The audit trail
What you will have: You can find out who did which sensitive accounting operation, when, and what changed.
Your books prove they have not been rewritten after the fact, which any audit requires.
Before you start
- Lesson « Record, post and correct an entry »
- Accounting set up
Signed in to Genuka, this list ticks what your account already has.
Why it matters
In an audit, having correct accounts is not enough: you must prove they were not changed after the fact. The audit trail records every sensitive operation, with its author and date, with no way to erase it.
Summary
The audit trail records every sensitive accounting operation: who did it, when, on which document, and what changed. It is write-only: it can neither be edited nor erased, including from an administrator account. It is the document an auditor asks for to check that the books have not been rewritten after the fact.
What is tracked
Creation and posting of entries, deletions and reversals, closing of periods and fiscal years, filing of tax returns, changes to accounting settings. Each entry carries the author, the timestamp, the document concerned and the before/after values.
Entries are chained together: each one depends on the previous one. Removing or altering an entry would break the chain and be spotted immediately. That is what gives the register its value: a journal you could edit would prove nothing.
Steps
- Accounting › Compliance › Audit trail (
/accounting/audit-trail). - Filter by period, by user or by type of action.
- Open an entry to see the detail: the document concerned and the changed values. Verify integrity checks the hash chain.
Edge cases & common errors
- A recent action does not appear right away. Writing to the register is asynchronous: it is recorded just after the operation is validated. A few seconds of delay is normal.
- A cancelled operation does not appear. If the transaction failed and was rolled back, nothing is logged. This is intended: the register only tracks what really took place.
- Looking for a change to commercial data. The audit trail covers accounting. For the history of an order or a product, look at the page concerned.
FAQ
Can I erase an embarrassing entry? No, and nobody can. That is the purpose of the register.
How long are entries kept? They are not purged: the retention period expected by the tax authority is counted in years.
Who can view the audit trail? Users with access to accounting. It is a good right to grant to your accountant.
See also
- Record, post and correct an entry
- Understanding Genuka accounting
- Fiscal years and accounting periods
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