The audit log
A read-only, filterable history of who changed what and when across your clinic — and how to export it.
The audit log lets you see who changed what, and when — for compliance, accountability, or just to settle a "wait, who edited that?" question. It lives under Settings.
The audit log is a quiet record-keeper. Every time someone in your clinic creates, updates, or deletes an important record — a patient, a client, an invoice, a payment, a prescription, a staff member, or your clinic settings — Wattle writes it down here. You can read it, filter it, and download it. You cannot change it — it is read-only.
Who can see this. The audit log is only available to admin and vet accounts. If you're on a reception/front-desk account, you won't see it at all — that's by design, not a fault. Can't find it and think you should have it? Ask whoever set up your clinic.
How to get there
Step by step
- Click Settings in the top navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar, click Audit Log.
- The table loads. By default it shows changes from the past 7 days, newest first.
Heads up — you're seeing the last 7 days, not everything. When the log first opens, it only shows the past week. If a change you remember from a fortnight ago isn't there, it is not lost — you just need to widen the date range. See Find an older change below. There's no "data loss" here; older history is always retrievable.
Reading a single entry
Each row in the table is one change. Reading left to right:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Timestamp | When the change happened (in your computer's local time). |
| Action | A coloured badge: Created, Updated, or Deleted. |
| Type | What kind of record — Patient, Client, Consultation, Invoice, Payment, Prescription, Staff member, or Clinic settings. |
| Record | The name (or ID) of the thing that changed — e.g. "Fluffy Smith". |
| Changed By | The staff member who made the change. |
So a single line reads like a plain sentence: "On 2 June at 9:14am, Dr Nguyen updated the patient Fluffy Smith." That's the headline. To see exactly which fields changed, you open the change detail — that's next.
See exactly what changed in a record
Usually: vet or admin
Quick version — Hover the row → three-dot menu → View changes.
Step by step
-
Find the row for the change you care about.
-
Hover over the row. A three-dot menu (⋯) appears at the right-hand end.
-
Click the three dots, then click View changes.
-
A small window opens. It's headed with the action and type (e.g. "Updated Patient"), shows who did it, when, and on which record, then lists each changed field on its own line:
phoneNumber: 0400 000 000 → 0411 222 333That reads as: the field phoneNumber went from the old value (left of the arrow) to the new value (right of it). Empty fields show as (empty).
If something looks wrong
- No three-dot menu on a row → Not every change records field-by-field detail. Some events (like simply opening a record) have nothing to show, so the View changes option is hidden for them. The row is still a genuine, valid audit entry — there's just no diff to open. Nothing is broken.
- The change window shows what looks like computer code (lots of
{ },"quotes", colons) → See the box below — this is expected for certain records.
If the "View changes" window looks like raw code
Most changes read in plain English: oldValue to newValue. But some records — especially clinic settings, prescriptions, and consultations — store information in a structured, nested form. When one of those changes, Wattle shows it in its raw technical format (called JSON). It looks something like:
doses: {"old":{"route":"IV","frequency":"q8h"}, "new":{"route":"PO","frequency":"q12h"}}This is not an error and nothing is corrupted. It's simply the honest, complete record of what changed, shown in the format the data is stored in. It can be hard to read.
- If you only need to know that it changed and who changed it, the row's Timestamp, Type and Changed By already tell you that — you may not need to decode the rest.
- If you genuinely need to read a complex change line by line, ask your IT person or contact support; they can interpret it for you.
- You don't need to act on it from here. The audit log never changes the record — it only describes it.
Find an older change
Usually: vet or admin
Because the log opens on the last 7 days, older changes are hidden until you widen the window.
Step by step
- At the top of the audit log, find the From and To date pickers.
- Click From and choose an earlier start date (e.g. six months ago).
- Optionally click To to set an end date. Leave it as-is to include today.
- The table updates automatically — no "search" button to press.
If something looks wrong
- "An old change has vanished!" → It almost certainly hasn't. The default 7-day window is just hiding it. Set the From date back far enough and it will reappear. There is no "all time" button, so for very old changes you simply pick an early enough From date.
Filter by what happened (Created / Updated / Deleted)
Usually: vet or admin
Quick version — Action dropdown → pick Created / Updated / Deleted.
