Audit Trail | Tracking and Compliance

This article was first published in February 2018 and was updated in November 2024.

What is an Audit Trail?

An audit trail , sometimes called audit tracking, provides: 

1. Verifiable evidence that can be presented internally or externally.

2. A sequence of tasks or activities that have been performed.

3. What actions were taken?

4. Information about who performed the task(s).

5. Time and date stamps.

As part of a process or operation, in a workflow context, this refers to the tracking, capturing, and reporting of all tasks, activities, participants, times, dates, and actions related to a particular workflow or business process (e.g., accounting transactions). This process, known as audit logging, is crucial for documenting activity within software systems across organizations. Audit trails provide explicit electronic records of who, what, when, where, and how information is used to confirm that tasks were performed as expected by team members or identify errors. Many departments in an organization require some form of auditing, including Accounting, IT, Human Resources, and others like information security records.

What is Included in an Audit Trail?

In a business process, workflows follow a fairly linear, step-by-step method where tasks are assigned and completed in a standardized order. Exceptions can be predicted, and alternate paths can be taken, but for the most part, these processes are predictable and auditable. Activities within the process can easily be traced back to the source using audit logs. For instance, a finance director who approved a purchase. By using audit reporting logs, anyone who needs to know who made this particular approval can easily find out not just who but:

• When the approval was made

• What the approver reviewed before making the approval, including any files that were provided

• Where the request originated

• What steps were taken leading up to the approval

• When the approval was made (Date/Time)

Benefits of Audit Trails

Audit trails offer numerous benefits to organizations, enhancing various aspects of their operations. Here are some of the key advantages:

• Improved Compliance: Audit trails help organizations meet regulatory requirements and industry standards by providing a complete and accurate record of all activities. This ensures that all actions are documented and can be reviewed during a regulatory audit.

• Enhanced Security: By enabling organizations to detect and respond to security breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive data, audit trails play a crucial role in maintaining data security. They provide a historical record that can be analyzed to identify and mitigate potential threats.

• Increased Transparency: Audit trails provide a clear and detailed record of all activities, making it easier to track and verify transactions, data access, and system changes. This transparency is essential for maintaining trust and accountability within the organization.

• Better Decision Making: With valuable insights into operational processes, audit trails allow organizations to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. This can lead to more efficient and effective business operations.

• Reduced Risk: By detecting and preventing fraudulent activities, audit trails help organizations reduce the risk of financial losses, reputational damage, and legal liabilities. They serve as a safeguard against potential threats to the organization’s integrity.

• Improved Efficiency: Audit trails automate the audit process, reducing the time and effort required to conduct audits. This not only improves the overall efficiency of the organization but also ensures that audits are thorough and accurate.

Audit Management

Audit management is the process of planning, conducting, and reporting on audits to ensure that an organization’s internal controls, risk management, and governance processes are operating effectively. Effective audit management involves several key components:

• Conducting Regular Audits: Regular audits help organizations identify and address potential risks, improve internal controls, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. This proactive approach helps maintain the integrity of the organization’s operations.

• Implementing Audit Trails: Audit trails provide a complete and accurate record of all activities, enabling organizations to track and verify transactions, data access, and system changes. This is essential for maintaining transparency and accountability.

• Analyzing Audit Results: Analyzing audit results helps organizations identify areas for improvement, track progress over time, and make data-driven decisions. This continuous improvement process is vital for maintaining high standards of operation.

• Developing Audit Plans: Developing audit plans helps organizations identify potential risks, prioritize audit activities, and allocate resources effectively. A well-structured audit plan ensures that all critical areas are covered and that audits are conducted efficiently.

• Providing Audit Training: Providing audit training helps organizations ensure that audit staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct effective audits. This training is crucial for maintaining the quality and reliability of the audit process.

• Maintaining Audit Records: Maintaining audit records helps organizations track and verify audit activities, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. These records serve as a historical record that can be referenced during future audits.

By implementing effective audit management practices, organizations can improve their internal controls, reduce risk, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. This comprehensive approach to audit management is essential for maintaining the integrity and efficiency of the organization’s operations.

Audit Tracking Example

The screenshot example below shows a sample audit trail derived from Nutrient Workflow. Nutrient Workflow’s “Request Detail” is completely configurable by administrators, allowing for the removal or inclusion of summaries, KPIs, Open Tasks, Completed Forms, Related Requests, Request Records, Task History, and Reports.

In this example, the process was for a Competitive Discount Request Form. At the top, you can see a summary of where the process stands, which is “Approved with Adjustments.”

Below that, you can see that two forms were completed, both by Tom Rezk; for the sake of space, we cropped out the dates they were completed, but those are typically visible.

1. In the Task History section, you can see a complete audit log of when the form was submitted, who submitted it, and the information captured in it.
    

2. In the Manager Approval section, you can see that this request was assigned to a group of managers, where only one of them needed to approve it for the process to continue. In this case, Dave Willsey approved the request, which automatically canceled the tasks for the other two managers in the group. If it had been configured to require all three managers to approve it, you would see “Completed” next to their names.
    

3. In this case, the approval was made by the manager with adjustments. The manager was then required to complete a “Pricing Adjustment Form,” a notification was automatically sent to the requester with the adjusted pricing. You can see the data entered in the form at the bottom. You could click on the clipboard icon if you wanted to see the form exactly as it was submitted.
    

4. If any documents had been attached to the form, they would be listed with the form information and could be viewed. Example of an Audit Trail in Nutrient Workflow (Click for Larger)

How Are Audit Trails Used?

There are many business scenarios where providing an audit trail is either a best practice or a requirement. Maintaining a complete audit trail is crucial for businesses to effectively trace irregularities and enhance security measures.

Regulatory Audit Tracking

Depending on your industry (especially healthcare, finance, government contracting, insurance, etc.), you may be subject to a regulatory audit. CPA firms play a crucial role in providing an objective evaluation of a business’s financial standing during external audits. Government agencies can use audits you provide to review and confirm that proper standards were followed and that you can identify sources. Some common examples of audits that benefit from internal auditing software include:

• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

• Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA)

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA)

• Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HiTech)

• Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX)

• Off-Label Drug Use

Corporate Governance and Compliance Audit Tracking

Companies with strict corporate governance and compliance initiatives can use audit reports to ensure corporate policies are followed and root out errors and corporate malfeasance. Audit trails play a crucial role in supporting audits and internal controls, ultimately helping to verify the accuracy of financial statements derived from underlying transactions.

Continuous Improvement Audit Tracking

Audit reports can show examples of areas for improvement in a process. For instance, if frequent mistakes or delays are unearthed by reviewing the data, workflow administrators can look for opportunities to improve forms, copy, routing, etc., and ensure a better end product.

Training Audit Tracking

By reviewing audits with new employees, trainers can show examples of how a process should be followed from beginning to end and provide insight to new employees about the importance of following standards. Training on the proper rules for an accounting entry is one example. Another could be the proper response to a cybersecurity incident.

Information Technology Audit Tracking

A common use case for auditing in IT is the unfortunate situation of security breaches. IT staff need a plan to mitigate breaches properly, following a standard process. In addition, they need to be able to go back and audit the process to ensure all procedures are followed as expected.

Find Out More About Nutrient Workflow

To see Nutrient Workflow’s auditing tools in action, request a demonstration or watch some of our product videos. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us anytime.

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