Why a permanent, tamper-proof record matters
PL
Priya Lall · Compliance Officer
"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.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
Make a changeOpen any Opportunity (a deal you're tracking) and edit its Amount field, then save.
Open the Audit LogGo to Setup → Audit Log (Setup is where admins configure the CRM — look for it in the top-right menu) and filter by object = Opportunity.
Inspect the entryConfirm it shows the old and new Amount values, the username of whoever made the change, and the exact time it happened.
Check record-level historyOpen that same Opportunity's detail page and view its change history right there, without leaving the record.
Review a Debug Log (optional)Go to Setup → Debug Logs and open a recent session to see the validation and workflow trace behind that same save.
Day-to-day: compliance and admins
Answer a "who changed this" questionOpen the Audit Log, filter by object/user/date range, and get an answer in seconds instead of chasing memories.
Prepare for a reviewExport or filter the Audit Log ahead of time so you're not scrambling when the request lands.
Day-to-day: admins troubleshooting an issue
Reproduce the issueTrigger the same save or action that's behaving unexpectedly.
Open the matching Debug LogWalk through the validation, workflow, and formula trace to see exactly what happened, step by step.
What to try next
Look at the GDPR & Privacy Tools trail — it relies on this same permanent-record concept for erasure requests.Test what you learned
1. When a brand-new record is created, what does the audit entry show as the "before" value?
Nothing — there was no earlier version to show
A copy of the default field values
2. Can an admin clear out Debug Logs?
Yes — they're short-term troubleshooting data, not a permanent record
No — they're permanent, just like Audit Logs