User access reviews are one of those controls that every auditor looks for but also one of the hardest to get right if you’re doing them manually.
Yes, most ERP systems let you export user-role-permission reports. In NetSuite, for example, you can leverage searches against employee records and role records and export them to Excel to attempt to evaluate access controls. But here’s the problem: unless you’ve spent the time to research a majority of permissions and what they give access to, you might not know where inappropriate sensitive access exists. And when it comes to SoD, forget it! Those reports don’t tell you which combinations create conflicts. Identifying them would require a TON of manual analysis, which would still inevitably leads to intra-role (SoD risks within the roles themselves) and cross-role SoD conflicts being overlooked.
Frameworks like SOX, ISO 27001, and NIST require regular reviews, but they don’t tell you how to make them effective. That’s why organizations that rely solely on manual reviews end up with orphaned access, missed SoD conflicts, and audit findings.
The better path is automation. Tools like ERP Armor Assessments (or GRC software) take those raw reports and overlay risk intelligence. They highlight users with sensitive access, users and roles with access outside of their expected job functions, flag SoD conflicts, and make it easy for supervisors and role owners to attest to what’s appropriate. However, automation is only as strong as the content behind it—a robust sensitive access and SoD ruleset that has meticulously evaluated every entitlement is essential to produce complete and easy-to-understand results. Pair that with quarterly reviews (monthly for privileged roles) and a clear role ownership model, and suddenly user access reviews go from a painful manual exercise to a valuable, audit-ready control.
When user and role access reviews are performed manually or inconsistently, several risks emerge. Orphaned access is one of the most common, where terminated or transferred users retain privileges they no longer need. Hidden SoD conflicts are another, as privileged combinations across roles often go undetected without automated analysis. Manual reviews are plagued by SoD blind spots, since identifying intra-role and inter-role conflicts requires detailed interpretation that’s difficult to achieve at scale. Weak reviews can also lead to regulatory findings, with external auditors identifying deficiencies in access controls. Finally, misunderstood permissions pose a serious problem—if reviewers don’t know what each entitlement actually allows, they can overlook inappropriate sensitive access. These risks highlight why organizations must go beyond manual reviews and adopt a more structured, technology-enabled approach to access governance.
Automating user access reviews and assigning clear role ownership provide measurable improvements in both security and compliance. Automation reduces financial reporting, fraud, data security, and operational risks by quickly identifying and eliminating lingering or inappropriate access within roles that might otherwise go unnoticed. It enhances audit readiness by producing reports that clearly show what users and roles have access to, where SoD conflicts exist, and what mitigating controls are in place. Defined role ownership reinforces least-privilege principles by ensuring user access reviews remain aligned to actual business responsibilities. Most importantly, automation transforms reviews from a slow, manual exercise into an efficient, repeatable process that delivers actionable insights and makes documenting remediation decisions straightforward.
Organizations can strengthen their access review process by moving away from purely manual approaches:
When executed effectively, these recommendations not only reduce risks but also set the foundation for lasting improvements in efficiency and audit readiness.
If you’re unsure which GRC solution is the right fit or you need help untangling sensitive access and SoD risks, reach out to ERP Risk Advisors at support@erpra.net. We work with many GRC software companies and can lead you in the right direction. We’ll recommend the right software for your organization, help you clean up risks efficiently, and put the right controls in place so your organization is protected.