A Parliamentary Authority is a generic term for a book with procedural rules for the conduct of meetings; it is synonymous with the terms Rules of order and "parliamentary manual." The society generally adopts such a book to cover meeting procedure not covered in the society's adoptive procedural rules.

The most commonly used parliamentary authority in the United States is Robert's Rules of Order (correct title: Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, tenth edition, and abbreviated as RONR) followed by The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure (abbreviated as TSC and "Sturgis," after the original author). Both books, along with numerous others, are commercially available.

Rules in a parliamentary authority can be superseded by the group's constitution, bylaws or by adopted procedural rules(with a few exceptions). In RONR the adopted procedural rules are called Special Rules of Order.

Some groups write their own parliamentary authority specific to that group.

Parliamentary procedure