Get Started with Field Audit Trail
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you'll be able to:
- Distinguish between the capabilities of standard Field History Tracking and Field Audit Trail.
- Assess how Field Audit Trail is the appropriate solution for your long-term data lineage.
- Explain how Field Audit Trail enables your organization to meet strict regulatory and audit requirements.
Track Operational Data
The data in your organization isn't static—it changes constantly. Users update records, automated processes get triggered, and bulk uploads modify thousands of fields at once. When a critical value changes unexpectedly, people tend to want to know who changed the value, what the previous value was, and when it happened. 
This is where Field History Tracking (FHT) comes in. FHT is a standard Salesforce security and audit feature that enables you to track changes to standard and custom fields on supported objects. By capturing the “who, what, and when” of data modification, FHT is essential for audibility, troubleshooting, and basic compliance. And it’s a powerful tool designed for operational visibility.
- 20 fields per object can be tracked.
- Field history data is retained for 18 months in the Salesforce UI.
- Data is available for up to 24 months via the API.
For many day-to-day investigations, like figuring out why an opportunity amount changed yesterday, FHT is perfect. You can simply add the Field History Related List to your page layouts to view these historical changes right on the opportunity record.
Close Compliance Gaps and Investigate Blind Spots
While standard tracking works for operational troubleshooting, regulated industries often face stricter demands that require companies to retain data history for many years. For example, financial services companies require visibility into long-term change history for critical fields on the Account object, such as Account Status, Ownership, and Risk Rating. Because of strict regulations, the number of critical fields required to track often exceeds the standard Field History Tracking limit of 20. Plus, these companies might be required to provide historical context for deep-dive investigations.
While Field History Tracking is a powerful tool for short-term operational visibility, some companies require a solution that provides long-term retention and expanded capacity. That’s where Field Audit Trail comes in.
Field Audit Trail
Field Audit Trail (FAT) supercharges your ability to track and retain field history data, effectively solving the limitations of standard tracking. Here are some features.
Expanded Field Tracking Limit Capacity
While standard tracking enables you to track 20 fields, Field Audit Trail enables you to track up to 200 fields per object. This massive increase ensures that you don't have to pick and choose which critical data points to monitor—you can maintain complete historical lineage even as your system and requirements evolve.
Long-Term Field History Retention
The most distinct feature of FAT is its ability to break the 18-month field history retention barrier. With FAT, field history data can be stored indefinitely.
-
Custom policies: Organizations can define custom retention periods (in months or years) to match their specific regulatory needs.
-
Automated long-term storage: FAT automates the movement of forensic data into long-term storage, ensuring fast performance for current data while keeping historical data accessible.
Centralized Governance
FAT provides centralized governance through field history retention policies, enabling admins to manage how long data is kept object-by-object. This capability is critical for meeting strict regulatory and audit requirements and significantly reduces risk during investigations.
Now that you understand how Field Audit Trail secures your data for the long term, let's put these concepts into practice. In the next unit, you'll enable field history tracking and configure retention policies to meet real-world compliance requirements.