Audit Trails and Document Tracking

The way your business stores its files makes a big difference when it comes to keeping an audit trail. Paper documents are notoriously unreliable. Electronic storage can be equally problematic if you cannot organize and locate the https://dataescape.com/audit-trails-and-document-tracking/ data quickly.

An audit trail is a document of all the activities that relate to a particular document, including access and modifications. When properly set up, the process supports transparency and accountability, while minimizing the risk of malicious actions by identifying who accessed or modified a file. The main features of an audit trail are time stamps, user identification, recorded actions or events and information about the system.

Audit trails are commonly used to verify compliance to regulatory protocols such as security and accounting laws. The simplest audit trail, for example, might be receipts that record the date, name and item of the purchase. More complex audit trails can be used by mortgage lenders to confirm the source of funds for an down payment, and financial regulators examine the more comprehensive ones produced by brokerage firms in order to monitor market activity.

Another key benefit of audit trails is to document workflows and improve team accountability. Folderit’s Audit Trail, for example it displays the due date on a file as an indication of the date. This eliminates confusion about when a project should be completed, and allows managers to identify the person who set the deadline.