Audit Logging in FileMaker

Beginner

Build a record of who changed what and when -- FileMaker does not log by default, so you must build it.

What you'll learn

Two audit logging approaches and their trade-offs
Implementing a field-change log with OnRecordCommit
Logging logins and logouts with file triggers
Performance considerations for high-volume logging

FileMaker does not have a built-in audit log. If you need to know who changed a field value and when, you must build that capability yourself. There are two main approaches: field-history logging (what changed in each field) and event-level logging (which scripts ran, which records were touched). Both use a combination of OnRecordCommit triggers and helper tables.

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Approach 1: Event-level logging

Log every record commit with: AccountName, Timestamp, Table, RecordID, and a description of the operation (Created/Modified/Deleted). This is lightweight and tells you who touched which record when. It does not tell you what field changed from what value to what value.

FileMaker Script

// OnRecordCommit trigger script
Set Variable [ $table ; Value: Get ( LayoutTableName ) ]
Set Variable [ $recId ; Value: Get ( RecordID ) ]
Set Variable [ $event ; Value: If ( Get ( RecordOpenState ) = 2 ; "Created" ; "Modified" ) ]

Go to Layout [ "Audit_Log" ]
New Record/Request
Set Field [ AuditLog::AccountName ; Get ( AccountName ) ]
Set Field [ AuditLog::EventAt ; Get ( CurrentTimestamp ) ]
Set Field [ AuditLog::TableName ; $table ]
Set Field [ AuditLog::RecordID ; $recId ]
Set Field [ AuditLog::EventType ; $event ]
Commit Records/Requests
Go to Layout [ original layout ]

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