How is the digital audit trail like the paper audit trail?

How is the digital audit trail like the paper audit trail?

• A. The digital audit trail is unable to contact customers for verification.
• B. The digital audit trail uses only hard copies.
• C. The digital audit trail allows transaction tracing.
• D. The digital audit trail is unable to find errors.

Answer: (C)

Both digital and paper audit trails serve to capture the sequence of actions that affect a transaction, so you can trace what happened, when, and by whom. The digital version does this by keeping an electronic, timestamped log with user IDs and system events, which makes it easy to follow the flow of a transaction across multiple steps and systems. This tracing ability mirrors what a paper trail provides, but in a format that’s typically faster to search, easier to compile into a reconstruction, and often more secure against tampering when properly protected. That core function—enabling you to trace a transaction from start to finish—is why this option is the best. The other statements don’t describe what’s truly similar: they either mischaracterize digital trails as restricted to hard copies or suggest they can’t help find errors, which isn’t accurate, since tracing is exactly what audit trails are for.

Both digital and paper audit trails serve to capture the sequence of actions that affect a transaction, so you can trace what happened, when, and by whom. The digital version does this by keeping an electronic, timestamped log with user IDs and system events, which makes it easy to follow the flow of a transaction across multiple steps and systems. This tracing ability mirrors what a paper trail provides, but in a format that’s typically faster to search, easier to compile into a reconstruction, and often more secure against tampering when properly protected. That core function—enabling you to trace a transaction from start to finish—is why this option is the best. The other statements don’t describe what’s truly similar: they either mischaracterize digital trails as restricted to hard copies or suggest they can’t help find errors, which isn’t accurate, since tracing is exactly what audit trails are for.