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Audit Trail Report

We desperately need an audit trail report available for advisors.

I think it would be sufficient to have the below added to the account transactions report style (but named as Audit Trail):
1 - the ability to include an 'edited date' column
2 - the ability to include a 'notes' column
3 - a tick box to show/hide audit trail history (so voids would show as separate creation and void lines netting off, not just removal of the original transaction)
4 - a unique un-editable transaction identifier for all transactions, not just bills/invoices

It must be exportable to excel with the dates on every line.

So many times I have gone to produce a set of accounts and the prior year has changed because the date wasn't locked, or the client unlocked it, or someone didn't realise they shouldn't retrospectively correct the bank after filing the year end...

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Ellie Hall shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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  • Alex Lacota commented  ·   ·  Report

    My application which is currently in development called RecHound will include everything requested on this product idea.

    You can head to our website at www.rechound.com to join our mailing list to be notified when this becomes available.

    We currently have a video with a transaction listing view, you can see there is a "show voided transactions" button in this (not demonstrated, but is currently working). We will also be adding transaction line numbers and journal numbers too. Also, will be adding a data dump file on our homepage which you can filter by account, date etc.

    Thanks,
    Alex

  • Shona Rankine commented  ·   ·  Report

    Can this include Payroll? An Audit trail for payroll is essential not a "nice to have" - who, when and what. Who made the original booking, when it was done (date & time) and details. And, almost more important, the same for any subsequent changes.

  • Eleanor Hall commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Alex - that's great news!

    I'd certainly be interested in this if you could post the details here when ready as you've suggested. It's a shame Xero can't have this integrated into the system (it's an absolute basic tool for accountants) but this would be very helpful!

    Thanks, Ellie

  • Alex Lacota commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi all,

    I have good news on this idea - I am currently developing an application which will have this included as a feature. I have used the bullet points here as a reference to how we want this specific feature to work because I think this is quite well set out.

    Currently we have a 'last edited' date column, along with a 'transaction entry' date column as well (alongside the journal date too obviously). Each transaction will have its own specific identifier, as well as each full journal entry having its own identifier as well. We have a switch which will add in all the voided transactions too, so you will be able to see literally every transaction ever posted, whether it's viewable in Xero or not.

    Our application is foundationally a balance sheet reconciliation management tool, which will also allow the reconciliation of individual accounts by netting off your Xero transactions line by line. Great for clearing accounts. We noticed that we needed to generate our own 'audit report' of sorts in order to build our app, so we may as well add it as a feature too!

    We are currently heavy in the testing phase for this. We will have a website with a mailing list up and running in the coming weeks - I will post it up here as soon as it's available for anyone interested.

    Thanks!
    Alex

  • Karen Wright commented  ·   ·  Report

    I can't believe there is no audit trail. This is a terrible omission.

  • Laszlo Marjan commented  ·   ·  Report

    Agreed. But please do not in turn take away the existing method, where at each transaction you can instantly see the changes made at the bottom left corner. That is one incredibly useful tool.

  • Em Manchee commented  ·   ·  Report

    Honestly the fact that there is no true audit trail for a bookkeeping software is so very poor! this needs to address and be more like Quickbooks or Sage 50

  • Winston Tan commented  ·   ·  Report

    I would support this request as Audit Trial Report can save a lot of time to try and troubleshoot how final accounts or monthly close accounts was changed without Advisors knowing. This helps Xero keeps accounts integrity as all voids and corrections are strictly viewable in Audit Trials.

  • Nicola Rutter commented  ·   ·  Report

    I find the xero audit trail painful. To be of value to me I would also like to see quantity as a choice

  • Ellie Hall commented  ·   ·  Report

    Erik - yes, I did find this report, but it's certainly not a friendly report that can easily be exported and manipulated to find a subset of information you need, as the information isn't all on a single row.
    I would think, though, that this would mean that the information is all there and they should be able to easily produce a report that combines the information in the Journal Report and the format of the Account Transactions report - but that they're oddly choosing not to.

  • Erik Bech commented  ·   ·  Report

    The Journal Report already shows the add/modify/delete date, username, and the Journal ID # unique identifier of every transaction regardless of the module. But it would be nice to include this data in fields of the Account Transactions report, let's say.