Most inspection pain around audit trails is not about the audit trail feature. It’s about governance: what is captured,who reviews it,where evidence lives,and how long you can produce it on demand.

Starter checklist

1) Define scope (systems and records that support GxP decisions) 2) Confirm event coverage (create,modify,delete,override,access) 3) Set review requirements (who reviews,how often,what triggers review) 4) Define retention (records+metadata+raw logs+reports) 5) Validate retrieval (can you produce it quickly,consistently,completely) 6) Ensure traceability (signal->review->decision->action) 7) Tie to SOPs (roles,escalation,investigation paths)

Visual checklist

Audit trails and log retention starter checklist

A simple rule: if you can’t retrieve the audit trail record package quickly,you don’t have audit trails as a control. You have a hope.