Audit trail and field history tracking for regulated Life Sciences records
Key Takeaway
When Field Audit Trail is off, Field History Tracking keeps field changes for up to 18 months, or up to 24 months through the API. Field Audit Trail archives history into the FieldHistoryArchive big object and keeps it until you delete it. Archived history is available through the API only.
Field History Tracking keeps an audit trail of who changed which field value on a record, and when. Field Audit Trail extends that history so you can keep it until you delete it, instead of only 18 to 24 months. For visits, Life Sciences Cloud adds audit controls such as visit snapshots, visit locking, and signature capture, which support audit readiness for interactions with healthcare professionals.
What Field History Tracking records
Field History Tracking keeps an audit trail of who changed what and when. You select specific standard and custom object fields to track. Each change to those fields is added to the object's History related list.
Salesforce stores tracked changes in the object's related history object. For example, account field changes are saved in the AccountHistory object. Field History Tracking data doesn't count against data storage limits. Field Audit Trail data doesn't count against them either.
Standard Field History Tracking tracks up to 20 fields per object. When Field Audit Trail is off, Salesforce retains that history for up to 18 months, or up to 24 months through the API.