Step by step
- Find the Action dropdown (it starts on All Actions).
- Click it and choose Created, Updated, or Deleted.
- The table updates to show only that kind of change.
A common one: choose Deleted to review everything that was removed in a period — useful for audits.
Filter by type of record
Usually: admin
Quick version — Type dropdown → pick the record kind.
Step by step
- Find the Type dropdown (it starts on All Types).
- Click it and choose one: Patient, Client, Consultation, Invoice, Payment, Prescription, Staff member, or Clinic settings.
- The table shows only that type.
Handy examples: choose Staff member to review who changed user accounts or permissions, or Clinic settings to see a trail of configuration changes.
Search for a particular record
Usually: vet or admin
Quick version — Type a name into the Search box; results filter as you type.
Step by step
- Find the Search field (magnifying-glass icon) at the right of the filter row.
- Type a patient, client, or record name. Partial words work.
- The table filters live — you don't need to press Enter.
If something looks wrong
- You typed an invoice or payment number and got nothing → Search only matches the record's name (like a patient or client name), not its internal number or ID. For invoices, payments and prescriptions that may not have a friendly name, don't search by number — instead use the Type dropdown (e.g. set Type to Invoice) and narrow with the date range. That's the reliable way to find them.
Combine filters to narrow things down
Usually: vet or admin
All the filters work together — they stack. The table shows only rows that match every filter you've set (not any-of).
Step by step
- Set a date range (From / To).
- Pick an Action (e.g. Deleted).
- Pick a Type (e.g. Patient).
- Optionally type a name in Search.
- The table now shows only events matching all of those at once.
- Open View changes on any row for the field-level detail.
If something looks wrong
- "I can't find a Clear Filters button" → There isn't one, but resetting is easy: set Action back to All Actions, Type back to All Types, clear the Search box, and widen the dates. Or simply reload the page — it returns to the default last-7-days view.
Download the log as a CSV (for records or spreadsheets)
Usually: vet or admin
Quick version — Set your filters, then click Export CSV (top right). It exports exactly what you've filtered.
Step by step
- First, set your filters — date range, Action, Type, Search — so the table shows only what you want. The export includes whatever is currently filtered, so narrowing first saves you trimming later.
- Click Export CSV at the top right of the page (next to the heading, with a download icon).
- Your browser downloads a file named like
audit-log-2026-06-02.csv. - Open it in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets. Columns are: Timestamp, Action, Entity Type, Record, Changed By, and Changes.
About the times and the filename. Every timestamp in the export — and the date in the filename — is shown in the local time of the computer you're using, not a universal/UTC time. So a Sydney clinic exporting on the 3rd (on a Sydney computer) gets a file named for the 3rd in Sydney time. For a single clinic in one place, you can simply read every time as "our local time" and not think about it further. If you ever reconcile this log against another system in a different timezone, just remember the times follow whatever timezone the exporting computer is set to.
If something looks wrong
- The "Changes" column is dense and hard to read in Excel → That column packs each changed field into one cell, separated by semicolons, and complex records appear as a single line of technical text. That's a known limitation of the spreadsheet format, not a fault. For reading an individual change clearly, use View changes in the app instead (see above).
Good to know
- It's view-only — there's no Undo here. The audit log describes changes; it can't reverse them. If you need to put something back, do it the normal way in the app (re-edit the record, restore it, etc.). The log is a record of history, not a time machine.
- Communications are tracked too. Alongside record changes, the log now also records the life of your emails and SMS messages — when one is sent, delivered or bounced, and when a message is archived or a draft is deleted. Handy for confirming a reminder actually went out.
- Not every single field is tracked. The log focuses on changes that matter for compliance and accountability. If you don't see a particular tiny field listed in a change, it may simply not be one Wattle records.
Related reading
- The Schedule 8 register — the separate, legally-strict controlled-drug register.
- Exporting & backing up your data — getting your data out of Wattle.
- Your team & permissions — who can see the audit log and why.
- How the app talks to you — badges, dialogs, and the three-dot menu pattern.
- Glossary — plain-English definitions, including "audit" and "CSV".