A RACI chart example is only useful if it is built on a real decision. Not a department list, not an org chart — one recurring decision, filled in row by row, so you can see who does the work, who owns the outcome, who has to be asked, and who just needs to know. The decision below is approving a customer refund, because it is the one that lands on people most often and gets re-decided the most. Here are the same rows filled in three ways by three different people, what each version breaks, and the corrected version that stops the whole thing landing on the founder.
Key takeaways
- A RACI row with no Accountable is not a draft, it is a decision that will stall until someone senior guesses.
- Making yourself Accountable on every row is the same as having no matrix at all — you have documented that you are the bottleneck.
- Consulted is the most abused letter in RACI; every C you add to a two-minute decision adds a waiting room.
- One short SOP behind the approval task turns a recurring interruption into a rule the team can apply without you.
The same RACI chart example, filled in three ways
1. The support rep who is just being helpful
| Task | R | A | C | I |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refund under $50 | Support rep | Support rep | — | — |
| Refund $50 to $500 | Support rep | Support rep | — | — |
| Refund over $500 | Support rep | Support rep | — | — |
| Policy exception or goodwill credit | Support rep | Support rep | — | — |
This grid feels efficient. It is not. The rep has put themselves as Accountable on every row, which collapses R and A into one person and quietly removes the distinction between doing the work and owning the outcome. Run it through the free RACI matrix generator at https://tools.exiuss.com/raci-matrix and the flags fire immediately: multiple A roles on a single row, A and R on the same person for a decision that person does not own, and no Consulted or Informed anywhere.
What it breaks: the rep approves, finance later disagrees, and the refund gets re-decided at month end. The decision did not get faster — it just got re-run.
2. The finance manager who has read about RACI
This version looks responsible. There is one A, the letters are all present, and nothing was decided alone. It is also unusable.
- Refund under $50 — R: support rep, A: finance manager, C: support lead, C: account manager, C: compliance, I: founder.
The flags: three Consulted roles on a two-minute, low-value decision, and an Accountable sitting two time zones away from where the work actually happens. Every small refund now waits for three replies before anyone can act. That is not governance, it is a queue with a spreadsheet attached.
What it breaks: the Consulted loop turns a decision the rep could have made into a decision three other people have to weigh in on. The matrix is technically valid and operationally dead.
3. The founder who wants to stop being the bottleneck
This is the most common version, and the most expensive.
- Refund under $50 — R: support rep, A: blank, C: finance manager, I: founder.
- Refund $50 to $500 — R: support rep, A: blank, C: finance manager, I: founder.
- Refund over $500 — R: finance manager, A: blank, C: support lead, I: founder.
The flag is singular and fatal: no Accountable role on any row. The work is assigned, the interested parties are listed, but nobody owns the outcome. When a refund goes sideways, there is no name on the row. So it comes to the founder anyway — not because the founder kept the decision, but because nobody else was given it.
What each version actually breaks
| Version | What the grid shows | What it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Support rep | A on every row, no C or I | Doing and deciding collapse into one person; finance re-decides later |
| Finance manager | One A, three C roles on a small refund | Every decision waits in a consult queue before anyone can act |
| Founder | R assigned, A blank on every row | No owner, so the decision escalates by default |
| Corrected | One A per row, C only where the risk justifies it | Decisions get made at the right level, once |
The corrected matrix
- Refund under $50 — R: support rep. A: support lead. C: none. I: finance manager (weekly summary only).
- Refund $50 to $500 — R: support rep. A: support lead. C: finance manager, only if it exceeds the original order value. I: founder (exceptions only).
- Refund over $500 — R: finance manager. A: founder. C: support lead. I: accounting.
- Policy exception or goodwill credit — R: support lead. A: founder. C: finance manager. I: accounting.
One Accountable per row. Consulted only where the risk justifies the wait. Informed as a report, not a request for permission.
The SOP behind the task
Refunds up to $50 are approved by the support rep and logged on the ticket; no further approval is needed. Refunds between $50 and $500 are approved by the support lead within one business day, and the finance manager is consulted only if the amount exceeds the original order value or the customer has already had a refund on the same order. Refunds above $500 require the founder's approval, requested by the finance manager with the order reference and the reason attached. Policy exceptions and goodwill credits are prepared by the support lead and approved by the founder. Finance reconciles all refunds weekly and raises exceptions, not individual approvals. The support lead owns the outcome of this task; execution belongs to whoever is touching the ticket.
That is the whole document. Five short paragraphs that turn a decision which used to land on one person into a rule the team applies on its own. Drafted once, exported as a PDF, and dropped into the team wiki where anyone can find it.
You can build the grid and the SOP together. The free RACI matrix generator at https://tools.exiuss.com/raci-matrix lets you list your roles and tasks, click a box to cycle through blank, R, A, AR, C and I, flags the rows that break RACI rules, drafts the SOP behind each task from your own notes, and exports the result as PDF, CSV or text.
Quick checklist
- Pick one recurring decision that keeps landing on you — refunds, discounts, access requests.
- List the tasks inside that decision as separate rows, not one big row called approvals.
- Put exactly one Accountable on every row, and never the same person as the R on a decision they do not own.
- Delete every Consulted role you cannot justify with a specific risk.
- Write the SOP behind the main task in plain sentences with amounts, timeframes and exceptions.
- Export the matrix and SOP, then open the free generator at https://tools.exiuss.com/raci-matrix to check the flags before you publish it.