Glossary
Audit trail
An audit trail is the chronological, tamper-evident record of events tied to a guard tour: checkpoint scans, incidents reported, photos captured, GPS readings, controller actions. The trail is the evidence that a tour happened — not the tour itself.
Definition
In guard tour software, the audit trail is the immutable log of every event tied to a tour: scans (with timestamp, GPS, controller ID), incidents (with photo, free-text, optional video), shift events (start, break, end), and overrides (supervisor approvals, manual scan corrections). Modern systems sign timestamps server-side to prevent tampering and store the trail with retention configurable per regulatory requirement.
Context
Audit trails are the deliverable of a guard tour program — what gets handed to internal audit, external compliance reviewers, or insurance investigators. The quality of the audit trail (completeness, integrity, exportability) is often what differentiates 'audit-ready' vendors from 'paper-replacement' vendors.
Compliance relevance
HIPAA requires retention of access-control audit trails for 6 years (45 CFR 164.316). NERC CIP requires logs of physical access to BES Cyber Systems. SOC 2 evaluates audit-trail completeness as part of CC6 (logical and physical access controls).