# Phase plan — Fintech

The phase plan with the boundaries a regulated financial product needs: wording, markets and disclosures never inside ordinary authority, budget and bidding authority granted normally, and a record designed to answer what ran under which review.

Everything else is the general phase plan, unchanged. One row per area per phase, an explicit approval list, a reversal rule and a record of every change.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet.
2. Write one row per area per phase, and never a single blanket permission.
3. Write what still needs approval explicitly, rather than leaving it as everything else.
4. Put a limit on every permission: how much, how often, on what.
5. Decide the evidence to advance before the phase starts, not when somebody asks.
6. Write the reversal rule while everything is going well.
7. Record every change made under the authority, with its reason and its time.

## The columns

**Phase** (Text). The step this row describes on the way to wider authority. Only the operational areas have phases here; wording, disclosures and market settings sit outside them permanently.

**Area** (Text). What kind of change this governs: budget, bidding, pacing, scheduling, creative rotation among cleared assets. Wording, disclosure and market delivery are named as areas so they can be explicitly excluded.

**May change without separate approval** (Text). Exactly what can be altered at this phase: move budget between campaigns for the same product in the same market, adjust bids, change schedules, rotate among creative already cleared.

**Limits** (Text). How much, how often and on what, with two boundaries rather than one: within a product, and within a market. Reductions carry no limit at all, at any phase.

**Approval required for** (Text). What still needs a person: anything touching wording, disclosures or market settings, at every phase, without exception; and any change to the total budget.

**Who holds it** (Text). The holder of this permission, person or rule. A rule may move money and adjust bids; it may never change creative, alter delivery geography, or reactivate an ad whose review has lapsed.

**Evidence to enter** (Text). What had to be true before this phase started: four weeks of reporting reconciled, and every live ad matched to a current review on a dated baseline.

**Evidence to advance** (Text). What has to be true before the next phase begins, written now, and measured over a period long enough for funded outcomes to appear rather than applications alone.

**Review cadence** (Text). How often this row is re-read. Weekly at first, and immediately after any change to a rate, a fee or a term, because that change resets what the creative in market is claiming.

**Reversal rule** (Text). What causes authority to narrow again: any change touching wording, disclosure or market settings, regardless of outcome, or one change made without a record.

**Record kept** (Text). What is written down whenever this authority is used: the product, the market, what moved, from where, to where, why, and the review the creative in market sits under.

**Entered on** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The date authority in this area widened to this step. Budget authority advances normally here while the excluded areas never do, so the dates are worth keeping per row.

**Notes** (Text). What the next person needs: the limit that proved too tight during a rate change, the rule that had to be rebuilt, the market where authority has deliberately never widened.

## The phase plan

| Phase | Area | May change without separate approval | Limits | Approval required for | Who holds it | Evidence to enter | Evidence to advance | Review cadence | Reversal rule | Record kept | Entered on | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- There is one row per area per phase, and no blanket permission.
- Wording, disclosures and market settings are never inside ordinary authority.
- Budget authority is bounded by product and by market.
- Every change record names the review the creative sits under.
- Automated rules cannot alter creative, wording or delivery geography.
- Every row has a reversal rule written while things were going well.
- Every change made under the authority is recorded with its reason.