Turn on Audit Tracking for CRM

Applies To: Dynamics 365 / Work 365 Admins
Audience: System Administrators, Governance Teams

Overview

Enabling Audit Tracking in Dynamics 365 logs create/update/delete (and some status) changes at the record and field level. These logs are essential for governance, compliance, and troubleshooting across Work 365 entities (e.g., Billing Contracts, Subscriptions, License Change Logs).

Prerequisites

• Security role: System Administrator (or equivalent)

• Environment: Dynamics 365 / Dataverse (Work 365 installed)

Steps to Enable Audit Tracking

✅ Step 1: Turn on Global Auditing

• Go to Advanced Settings → Auditing → Global Audit Settings
  (Modern path: Power Platform Admin Center → Environments → Settings → Auditing)

• Check Start Auditing.

• Save.
  This enables the auditing capability tenant-wide.

✅ Step 2: Enable Auditing per Entity

• From Auditing, open Entity Settings.

• Enable auditing for key entities such as:

  • Billing Contracts

  • Subscriptions

  • License Change Logs (LCLs)

  • Invoices

  • Accounts and Contacts (optional, for customer traceability)

• Save.
  Tip: Include any custom entities used in billing workflows or integrations.

Optional: Open each entity → Fields and ensure auditing is enabled on the specific fields you care about (important for high-value fields like Quantity, Sales Unit, Prices, Status).

✅ Step 3: View Audit History

• Navigate to Settings → Auditing → Audit Summary View and filter by entity (e.g., Subscription, License Change Log).

• Or open any audited record → Related → Audit History.

• Review who changed what, when, and how (operation type + old/new values).

Why This Matters

Best Practices

• Enable before go-live for all billing/contract entities to capture a complete history.

• Review regularly, especially for Billing Contracts, Subscriptions, and LCLs.

• Retention policy: Set per compliance (commonly 3–7 years).

• Least-privilege access: Restrict audit-log viewing/exporting to admins/compliance roles.

• Proactive monitoring: Dashboards/alerts for anomalies (e.g., unexpected quantity spikes, mass updates).

• Scope smartly: Audit only critical entities/fields to control log volume.

• Export/Archive: Plan periodic export/archival if your governance policy requires off-platform retention.

Notes & Considerations

• Storage impact: Auditing increases log/storage usage—monitor capacity and prune/export as needed.

• Performance: Minimal overhead when scoped; avoid auditing every field on high-volume entities.

• Changes in UI: Paths may differ slightly between classic and modern admin experiences—the underlying settings are the same.

Summary

Audit Tracking in Dynamics 365 is foundational for Work 365 governance. Turning it on globally and per entity delivers end-to-end traceability for billing and subscription changes—supporting accurate operations, audits, and rapid troubleshooting.