{"id":"concept:audit-log","kind":"concept","label":"Audit Log","synonyms":["entry history"],"definition":"BalanceMCP's audit log is the journal itself — every posted entry permanently records who posted it, exactly when, and whether the source was a person, a bank import, or an AI assistant.","summary":"Not a separate feature to enable — it's what the journal already does. There's no dedicated audit-log tool distinct from the ledger; general_ledger is where a specific account's history, with its sources and timestamps, is actually seen.","explanation":["An audit log, in the general sense, is a record of who did what and when. BalanceMCP doesn't offer this as a separate feature or a distinct tool — it's a property every journal entry already carries. Every entry permanently records the user account it was posted under, the exact moment it was posted, and a source tag: manual, import, or ai.","This means there's no dedicated \"audit log\" report to run distinct from the ledger itself. The general ledger, pulled for a specific account and date range, is where this history is actually visible — every posting in order, each one carrying its own source, date, and the entry's memo explaining what it was for.","Because the journal is append-only, this audit log can't be quietly rewritten after the fact — nothing posted can be edited or deleted, only reversed with a new, equally visible entry. That's what makes it a genuine audit log rather than a description of intent: the record it produces can't later be altered to look different than it actually was.","An entry sourced from an AI assistant carries exactly the same audit information as one a person typed in directly — the same timestamp, the same user account, the same append-only guarantee. There's no reduced traceability for AI-driven activity; if anything, knowing an entry's source is \"ai\" rather than \"manual\" is itself useful information the audit log preserves."],"commonMistakes":["Expecting a separate audit-log tool or report distinct from the journal — there isn't one; general_ledger is where this history is actually seen.","Assuming an AI-sourced entry carries less traceability than a manually posted one — both carry identical source, timestamp, and user fields.","Assuming the audit log could be edited or cleaned up after the fact — the append-only journal makes that structurally impossible, not just discouraged."],"category":"ai-mcp","questions":[{"question":"Is there a dedicated audit-log tool I can call?","answer":"No — the audit information lives in every journal entry itself. general_ledger is where you'd actually look to see a specific account's history, sources, and timestamps."},{"question":"Is an AI-posted entry less traceable than a manually posted one?","answer":"No — both carry identical source, timestamp, and posting-user information. The source field itself distinguishes manual from AI-driven activity."}],"url":"/glossary/audit-log","relatedTo":[{"id":"concept:audit-trail","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Aaudit-trail"},{"id":"concept:journal-entry","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Ajournal-entry"},{"id":"concept:ai-bookkeeping","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Aai-bookkeeping"},{"id":"concept:general-ledger","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Ageneral-ledger"},{"id":"concept:memo","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Amemo"},{"id":"tool:general_ledger","relationship":"references","weight":0.7,"api":"/api/knowledge/tool%3Ageneral_ledger"},{"id":"guide:why-an-ai-cannot-edit-your-ledger","relationship":"references","weight":0.7,"api":"/api/knowledge/guide%3Awhy-an-ai-cannot-edit-your-ledger"}],"referencedBy":[{"id":"concept:audit-trail","label":"Audit Trail","url":"/glossary/audit-trail"},{"id":"concept:ai-bookkeeping","label":"AI Bookkeeping","url":"/glossary/ai-bookkeeping"},{"id":"concept:row-level-security","label":"Row-Level Security","url":"/glossary/row-level-security"}],"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"BalanceMCP — https://balancemcp.com"}