Use of Audit Trail in Zoho Books

Use of Audit Trail in Zoho Books

It was on March 24th, 2021 when the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India released a notification that instructed companies to use accounting software that could show an audit trail of all transactions carried out. Essentially, this rule was applied so that the companies could maintain their books properly.

With the release of this notification, the accounting software that companies used was supposed to have the following things:

  1. An ability to record the audit trail of each transaction that was taking place.
  2. A feature to create and edit a log of all changes that happened in the books along with the date and use details.
  3. An ability to ensure that the audit trail feature was always enabled.
Going by this rule, Zoho Books released a fantastic new feature called the audit trail for all the users of India. This is a feature that is included in the Activity Reports module of the amazing Zoho Books software.

Details of New Software Requirements:

With this new rule of Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules released by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, companies are prevented from correcting transactions and fixing errors. This is to prevent them from hiding any changes. The new requirement of showing an audit trail is a result of insights from previous investigations.

In the past, many companies fudged their books by consistently changing the transaction details. The main idea behind releasing the new feature of audit trails was to prevent this problem. The Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules mandate that the companies record audit trails of all transactions. It also specifies that the accounting software creates an edit log of all changes that are made in the books. This rule was to prevent any accounting software from making changes in entries.

Even if the businesses have been using software with a weak audit trail facility, it was possible to make the transition. The effort involved comes down to how much data and complexity the current system can possibly handle. The process of shifting to an audit trail system can be done in different phases. Zoho Books is a business accounting software that comes with a built-in audit trail functionality that allows an auditor to confidently attest to the veracity of records.

All About Audit Trail Feature:

The audit trail feature of Zoho Books enables an organization to effectively monitor all activities that happen in the transactions. This way, it is possible to prevent any kind of transaction and fraud. You can maintain a log of all changes that are made to contact, purchase transactions, sales, settings, and even a journal.

So basically, Zoho Books comes with an Audit Trail that is a feature to find out how, when and who has modified a specific transaction. Anybody can access this feature in the activity logs. For doing this, the following steps can be taken:
  1. First, go to the modules called “Reports” from the left sidebar
  2. Click on the “Activity Logs” placed under the Activity section
  3. Now, click on the > Arrow mark placed on the right side of the activity that you wish to check.
In addition, you can also check what has changed by comparing two versions of a specific transaction. You can do this by taking the below-mentioned steps.
  1. Click “Compare” in the top right corner.
  2. Choose any two versions of the transactions that you would like to compare.
  3. Finally, click on “Compare”.
All the fields that were added, modified, or even deleted are going to be highlighted in the colors green, yellow and red.

The Efficiency of Audit Trail Feature:

Zoho Books maintains a log of all possible changes that are made to any record in the application. Some common changes can be sales or purchase of transactions, invoices or bills, journals, contact, or even a setting. Other than the kind of change that is being talked about, Zoho Books is also capable of saving the timestamp and details of all users who have taken an action.

To sum this up, the feature of Audit Trail in Zoho Books offers details on “when”, “where”, “who”, and “what.”

  1. You can know the date and time on which an action was taken.
  2. You can also know the module under which an action was performed. This can include invoices, bank feeds, bills, or expenses. Actions performed under any module can be seen.
  3. You can also get a description of the action performed like creating an invoice, updating the contents of a bill, editing items on an invoice.
  4. Finally, you can also know the user who performed the action. In case a record is changed many times, the audit trail shows each version that has been created, not just the recent one. The user can also compare many versions and track data that has been added, removed, and modified.
Conclusion:
​
It was only with a positive and progressive intention that the Indian government made this rule of enforcing an audit trail for the transactions that get recorded in the accounting software. Therefore, Zoho Books made sure that the necessary steps were taken to further ensure the implementation of an “Audit Trail” feature that could curb transactional frauds.

Zoho Books is a software that enables organizations to stay compliant with the rules introduced by the government so that any unrecorded transactions can be prevented. It must be noted that although using Audit Trail is important, it is entirely on the companies to choose the right software that can offer this capability.
Hence, if you run a company that uses accounting software, make sure that you use software that is empowered with a feature of audit trail such as Zoho Books.


I hope that you learned something new
Follow me for more such posts!

Cheers!
Abhi
(Seasoned Zoho Authorized and Certified Partner)

Feel free to contact me if you have any queries
Email: abhishek(@)encaptechno(dot)com
Call: +1-416-405-8185



        • Recent Topics

        • Taz bot not working — What should I do to resolve this issue?

          I am experiencing issues with the Taz bot in Zoho Cliq—not receiving responses or it does not seem to work as expected. Could you please explain why the Taz bot might not be functioning and what steps I should take to resolve this issue? Thank you!

