What decision does the Promotion Standard frame?
Whether one task class handled by a Digital FTE on ftes.ai moves up one level on the autonomy ladder: from proposing every item for approval to running that class within bounds without per-item approval, still logged, still reversible. The decision is made by the role's manager at the monthly review in the Performance tab, per class, never for the role as a whole. It is the most consequential routine decision a manager of a Digital FTE makes, and it is the one most often made on instinct, which is what the frame replaces.
The frame does not decide for the manager. It lists the conditions the record has to meet before the manager's judgement is even relevant.
What are the five conditions?
Record: the class has a full cycle of approvals at its current level with an approval rate the manager considers clean for this class, and enough volume that the rate means something. Reasons: the send-back reasons for the class have been about tone or preference, not facts, rules, or judgement, for several consecutive weeks. Bounds: the manager can write in one sentence what the class may do on its own, with a threshold, a scope, and a template where relevant. Exclusion: nothing in the class touches the always-escalate list or the never-automated list, which are outside the frame at every level. Reversibility: the manager knows what a step-back looks like, is willing to take it at the first sign of substantive send-backs, and has told the team.
All five, or the class stays where it is until next month. There is no partial promotion.
- Record: full cycle, clean rate, meaningful volume
- Reasons: tone, not substance, for consecutive weeks
- Bounds: one sentence with threshold, scope, template
- Exclusion: no overlap with escalate or never-automated lists
- Reversibility: cheap step-back, manager willing, team told
How does the worked example read, with the inputs left blank?
Role: Finance Controller FTE. Class: exact bank-to-ledger matches under a threshold. Record: over the cycle from [date] to [date], the class had [N] proposals, [A] approved, [S] sent back; the manager's clean threshold for this class is [rate]. Reasons: of the [S] send-backs, [F] concerned facts or rules and [T] concerned formatting or naming; the last substantive send-back was on [date]. Bounds, in one sentence: the FTE may post exact matches where the amount, date within [days], and counterparty agree and the amount is under [threshold], using the standard journal template. Exclusion: partial matches, matches over the threshold, and anything involving a refund or dispute remain at Level 0 and on the escalate list. Reversibility: if any posted match is sent back for a substantive reason, the class returns to Level 0 the same day, and the finance lead has agreed this in the review note.
Fill the brackets from the Approvals record and the send-back log. If any bracket cannot be filled from the record, that condition is not met.
Why do the reasons matter more than the rate?
Because an approval rate counts decisions and a reason explains them. A class can carry a high approval rate while every send-back is about a fact the memory lacked or a rule the remit did not state, and each of those would have become an error at autonomy. A class whose send-backs are all about tone has transferred the substance and is asking only for style, which the bounds and the template absorb. The send-back reasons are read weekly by the manager, and the frame's second condition is the reason that habit exists.
The metric explainers on approval rate and send-back rate in the library describe how each is computed and what each can and cannot show.
How is the frame applied at the review?
Open the role's Performance tab and the Approvals record for the cycle. For each class the manager is considering, write the five conditions with the brackets filled. Promote only the classes where all five hold, one level, within the written bounds, and record the decision, the bounds, and the step-back trigger in the monthly review note. Tell the people who approve that class that it is now running alone within those bounds. Read the class's record again at the next review; a promoted class is reviewed like a new one for a cycle.
Most roles promote one class at the first or second review and a second class a cycle later. A role promoting three classes at once is a manager skipping the frame.
What does the frame refuse?
Promotion to prove the pilot is working. Promotion of a class because the manager is busy. Promotion of anything touching money, people, prices, or the escalate list, which the frame excludes before the record is even read. Promotion on a rate alone. Promotion without a written step-back trigger. And promotion during a peak, a close, or a season, when the record will be distorted and the step-back most expensive. Each refusal is the frame doing its job, and each is easier to defend than the promotion would have been.
The guide on stepping autonomy back describes what happens when the frame was skipped.