The presentation deals with the tracking of changes in Excel files possible in MS Office 365. The conditions for this are:
- The file must be saved in Teams or in a SharePoint.
- Version control must be activated and correctly configured in SharePoint
In the "Check" menu, you will find the options "Show changes" and "Version history". With Show changes, all entries made in the last 60 days are visible, showing correctly who changed what, when and in which field.
The version history shows all versions of the file and correctly displays who has edited the file. If you select a version, the changes to the previous version are displayed in the document. A copy of the previous version can be downloaded. From a compliance perspective, the settings of the underlying SharePoint site must be set correctly, e.g. that not everyone is allowed to delete the versions of the daei. What is missing here is the archiving option and the ability to evaluate the audit trail data, as the changes can only be displayed but not exported.
The functionality is therefore not a complete replacement for an audit trail functionality in the sense of Part 11. All versions would have to be saved for potential archiving. This is certainly not a sensible strategy for continuously maintained files.
This functionality may be added in the near future (by Microsoft or resourceful developers). The export functionality would then provide a fully-fledged audit trail function "virtually free of charge" and the tiresome validations of Excel macros for change control would be a thing of the past.