2015-02-10: AUDIT Tab – an Informative review screen

Regarding a question yesterday about restoring data, as I touched on briefly during the call, it depends what kind of data gets deleted.  Let’s expand on this with a post for everyone.

If an association gets removed, the actual data elements still exist, but the link relating them no longer does. Often times, the audit tab on a record will show the data element that was removed. This way, the user can recreate that relationship. If I disassociated a location, the audit tab will tell me which location, so I can just re-associate, if necessary.

Additionally, there are some other changes that will show up on the audit tab. These include changes to filing status, for example:

By displaying the changes that have been made, a user knows what they will have to change to ‘undo’ what was previously done.

However, if an actual data element is deleted, I have no way of restoring it. There are some built-in safeguards to prevent accidental deletions. For example, a license linked to locations can’t be deleted. A filing can’t be deleted if there’s a form related to it. A form can’t be deleted if there’s a fee related to it. All of these measures reduce the chance of unintentional deleting.

I generally advise against deleting. Instead, I would suggest using a status to reflect the condition of the element. For example, making a location inactive, changing a license status to ‘surrendered’ and the like. Almost every data element has an option of setting active = no. Deactivating a record rather than removing it will allow users access to that information if they need. Additionally, the default filters will usually prevent the inactive records from showing up on the list page.

Of course, the filter can always be removed so that all data should display.

Thank you!  Sarah Benjamin