What is the intended purpose of the “Authority Section” field?
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yesterday
Hi all,
I have come across a field called Authority Section and I am trying to understand its intended purpose and how it is meant to be used, particularly while setting up the IRM data model.
So far, I have not been able to find any reference to this field in the ServiceNow documentation, and I cannot locate it on forms in either Workspace or the native UI. The only place I can see it is as an available column option (for example in list layouts), where it can also be edited directly from the list.
As we are currently configuring the system, I am trying to understand:
- What object or concept this field is associated with
- How it is expected to be populated or surfaced, if at all
- How it differs from existing concepts such as Authority Document, Citation, or Reference
To give a concrete example, if the Authority Document is something like Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA), during setup we are deciding whether sections such as FMCA Part 6, s395–408(a) should be captured using References, Citation hierarchies, or potentially something else.
Based on the name, I am wondering whether Authority Section is intended to support structuring or grouping sections of legislation or regulation in a flatter way, rather than relying solely on parent child citation hierarchies. However, that is just an assumption and I cannot see any clear guidance or examples.
I am also trying to understand whether this field is intentionally hidden from forms, or whether it is a legacy or reserved field and how you can update these without needing to add it into native UI and adding within list view.
If anyone can clarify:
- The intended use case for this field
- Whether it is actively used by any out of the box IRM features
- Whether it is expected to be surfaced during configuration
that would be really helpful.
Thanks in advance.
