audit trail

noun

Definition of audit trail

: a record of a sequence of events (such as actions performed by a computer) from which a history may be reconstructed

Recent Examples of audit trail from the Web

Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey and South Carolina all rely exclusively on electronic voting machines without a paper audit trail.

— derek hawkins, Washington Post, "The Cybersecurity 202: How Colorado became the safest state to cast a vote," 10 May 2018
Rather, the transaction on the blockchain would eliminate high costs, provide a system for accurately logging the transactions, and process payments in real time with a verifiably true audit trail.

— polina marinova, Fortune, "J.P. Morgan Files Patent for Blockchain-Powered Payments," 4 May 2018
The new software produces an audit trail that documents any changes made to the accounts.

— david taylor, Houston Chronicle, "Dayton 'double billing' result of new software," 4 Apr. 2018
Michael Daly, CTO of Cybersecurity and Special Missions at Raytheon The committee is recommending that states make sure voting machines have paper audit trails and aren’t capable of being connected to the internet.

— mary clare jalonick, Washington Post, "Senators press Trump officials on safeguarding 2018 ballots," 21 Mar. 2018
The auditors did note that there were no formal policies authorizing the fundraisers, or audit trails regarding the money.

— mary ellen klas, miamiherald, "Prison promises pizza if inmates donate cash to charity | Miami Herald," 26 Jan. 2018
The development of the audit trail has often been caught in red tape and industry fights over who will pay for it.

— dave michaels, WSJ, "Exchanges Cite Hacking Risk of SEC’s Planned Market Data Repository," 15 Sep. 2017
The audit trail was also designed to ingest details about stockbrokers’ customers, including their names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

— dave michaels, WSJ, "SEC Weighs How to Protect Vast Trading Database From Hackers," 3 Oct. 2017
But four other states besides Delaware — Louisiana, Georgia, New Jersey and South Carolina — use paperless systems that leave no audit trail, as do large swaths of Pennsylvania and some other states.

— michael wines, Alaska Dispatch News, "Wary of hackers, states move to upgrade voting systems," 14 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'audit trail.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of audit trail

1954

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Financial Definition of AUDIT TRAIL

audit trail

noun

What It Is

An audit trail refers to the complete record of events that occurred in the execution of a transaction.

How It Works

When a transaction is executed (e.g. a business purchase), each documented step taken makes up the audit trail. Depending on the transaction, the audit trail can be highly complex or very simple.

For instance, the audit trail for the purchase of a carton of milk would consist only of the receipt for the transaction. This receipt details the exchange of cash for the item purchased (milk), the date, and the institution where it occurred (the store).

Why It Matters

The records comprised in an audit trail can be reviewed with diligence in the event that accounting figures fail to reconcile. Recreating a transaction step-by-step will reveal where a breakdown in the process occurred (if any).

Source: Investing Answers