Enter your idea

Hi all

It's interesting that this was added by the Xero Team on July 25, 2012 (is that a mistake should it be 2022? Almost 11 years overlooking such a a key feature)

(BTW, a similar request - or should it be begging on our knees, pleading with tears - with more detail is over here if you want to vote again)

https://productideas.xero.com/forums/939198-for-small-businesses/suggestions/45050950-audit-trail-report#comments)

As it is I wll now sum up my marks on audit trail in QB and Xero, which I keep meaning to write up for an article for the press:

............................................................Xero .........QB

Audit trail report.................................... 2/10 ............5/10
(History and Notes is a mess and doesn't even export even if you wanted to play with the data yourself. See old QB desktop for maximum marks for a full audit trail report, with a journal view for each change of the transaction. Those were the days!)

Account transaction report .....................N/A ..........8/10
(can add Last modified and Modified By columns in QB, doesn't get 10 for a reason not relevant here)

Bank audit trail
(feed vs import column, running balance) ..9/10....... 1/10
(Unfortunately the banking section on QB is rubbish, bank reconciliation report can't be run until all transactions are ticked, and there is no bank statement there, anyway not for now, just wish they'd sort this out)

PS History and Notes on each transaction - doesn't interest me. This would be included in a good Audit trail report. If I am looking at audi trail on a transactional level, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack and leads to major stress levels! Oh Xero how many more years without an audit trail report?

This function would be great if it not only showed transactions edited (as in the history and notes log) but what users are viewing without editing.

Shocked its not as standard

a must for all functions of payroll

Would help immensely.

An audit trail would be so helpful. Not just for payroll but being able to see what a transaction was originally coded to and then who changed it, when it was changed and what it was changed to all on a beautiful transaction report.

Why doesnt Xero have an audit trail

Notification when STP does not get filed after it is left pending, assuming it goes thorough unless it is checked again.

Very critical

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

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.

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 the same for any subsequent changes.

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

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

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

Any changes to payroll

Would be great to see when the 'lock dates' are changed and by which user - i.e user unlocks a period, makes changes, locks period. Currently there's no simple way to see this happening

We need the ability to see what changes a user made on a transaction.

For example:
User 1 changed Tax Rate to "No VAT"
User 2 changed Tax Rate to "Standard Rate Purchases"
User 3 changed Account to "Bank Charges"
etc...

At the moment, Xero only shows when a user edited a transaction, but not what they edited. So it's hard to audit the changes to transactions.

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.

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