Customizing admin policy

Admin policies control who can make administrative changes to your organization — like adding or removing users, changing user roles, and modifying vault settings. By customizing your admin policy, you ensure critical changes require appropriate oversight.

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What admin policy controls

Admin policies define approval requirements for:

• User management — Adding, removing, or changing user roles
• Organization settings — Changing organization name, contact info, etc.
• Vault creation — Creating new vaults (may require approval)
• Security settings — Enabling/disabling features, changing recovery options
• Policy changes — Modifying other policies themselves
• Trusted destinations/counterparties — Adding or removing pre-approved addresses

Not all operations require admin policy approval — see Admin policies for a complete list.

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Access admin policy settings

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Customization options

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Single approver requirement

Require one designated approver for admin changes:

• Simplest model — One person (often the CEO or CFO) approves all admin changes
• Speed — Approvals are fast
• Risk — Less oversight if that person is unavailable or compromised

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Multi-approver (quorum) requirement

Require multiple approvers, such as 2 of 3 administrators:

• More oversight — Multiple people must approve critical changes
• Security — Harder for unauthorized changes to occur
• Slower — Takes longer to get approvals
• Redundancy — If one approver is unavailable, others can still approve

Example: “2 of {CEO, CFO, Legal Officer}” or “All administrators must approve”

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Role-based requirements

Different requirements based on the change type:

• Minor changes — (e.g., updating contact info) may need 1 approver
• User management — (adding/removing users) may need 2 approvers
• Critical changes — (policy changes, security settings) may need all admins

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Create or edit admin policy rules

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Admin policy templates

Your organization can choose from common templates:

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Centralized (single approver)

• Approver: CEO or designated administrator only
• Use case: Small teams, startup, strong trust in leader
• Approval time: Fast
• Risk level: Medium (depends on that person’s availability and security)

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Distributed (2 of 3 required)

• Approvers: 3 administrators, any 2 can approve
• Use case: Mid-size organizations wanting checks and balances
• Approval time: Medium (faster than all-required, slower than single)
• Risk level: Low (requires consensus among multiple people)

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Consensus (all required)

• Approvers: All administrators must approve
• Use case: High-security orgs, joint custody, important decisions
• Approval time: Slow (depends on everyone’s availability)
• Risk level: Very low (highest oversight)

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Role-based admin rules

You can set different rules by change type: Different changes can have different requirements based on sensitivity.

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Designating approvers

To change who can approve admin changes: All admins don’t automatically get approval power — you must explicitly designate them as approvers in your policy.

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Approval timeouts

Admin policy changes require approval within a certain timeframe:

• Typical timeout: 24-72 hours
• Shorter timeout: Good for urgent situations (higher risk)
• Longer timeout: Good for less urgent matters (gives people time to review)

If an admin policy change isn’t approved by the timeout, it expires and must be resubmitted.

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Common admin policy scenarios

Scenario 1: Small team (3 people)

• All are admins
• Policy: “All 3 must approve” admin changes
• Result: Highest security, slightly slower approvals

Scenario 2: Medium organization (10 people, 3 admins)

• Only 3 designated admins
• Policy: “2 of 3 admins must approve”
• Result: Faster than consensus, still multiple eyes

Scenario 3: Large organization (100+ people, 5 admins)

• 5 admins, some designated as “Super Admins”
• Policy: “For user add/remove: 1 super admin + 1 regular admin. For policy changes: all super admins”
• Result: Scalable, different levels of oversight

Scenario 4: Distributed/DAO structure

• 7 members in a decentralized organization
• Policy: “Any 4 of 7 members must approve admin changes”
• Result: Democratic, distributed approval

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Monitoring admin activities

Even though policy approvals control admin changes, you should still monitor:

1. View audit log — See all admin changes and who approved them
2. Review user access — Regularly verify who has access and their roles
3. Check policy changes — Ensure policies haven’t been unexpectedly modified
4. Monitor approvals — See who’s approving changes and when

This helps catch unauthorized or suspicious activities.

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Emergencies and exceptions

If your admin policy prevents necessary changes (e.g., all approvers are unavailable):

1. Contact Porto support — Explain the situation
2. Provide verification — Porto may verify your identity or ownership
3. Emergency override — In extreme cases, Porto may help with recovery
4. Adjust policy afterward — Consider policy changes to avoid future emergencies

Note: Emergency overrides leave an audit trail and should be rare.

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Best practices for admin policy

• Require multiple approvers — Especially for sensitive changes
• Separate roles — Different people should submit and approve changes
• Document policy — Record why your policy is structured this way
• Review regularly — Quarterly review of admin policy and approvals
• Avoid single points of failure — Always have backup approvers
• Test the flow — Make a low-risk change to ensure your policy works as expected
• Communicate policy to admins — All admins should know the approval requirements