Zoho Creator's Audit Trail feature has been significantly enhanced, expanding its scope to give a more complete picture of activity across your applications. What was once a simple record-and-report log is now a full-fledged auditing system built for enterprise-grade compliance.

What's New

• Two-tier audit levels. Basic mode is enabled by default and captures user actions in live mode (create, update, delete, and report import, export, and print). Advanced mode can be turned on per form, under Preferences, to also capture Deluge scripts, API calls, form emails, and workflows.
• Two dedicated audit tabs. Audit data is now categorised into Change Audits (record create, edit, delete, restore, subform, and comment activity) and Data Transfer Audits (export, print, and import activity on reports).
• Restore deleted records from the log. Records deleted within a stipulated time can now be restored directly from their log entry.
• Downloadable audit reports. Rather than a plain CSV of everything, you can generate audit reports filtered to exactly what you need. Reports are delivered as password-protected ZIPs.
• Richer log details. Log entries now go beyond who and when. You can see the device an action came from, the exact before-and-after values of every field, subform changes, comments, and more.
• Longer retention. Change audit data is now retained for three years on paid plans, up from one year. Data transfer audit data is retained for three months.

A Worked Example: Healthcare Data Compliance

Consider a company using Zoho Creator as a clinic management tool. Every day, doctors update medical histories, front-desk staff schedule appointments, and background workflows sync records to the billing system, a lot of movement to keep track of.

With the revamped audit trail, they enable Advanced Audit Trail on the patient records application, so every change, whether made by a user, a Deluge script, or an API call, is logged. Fields containing patient identifiers are marked as PII and ePHI, so the audit logs handle them appropriately. When the quarterly audit rolls around, they generate an audit report filtered to the review period, download it as a password-protected ZIP, and share it with the auditors.

How to Get Started

1. Go to Operations, then Applications, then Audit Trail.
2. Click View Audit Trail, then select the application and form you want to review.
3. Choose between the Change Audits and Data Transfer Audits tabs.
4. Click Preferences to enable Advanced Audit Trail for specific components, or to configure IP address capture.
5. Use Filters to narrow results by date, user type, action, record ID, or source, then click Generate Report to create a downloadable audit report.

Availability and Permissions

• Available on both C5 and C6, and on all Creator plans, though the free plan has limited retention and storage.
• Only super admins and admins can access and manage the audit trail across all applications. App admins can manage it for applications they have access to.
• On C5, a super admin without access to a specific application cannot view that application's audit trail; only the app owner can.