How to Track Changes With the Audit Trail Report in QuickBooks Desktop

Before you start

• Give each person their own QuickBooks login. Intuit's setup steps expect a login and password for each user.
• Decide what you're looking for: one account, one period, or changes made after a certain date. The filters below narrow the report to that.
• Don't condense the company file while you investigate. Condensing removes edited, voided and deleted transactions from the Audit Trail report.
• Setting a closing date needs the admin login and single-user mode.

Step 1: Run the Audit Trail report

1. 1Go to Reports > Accountant & Taxes > Audit Trail.
2. 2To narrow it down, select Customize Report and follow Step 2.

Intuit groups the Audit Trail report with Trial Balance and General Ledger under Accountant & Taxes. Intuit's article on beginning balance issues uses it to track down edited or deleted transactions.

Step 2: Narrow it to the changes you care about

1. 1In the report, select Customize Report, then open the Filters tab.
2. 2Choose Account and pick the account you're checking, such as a bank account.
3. 3Choose Date. Leave From blank and set To to the last date you trust, such as a statement date.
4. 4Choose Entered/Modified. Set From to the date you last checked the books, and To to today.
5. 5Select OK. The report now shows activity on older transactions in that account since your last check.
6. 6Select Memorize to keep these settings for next time.

Intuit uses this check when an account's beginning balance doesn't match at reconciliation. For the full workflow, see how to reconcile a bank account in QuickBooks Desktop.

Step 3: Cross-check with other change reports

• Reconciliation Discrepancy (Reports > Banking): transactions changed since an account was last reconciled, sorted by statement date. Note each Entered/Last Modified date; it tells you when the change happened.
• Transaction Detail (Reports > Custom Reports): on the Filters tab, set Entered/Last Modified to a date range to see transactions entered or changed in it.
• Closing Date Exception Report (Reports > Accountant & Taxes): changes made after the closing date to transactions dated on or before it.

Intuit's advice is to talk with the person who made the change before you edit anything. There may be a reason for it.

Step 4: Protect closed periods

1. 1Sign in as the admin and switch to single-user mode.
2. 2Go to Company > Set Closing Date.
3. 3Enter a Closing Date and a Closing Date Password, then select OK.

After that, editing or deleting a transaction in the closed period takes both the password and the right user permissions. Changes that still get made there appear on the Closing Date Exception Report. The Closing Date History lists current and past closing dates and the user who set each one.

Review who can change what

The audit trail shows what happened. User permissions decide what can happen next.

• Enterprise: go to Company > Users > Set Up Users and Roles and enter the admin password. On the Role List tab, select View Permissions, choose the roles, then Display. That runs the Permission Access by Roles report.
• Pro and Premier: go to Company > Set Up Users and Passwords > Set Up Users. Edit a user and choose Selected areas of QuickBooks to limit what they can reach, such as Sensitive Accounting Activities.

For changes to transactions, use the Audit Trail and closing date reports above. For setting up users and roles, see how to give an integration read-only access in QuickBooks Desktop.

Before you condense the file

File > Utilities > Condense Data has an option called Keep all transactions, but remove audit trail info to date. Intuit says condensing can't be undone. It removes edited, voided and deleted transactions from the Audit Trail report, though the report itself remains. Before condensing, Intuit says to back up the file and save your reconciliation and discrepancy reports as PDFs. You may want to save the Audit Trail report the same way.

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• The Audit Trail doesn't alert anyone. Someone has to run it on a schedule and read it.
• It shows what changed, not why. Someone still has to ask the person who made the change.
• Setting up one login per person is the admin's job.
• Condensing the file can remove edit and deletion history for good.
• Fixing a change to a reconciled transaction can mean undoing and redoing reconciliations.