        • Zoho Calendar soft bounce on @hotmail.com and @yahoo.com email addresses

          Hello, our Zoho calendar recently does not send the calendar invites to emails with hotmail and yahoo domains and comes back with a "soft bounce". other domains like Gmail works fine. Also sending "email" to the same emails to the above domains work well

        • OneNote Migration

          I am trying to migrate two notebooks from OneNote. For five days now I have had no notification that migration has completed and the migration page show 50% complete - one notebook completed one not finished. It just stays like this. I am unable to cancel

        • Need Easy Way to Update Item Prices in Bulk

          Hello Everyone, In Zoho Books, updating selling prices is taking too much time. Right now we have to either edit items one by one or do Excel export/import. It will be very useful if Zoho gives a simple option to: Select multiple items and update prices

        • Set various time slot reminders for task and event

          Hi I would like known if there is possibility to set various time reminders for a task or event like we have the possibility to do in google calendar or google task. For example I'am creating an event or task and I want to be alerted before 30min and

        • is it possible to add more than one Whatsapp Phone Number to be integrated to Zoho CRM?

          so I have successfully added one Whatsapp number like this from this User Interface it seems I can't add a new Whatsapp Number. I need to add a new Whatsapp Number so I can control the lead assignment if a chat sent to Whatsapp Phone Number 1 then assign

        • Has Anyone successfully integrated Zoho and Sage Intact?

          Hey all, We’re evaluating Zoho One + Sage Intacct and I’m trying to connect with anyone who has actually implemented the two together.Specifically, I’d love to know: -- Which functions you kept in Zoho vs. Intacct (e.g., Product Catalog, AR/AP, invoicing,

        • Zoho Calendar not functioning---cannot edit, add attendees, etc.

          Hello, My calendar is acting strange. I'm using Chrome as my browser and pop ups are not blocked (the calendar worked fine yesterday). When creating an event, I'm not able to "edit" the event and add attendees, etc. The link is non-responsive. I cannot

        • Spilt Axis for stacked column and line graph

          Each month around this time I prepare a business review deck. One of the biggest annoyances I have with Zoho, also happens to be something that most other platforms have provided for a long time now, and that is being able to create a chart with stacked

        • Pin a note on top

          Dear Zoho Notebook Team, Please highly consider adding ability to pin a note on top and arrange pinned notes. I have a lot of notes that I want to pin important ones on top and this feature is missing badly. Thank you.

        • Windows 11 app ver 2.2.8

          I have been trialing Zoho Notes syncing between my PC and iphone. No problems with iphone but the Windows 64 bit app ver 2.2.8 was very buggy and would lock up completely, needing a Control Alt Delete etc to close it down. It seemed to be connected to

        • Deluge Script: Onboarding → Access Form

          Hello everyone, Edit: Sorry, I think I put this topic in the wrong section. I’ve recently run into an issue that’s been giving me a bit of a headache for the past few weeks. Context: This is my first time using Deluge to create a script, but it’s not

        • ZOHO BOOKS - EXCESSIVELY SLOW TODAY

          Dear Zoho Books This is not the first time but it seems to be 3 times per week now that the system is extremely slow. I work on Zoho Books 95% of my day so this is very frustrating. Zoho you need to do something about this. I have had my IT guy check

        • Windows Device Authentication

          We have recently started using ManageEngine, and my boss saw a device management feature in the Zoho One directory. We thought it would either help give us more intergration into Zoho one through bringing ManageEngine services through Zoho one. Or, it

        • How can I change spell check language?

          I cannot find the way to change spell check language. My "display language" is English, and I want to have the same one for Spell Check, but it is Russian!!! How can I change it? In one of your explanations you mentioned that I have to choose it from

        • Mail is so slow - doesn't even work!

          Mail has been getting slower and slower - and today it's not even pulling up emails in either Inbox or Unread. This is beyond frustrating since email is a big part of business. Sent a request through the useless help portal - no response. Called the useless

        • User marked as SPAMMER. Mail Fetch has also been disabled for any active POP accounts.

          I am the administrator for joelles.com One of our accounts has been blocked saying this: User marked as SPAMMER. Mail Fetch has also been disabled for any active POP accounts. I cannot change the disabled account in the control panel as it says that it

        • My domain did not activate

          Hi, my domain (apsaindustrial.com.ar) did not activate, and the phone verification message never arrived. Please would you solve this problem? Thanks.

