Audit Log Overview

Audit Trail (Audit Log) in ClickTime records saves, edits, and deletions across your site so you can see who did what and when. This is required for customers using our DCAA-focused features and is also helpful for internal reviews, troubleshooting, and audits.

Who this is for: Administrators (and Managers with the right permissions) who need to verify changes to timesheets, expense sheets, people, clients, projects, tasks, divisions, and settings.

Where to find it: Enable in Company → Preferences (Security section). Run reports from Company → Reports (Report Center → Miscellaneous) or from relevant pages (Timesheet, Expense Sheet, Person, Client, Project, Task, Division).

In this article:

• Enable Audit Trail
• Run the Audit Log report
• Understand the Audit Log report
• Best practices
• Audit Log fields

Enable Audit Trail

To begin tracking changes, turn on Audit Trail.

1. Go to Company → Preferences and open the Security section.
2. Check Enable audit logging.

Optional: You can also allow certain changes that affect historical entries (for example, rate changes). If enabled, Administrators and Managers (with permissions) can apply changes that impact existing time or expense entries.

Customers using ClickTime’s DCAA options must have Audit Trail enabled and typically will not allow historical changes. See our DCAA Timekeeping guide for details.

Run the Audit Log report

Company-wide report

1. Go to Company → Reports and open the Miscellaneous section (near the bottom).
   
2. Select Audit Log (Excel) and choose your date range.
3. Click Run Report. You’ll receive a notification when the file is ready to download. Very large ranges may take time to complete; the download link will appear in the Report Center after processing.

Page-specific reports

You can also download an Audit Log focused on the record you’re viewing (useful for targeted questions):

• Timesheet – For all actions on a specific timesheet (Managers with Review Timesheets).
  
• Expense Sheet – For all actions on a specific expense sheet (Managers with Review Expenses).
  
• Person – For user creation and account changes (Admins).
  
• Client / Project / Task / Division – For creation and edits (Managers with Add & Edit permissions).
  

Understand the Audit Log report

Audit Log reports open in Excel and include one row per field change or data point captured in an action. Use sorting and filtering to analyze activity.

• Color grouping: Rows from the same action are grouped with the same row color.
• Timestamps: The LogDate column shows when the action occurred (Pacific Time).
• Who and what: See who performed the action, the item affected, and before/after values.

Example: When a time entry is saved, you’ll see multiple rows for the date, project, task, hours, and any rates associated with the entry. If multiple entries are saved together, you’ll see separate, color-grouped blocks with the same timestamp.

Best practices

• Use shorter ranges for reviews: For day-to-day checks, filter to smaller date windows for faster processing.
• Hide backend IDs while reading: Columns like TransactionID, LogID, UserID, TimesheetID can be hidden to simplify the view, then unhidden when you need to trace exact records.
• Rely on timestamps: Sorting by person or item can break color groupings; use LogDate to keep events in sequence.

Audit Log fields

Common columns you’ll see in the Audit Log report:

• TransactionID – Identifier shared by all rows from the same saved action.
• LogID – Unique identifier for each row in the report.
• LogDate – Timestamp of the action.
• UserID / User Name – Who performed the action.
• Action – Type of action (for example, Login, Add TimeEntry, Update TimeEntry, Delete TimeEntry).
• Action Comment – Additional context about the action (for example, NewLogin or DCAA comments entered by a user).
• TimesheetID / Timesheet Start Date / Timesheet End Date – Identifiers for the timesheet affected.
• Timesheet UserID / Timesheet User Name – Whose timesheet was affected (useful when an admin edits another user’s timesheet).
• Item / Item ID – Which part of ClickTime is affected and the specific record’s ID.
• Field Name – The field that changed (for example, Hours, Project, Task).
• Original ID / Original Value – The prior value, when a change occurred.
• New ID / New Value – The new value saved.