How to keep an audit trail for purchase invoice records in Business Central

An AP audit trail is the record of who received, coded, approved and paid each bill and what was checked. What is segregation of duties?

Before you start

• Admin rights

The Business Central way

Where to find it: Change Log and approval request entries

1. Search for Change Log Setup. Turn the change log on and choose Tables to pick the tables and which changes (insert, update or delete) to log.
2. Prefer Some Fields over All Fields and log the system fields such as Created By and Created Date. Do not log ledger entries and posted documents.
3. Review changes on Change Log Entries. Each line shows the user, date and time, table, field, type of change, old value and new value.
4. For who approved what, open Approval Request Entries. Posted documents and ledger entries already keep the user and date.
5. To get an email when a sensitive field changes, set up field monitoring.

Limits in Business Central

• Change Log needs setup and adds some data.
• Change Log Entries show only after the user's session restarts: the session expired and refreshed, they changed company or role centre or they signed in again.
• Fields with the autoIncrement property are not tracked. The change log is switched off during an upgrade and starts again afterwards.

Good to know in Business Central

• Examples of finance setup tables worth logging: Vendor Posting Group (93), Payment Terms (3) and Payment Method (289).
• A table with a monitored field is not available in the change log setup. This stops the same change being logged twice.
• Use Data Analysis on Change Log Entries (Who changed what data, and when) to see changes without running a report.
• A retention policy can delete old change log entries by date and time to control size.

The Pulsify way

1. Forward the invoice to Pulsify. The original file is kept with the bill.
2. Set approval rules by supplier, amount or account. Add steps and a review step if needed.
3. Rejections and approvals are recorded with the person and date. Rejections can carry a reason.
4. On approval, the purchase invoice is created in Business Central with the file attached.

Pulsify connects to Business Central. We set up the connection for you.

What Pulsify does not do here

• Pulsify does not replace the record-keeping duties of your business.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting that the Change Log needs setup before it records anything.
• Turning on the Change Log for every table when only a few matter.

More help

• How to keep an audit trail for bill records in MYOB Acumatica
• How to keep an audit trail for purchase invoice records in Sage 200
• How to keep an audit trail for vendor invoice records in Sage 300
• How to stop paying a purchase invoice twice in Business Central
• How to set up purchase invoice approval in Business Central
• How to route purchase invoice records by amount, vendor or project in Business Central
• All Business Central how-to guides
• Pulsify setup guides

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-19. Confidence: confirmed.

• learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/across-setup-auditing
• learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/across-how-use-approval-workflows
• learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/across-log-changes