The Payroll Audit Trail – Who Did What
The payroll run is the most control-sensitive process in the restaurant. Vendion therefore logs every action that affects what someone is paid, and shows the log in the product — not only in the database.
Where to find the trail
- Go to Personal ▸ Löner (Staff ▸ Payroll) and select year and month
- Click Exporthistorik (export history) at the bottom
- Below the export list sits Lönehistorik (payroll history) for the selected month
Every row shows what happened, the details that make it auditable, and when.
What is logged
| Event | What the row tells you |
|---|---|
| Payroll status changed | That an individual employee's row went from not approved to approved or paid, and from which state |
| Payroll status removed | That an approval was withdrawn, and which status the row held |
| Payroll period locked | That the data was frozen and that rows are exported with the period's own rates from then on |
| Payroll period unlocked | That the approval was removed and the data is calculated live again |
| Payroll period re-locked | That new data was frozen and a new lock timestamp was set |
| Adjustment added, changed or deleted | The adjustment's name, whether it is gross or net, the amount, and on a change also the previous amount |
| Reconciliation overridden | Which action was overridden and the written reason |
Locked, unlocked and re-locked are told apart
When you unlock a period the lock record is not deleted. It is kept with the timestamps for both locking and unlocking.
That matters for a simple reason: the lock record carries the frozen version of the data. Deleting it would destroy the evidence of exactly which figures were sent to the payroll system — in a single click.
The trail therefore distinguishes three things that otherwise look identical: that the period was locked, that it was unlocked, and that it was locked again with new data.
Rows logged before September 2026 lack the fields that separate unlocking from re-locking. They are described as the lock having changed — true, if blunt. The action names have deliberately not been renamed, since an audit log that rewrites its own history is worse than an unclear one.
Overridden reconciliations appear separately
If someone proceeds past a red checkpoint in the payroll chain reconciliation, it appears as its own row in the trail, with the written reason.
The row also states what was overridden — the locking of the period, or an export and in that case which format.
It is the only event in the whole trail where someone deliberately passed a control. It should therefore not be buried in another row's details.
Adjustments follow their validity period
Manual payroll adjustments carry a validity date rather than a period. A one-off adjustment appears in the month it applies to. A recurring adjustment appears in every month its validity overlaps.
That means a recurring adjustment you created in March still shows in the trail for September, if it still applies.
If the history could not be read
If reading fails, a clear error message is shown instead of an empty list. An empty history would have looked as though nothing had happened — and that is precisely the wrong conclusion to draw from an audit trail.
The same principle applies to the export history just above: if it cannot be read, the page says so outright rather than making it look as though no exports were made.
What the trail does not cover
- Changes to time reports are logged separately and do not appear here. The payroll history covers the payroll run, not the punches.
- Changed supplement rates do not appear as rows in the trail. They are, however, never rewritten retroactively — the old rate is closed and a new one applies going forward, so an already locked period keeps its amounts.
- What was actually paid out from the bank sits outside Vendion. Reconcile against the bank file separately.
If your accountant needs the record, the practical route is to open the month in payroll data, expand the history, and supplement it with the export files for the same period.
This feature is part of Vendion Staff.
Curious how it looks in practice? Read more about the product or book a short demo.
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