Why an audit trail is a must-have for your enterprise

Ever wonder how top-tier companies maintain flawless operations? The secret is in their audit trails—a vital tool that captures every action in your systems and processes, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. Beyond being a key contributor in ensuring concrete compliance, they're your insight into the inner workings of your business, offering a clear map to pinpoint risks and discrepancies before they evolve into costly errors.

First, let’s cover the basics.

Audit trails, also known as activity feeds, transaction logs or change tracking, are essential for any enterprise that values transparency and accountability. They provide a continuous, chronological record of actions taken within your systems, ensuring every step is traceable and accountable. Consider the lifecycle of a document, like a receipt—from its creation, through edits, to approvals and even deletions. An audit trail meticulously logs each of these actions, detailing who performed the action, when it was done and importantly, why it was necessary. This provides a solid foundation for process documentation, simultaneously enhancing security, ensuring compliance and offering valuable insights into operational workflows.

What does an audit trail look like?      

Specifically, an audit trail records the following information in a document workflow:

• Who: which user performed an action.
• What: what action is involved.
• When: the time stamp, consisting of date and time, indicates when a user performed a specific action.
• Why: shows the reason for the action.

The complete information is then provided by the audit trail or the log from the audit trail.

Documentation of business processes is carried out on an automated and manual basis:

• Automated: The audit trail automatically records certain data points, for example, what user (who) performs what action (what) at what time (when).
• Manual: In addition to the information already collected automatically, you can provide additional data for the audit trail. For example, you can add a note to an action to make the action traceable. The note explains why you performed this process step and what the result was.

Audit trails in applications like our Doxis document management system (DMS) not only track user activities but also log automated tasks performed by our AI, Doxi. Whether Doxi is storing documents digitally or assigning tasks to employees based on set rules, each action is meticulously recorded. This feature ensures that all automated processes are transparent and accountable.

Many businesses are legally required to maintain audit trails, and there’s a high chance your own is no exception. When checking for the necessity for these records, look out for these key factors:

• the legal requirements of quality management,
• audit-proof archiving, or
• the GDPR.

Quality management  

Audit trails are particularly crucial in quality management, ensuring compliance with a wide array of regulations and ISO standards. This is particularly important in fields like medical device manufacturing or areas heavy with product liability concerns. Businesses need to document each step with the precision of a neurosurgeon to ensure everything is not only legal but also safe.

In the context of GDPR, the role of audit trails becomes particularly significant. When an audit trail captures personal data like usernames, timestamps, and actions, it allows businesses to understand employee activities and potentially assess their performance. In Germany, for instance, this type of data collection requires businesses to involve the works council, as it could lead to monitoring or controlling employees, which has legal implications. Understanding these nuances is crucial for maintaining compliance with GDPR while using audit trails.

On the flip side, audit trails play a key role in protecting personal data. They precisely document who accessed personal information, like customer details, and when it happened. By continuously logging access and changes, audit trails help minimize the risk of data misuse, ensuring that sensitive information is handled responsibly and securely.

Hey Doxi, what are the benefits of an audit trail?  

Audit trails are a cornerstone of any robust business framework, diligently recording every action within a system or process. If there's one takeaway from this discussion, it’s that the meticulous documentation provided by audit trails is absolutely essential. They not only enhance data recovery and boost information security but also protect personal data and ensure that your document archiving is thorough and audit-proof.

And with Doxis, setting up your audit trails becomes straightforward. Our activity feed exemplifies how audit trails should function by seamlessly documenting document-related activities in an organized and comprehensible way.

Ready to take the next step? Contact us today to learn more about Doxis and how it can transform your approach to document management and compliance.

FAQs about audit trails