> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.erp.arukz.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Audit trail and edit log for the books

> ARUKZ ERP logs every change to the books with who, when, before and after, cannot be switched off, and gives your auditor a summary and CSV export.

ARUKZ ERP keeps an edit log of every change to the books of account: each time an entry, payment, ledger account, tax, journal, party or stock move is created, changed or deleted, it records when, who, what kind of change, and the values before and after. Nobody can switch it off, a company admin included. This is the feature the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 ask accounting software to have from 1 April 2023, and what your auditor reports on under Rule 11(g).

## What is logged

| Records covered | Examples |
| - | - |
| Accounting entries and their lines | Invoices, bills, credit notes, journal entries |
| Payments and reconciliations | Customer receipts, vendor payments, matched entries |
| Bank statement lines | Imported statement rows |
| Chart of accounts, taxes and journals | A changed GST rate or a renamed ledger |
| Parties | Customers and vendors, including GSTIN and address changes |
| Stock moves | Receipts, deliveries, transfers |

The log is written by the database itself, so a change made outside the screens is caught too. The log tables accept new rows only; rows already written cannot be changed or deleted.

## Read it

> [tab] Audit trail
>
> **Settings → Audit trail** lists every logged change, newest first: when (UTC), who, from where, the action (create, update, delete), the record type and number, and the values before and after. Filter by record type, action and date range, and use **Export CSV** to hand the rows to your auditor.

> [tab] Edit log summary
>
> **Settings → Edit log summary** is written for the auditor: counts of changes, edits to entries that were already posted, edits into locked periods, and whether the daily seal still matches. It has its own **Export CSV**.

Both pages are open to admins and to anyone whose role may manage users.

## Tamper evidence

Every night ARUKZ ERP seals the day's log entries into a hash chain, and checks the whole chain again ten minutes later. If a logged row were rewritten or removed, even directly in the database, the check would no longer match and the edit log summary shows it.

> [!WARNING]
>
> The seal makes tampering **detectable**, not impossible: the database account the application uses can still drop tables, because upgrades need that. Keeping the seal on a separate server is planned, not built.

## What the law asks, and what stays with you

* **Rule 3(1)** asks for an edit log of each change with its date that cannot be disabled. It does not forbid edits; ARUKZ ERP logs them.
* **Section 128(5)**, as ICAI reads it, asks you to keep books and the trail for at least eight years. Keep your subscription, or take regular [exports](https://docs.erp.arukz.com/admin/export-data.md) and the audit trail CSV.
* Whether your set-up meets the rules is for your auditor to report. These pages give them what they need to check.

> [card] [Accounting](https://docs.erp.arukz.com/modules/accounting.md)
>
> Lock dates and year close.

> [card] [Security and data](https://docs.erp.arukz.com/security.md)
>
> Isolation, backups and where data lives.


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