
3.2 Shortcuts
Four panels below metrics allow you to go quickly to relevant sections of the iDelegate app (each section will be explained elsewhere in this guide):
- Click on
Policiesto consult Delegation of Authority policy of your organisation, or indeed any other policy covered by iDelegate. - Click on
Delegationsto consult and accept your own Delegation of Authority and/or to manage delegations of your team members. - Click on
Teamto make sure that your team members to whom you want to delegate all or some of your authority are in the iDelegate system. While you cannot add or remove team members yourself, you can alert your iDelegate administrator in case of inaccuracies. - Click on
Profileto change some of your own information in the iDelegate system. You are especially encouraged to change your password immediately on your first connection and then at regular intervals.
View Policies, Categories, Authorities
You can easily view organisational policies by clicking on Policies on the dashboard panel or in the side bar. Either action will take you to the list view of all policies available in the iDelegate system.
4.1 Policy list
From here you can consult details of any specific policy or download it as a pdf file. To download the policy as pdf, click on Actions and select Download PDF. iDelegate will generate a pdf file for you to save locally. Note that because pdf files are generated on the fly, they may take some seconds to do so. Please be patient.
To see the policy online, click on the view icon just to the right of the Actions button.
4.2 Policy details
Policy details screen (also called Protocols on some installations) displays selected policy content complete with Good Governance metadata for that policy. At a minimum, displayed metadata covers policy version, oversight and timestamp information.
Scroll up and down to read the policy in full. Use Select Action dropdown menu on the top right to see what actions are available to you, such as downloading the policy pdf file from this screen.
4.3 Policy categories
You can see a list of all categories by associated policy (or protocol) by clicking Categories in the left side bar.
Use the funnel icon above the category list to filter out only categories in the policy that interests you.
Clicking the view button on any category will display a detail view listing all individual authorities associated with that category.
4.4 Policy authorities
Ultimately, each policy will contain specific authorities. By clicking Authorities in the left sidebar you can jump straight to them. Each authority line features its category, description, maximum limit and whether the authority is “delegated” or “reserved”. If there are any remarks attached to any of the authorities, they too will be shown here.
Note that this screen displays authority information as has been delegated by the Board or other top power holder to the top operational leader, usually the CEO. This is not your personal Delegation of Authority. You will find your personal Delegation of Authority in the Delegations section of the iDelegate platform.
Use the funnel icon above the authority list to filter out authorities by category or by whether they are “delegated” or “reserved”.
View and accept your own delegation(s)
Individual delegations are accessed by clicking on Delegations in the left sidebar or on the shortcut panel in the dashboard.
From this screen you can view and accept your delegation(s), or export it as a pdf file. If you delegated your authority to someone within your team, you can also assign, grant or suspend their delegations here. Delegation assignment will be explained in the special section.
5.1 View your delegation
To see your delegation online, click on the view icon just to the right of the Actions button. This will take you to the detail screen where you can see authorities with their limits assigned to you under this delegation.
Note that authorities delegated to you are marked in the “further delegatable” column. Green check means that you can delegate this specific authority to a member of your team. A red cross means that the authority is reserved for you only. The person who granted the delegation to you decides what you can and cannot delegate further.
Once you have reviewed your delegated authorities and limits, you are ready to accept your new delegation.
5.2 Accept your delegation
You can accept your delegation either from the detail screen by clicking on Select Action > Accept Delegation > Run Action in the top right, or by selecting Accept Delegation from the Action drop-down button in the delegation list view, as illustrated below.
iDelegate will prompt you to supply an optional comment.
If you decide to enter a comment, make sure that you are happy with it before clicking
Run Action. You will not be able to change what you wrote once it is in the system.
Click Run Action. iDelegate will confirm your delegation acceptance and its status will change to “accepted” on the list view.
You can see the date when the delegation was accepted by viewing timestamp metadata in the delegation detail view.
Manage delegations of your team members
If you have subordinates entered in iDelegate, you can delegate all or some of your authorities to them. Click on Users in the left sidebar or Team shortcut panel on the dashboard to see to whom you can delegate your authority.
In iDelegate, you delegate all or some of your own Delegation of Authority. This means that you can delegate only what has been delegated to you personally, and within limits that have been delegated to you.
When managing delegations for your team, you can do the following:
Assign Delegationto a member of your team by copying your own Delegation of Authority into a new document and then editing authorities and their limits as you see appropriate, thus effectively creating a new Delegation of Authority for that person.Grant Delegationto a member of your team once you are happy with the delegation you have prepared for them.Suspend Delegationof any member of your team, for example for editing or temporarily for operational reasons.- Finally, you can revoke a Delegation of Authority previously granted by you to any of your team members by deleting it from the list of granted delegations.
6.1 Assign a Delegation of Authority
You cannot assign a Delegation of Authority to your team member unless your own Delegation of Authority has been accepted. Make sure that you accept your own Delegation of Authority first.
To assign a new delegation to your team member, while in the Delegations list view, select Assign Delegation from the Actions drop-down button against your own Delegation of Authority.
Assign Delegation from the list of optionsRemember
You are always (re)assigning your own delegation. You cannot assign a copy of somebody else’s delegation to another person, even if both report to you. Doing so would invalidate the Good Governance principle of one straight path to the single source of truth.
Select the name of the person to whom you wish to assign your delegation and give the document a descriptive title.
