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Change Log​

The Change Log is your budget's paper trail: every meaningful edit — cell changes, adds, deletes, applied fringes and tags, element manager changes, calendar and worksheet edits — is recorded with what changed, the old and new values, when, and who made it. It comes in two forms: a full Change Log window for the whole budget, and a per-line Change Log panel in the Sidebar.

Opening it​

  • Tools → Change Log opens the full window.
  • The clock icon in the Session Tracker (bottom left of the budget) opens the same window.
  • The Sidebar's Change Log panel (Alt + 9) shows the history of whichever line or account you have selected — with a Change log button to jump to the full window.

The window opens once — reopening focuses it — and closes with Ctrl/⌘ + W or the Close button.

Reading the log​

Each row shows Date, Section, Account, Line, Aspect, New Value, Old Value, and Made By (a circle with the editor's initials). Sections tell you where the change happened: Topsheet, Account, Details, Detail Header, Element Manager, Calendar, or Worksheet. Values are shown in plain language — locations and phases by name, Use as Enabled/Suppress, flags by color name — and deletions appear as entries like "Detail Line Deleted" or "Account Deleted".

Two icons finish each row:

  • Details opens the Event Details dialog — a breadcrumb of exactly where the change lives plus the full before/after, with Previous / Next to step through events.
  • Go To jumps straight to the changed item: the line in the grid, the Element Manager tab, the worksheet, or the calendar. (Deleted items have nowhere to go, so Go To does nothing on deletion entries.)

Results are paged 24 to a page, with a running Results count at the bottom.

Filtering and searching​

The Filters block narrows the log:

  • Filter by Date Range — Start and End fields open a Select Date and Time picker, with handy First Entry and Now buttons.
  • Additional Filters — cascading dropdowns for Category (Budget, Element Manager, Calendar, Worksheet), Aspect (e.g. Topsheet, Account Layer, Line Item Details — or a specific element type, location, or sheet), Account, and Field (Use, Sub Account, Tags, Notes, Rate, Amount, Currency, and so on).

Apply runs the filter, Clear resets it. The Search box above the results matches live against aspects, values, and sections as you type.

The per-line panel​

Select any line and the Sidebar's Change Log panel shows just that line's history — time, property, new and old value, and the editor's initials — grouped by day, with a Filter box to narrow it. It's the fastest way to answer "who changed this rate?"

Shared budgets and workspaces​

On a shared budget the log merges everyone's changes — your collaborators' edits appear alongside your own, identified by their initials. In a workspace, access to the Change Log is a permission of its own; without it, the menu item and panel show "Your current workspace access does not include Change Log."

Good to know​

  • The log is read-only — there's no revert from the log (use Ctrl/⌘ Z for immediate undo). Think of it as an audit trail, not a time machine.
  • Entries are kept for the life of the budget — there's no expiry and no way to clear the log. It even travels with the budget when you export and re-import it.
  • No-op edits (typing the same value back) aren't recorded, and the sample budget is never logged.
  • Goalpost budgets don't have a Change Log.