It is essential to maintain and monitor the integrity of the data that is being entered in Dynamics 365 Business Central. This is to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information that is available in the system.
The Change Log Setup in Business Central (BC) enables you to do this and easily identify areas in the system which need control or process improvement. In this blog, I will show you how to setup, activate and review data change logs for auditing purposes.
If you are using Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the interface will be different, but steps will be the same.
Change Log Setup
There are three data activities which you can setup and review on the change logs – Insertion, Modification and Deletion.
First, you will need to select which tables should be setup with the change log entries.
- In BC search box, type “Change Log Setup”.
- On the Change Log Setup page, click Setup > Tables as shown below.
- This will show you a list of BC tables which you can select and set to record insert, modify and delete logs. You can filter the tables by ID or name.
Tip: If you do not know the name or ID of the table you would like to setup the change logs with, you can go to the page in BC and in the upper right hand corner, click the ‘?’ (question mark) icon > Help & Support > Inspect pages & data. It will open a page like below which will show the table name and ID, e.g. Customer (18).
- On the drill down button for each change log category, you can choose All fields if you would like to record change logs of all fields on the table whilst Some Fields if you want change logs for only specific fields on the table.
Once you choose Some Fields, click on the AssistEdit button to show the available table fields. Select the tick box for each field.
On the sample below, Modification logs will be recorded for the Name, Contact and Credit Limit fields on the customer table.
- Once you are all set up, go back to the Edit – Change Log Setup page and click on the Change Log Activated button as shown below. It is important that the BC session to be closed and re-opened so the change log will start recording as per the setup.
Change Log Entries
To review change log entries search for “Change Log Entries” in the BC search box.
The Change Log Entries page will show you the change records for the table fields that have been activated. You can also print the change log entries by clicking the Print button.
The Change Log Entries page will show you the change records for the table fields that have been activated. You can also print the change log entries by clicking the Print button.
The following information can be used for filtering purposes and be able to report from it:
- Date and Time – date and time the change log was made
- User ID – user who made the changes on the data
- Table Caption – the affected table name of the change record
- Primary Key Field 1 Value – this is usually the table Entry No. (e.g., Customer/Vendor No., Item No., Purchase Order No., etc.)
- Field Caption – the data field of the table that was modified
- Type of Change – shows the type of change for each field (Insertion, Deletion, Modification)
- Old Value – shows you the old value of the field
- New Value – shows you the new value of the field