The audit log

The audit log is the workspace’s record of what happened: every change made in ProjectSmith, who made it, when, and what it looked like before and after. That includes changes ProjectSmith support makes to your workspace, with the reason they gave.

Workspace Owners and Admins can open it, on any seat, from Settings > Audit log, even while the workspace is suspended, so you can see why: choose See the audit log on the suspended screen. Managers, Members and Read only users can’t see it.

What’s recorded

• Changes your people make: projects, tasks, time entries and approvals, leave, budgets and milestones, users, roles and seats, settings, the Autotask connection and its write scope, single sign-on, billing, exports and deletion requests.
• Changes background jobs make: Autotask sync, write-back of approved time and charges, reminders and the like. These show System as who did it.
• Changes ProjectSmith support makes: suspending or reactivating the workspace, changing its details, releasing a Microsoft directory, replying to and updating your support requests. These show ProjectSmith support as who did it, with the reason they gave. Each time support opens this audit log is recorded too. Support’s internal notes and how they prioritise and assign your requests are not shown.
• Exports of the audit log itself.

Reading pages and reports isn’t recorded here; exporting data is. When ProjectSmith staff need to look at your workspace’s data, for example to investigate a problem you reported, that access is recorded with who looked, when and why in ProjectSmith’s own platform audit log rather than in this one; ask support for that record. See Tenant separation.

Screenshot placeholder: Settings > Audit log with the filters, a page of events and one row expanded.

Find an event

1. Go to Settings > Audit log. The newest events are at the top, 50 to a page.
2. Narrow the list with the filters. They combine, so each one you add narrows it further:
   • From and To: a date range, in your own time zone. Both days are included.
   • Action: one kind of event, for example Time week approved or User role changed. The list only offers actions that have happened in your workspace.
   • Who: one person, ProjectSmith support, or System for background jobs.
   • Entity type: the kind of record, for example ProjectTask or TenantUser.
   • Entity id contains: all or part of a record’s id, to follow one record through its history.
3. Use Newer and Older at the bottom to move between pages. Clear filters starts again.

Each row shows when it happened, who did it, the action, the record it concerns, and a one-line summary of what changed (and the reason, when one was given).

See exactly what changed

Select a row to expand it. You see who did it and from which IP address, the reason if there was one, and the record’s values before and after, side by side. Fields whose value changed are highlighted. When something was created there’s only an after; when it was deleted, only a before.

Rows by ProjectSmith support show ProjectSmith support and their reason, not the individual staff member or their IP address.

Very large records are cut short at 8 KB on each side, so the before and after may then show as plain text instead of a field-by-field comparison.

Export to CSV

Choose Export CSV to download every event that matches the current filters, newest first, in one file that opens directly in Excel. Each row has the time (in UTC), who did it, the action, the record, the reason, the IP address and the before and after values as JSON. Text a spreadsheet could treat as a formula is made safe first.

An export holds at most 50,000 events. If more match, the button is turned off and the page asks you to narrow the filters; export a few months at a time instead.

Every export is itself recorded in the audit log, with the filters used and the number of rows.

Common questions

Who can see the audit log? The workspace’s Owners and Admins, whatever their seat, including while the workspace is suspended. Nobody else in the workspace can.

Can anyone edit or delete audit events? No. Not your users, not Owners, and not ProjectSmith staff. Events are only ever added.

How do I know if ProjectSmith support looked at our data? Changes support makes, and each time they open this audit log, are listed here: filter Who to ProjectSmith support. When staff look at the rest of your workspace’s data, that access is recorded with the reason in ProjectSmith’s platform audit log; ask support and we’ll send you the record.

Why are the export’s times different from the screen? The screen shows your time zone; the CSV uses UTC so rows from people in different zones sort and compare correctly.

How long is the audit log kept? For as long as required for security, legal and compliance purposes, and at least 12 months, including after the workspace is deleted. See Export your data and delete your workspace.

Is the audit log in the workspace data export? No. The workspace export holds the workspace’s data; export the audit log from this page instead.