There are plenty of reasons QuickBooks has been the most popular accounting software among accountants, CPAs, and small business owners. One of the many features of QuickBooks is the Audit Trail report. The audit trail report is the collective log of every action and operation, starting from recording transactions to making changes to the company file.
In this blog, we will discuss how we could utilize the audit trail in QuickBooks Desktop to resolve many concerns in daily accounting operations. An audit trail helps us check the creation, modification, or deletion of any transaction, list, name, item, or setting as well. The audit trail is the detailed financial activities consolidated in chronological order, which could be easily accessible by the user based on the permissions set by the company file administrator.
How To View Audit Trail in QuickBooks Desktop
QuickBooks Desktop has three major versions: Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. Accountants have dedicated QuickBooks Desktop accounts with additional features to manage multiple company files with different businesses. All the desktop versions of QuickBooks have a common flow and navigation for the audit trail report.
Below are the step-by-step instructions to easily navigate through the QuickBooks Audit Trail:
- Open the company file and sign in as an admin.
- Navigate to the toolbar on top and click Reports.
- Look for Accountant & Taxes in the Menu bar.
- Click on Audit Trail to view the Audit trail report.
Note: You need to ensure that you have chosen the correct From and To Dates to view the transaction change logs or user activity.
This will show you the transaction logs for every transaction that was created, modified, or deleted during the period selected. Here, the first version of the transaction will be shown below, and the most recent version will be shown above. So, you can see both versions of transactions modified or deleted.
QuickBooks Desktop Audit Trail by User
At times, QuickBooks automatically creates a few user profiles to manage and track certain operations in QuickBooks Desktop. If you see any audit log that you do not recognize, there are chances it was created by a system generated user.
We will try to list a few system-generated audit logs here:
- Logs created by Online Bank Connection: This will show you the logs created by your bank connection connected via Direct Connect.
- System Administration: These are the automatic logs created by the application in the event of connecting to a third-party application. If you created a recurring transaction and want QuickBooks to take specified action on this transaction, You have set up an automatic backup of the company file.
- QuickBooks Data Service Support: In case you were having problems with your data file, the QuickBooks Support team recently repaired it. You could notice the logs created by the support team.
- Import/Export Changes: If you had converted your company file data from a different version of QuickBooks, you could see the application-generated import/export logs.
Export the QuickBooks Desktop Audit Trail Report To Verify User Activity
Searching for a user specific activity is not directly available in the QuickBooks Desktop Audit Trail report. Along with user activity, many more logs could be easily sorted by exporting the Audit Trail report in a worksheet.
- Open the company file and go to the Reports tab.
- Take the cursor to the Accountant & Taxes tab to populate Audit Trail
- Open the Audit Trail Reports window and choose the specific dates.
- Now, click the drop-down arrow beside Excel and click on Create New Worksheet.
This will create the new worksheet in Microsoft Excel in CSV format. You can now easily filter and sort the required logs with fewer clicks.
Stuck with generating the required report or tracking a transaction log in QuickBooks Audit Trail? Our dedicated customer support team is always there to help! Call us now at 1800-280-5969 for a free consultation and discover more about QuickBooks.
How to find audit trail in QuickBooks desktop using audit history to track transaction changes:
QuickBooks Audit History keeps records of changes made to a particular transaction. You could easily track certain information, such as who made the changes, when they were made, and what changes were made.
- Log in to the company file as an admin user.
- Open the transaction you would like to check.
- Click on the link that says More.
- Select the tab Audit History, and this will display the Audit Log.
Click on Show All for the full expanded view, and click compare to compare the two versions of a particular transaction.
How to Run Audit Trail in QuickBooks Desktop To Find The Changes in Transactions
QuickBooks Desktop Audit Trail could not record the reconciliation activities; however, it can record the changes in transactions after you reconcile the transactions.
If you noticed that reconciliation for a specific transaction or account was undone, you can track the changes made to that transaction by following the below guided steps:
- Head over to the Reports tab.
- Hover the mouse over Accountant & Taxes.
- Click the Audit Trail tab in the populated menu.
- It would now display the Audit Trail window.
- Click on Customize Report tab.
- Now, in the Modify Report window click Display tab to choose the appropriate dates.
- Choose the appropriate From and To dates.
- Head to the Filters Tab now.
- Select the associated account and click OK to run the refreshed report.
How to Remove Audit Trail in QuickBooks Desktop
If your accountant or bookkeeper reported that QuickBooks is running slow due to the heavy company file size, and you do not want to remove any past transactions from your company file,
Here’s the solution with which you could reduce the size of the company file without removing any transactions or attachments. You may remove the audit trail report if you do not wish to keep the audit logs.
Following the below mentioned steps, the audit trail could be easily erased, and the size of the company file would be significantly reduced to enhance performance.
Note: Before making any changes, please make sure that you create a local or online backup of the company file for future concerns.
- Click on the File tab in the top menu bar.
- Move the cursor to the Utilities button and click Condense Data.
- You will see the Condense company file wizard.
- Click the radio button next to Keep all transactions, but remove audit trail info to date.
- Click the Next button, and then click Begin Condense.
This will start the audit trail removal process, and depending on the size of the company file, it will finish the condensing process and Audit Trail will be removed.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we have discussed all the features and how to use the Audit Trail report in QuickBooks Desktop. Since Audit Trail is one of the most popular features of QuickBooks Desktop, there could be more you need to know about. You may contact our support team at 1800-280-5969 to get answers to all your questions about the Audit Trail feature.
FAQs
Is Audit Trail available in all QuickBooks versions?
Yes, QuickBooks Audit Trail is available in all versions of QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions.
Can I disable or stop the Audit Trail in QuickBooks Desktop?
No, QuickBooks Desktop would not allow users to disable or stop Audit Trial due to security policies.
Do I have to pay an extra fee for using Audit Trail QuickBooks Desktop?
No, QuickBooks Desktop Audit Trail is an in-built feature in all versions of QuickBooks without any additional cost.
Why cannot I see the Audit History of a specific transaction or account?
You need to sign in as an admin to see the Audit History of specific transaction, or ask your company admin to assign you the Audit Trail rights.