Escalation Rules

Escalation rules ensure that overdue findings and action plans are automatically brought to management attention. AIIA supports configurable escalation chains based on severity, time overdue, and organizational hierarchy.

How Escalation Works

When an action plan's due_date passes and its status remains OPEN, the system triggers an escalation chain:

Default Escalation Tiers

Tier	Trigger	Action
Reminder	1 day overdue	Email notification to action plan owner
Level 1	7 days overdue	Notify Audit Manager, flag in tracker
Level 2	14 days overdue	Notify CAE, escalation marker on finding
Level 3	30 days overdue	Auto-include in executive dashboard and board pack

Configuration

Escalation rules are configured per organization in Administration → Notifications → Escalation Rules.

Configurable Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Reminder Frequency	How often to re-send reminder to owner	Weekly
Level 1 Threshold	Days before Manager notification	7
Level 2 Threshold	Days before CAE notification	14
Level 3 Threshold	Days before board-level flagging	30
Email Enabled	Send escalation emails	Yes
Dashboard Alert	Show alerts on main dashboard	Yes

Severity-Based Overrides

Critical and High severity findings can have shorter escalation timelines:

Severity	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Critical	3 days	7 days	14 days
High	5 days	10 days	21 days
Medium	7 days	14 days	30 days
Low	14 days	30 days	60 days

Escalation in the Dashboard

Escalated items appear in:

• Main Dashboard — "Escalated Findings" widget showing count by tier
• Remediation Tracker — red highlight on escalated items
• Executive Dashboard — management visibility of overdue remediation
• Board Pack — automatically included when configured

Audit Trail

All escalation events are logged:

• When escalation was triggered
• Who was notified
• What action was taken (if any)
• Whether the escalation was resolved

Permissions

Action	Permission
Configure escalation rules	admin:notifications (Admin)
View escalations	finding:read (all audit roles)
Acknowledge escalation	Action owner, Manager, CAE
Override escalation	admin:override (Admin, CAE)