Automate the review schedule, reviewer notifications, decision routing and application of approved outcomes—but first define exactly which people and resources are in scope. A review can remove access only where the reviewed entitlement and its integration support that action. Set a clear rule for missed reviews, pilot it, and verify that decisions actually change access in the target system.
What an automated access review should do
An access review, also called an access certification, asks an accountable person to confirm whether an employee or other identity still needs a particular group, application, role or entitlement. Automation can create recurring reviews, notify reviewers, collect decisions and apply outcomes. It does not, by itself, guarantee that every permission across an organization has been reviewed or successfully removed.
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Before configuring a product, decide what the review covers, who can judge business need, how often reviews run, what happens when a reviewer does not respond, and how you will confirm that a removal succeeded. CISA’s Identity and Access Management: Recommended Best Practices for Administrators supports the underlying governance practice: remove unneeded entitlements, automate account disablement and removal through identity governance, and periodically review and reconcile accounts and privileges.
Plan the review before automating it
1. Scope the identities and resources
List the applications, groups, roles or access packages to review, then identify how people receive assignments to each. Include guests and contractors if they are part of your access population. Microsoft Entra’s deployment guidance describes reviews for groups, applications and access packages and frames planning around the resources and review tasks.
A review of one group or application certifies only the access represented by that review. It does not certify a person’s entire organization-wide access. Identify unconnected systems, entitlements that are not represented in the review, and assignments that require a separate process; either bring them into scope or record them as coverage gaps.
2. Choose reviewers with relevant context
Assign a manager, resource owner or another person who can make an informed business-need decision. Microsoft’s deployment example uses business-group program managers to review access to a resource. Define how to reassign a review if its owner changes roles, leaves, or cannot respond; otherwise a nominally automated campaign can still stall at the decision point.
3. Set the cadence, deadline and escalation path
Choose a recurring schedule based on the sensitivity of the access and how quickly the business need changes. Microsoft’s deployment guidance gives a monthly review with a 48-hour response timeline as an example configuration, not a general recommendation. Set a deadline that reviewers can meet, and establish reminders and an escalation or reassignment path before launch.
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Decide what happens when reviewers approve, deny or do nothing
Configure the available decisions and the consequence of each one before enabling automatic application. Microsoft documents options including no change, remove access, approve access and take recommendations. It also warns that choosing removal or recommendations together with automatic application can revoke all access to the reviewed resource when reviewers do not respond.
- Approval: Record the reviewer’s confirmation that access remains needed.
- Denial: Define whether the result removes the reviewed assignment and whether a reason is required.
- No response: Choose explicitly whether access remains unchanged, is removed, is approved, or follows a recommendation, depending on the product’s available choices.
- Exception or reassignment: Provide a route for reviewers who lack context or are unavailable, so the system does not silently turn an operational failure into an access decision.
Removing access after no response can reduce stale permissions, but it can also interrupt legitimate work when a reviewer misses a deadline. Pilot the selected rule with a limited scope, test reminder delivery and escalation, and confirm that reviewer coverage is reliable before using a restrictive default broadly.
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Apply decisions and verify the change
Microsoft Entra documents an option to apply access-review results automatically to the resource when the review duration ends; denied users can then be removed from the reviewed group or application. Microsoft also documents Microsoft Graph API tasks for automating access-review operations. These are platform-specific examples, not a guarantee that every connected application supports automatic removal.
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- Run a limited pilot. Use a small, representative set of reviewers and assignments, including any relevant exception cases.
- Inspect decisions and exceptions. Check that the right people received the review and that unanswered or reassigned items followed the intended policy.
- Verify the target resource. Confirm that a denied assignment or membership actually changed in the application or directory, rather than treating the recorded review decision as proof of removal.
- Keep an audit record. Retain the decision, reviewer, exception handling and evidence that the change was applied. Investigate failed or unsupported removals and handle them through a documented remediation process.
Distinguish removing an entitlement from deleting an identity
Removing a person from one reviewed group or application is different from blocking or deleting their directory account. A directory identity may have access beyond the resource being reviewed, so identity cleanup can have wider effects.
Microsoft documents a guest-user workflow in which denying access can block an external user from signing in and remove the directory identity after 30 days. That is not immediate removal of a single resource assignment. Microsoft advises validating that the guest no longer has resource access that needs to be preserved before using this flow. Test the action and its recovery window against your organization’s guest and contractor lifecycle requirements.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the documented platform examples differ
The following examples describe capabilities in the cited vendor documentation; they are not a complete feature, price or suitability comparison. Availability and licensing can change, so check the current terms and behavior in your tenant before designing around a feature.
| Capability | Microsoft Entra ID Governance | Okta Identity Governance |
|---|---|---|
| Review coverage described | Microsoft deployment guidance describes reviews for groups, applications and access packages. (Microsoft Entra deployment guidance) | Okta documentation describes access certification campaigns; the scope details are not stated in the Okta source cited here. (Okta documentation) |
| Starting or recurring a campaign | Microsoft documents recurring access reviews. (Microsoft Entra deployment guidance) | Administrators can launch certification campaigns manually through the Admin Console or APIs, or trigger them automatically in response to specific security events. (Okta documentation) |
| Applying outcomes | Microsoft documents automatic application of review results to the resource after the review duration ends, where supported. (Microsoft Entra access-review guidance) | Automatic application of campaign outcomes is not stated in the Okta source cited here. Confirm the behavior for the intended integration and configuration. (Okta documentation) |
| API automation | Microsoft documents Graph API tasks for access-review operations. (Microsoft Entra access-review guidance) | Okta documentation says administrators can launch campaigns through APIs; other API workflow details are not stated in the source cited here. (Okta documentation) |
| Licensing consideration | Microsoft’s deployment guidance requires an Entra ID Governance license for inactive-user reviews and user-to-group affiliation recommendations. Confirm current tenant licensing for planned features. | Licensing requirements are not stated in the Okta source cited here. Confirm current plan entitlements with Okta. |
When comparing products for your environment, check resource coverage, reviewer routing and delegation, scheduling or event triggers, nonresponse behavior, automatic application, evidence and exception handling, integrations, and licensing. The cited examples do not establish feature or license parity between vendors.
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Quick Recap
Use a coverage and operations checklist
- Are the intended directories, groups, applications, roles and entitlements actually represented in the review?
- Are employees, guests and contractors included where needed, with a separate policy for identity cleanup?
- Can each reviewer judge business need, and is there a reassignment path if they cannot?
- Do reminders, deadlines and escalations work before a nonresponse rule can remove access?
- Does the target resource accept the automated change, and will you check for failed removals?
- Can you retrieve the decision, exceptions and evidence of application for audit and follow-up?
- Do current integrations and licenses support every feature the design depends on?
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