Background: Audit Trails

Use the Audit Trails (ATR) program to print a report that shows additions, changes, and deletions made to data in a file. Information from audit trails is used in order change reports. See Road Map for work flow.

This topic has these subtopics:

Activate Audit Trails
Audit Trail Listing

Activate Audit Trails

First you must use the Audit Trail Maintenance (XAT) program to activate the logging of additions, changes, and deletions that users make to files. After you activate an audit trail, the system logs all changes to that file from that point on. You cannot run a report on a file unless you have activated the audit on that file and a user has made a change to it (for example, added a new record).

This program does not list a file name until there is at least one record to print. Therefore, if you have previously activated an audit trail with Audit Trail Maintenance, but no file appears in Audit Trails, no changes have been to that file since you activated logging.

Audit Trail Listing

All audit trail reports include this information:

  • File name and description

  • Key

  • Act (action):
    Add: A record was added
    Chg: A record was changed
    Del: A record was deleted

  • Description: The key that was added or deleted, or key associated with the changed the record. Fields changed are listed below the key.

  • Old value: Value before change or deletion

  • New value: Value after change or addition

  • Changed: Date and time the change was made

  • User: The person who updated the file

  • Program: The program that caused the action; this program may be a background or overlay program

  • Menu prg: The program that the user ran from a menu

  • File output includes the workstation from which the change was made and for the following master files:

    • C1A: Customer's name

    • I1AB: Item description

    • I1AE: Item description

    • LS1: Employee's name

    • S1: Sales rep's first and last name

    • V1: Vendor's name