The co-founder of a Singapore SME was personally approving every transaction in the business. Every expense claim. Every purchase order. Every payment run. Every vendor invoice.
He wasn't doing it because he wanted to. He was doing it because there was no system in place that allowed anyone else to.
The result was predictable: chronic context-switching, decision fatigue by 2pm every day, and an inability to focus on the strategic work that only he could do. The business couldn't move faster than one person's bandwidth allowed. And the irony was that 80% of the transactions he was approving were routine, low-risk decisions that any competent manager could have handled.
The Fix: Tiered Delegation of Authority
A Delegation of Authority (DOA) framework is not complicated in concept. It specifies who can approve what, up to what value, and under what conditions. The structure typically looks like this:
Tier 1 — Managers: Routine operational expenses up to a defined threshold. Office supplies, minor vendor payments, standard subscription renewals. These don't need founder eyes.
Tier 2 — Senior Managers / Department Heads: Larger operational decisions. New vendor contracts within a defined range, non-standard expenditure, hiring-related costs below a threshold.
Tier 3 — Directors / Co-founders: Strategic expenditure. Capital investments, contracts above a defined value, anything that materially affects cash position or commits the company to a multi-year obligation.
The thresholds vary by company size and risk appetite, but the principle is universal: routine decisions flow through the organisation at the appropriate level, and the founder's attention is reserved for the decisions that genuinely need it.
The Second-Order Effects Nobody Expects
When we implemented this for the client, the primary win was obvious — the co-founder got roughly 80% of his transactional decision load off his plate overnight. He could think clearly again. He could focus on growth, on client relationships, on the work that actually moved the needle.
But the secondary effects were just as valuable:
Mid-management gained confidence. Being trusted with approval authority signalled that leadership believed in their judgement. Engagement went up. Decision speed went up.
Expense coding accuracy improved. When a manager approves a cost, they understand what it's for and which cost centre it belongs to. The co-founder, approving fifty transactions in a batch, was rubber-stamping whatever the accountant coded. The managers actually checked.
Product-level profitability analysis became possible. Better expense coding meant costs were properly matched to revenue streams — which meant we could finally produce profit and loss statements by product and by channel. An insight that had been impossible for years was unlocked as a side effect of delegating approvals.
The Resistance You'll Face
Most founders resist delegation of authority for the same reason: "What if someone approves something they shouldn't?"
The answer is: that's what the framework is for. The thresholds exist precisely to bound the risk. A manager authorised to approve expenses up to SGD 5,000 cannot approve a SGD 50,000 contract. The system has guardrails built in.
The bigger risk — and the one founders rarely confront — is the cost of NOT delegating. Every hour spent reviewing routine expenses is an hour not spent on strategy, client acquisition, or business development. Over a year, that compounds into weeks of lost capacity at the most expensive level of the organisation.
The Prompt
If you're the person approving every transaction in your business, ask yourself one question:
What am I NOT doing with the time I'm spending on approvals?
If the answer involves anything strategic — growth planning, key client relationships, talent development, market expansion — then the cost of not having a DOA framework is already higher than you think.