Activity history

Overview

Activity history shows important changes made in FTE Tree, including who made the change, when it happened, and what record was affected. Approval requests also keep a review record showing requested values, the approval path, approvers, decisions, notes, attachments, comments, and final applied changes.

Use Activity history for ordinary review. Use reports and exports when an administrator needs to review many records across a date range.

Activity history is designed to answer business review questions, not to replace a conversation. Use comments for discussion, approval notes for decisions, and Activity history to confirm the action that was saved.

Access needed

What is tracked

FTE Tree records activity for retained position-control actions, including:

• Position created, updated, deactivated, reactivated, and state changes.
• Position proposed values created, submitted, approved, denied, cancelled, refreshed, stale, and applied.
• Position assignment created, updated, ended, or vacated.
• Department, job-code, compensation, pay-grade, adjustment, funding source, and custom-detail setup changes.
• Approval workflow, step, approval level, request reason, and approver-group changes.
• Approval decisions, reassignment, approve-on-behalf actions, denial, cancellation, and resubmission.
• Import uploaded, validated, failed, applied, submitted as requests, reversed, or downloaded.
• Report generated, previewed, or downloaded.
• User role, department scope, invitation, session, and security setting changes.

The exact details shown depend on the record type, the user's access, and whether the action included sensitive data.

Where to review activity

Start from the record you are investigating:

• Position Activity history for position values, proposed changes, comments, assignment changes, and approval links.
• Employee Activity history for employee profile, employment status, and assignment-related changes.
• Department Activity history for department details, parent changes, funding setup, approval workflow assignment, and organization structure changes.
• Approval request history for submitted values, approval path, approver decisions, cancellation, reassignment, approve-on-behalf actions, and final application.
• Import history for uploaded files, validation results, applied rows, reversals, and generated requests.
• Report history for generated reports and downloads.

Use reports or exports when the question spans many records or a date range that would be inefficient to review one record at a time.

Notes and reason choices

Some actions can show a note entry, a reason choice, or both. Your organization can configure whether those inputs are hidden, optional, or required.

Approval actions often use reason choices for consistent decision categories and notes for short explanations. For example, an approver might choose Meets criteria and add a note explaining a compensation review.

Action notes are separate from comments. Use comments for discussion. Use action notes when the note explains the action being saved.

Approval request history

Approval requests preserve the approval path that applied when the request was submitted. Later workflow changes do not change that saved path.

The request history can include:

• Request type and request number.
• Requested position values and effective dates.
• Approved-versus-proposed FTE and cost impact.
• Selected workflow and approval level.
• Resolved approvers and workflow steps.
• Attachments and required file slots.
• Comments and decision notes.
• Reassignment or approve-on-behalf actions.
• Final applied changes.

This makes it possible to explain both the final decision and how the request reached that decision.

Review checklist

When reviewing an approval request or sensitive change, check:

1. The user who submitted or changed the record.
2. The effective date for each changed value.
3. The approved value before the request.
4. The proposed value and calculated impact.
5. Required reasons, notes, and attachments.
6. The workflow and approval level captured at submission.
7. Each approver, reassignment, approve-on-behalf action, denial, cancellation, or resubmission.
8. The final applied change and when it became effective.

This checklist helps separate the staffing decision from later configuration changes.

File attachments and security

Uploaded files can be used as supporting documents for approval requests and support cases. FTE Tree checks uploaded files for file safety concerns before reviewers can download them. If a file cannot be accepted, upload a replacement file.

Do not upload documents that are not needed for the business decision. If your workflow requires a specific document, use a named attachment slot so requesters know what to provide.

Reviewing history

Use the Activity history tab on the record you are reviewing when you need record-specific details. Use reports when you need to review many records, approval activity, report downloads, imports, or access changes across a date range.

Retention expectations

Activity history, report history, and audit records are retained according to the organization's data lifecycle. Some operational records, such as notification delivery events or security activity, may have shorter retention periods than business-history entries. See Data retention and account deletion for retention details.

Common mistakes

• Using comments when an approval decision note is required.
• Uploading more sensitive material than the request needs.
• Reviewing today's position page when the question is about a prior effective date.
• Assuming a later workflow change changed an already-submitted request.
• Comparing a report total to a position detail page without checking the report date range.