        • ME SALE ESTE ERROR: No fue posible enviar el mensaje;Motivo:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked

          Ayuda!! Me sale este error al intentar enviar mensajes desde mi correo electronico de Zoho! Tampoco recibo correos pues cuando me envia rebotan. Ayuda, Me urge enviar unos correo importantes!! Quedo atenta MAGDA HERNANDEZ +5731120888408

        • Search Records returning different values than actually present

          Hey! I have this following line in my deluge script: accountSearch = zoho.crm.searchRecords("Accounts","(RS_Enroll_ID:equals:" + rsid + ")",1,200,{"cvid":864868001088693817}); info "Account search size: " + accountSearch.size(); listOfAccounts = zoho.crm.searchRecords("Accounts","(RS_Enroll_ID:equals:"

        • Is there a way to sync Tags between CRM and Campaigns/Marketing Hub?

          I wonder if there is a way to synch the tags between CRM and Marketing-Hub / Campaigns?

        • how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?

          how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?

        • Zoho CRM Plain Text Template: Line Breaks and Formatting Issue

          Hello, I'm following the instructions to create email templates in Zoho CRM, but I'm having a problem with the plain text version. https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/zoho-sign/integrations/zoho-apps/zoho-crm/articles/zoho-crm-email-templates#Steps_to_create_a_custom_email_template

        • 404 error at checkout

          Our customers are getting a 404 error at checkout. Anyone else with the same problem?

        • Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By using

        • Revenue Management: #8 Revenue Recognition in Educational & Training Institutions

          Educational Institutions and training centres typically collect course fees at the time of enrolment, sometimes for a one-day workshop and sometimes for a year-long certification course. You might also charge separately for course materials or evaluation.

        • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

          Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if

        • Clone a Module??

          I am giong to repurpose the Vendors module but would like to have a separate but very similar module for another group of contacts called Buyers. I have already repurposed Contacts to Sellers. Is it possible to clone (make a duplicate) module of Vendors

        • How to Customize Task Creation to Send a Custom Alert Using JavaScript in Zoho CRM?

          Hello Zoho CRM Community, I’m looking to customize Zoho CRM to send a custom alert whenever a task is created. I understand that Zoho CRM supports client scripts using JavaScript, and I would like to leverage this feature to implement the alert functionality.

        • how to use validation rules in subform

          Is it possible to use validation rules for subforms? I tried the following code: entityMap = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record"); sum = 0; direct_billing = entityMap.get("direct_billing_details"); response = Map(); for each i in direct_billing { if(i.get("type")

        • Using files from Zoho CRM in Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude

          Hi all, I’ve got subscriptions to Gemini and a few other AI tools which I use for tasks like data enrichment, email composition, etc. In our workflow, we often receive various documents from clients — such as process workflows, BRDs/requirement documents

        • Enhancements to the formula field in Zoho CRM: Auto-refresh formulas with the "Now" function, stop formula executions based on criteria, and include formulas within formulas

          Dear Customers, We hope you're well! By their nature, modern businesses rely every day on computations, whether it's to calculate the price of a product, assess ROI, evaluate the lifetime value of a customer, or even determine the age of a record. With

        • Maximum file limit in zoho people LMS

          Dear Team, I am having approximately 4.9 GB of material, including PPTs and videos for uploading in zoho people LMS course. May I know what is the maximum limit limit for the course files Thanking you, With regards, Logeswar V Executive _ Operations

        • Shared inbox unable to see replies

          Hi we are a small company me and someone else, we have a shared inbox for our sale@ and contact@ however we have this issue where by if i reply to an email or the other person reply to the email, it does not show it to them and therefore we end up replying

        • Displaying related quotes in sales order and back

          Hi, My colleague liked to see to which sales orders, the quote has been converted. Quote shows Invoices, but not SO. Same, they would like to see the quotes in the sales order, as they can see invoices, packages, shipment, How can we achieve this ? Thank

        • automations: Can I execute a step on a specific date?

          I have created a form in Zoho forms, and created a contacts list. I have also begun setting up an automation with the intention of sending the form to the contact list on a specific date every month (via email) for the entire year (essentially sending

        • Dynamically prefill ticket fields

          Hello, I am using Zoho Desk to collect tickets of our clients about orders they placed on our website. I would like to be able to prefill two tickets fields dynamically, in this case a readonly field for the order id, and a hidden field for the seller

        • Optimize your Knowledge Base for better visibility by allowing search engine crawling and indexing

          All you need to know about no-follow and no-index in KB. What are article crawlability and indexability? Crawlability and indexability are vital for making an article visible and accessible to search engines. When a search engine crawls an article, it

        • Has anyone created a public ASAP Guide that I can check out?

          I am thinking of adding an ASAP guide to my web application, but I have noticed that the ASAP widget itself can be really slow to load sometimes. Has anyone created a public ASAP Guide that I can check to see how performant it is? I don't want to spend

        • Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

          Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote

        • Next Page