audit trail

American  

noun

1. Accounting. the process or an instance of cross-referring each bookkeeping entry to its source in order to facilitate checking its accuracy.

2. Computers. a track of a particular item of output data back through the processing steps that produced it to the corresponding input data.

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audit trail British  

noun

1. a record of all the transactions or data entries that a person or firm has carried out over a specific period

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Etymology

Origin of audit trail

First recorded in 1965–70

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

audit trail

The Labour peer said there were concerns about security as well as the lack of an audit trail for decision-making.

From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026

Neither here nor elsewhere is anyone discussing the extensive audit trail compiled by local auditors, Wyman said.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 21, 2021

Many D.R.E.s have printers that produce what’s known as a voter-verifiable paper audit trail — a scroll of paper, behind a window, that voters can review before casting their ballots.

From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2018

“The only way to know is with audit trail data,” said Eric Scott Hunsader, a software developer with the market-data firm Nanex, and “they keep that under lock and key.”

From Washington Post ● Feb. 6, 2018

These provide instantaneous transfer of funds and no audit trail.

From Crime and Corruption by Samuel Vaknin

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