Use the audit log in QuickBooks Online

Learn what the audit log can do and how to use it to keep an audit trail.

QuickBooks Online keeps track of your activities in the audit log. You can see who made changes to your books and what they did.

For a better experience, open this article in QuickBooks Online. Launch side-by-side view

Learn more about the audit log

QuickBooks Online records all your financial transactions in your chart of accounts.

But it also records all account activity in the audit log such as user sign-ins, changes to QuickBooks settings, edits to customers, vendors, employees, and payroll submissions. QuickBooks records the following in the audit log:

• The date of any change to your books
• The name of the user who made the change
• The type of change or event
• The name of any customer or vendor related to the change
• Any original transaction date and amount

Events recorded in the audit log are available for two years.

Note: Sign-outs are only recorded in the audit log when you select Sign out. Sign-outs aren’t recorded if you close your browser, go to another website, or when QuickBooks signs you out automatically due to inactivity.

Use the audit log

You need to sign in as an admin to access the audit log. Ask your primary admin if you don’t see it.

1. Go to Settings and select Audit log.
2. Select Filter.
3. Use the fields on the Filter panel to choose the appropriate User, Date, or Events filter to narrow the results.
4. Select Apply.

The audit log shows you 150 records at a time. For most transactions or events, select View in the History column to open the audit history. This tells you who made the change and what they did.

You may see something called an "indirect edit". QuickBooks records indirect edits when someone changes a transaction that was already on your books, for instance, if someone edits a completed reconciliation.

Note: For audit and security reasons, you can't turn off the audit log.

Learn about users created by QuickBooks

QuickBooks automatically creates specific user profiles to track certain actions in the audit log. If you see a user you don't recognize, it’s most likely one of these:

• Online Banking Administration: Shows a change related to your connected bank accounts made automatically by QuickBooks Online.
• Support Representative: Shows changes made by a QuickBooks Online support consultant.
• System Administration: Shows changes made automatically by QuickBooks Online. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as:
  • You change a record, and the change affects another record. For example, if you edit a payment and link it to a different invoice, you may see a System Administration event for a change to the original invoice.
  • You connect a third-party app to QuickBooks. When the third-party app sends data to QuickBooks, or when it makes a change to your existing data, this appears as a System Administration event.
  • You create a recurring transaction, such as a recurring expense. When QuickBooks automatically adds an instance of the transaction to your books, a System Administration event appears in the audit log.
  • You set up other events to happen automatically, even when you’re not signed in. For example, a System Administration event may appear when there's an update to your bank feeds.

• Import Administration: Shows an automatic change related to the conversion of your data from QuickBooks Desktop edition.