Visit History and Audit Trail¶
FieldOps maintains a comprehensive history of every visit, providing a complete record of how the visit has changed over time.
From creation through approval, significant actions are recorded to support transparency, accountability and compliance.
Why an Audit Trail Matters¶
Maintaining an audit trail helps organizations:
- Demonstrate accountability.
- Support internal and external audits.
- Meet donor reporting requirements.
- Investigate data changes.
- Improve data quality and governance.
Every visit has its own history, making it easy to understand what happened and when.
What Is Recorded?¶
FieldOps records significant actions performed on a visit, including:
- Visit created
- Visit updated
- Status changes
- Review actions
- Approval decisions
- Rejection decisions
These records provide a timeline of the visit's lifecycle.
Activity Timeline¶
Each activity includes information such as:
- Action performed
- User who performed the action
- Date and time
- Additional details where applicable
This creates a chronological history of the visit from creation to completion.
Example Timeline¶
10 Jul 2026 09:15
Visit created by Jane Doe
↓
10 Jul 2026 09:42
Visit submitted
↓
10 Jul 2026 14:05
Visit reviewed by John Smith
↓
10 Jul 2026 14:18
Visit approved
This timeline allows reviewers and administrators to quickly understand the progression of a visit.
Supporting Accountability¶
An audit trail helps answer questions such as:
- Who created the visit?
- When was the visit submitted?
- Who reviewed the visit?
- When was it approved?
- What changes were made during the review process?
This information supports both operational oversight and compliance reporting.
Historical Records¶
Historical visit records remain available even as monitoring templates evolve.
Each visit preserves:
- The monitoring template snapshot.
- Monitoring responses.
- Uploaded evidence.
- Activity history.
Together, these records provide a complete and reliable history of every monitoring activity.
💡 Best Practices¶
To maintain a reliable audit trail:
- Encourage field officers to submit complete and accurate visits.
- Review visits promptly.
- Ensure only authorized users perform review and approval actions.
- Retain historical records for reporting and compliance purposes.
A complete audit trail strengthens confidence in your monitoring data and supports informed decision-making.
➡️ Next Step¶
You have now completed the core Monitoring and Visits documentation.
Continue to the Integrations section to learn how to connect FieldOps with KoboToolbox and ODK Central for automated data collection.