What is this page about: How Light tracks changes to your documents, including the activity timeline on a bill, invoice, or expense, the field-by-field change log, and how to monitor documents moving through approval workflows.
On this page
- Document activity timeline
- Document change log (the Log tab)
- Workflow execution history
- Answering common questions
- Best practices
- Related articles
Document activity timeline
- Open a document, such as a bill, invoice, or expense, in Light.
- Look at the panel at the top of the document detail view. It shows a timeline of key lifecycle events: created, submitted for approval, approved, and posted.
- Each event in the timeline shows an event label, a date, and the person who triggered it.
- Next to the timeline, Light shows a running total (for example, "1 events tracked"). Click See all next to this total to expand the full list of events.
If an approver, agent reviewer, or goods-receipt responder left a note with their decision, that note appears under the event alongside the decision itself, so you can see the reasoning without opening a separate record.
Document change log (the Log tab)
For a field-by-field record of every edit made to a document, use the Log tab.
- Open a document (bill, invoice, expense, etc.) in Light.
- Scroll down below the activity timeline.
- Click the Log tab. It sits next to the Lines and Ledger impact tabs.
What the Log tab shows depends on a setting Light controls centrally for your company, not something you toggle yourself. The layout is the only way to tell which version you have, since the tab itself carries no label or indicator. This same behaviour applies wherever the Log tab appears: bills, card transactions, credit notes, and journal entries.
If your company is on the newer activity-events version, the Log tab is a scrolling timeline rather than a table:
- Each entry is a collapsed one-line summary: the action, who did it, and a count of changes with the date (for example, "3 changes • Aug 12").
- Click an entry to expand it into the specific field-level changes, shown as old value → new value, grouped into header changes and per-line-item changes (Line 1, Line 2, and so on).
- The timeline updates automatically as new activity comes in, and scrolls to load older events as you go back.
If your company is on the older version, the Log tab is a table with five columns:
| Column | Shows |
|---|---|
| Date | The exact date and time of the change |
| Actor | The user who made the change |
| Action | The type of change (for example, Updated) |
| Property | The field that changed (for example, Ledger Account Label, Ledger Tax Code, Business Partner Name) |
| Value | The before and after values (for example, "Inventory → Accounts Payable") |
Whichever version you have, the same information is there: what changed, who changed it, and when. Together with the activity timeline above, it gives you a complete audit trail.
Workflow execution history
Settings (gear icon) → Workflows shows the status of your approval workflows, not the real-time position of individual documents inside them.
- Go to Settings (gear icon) → Workflows in Light.
- Review the list of workflows, along with their trigger type, published date, and version number.
- Click a workflow to open its configuration and version history.
To check where a specific document sits in its approval process, use that document's own activity timeline (see above), not the Workflows list.
Answering common questions
Who changed this document?
Open the document and check the Log tab. It lists every change, who made it, and when, as a timeline or a table depending on your company's setup.
What changed on this document?
The Log tab shows every field-level change with before and after values, either inline in a table or by expanding a timeline entry.
Where is this document in the approval process?
Open the document and check its activity timeline at the top of the detail view.
How healthy are my approval workflows?
Go to Settings (gear icon) → Workflows to review trigger types, published dates, and version numbers across all your workflows.
Who changed a user's role, status, or contact details?
Company Admins and Auditors can now find these changes - role, status, group, address, and phone number updates - in the company-wide activity log, alongside changes to other records. Previously, user account changes weren't included in that feed.
Best practices
- Check the Log tab first when investigating a discrepancy. It has the full change history for that document, whichever layout your company sees.
- Use the document's own timeline to track approval status. Settings (gear icon) → Workflows tracks the workflows themselves, not individual documents.
- Review Settings (gear icon) → Workflows periodically to confirm the right version of each workflow is published.
Related articles
- Two-factor authentication and security
- User roles and permissions overview
- Inviting and removing users
- Setting Up Approval Workflows
- Understanding and Managing Workflow Automation
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