---
title: "Audit trail"
description: "What is an audit trail? A record of who created, changed or approved a record, when, and what changed. Learn what makes one useful, with an ERP example."
url: https://1flux.ai/glossary/audit-trail
last_updated: 2026-10-10
---

[ERP and platform](https://1flux.ai/glossary#erp-and-platform)

# Audit trail

What is an audit trail, and what makes one useful to auditors and owners?

Glossary Updated 10 October 2026

Definition

An audit trail is a chronological record of who created, changed, approved or deleted a record, when they did it and what changed.

## What is an audit trail used for?

Auditors, finance managers and owners rely on it to trace any figure back to the actions behind it and to spot unauthorised or careless changes. A useful audit trail is readable, attached to the record it describes and can’t be edited by the people it records. In accounting, the trail extends to journal entries: posted entries are reversed rather than edited, so the original stays visible.

Example: a purchase order’s history shows it was created by a buyer, its prices revised by EUR 300 with the reason “supplier price increase”, then issued by the purchasing manager.

See [reversing entry](https://1flux.ai/glossary/reversing-entry) for how corrections keep the trail intact.

In 1flux

Companies, contacts, items and suppliers have an Activity tab, procurement documents show plain-sentence activity, manual journals keep a per-entry audit trail, and deals, tasks and sales orders keep stage history. [See roles, permissions and audit](https://1flux.ai/platform/access-control)

Related

## Keep exploring

### [Reversing entry](https://1flux.ai/glossary/reversing-entry)

A mirror journal entry that cancels an earlier one.

### [Role-based access control](https://1flux.ai/glossary/role-based-access-control)

Granting permissions through job roles rather than person by person.

### [Approval workflow](https://1flux.ai/glossary/approval-workflow)

Rules that route a record to the right people for sign-off.

### [Roles, permissions and audit](https://1flux.ai/platform/access-control)

Custom roles, record visibility along reporting lines, entity access and row-level security.

Last updated 10 October 2026