Admin & Extend · Module 12
Audit & Debug Logs
Turn an Audit Into a Search
How to answer "who changed this, and when?" with real proof — plus how to trace what happened when something doesn't behave as expected.
About & Business Case #
Why a permanent, tamper-proof record matters #
"Legal is asking who changed the value on this contract, and when. Our compliance review is in two weeks, and I need a real answer — not a guess based on who usually touches that record."
An audit trail is a permanent record of every change made in the system. Without one, "who changed this and when" turns into a slow hunt through emails, memory, and guesswork.
A compliance review is a check — often required by law or a company policy — that proves your records are accurate and trustworthy.
What this means for you
Any change to any record can be traced back to who made it, on demand. A compliance review becomes a quick lookup, not a stressful investigation.
Implementation #
Two different logs, two different jobs #
| Log | Purpose | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|
| Audit Log | A permanent record of every record that's created, changed, or deleted. It shows the old value, the new value, and who made the change | Can't be changed or deleted — kept forever |
| Debug Log | A technical trace of one specific action, useful for troubleshooting — it shows validation checks, workflow steps, and formula calculations as they happened | Temporary. It's just for troubleshooting, and an admin can clear it |
What's captured on each action
On a brand-new record, there's no "before" value to show, since nothing existed yet. On a deleted record, there's no "after" value, since nothing is left. Every other kind of change captures both the before and after values, so you can compare them.
1 Trace a field change back to its source #
How to Use #
Day-to-day: compliance and admins #
Day-to-day: admins troubleshooting an issue #
What to try next
Look at the GDPR & Privacy Tools trail — it relies on this same permanent-record concept for erasure requests.