The Audit Trail is the record of changes to your books. It answers two questions an accountant asks when a figure moves:
- Who changed what? Every transaction created, edited, voided or deleted in a period, who did it, when, from which workstation, and which fields changed from what to what.
- What did the books used to say? Every ledger line that was in the books and no longer is, because its document was edited and posted again, or deleted.
Nothing on the Audit Trail can be edited or removed. It is the record of editing and removal.
SeroBooks keeps the Audit Trail all the time; there is nothing to switch on.
Opening it
- Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Audit Trail opens the Audit Trail screen described below.
- Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Audit Trail Report opens the same information as a report in the Report Centre; see The Audit Trail Report.
The top of the screen
- The title line shows the period and a count: the number of changes in the Documents view, or the number of superseded rows in the Ledger rows replaced view.
- Period chooses the dates. The screen opens on this month so far. The picker offers This month, Last month, This quarter, Last quarter, Year to date, Last year, a single month, or Exact dates; click Apply.
- Refresh reads the trail again.
The period is when the change was made, not the date of the transaction. Editing a January invoice today shows up in today's period.
Below the title, two buttons switch between the views, each with its count:
- Documents: who changed what. This is the view that opens first.
- Ledger rows replaced: what the books used to say.
The Documents view
Narrow it with the check list
The Check list: row narrows the list without leaving the period:
- Click Everyone and choose one person. The list shows only their changes. The people offered are everyone who appears in the period; choose Everyone to see all changes again.
- Click one of All changes, Added, Modified, Deleted or Voided.
Both are applied by SeroBooks when it reads the trail, so a narrowed list is everything that person did in the period, not just the part that was on screen.
The columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| When | The date and time of the change. |
| Who | The person signed in when it was made. |
| Did what | What happened: Created, Edited, Deleted, Sale deleted, Purchase deleted, Contact deleted, Invoice voided, Voided, Credit memo voided, Credit voided, Payment voided, Payment edited, Marked audited, Audit mark cleared, and other actions in plain words. Deletions and voids are shown in red. |
| Document | The document's number or reference. A deleted document keeps the number it had. |
| Amount | The document's total now. |
| Original amount | For an edit, what the document came to before the change. Blank when the total did not change or the row is not an edit. |
| Workstation | The computer or device the change came from, or its internet address when the device name is not known. |
| What changed | Only the fields that moved, as field before → after, for example final total 1,000.00 → 100.00. At most three are listed, followed by +2 more field(s) when there are more. A newly created document lists its fields as changed from (none). |
Click a column heading to sort by it. Double-click a row to open the document. A deleted document has nothing left to open.
When nothing is recorded, the list reads No documents were created, changed or deleted in this period., or Nothing matches this check list in this period. when a check list is set.
When the list is not complete
The screen reads up to 300 changes at a time. When a period holds more, a red banner says PARTIAL — showing the first 300 change(s); the period holds more. Click Show more under the list to read more (up to 2,000), or narrow the period or the check list.
If a refresh fails, a red banner says The refresh FAILED — these changes are from an earlier read and anything since is missing. Refresh before relying on this list. Check your connection and click Refresh.
The Ledger rows replaced view
SeroBooks posts every document to the ledger automatically, and posts it again whenever the document is edited. The ledger lines from before the edit are replaced by new ones. When a document is deleted, its lines are removed. This view lists those old lines, so you can see what an account used to hold.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Entry dated | The date the old line was posted for. |
| Account | The account it was posted to. |
| Debit / Credit | Its amount. |
| Document | The number or reference of the document it belonged to. |
| Why it went | Replaced (the document was edited and posted again) or Document deleted. |
| When | When it was replaced or removed. |
| By | Who made the change. |
When nothing was replaced, the view reads Nothing in the books has been replaced or removed in this period. and That is the healthy answer.
This view shows up to 1,000 rows for a period. Narrow the period if you expect more. To look at a document listed here, note its number and find it with Advanced Find or Transaction History.
Exporting
Each view's table has an email button and an Export button (Export what is on screen) in its toolbar, offering CSV, Excel and PDF. The export is titled Document audit trail or Ledger audit trail with the dates underneath, and contains the rows as they are sorted on screen.
Audited and un-audited documents
Saved invoices and bills carry a coloured band near the foot of the form that reads, for example, Created by Ash (7 Mar 2026, 6:41 PM) · Modified by Ash (7 Mar 2026, 6:54 PM on FRONT-PC) · Un-audited.
- Un-audited (amber) means nobody has marked the document as checked.
- Audited by … (green) shows who marked it and when.
- Mark audited and Clear audited set and remove the tick. They appear only for people whose role has Mark Documents Audited.
Editing an audited document takes the tick off automatically, because what was checked is no longer what is there. Marking, clearing and the automatic clearing each appear on the Audit Trail as Marked audited or Audit mark cleared.
The Audit Trail Report
Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Audit Trail Report (in the Report Centre under Accountant & Taxes, Every transaction added, changed, voided or deleted in the period, who did it and from where.) lists the same changes as a report for a date range. The dates are when the change was made.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Entered/Last Modified | When the change was made. |
| Last modified by | Who made it. |
| Action | Added, Changed, Voided or Deleted, or the action in plain words. |
| Type | The transaction type, for example Invoice, Bill or Cheque. |
| Num | Its number or reference. |
| Date | The transaction's own date. |
| Name | The customer or vendor. |
| Amount | The transaction's total. |
| Workstation | The device, with its internet address in brackets. |
A note under the report counts the changes. It shows the most recent 5,000; when there are more, the note says so and you should narrow the dates. Rows for documents that still exist drill down to the document. The report prints, exports, emails and can be memorized like any report; see Running a report.
Three other reports on the same menu help an accountant review changes; see Accountant & Taxes reports:
- Closing Date Exception Report: transactions dated on or before the closing date that were entered, changed or deleted after it was set.
- Voided/Deleted Transactions Summary and Voided/Deleted Transactions Detail: every voided or deleted transaction.
Permissions
The Audit Trail reads and changes nothing. A role that cannot see the accounting reports gets You do not have permission for this. Ask an administrator to grant it under Users & Roles.
Marking documents audited needs Mark Documents Audited, listed under Audit Trail in the role's permissions. It is kept separate from viewing, because the tick is the reviewer's word that the document is right. See Roles and permissions explained.
Tips
- Start in Documents with the check list: pick a person and Deleted or Voided to review what they removed.
- After you file a sales tax return or close a period, check Ledger rows replaced for that period to see whether anything posted before your filing has since changed.
- Use Original amount beside Amount to spot edits that changed a total.
- For one document's own log, open its Transaction History: the ENTERED AND CHANGED list is the same record for that document alone.
- Sign-ins and sign-outs are not part of the trail.
Common problems
I edited an old invoice today and it is not in the list. Check the period. It is the date of the change, not the invoice date; set the period to include today.
The list stops, and a red PARTIAL banner shows. Click Show more, narrow the period, or use the check list to look at one person or one kind of change.
Double-clicking a row does nothing. The document was deleted. Its number stays in Document; the Voided/Deleted Transactions Detail report shows what it held.
Workstation is blank. Older changes, and changes made where the device did not report its name or address, have no workstation.
Mark audited is missing. Your role does not have Mark Documents Audited, or the document has not been saved yet.