Changes recorded: who, what and why
See who changed a record and why, the before and after values on sales invoice approvals and cancellations, plus every blocked viewing attempt.
Live in partWhat does Record history & Audit Explorer do? Answer 'who changed this and why' in seconds, without turning your audit log into a second store of personal data.
How it works
When a sales invoice is approved or cancelled, the before and after values and an optional reason are saved in a permanent record that can't be altered. Amounts and descriptions are kept as they are; ID numbers and personal details are kept in disguised form and marked 'changed'. Blocked attempts to view records are logged as security events.
Sensitive before-and-after values are stored in disguised form; each entry covers up to 40 fields and says when more were left out.
Step by step
- Someone changes a record. Today the full before-and-after capture is wired into approving and cancelling a sales invoice. The route reads the record before and after the change and hands Kinnow both versions.
- Kinnow writes one audit entry. The entry holds who made the change, when, which fields moved, and the reason if the person gave one (up to 500 characters). It is added to the log and never edited afterwards.
- Sensitive fields are disguised. Amounts, quantities, terms and descriptions are kept as they are. ID numbers, personal details and free text are stored only as a marker that the field changed, plus a short code that lets two entries be compared without revealing the value.
- Refused viewing attempts are logged too. If someone opens a page they are not allowed to see, the refusal is written to the same log as a security entry, with the area and the page.
- An auditor or finance head reads it. On an invoice, the trace shows the approvals and what changed. In Admin, the audit log lists every entry, newest first, and can be filtered by area, action, person and severity.
- Nobody tidies it up afterwards. Entries are added only. They have no expiry date and are chained so that tampering can be detected.
See the change history on one of your own invoices.
What you see on screen
Two places show this today.
| Screen or button | What it shows or does |
|---|---|
| Admin, Audit log | A table with the columns When, Severity (Info, Warning, Error, Security), Area, Action, Performed by, Target and Status. Filters for area, action, person and severity, a refresh button and a clear-filters link. |
| Activity panel on a record | On records such as a journal, who touched it and when. The panel states that it does not show a field's previous value. |
| Sales invoice trace | Approvals (who asked, who decided, their comment) and the history of what changed, with the reason where one was given. If the list is long it says it was cut short. |
| Empty or failed lists | A failed load shows an error card with a retry. It does not show as "nothing has happened". |
Who uses it
| Who | When |
|---|---|
| Finance head or owner | When a figure looks wrong and the question is who changed it and why. |
| Internal auditor or your CA | During interim or year-end checks, filtering the audit log by area or person. |
| IT or system admin | To look at refused viewing attempts and security entries. |
| Approver | Reads the reason on a change before approving the next step. |
Related
- Controls and AI settings: where the audit log, roles and AI settings live.
- Sell: sales invoices, where change capture is in use today.
- AI work you can check and approve: the same idea for agent work: every task shows its reasoning.
Questions
What is Record history & Audit Explorer in Kinnow?
See who changed a record and why, the before and after values on sales invoice approvals and cancellations, plus every blocked viewing attempt.
What changes for the business?
Answer 'who changed this and why' in seconds, without turning your audit log into a second store of personal data.
Is it available today?
It is live in part: the core is built and parts are completing with early customers.
Can I see the old value of any field I change?
Not everywhere yet. Kinnow stores the old and new values for sales invoice approvals and cancellations. For other records the log tells you who acted and when, and the record page says it does not hold the previous value.
Are ID numbers and personal details visible in the history?
No. They are stored only as a changed marker and a short comparison code, so the history does not become a second copy of personal data.
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