Introduction to audit events

FTE Tree keeps audit history for many changes made by users or by FTE Tree on your organization's behalf. Some audit entries are created automatically, such as when a position is approved. Your organization can also require users to enter audit notes when certain records are created or updated, including:

  • Users
  • Departments
  • Job codes
  • Positions
  • Compensation
  • Employees, including employee offboarding
  • Approval requests
  • Requisitions

Configuring audit event settings

Audit settings are managed separately for each area listed above. Appropriate permissions are required to update these settings. To configure audit events, navigate to Settings and use the Audit events link for the appropriate section. For each area, you can choose whether audit note fields are shown or required.

Two types of user-entered audit events are available:

  • Event note text field: A free-text field where users can enter a note.
  • Event note choice field: A dropdown where users select from predefined choices set by your organization.

The following options are available for configuration in both fields unless otherwise noted:

  • Use location: Shows where the note fields are used. For example, "Position Create" is used when a new position is created.

  • Enabled: Selecting this option shows the note field on the form. Deselecting the option hides it.

  • Label: This is the name of the form field to be displayed. The default value is "Audit Event Type" for the choice field and "Audit Event Note" for the text field.

  • Help text: Enter any help text you wish to be displayed under the field in the form. The default is none.

  • Is required: Selecting this option makes the note field required. For the event note choice field, this option cannot be enabled until at least one option has been added to the option set.

  • Option set: This applies only to the event note choice field and contains the choices users can select. The choice field cannot be enabled until at least one option has been added.

Note: Audit event notes are different from comments. Audit event notes are tied to specific data changes and explain why a change was made, while comments are standalone conversations on a record for collaboration and discussion.

Event linking and traceability

When one action leads to related actions, FTE Tree links the audit entries together. For example, when an organization is created, FTE Tree automatically sets up departments, roles, default settings, and other configuration. Those setup actions are linked back to the original organization creation event.

On audit history pages, linked events appear in an expandable Related events section. Each related event shows the event name, the affected record, and whether it was performed by a user or by FTE Tree.

When viewing an entity's audit history (such as a department's history), if an event was triggered by a parent action (such as organization setup), you will see a "Triggered by" note providing context about why the change occurred.

Email notification events also appear as related events. When an action triggers an email notification (such as an approval request being submitted), the linked event shows the email type, recipient, and delivery outcome. Outcomes use concise wording such as "Sent," "Not sent: recipient opted out," or "Delivery failed: hard bounce" so the audit trail explains the result without exposing unnecessary delivery details. For more details on email delivery statuses, see Messages and notifications.

User activity

Organization administrators can view a comprehensive activity log for any user in the organization. Navigate to Settings > users, select a user, and click the Activity tab. This page shows all audit events associated with that user, with filtering by category, date range, and text search.

Access review evidence

Access review evidence is separate from ordinary user editing. Authorized access reviewers can open Settings > users > access review to review users, access roles, department access, access source, MFA/SSO status, and recent access changes. Report or audit exports require the relevant export permission in addition to ordinary view or run access.

Role membership changes, access-role permission changes, identity-provider changes, external group mappings, support access, and session revocation are included in audit history so administrators can review important access and security changes.

File attachments and security

FTE Tree provides functionality throughout the application to attach files to items such as dashboard messages, approval workflows, and approval requests.

We use secure storage to protect the files that you upload. Your files are encrypted in transit and stored encrypted at rest. Secure, time-limited download links are provided every time a download link is presented. These links allow only authorized users to access the appropriate file for a limited time period (15 minutes) before the link expires.

To keep uploads reliable, we generally limit the number and size of file uploads per item to 10 files of 25 MB each. Please contact us if you need the limits increased.

Need help?

For any questions about audit events, please contact us or email us at support@ftetree.com.