Press Run Action and iDelegate will create a new delegation for the person you have specified. This delegation will contain all authorities from your own delegation marked as “further delegatable” with delegated limits equal to your own.
Draft Mode
Note that at this stage all new Delegations of Authority are placed in ‘draft mode’ for you to edit. You can see that the delegation is in draft mode when all three status indicators are red. It would only happen once on delegation’s creation. Once the delegation is granted its status becomes either ‘granted’ or ‘suspended’.
Neither the delegation recipient nor auditors can see delegations in draft mode. Administrators can, though.
While you can grant the new delegation straight away, you may want to ensure that you are comfortable with authorities and limits you intend to delegate by viewing and editing the delegation first.
6.1.1 Viewing and changing authority limits
You can change authority limit, prevent specific authorities from being delegated further, or exclude authorities from your team member Delegation of Authority. To do so, click the View button of the newly created delegation.
You will be taken to the delegation detail screen. It is identical to the detail screen of your own Delegation of Authority except here you can change limit or remove authorities you do not wish to grant.
Remember
You can only delegate authorities which you have been granted yourself. This means you cannot add new authorities to a delegation for your team member, you can only remove or change limits for existing ones.
To edit limit and/or status of any individual authority, click Edit button against that authority.
You will be taken to the update screen where you can perform the desired actions.
To change the limit for a financial authority, enter a new number not exceeding your own authority limit. For your convenience, your limit for this authority is displayed. Enter 0 if the authority is non financial and it will be displayed as “Responsible”.
Uncheck the Further Delegatable tick box if you want the authority to stop with the person to whom you are delegating.
Click Update when done and you will be returned to the delegation detail screen which will reflect your changes.
Repeat for other authorities you wish to change.
6.1.2 Removing specific authority from delegation
There will be times when you want to exclude a certain authority from a delegation to your team member. If this is the case, click Delete button against the authority you wish to remove.
iDelegate will ask for confirmation and remove authority from the current delegation.
6.1.3 Editing delegation details
You have opportunity to change the title and validity period for any Delegation of Authority that you grant. To do so, click Edit button against the Delegation of Authority you wish to edit.
Edit buttonOn the delegation details screen, perform your edits. Click Update when you are done.
If you are changing a Delegation of Authority which is currently granted, consider suspending it prior to making any changes (see below). This will ensure that the recipient is alerted to the changes you have made since they would need to re-accept their delegation.
6.2 Grant a Delegation of Authority
Once you are ready to grant Delegation of Authority to your team member, select Grant Delegation action from the Actions drop-down button against their delegation.
Grant DelegationYou will have a chance to enter an optional comment.
If you decide to enter a comment, make sure that you are happy with it before clicking
Run Action. You will not be able to change what you wrote once it is in the system, unless you suspend and grant the delegation again.
Click Run Action. iDelegate will confirm your action and delegation status will change to “granted” on the list view. At this moment, the recipient will also receive an email informing them that a Delegation of Authority has been granted to them.
6.3 Suspend a Delegation of Authority
Suspending a currently granted Delegation of Authority for whatever reason is easy. All you need to do is select Suspend Delegation action from the Actions drop-down button against the delegation you wish to suspend.
iDelegate will ask you to confirm delegation suspension.
Click Run Action. iDelegate will confirm your action and delegation status will change to “suspended” on the list view. At this moment, the recipient will also receive an email informing them that the Delegation of Authority has been suspended.
You will need to grant this delegation again to terminate its suspended mode. You can also delete it to revoke this delegation completely.
Once you grant a Delegation of Authority, it makes sense to suspend it when making changes, such as authority limit revision. Because the delegation will need to be accepted again, this will make sure that your delegate reviews changes and signs on their new accountabilities.
6.4 Revoke a Delegation of Authority
You can revoke a previously granted Delegation of Authority by deleting it from your list of granted delegations. To do so, simply click Delete button against any delegation you wish to delete.
Delete buttoniDelegate will ask you to confirm your choice. Clicking Run Action will remove the delegation from your list of Delegations of Authority. At this moment, the recipient will also receive an email informing them that their Delegation of Authority has been withdrawn.
Make sure your team is in iDelegate
To see who of your team is listed click Users on the left sidebar or Team shortcut panel on the dashboard.
Only an administrator can add users in iDelegate. This is to ensure consistency and effective user management. You will need to alert them if a member of your team is missing from iDelegate because you will not be able to delegate your authority to them unless they are in the system.
Change your password and profile
Every iDelegate user has an opportunity to change information contained in their profile such as name, surname, position etc. To do so, click Profile on the left sidebar or shortcut panel on the dashboard.
You are encouraged to keep your iDelegate details up to date and change your password regularly. Doing so will help other users to find you easier and keep the system more secure.
Search iDelegate
There are two ways to search in iDelegate – global and item-specific.
9.1 Global search
iDelegate’s global search box is located to the left of the top navigation bar. Global search will trawl all iDelegate database for the terms you research.
In the example above, global search for ‘investment’ returned not only authorities containing this term, but also categories, policies and even individual delegations that the person searching was scoped to see.
9.2 Item-specific search
As the name suggests, item specific search is only limited to the resource you are currently viewing. iDelegate’s item-specific search box is located on the main screen, usually just below the title of the currently viewed resource.
In the example above, authority-specific search for ‘investment’ narrowed down selection of authorities to just those dealing with investment issues.