Another important consideration for records management is the audit trail. Hansel's trail of crumbs became a lifeline for the storybook character and his sister. Indexed history files serve the same purpose for organizations. Auditors or legal specialists research files to determine the company policies and practices that were in effect at a given time. Records may be subpoenaed by former employees who claim the company acted wrongfully.
Suppliers request reviews of purchase orders.
Often, the outcomes of litigation depend on the integrity of the history files. The economy of locating obsolete documents quickly contributes to an organization's financial good health. A history, or audit, trail becomes especially important when major reorganizations or document streamlining efforts rearrange or delete documents or parts of them. To preserve a clear audit trail, maintain a matrix of documents and their revisions by number and topic, and information deleted from them. Notate an organization chart matrix with old and new names for an organization or their parts.