Audit Trail vs. Field History Tracking

What is Audit Trail?

Audit Trail in Salesforce provides an organization-level overview of changes, helping administrators and compliance teams monitor system-wide modifications. It tracks critical updates such as:

  • Login History: Who accessed the system and when.
  • Permission and Role Changes: Modifications to user access levels.
  • Configuration Updates: Changes to custom objects, workflows, and automation rules.

Why Use Audit Trail?

Audit Trail is essential for security and compliance monitoring, especially in highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare. It ensures that administrators can identify unauthorized or unexpected changes that might compromise system integrity. These audit trails, or lists of changes to data, are especially useful if you are in an industry that requires members of your team or auditors to access your information regularly.

Limitations of Audit Trail

While Audit Trails are useful, there are some limitations that are important to understand.  You can work around some of these limitations by using other tools to extend and complement the features of Audit Trail, as we’ll talk about below. Some of the limitations include:

  • Only retains data for six months (unless extended with paid Salesforce services).
  • Does not provide record-level tracking (e.g., specific customer data changes).
  • Limited reporting and search capabilities compared to Field History Tracking.

Audit Trail setup.

What is Field History Tracking?

Field History Tracking in Salesforce logs record-level changes, capturing modifications made to specific fields in standard and custom objects. This feature allows organizations to track changes to critical data points, such as:

  • Customer Account Details: Name, address, contact information changes. 
  • Financial Transactions: Payment status updates, invoice adjustments.
  • Sales Pipeline & Approvals: Opportunity stages, discount approvals.

Why Use Field History Tracking?

Field History Tracking provides granular visibility into changes, making it valuable for compliance audits, troubleshooting discrepancies, and monitoring key business processes. It is particularly useful for:

  • Regulatory compliance: Ensuring accurate financial and customer data records.
  • Fraud prevention: Detecting unauthorized modifications to payment or account data.
  • Operational transparency: Enhancing visibility into internal workflows and approvals.

Limitations of Field History Tracking

  • Limited to 20 fields per object (or 60 with Salesforce Shield).
  • Retains history for 18 months online, then archives for up to 24 months.
  • Does not track system-level changes like user roles or configuration updates.

Opportunity Field History

Comparison chart of Audit Trail features vs Field History Tracking

Feature Audit Trail Field History Tracking
Purpose Tracks system-wide changes for security and compliance Tracks record-level changes for data integrity and compliance
Tracks Login history, permission changes, and configuration updates Changes to specific fields on objects like Accounts, Payments, and Opportunities
Retention Period 6 months (standard) or up to 10 years with Salesforce Shield 18 months (standard) or up to 10 years with Salesforce Shield
Level of Detail Organization-level changes Granular, field-level changes
Compliance Benefits Ensures system security, detects unauthorized admin actions Provides visibility into customer interactions and financial records
Best Use Case Monitoring admin activities and security changes Tracking modifications to key business records
User Access Accessible by admins Accessible by users with object-level permissions
Limitations Does not track record-level field changes Limited to 20 fields per object (unless using Salesforce Shield)

How to Use Audit Trail and Field History Tracking Together Effectively

Enhanced Compliance & Security

By using both Audit Trail and Field History Tracking, organizations can achieve a comprehensive tracking strategy:

  • Audit Trail ensures system-wide oversight and detects administrative changes.
  • Field History Tracking ensures detailed record tracking for financial and compliance-sensitive data.

Troubleshooting & Data Integrity

  • Audit Trail helps diagnose system-wide issues such as unauthorized access or permission changes.
  • Field History Tracking provides a detailed change history at the record level, helping investigate discrepancies in customer accounts or payment transactions.

Best Practices for Using Audit Trail & Field History Tracking

1. Enable Field History Tracking for High-Risk Objects

Identify and enable Field History Tracking for critical objects such as:

  • Opportunities (e.g., changes in deal stages, discount approvals)
  • Payments (e.g., status updates, chargebacks, refund modifications)
  • Accounts (e.g., customer contact and billing details)

2. Regularly Monitor Audit Trail Reports

  • Schedule weekly or monthly reviews of Audit Trail logs.
  • Identify patterns of suspicious admin changes or unauthorized access attempts.
  • Export logs for extended retention beyond Salesforce’s six-month limit.

3. Set Up Alerts for Critical Changes

  • Use Salesforce Flow to trigger alerts when high-risk changes occur.
  • Examples:
    • Alert compliance teams when an admin modifies user permissions.
    • Notify finance teams when a payment status changes unexpectedly.

4. Automate Compliance & Security Audits

  • Use third-party tools like Chargent to automate transaction monitoring.
  • Leverage Salesforce Shield for extended data retention and encryption.

For an overview of how to set up Field History Tracking and some of the key data points you should collect, watch our video on that very topic or read our other blog post. 

How Chargent Can Help

Unless you love reading audit logs on a weekly basis, it can be helpful to use a third-party resource to provide alerts and notifications when something does not look right.  Chargent, a leading Salesforce-native payment processing solution, enhances security and compliance by leveraging Audit Trail and Field History Tracking to provide real-time transaction visibility.

Key Benefits of Using Chargent

  • Pre-Configured Field History Tracking: Ensures compliance readiness by logging every change in payment records.
  • Automated Alerts & Reports: Helps finance and compliance teams monitor suspicious activities.
  • Secure, Compliant Payment Processing: Reduces fraud risk and streamlines audits within Salesforce.

Want to make audit data easy?

Using both Audit Trail and Field History Tracking in Salesforce is essential for achieving security, compliance, and operational transparency. By leveraging these tools together, businesses can ensure full visibility into both system-wide and record-level changes, reducing security risks and enhancing regulatory compliance.

Next Steps

To simplify secure payment tracking in Salesforce, consider leveraging Chargent’s pre-built tracking and monitoring tools.

Want to learn more? Get a Demo today to see how Chargent can help enhance your Salesforce security and compliance strategy.

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