I surely hope that no #MSDYNGP customers need audit tracking, but in the real world bad things happen.  Good insights by Liz on how to protect your business.

Pam

Audit Tracking in Microsoft Dynamics GP –Should You Be Doing It?

By Liz Giancarli-Piteo, VP of Business Development, Fastpath

The quick answer is yes. Many Dynamics GP Users don’t realize they should be using some sort of Audit Trail tool with Dynamics GP. Because they haven’t experienced a reason to need audit tracking, they don’t see a need for it.

Think back to your childhood. Before you heard the story about the Monster under Your Bed – you weren’t scared of monsters. You were blissfully unaware. The same holds true for many Dynamics GP users. If you haven’t experienced fraud, embezzlement, or just general annoyance of things changing in the system and you have no idea why, then you probably don’t see the need for audit tracking.

If you don’t have the budget to invest in an audit tracking tool, or the time to have someone look at the data, then you should think about putting other controls in place. For instance, if there are two people in your accounting department, you can set it up so they are checking each other’s work. Or, use Positive Pay with your bank.

If nothing else, take a look at Activity Tracking, which is native in Dynamics GP. When it's enabled Activity Tracking lets companies track a list of different activities, including when users logged into the system and when they logged out; when someone tried but failed to log in because of an incorrect password; and when a user created a new master record or deleted a master record.

If you decide to audit GP, auditing transactions in Dynamics GP is not something that should be taken lightly. There can be major business and system performance consequences for making a wrong choice. Many things should be taken into consideration when setting up audit trails. No matter which audit trail tool you use, be sure to think about these five things:

1.Audit only what is necessary - One of the keys to the successful use of auditing software is setting it up correctly.

2.Involve the business process owners (BPOs) – Make sure your IT team is communicating with your BPOs during the set up process.

3.Performance – If you incorrectly set up audit trail software, it can hurt the system performance. Often, we hear people say “I just want to track everything”

4.Report and Review – What good is an audit trail solution if you never review the reports?

5.Data Maintenance – Audit trails create data and that data needs to be stored and maintained.  Make sure you develop a retention policy for your audit trail data.

For more information about Audit Trail from Fastpath, visit our website.