> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hitaji360.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Accounting Audit Trail

> The accounting audit trail is an immutable log of governance events in your accounting book — period closes and reopens, chart-of-accounts setup,…

The accounting audit trail is an immutable log of **governance events** in your accounting book — period closes and reopens, chart-of-accounts setup, opening-balance cutover, year-end closes, and reopen-request decisions. It answers "who did this control action, and when?" for the events that matter to auditors.

You'll find it on: `/accounting/periods` (navigation: **Finance → Periods & Close**), in the **Recent audit trail** panel. The underlying data is served by the accounting audit-events feed (`/api/accounting/audit-events`).

> 📷 *Screenshot: "Recent audit trail" timeline panel on the Periods & Close page — to be added.*

***

## What's recorded

Each audit event captures:

| Field           | Meaning                                                                                                            |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Action**      | What happened, e.g. `CREATED`, `CLOSED`, `REOPENED`, `REOPEN_REQUESTED`, `REOPEN_APPROVED`, `REOPEN_REJECTED`.     |
| **Entity type** | What it happened to, e.g. `ACCOUNTING_PERIOD`, `YEAR_END_CLOSE`.                                                   |
| **Summary**     | A human-readable line, e.g. *"Closed accounting period Jan 2026."*                                                 |
| **Occurred at** | When the action happened.                                                                                          |
| **Recorded by** | The user who performed the action.                                                                                 |
| **Metadata**    | Extra context (fiscal year, reason, resulting status, journal reference, net income, etc.) depending on the event. |

### Events you'll see

The trail is written automatically by the actions that change accounting governance state, including:

* **Period control** — creating a period (`CREATED`), closing it (`CLOSED`), reopening it (`REOPENED`).
* **Reopen workflow** — filing a reopen request (`REOPEN_REQUESTED`), approving it (`REOPEN_APPROVED`), rejecting it (`REOPEN_REJECTED`). See [Period Reopen](/accounting/user/periods-compliance/period-reopen).
* **Year-end close** — closing a fiscal year (`CLOSED` against `YEAR_END_CLOSE`), and approve/reject outcomes where applicable. See [Year-End Close](/accounting/user/periods-compliance/year-end-close).
* **Chart setup and opening-balance cutover** — governance events from setting up the chart of accounts and committing opening balances.

Period close, in particular, writes its status change and the audit event **atomically**, so a closed period always has a matching audit record — the trail can't silently miss a close.

***

## Viewing the trail

The **Recent audit trail** panel on the Periods & Close page shows the most recent governance events as a timeline, newest first, each tagged with its action and entity type and a timestamp. The most recent event is highlighted as **latest**.

> 📷 *Screenshot: Timeline entries showing action pill, entity-type pill, summary, and timestamp — to be added.*

By default the panel shows a short, recent window (the latest dozen events) for an at-a-glance view of what's been happening in the book.

***

## Filtering (via the audit feed)

The audit-events feed supports narrowing the list, which is how more targeted views are built:

* **By entity type** — e.g. only `ACCOUNTING_PERIOD` events.
* **By entity** — all events for one specific period or close record (useful to see the full close → reopen → re-close history of a single period).
* **By limit** — how many events to return (between 1 and 200; the default is 50).

The feed always returns events **newest first**, scoped to the current accounting book and your tenant.

***

## Scope and access

* Audit events are **per accounting book** (workspace) and isolated to your tenant — you only ever see events for the book you're viewing.
* The trail is reached through the Finance navigation, which requires the `accounting:read` scope.
* The trail is **read-only**. Events are written automatically by the governance actions themselves; they cannot be edited or deleted from the UI. This is what makes it trustworthy as an audit record.

***

## Using the trail for an audit

* To prove a period was properly closed: filter to that period's entity and confirm the `CLOSED` event, who recorded it, and when.
* To investigate a reopen: the `REOPEN_REQUESTED` → `REOPEN_APPROVED`/`REOPEN_REJECTED` chain shows the reason, the requester, the approver, and the resolution note.
* To trace a year-end close: the `CLOSED` event on the `YEAR_END_CLOSE` entity records the fiscal year, net income, and the closing journal reference.

***

## Related

* [Closing a Period](/accounting/user/periods-compliance/period-close)
* [Requesting & Approving a Period Reopen](/accounting/user/periods-compliance/period-reopen)
* [Year-End Close](/accounting/user/periods-compliance/year-end-close)
* [Accounting Periods](/accounting/user/periods-compliance/accounting-periods)