Glossary term
Audit Trail
Subject: Legal, Tax and Reporting, Records and Regulatory Reporting
Also known as: Audit log
An audit trail is a time-ordered record showing who did what, when and why in a system or process, so that a transaction or decision can be traced from start to finish.
Explanation
In an IT system it is usually a log that records each login, change and approval, with user, time and the old and new values. In a business process it can be the set of documents that links a transaction to its approval, such as the request, the quote, the sign-off and the payment. The record should be complete, protected from editing and kept for as long as the law requires. A related idea is the evidence pack, a file of supporting material assembled to show that a control worked or a decision was sound, often for an auditor or regulator. Auditors, investigators and regulators rely on trails to test controls and rebuild events after a problem. Investigators asked to rebuild an incident from a thin log end up relying on memory and testimony instead.
Example
A finance team changes the bank details of a supplier shortly before a large payment, and the money goes to a fraudster. The investigator pulls the system log. It shows who requested the change, who approved it, the time, and that the approver used a shared login, which exposes the control weakness.
Not to be confused with
- Internal audit
- Internal audit is an independent function that tests controls. An audit trail is the record it and others examine.