The system record of who created, changed or deleted each entry, when, and what the value was before.
An audit trail is the log an ERP keeps of every change to a transaction or master record: who created it, who changed it, when, and the previous value. It also covers locked periods, approval histories and document numbering, so an auditor or the FTA can follow a transaction from source document to ledger and back.
It matters because UAE VAT and corporate tax both require records to be kept and retrievable, and an FTA audit will ask for them. Beyond compliance, an audit trail is the owner's protection against error and fraud: unexplained edits to invoices, deleted payments and altered prices become visible. Spreadsheets and basic accounting packages rarely provide this.
In an ERP project, confirm that audit logging is switched on for financial documents and master data, that posted documents are locked and corrected only by reversal or credit note, and that sequential invoice numbering cannot be bypassed. Define user roles so that creating, approving and paying are separated. Check that the log itself is retained for the statutory period.
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