Create an audit trail

When you work in Spotlight Forecasting, as you make changes to rules and accounts you create a comprehensive audit trail, providing a step-by-step history of rules added and adjustments made. You can also see who made the changes, and when. This information is held in the History section at the bottom of the Customise Data tab.

You can also enter additional notes when working with rules or adjustments - these do not appear in the History section, but you can show them on your final report.

Note: Notes and Assumptions by default appear on separate pages on the report - this is to give you the option to keep Notes for internal use. However, you can include some or all on the Assumptions page to share with your client if you prefer.  Assumptions are automatically included on this page as they are intended to be shared with your client to help provide further context to the rules that have been applied.

• Add a comment
• Add, edit and delete a Note
• View the History

Add a comment

There are two ways to add a comment to the History section.

• You can add a comment when you apply an adjustment to your Budget or Forecast profit and loss accounts. These comments are automatically included in your History section, but don't appear on the final report.
• You can add a comment when you add an adjustment to your Cashflow Forecast. To do this, enter your comment into the Description box.

Add, edit and delete a Note

You can add a note when you add rules to your Forecasts profit and loss and balance sheet accounts. Notes are automatically included in the Notes page of your report, and you can also choose to add them to the Assumptions page.

To add a note

1. Edit or create your rule, then on the final screen of the rule, click the Add Note button, and enter the required details.
2. If required, to include the note on the Assumptions page, select the Include in Assumptions page of report check box.
3. Click Save Note, then click Save Rule.

To delete or edit a note

1. Locate and click the rule containing the note, then click through to the Notes screen.
2. Click Delete to remove your note, or click Edit to make any changes.
3. Click Save Rule.

View the History

The History appears at the bottom of the Customise Data screen for each task.  This way you can see at a glance which user has made changes to the accounts and rules. Accounts, adjustments and rules added are all included in your history.

Click the Refresh link on your Customise Data screen, or your browser Refresh button to view updates to your History section.