Audit Trail & Mark Cell
The classic tick-and-tie audit, tracked rather than done on paper. Mark each cell you check as Verified, Questionable, Erroneous, or Needs Attention; the tracker keeps the running set — who reviewed what and when — plus a coverage view of how much of the model has been checked. The set auto-saves beside the workbook and reloads when you open it.
The scenario
You’re signing off a model cell by cell. You need a durable, shareable record of what you’ve verified, what’s still questionable, what’s wrong, and how much ground you’ve covered — without annotating the cells themselves. The Audit Trail is that record: a per-workbook set of audit marks with a live coverage view.
“Audit Trail” is the label for the Audit Status tracker
The ribbon button reads Audit Trail; it opens a window titled Audit Status. There is no separate “audit log” file — the marks live in the .mxaudit sidecar. The genuine append-only event trail (who signed what, and when a signature was revoked) is the Proof & Trust ledger, which this feature writes to when you mark a cell Verified (see below).
Where to find it
ModelXcel Pro tab → Audit group. Two buttons drive the same tracker and the same .mxaudit file:
- Audit Trail (keytip
AT) — opens the full Audit Status tracker. - Mark Cell (keytip
MC) — a one-click wrapper that sets a status straight from the current selection.
The four statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Verified | Checked and correct — signed off. Also records a reviewer sign-off in the Proof ledger. |
| Questionable | Needs a second look; you can spin a linked review issue at mark time. |
| Erroneous | Confirmed wrong; you can spin a linked review issue too. |
| Needs Attention | Flagged for follow-up without a verdict yet. |
Cells you haven’t marked are implicitly Not Reviewed — there’s no explicit way to set that status; you simply remove an entry instead. Each mark also records a reviewer, initials, optional severity, tag, description, and comment, plus timestamps. A range is stored as a single entry, not exploded per cell.
Step by step: a tick-and-tie pass
- Mark as you check. Select a cell or range, click Mark Cell (
MC). The dialog opens prefilled with the sheet and range; choose the status and add a reviewer/notes, then click Mark Selection. - Open the tracker. Click Audit Trail (
AT) to see every marked cell, its status, reviewer, and notes, plus a coverage card. - Work from the grid. Use the quick-mark buttons (Verified / Questionable / Erroneous / Attention), the right-click menu, or Mark from Excel; filter by Status, Sheet, or Severity; search; and Go To Cell to jump to any entry.
- Watch coverage climb. The coverage card recomputes as you mark — how much of the model is reviewed and verified.
Coverage
The Status tab shows an audit-coverage card: counts of Total, Reviewed, Verified, Questionable, Erroneous, and Needs Attention, plus a percentage bar (green/amber/red). Coverage is reviewed formula cells ÷ formula cells — the add-in scans each worksheet’s used range for formulas live to compute the denominator, so the percentage reflects this workbook right now. A second Diagnostics tab shows the add-in’s log (useful for support), not audit data.
Mark Cell — the one-click path, and the Review-Issue bridge
The Mark Cell dialog captures the status, severity, reviewer, initials, tag, description, and comment for your selection. When the status is Questionable or Erroneous, a Create Review Issue checkbox appears; tick it and the primary button reads Mark && Create Issue. Confirming it both records the audit mark and opens a prefilled Review Issue editor (description seeded as [Audit: {status}] {comment}), logging a linked issue to the .mxreview file. If a linked issue already exists for that cell, it tells you and doesn’t create a duplicate.
The bridge runs both ways: when you later mark a previously-flagged cell Verified, the add-in offers to resolve the linked review issues for you, so the two layers stay in sync. (See Create issues & marks from Compare for the third entry point.)
Verified marks write to the Proof ledger
This is the one place an audit mark reaches beyond the .mxaudit file. Marking a cell Verified appends a reviewer sign-off to the workbook’s Proof & Trust ledger — recording who verified it and the formula and value at that moment. Later downgrading, removing, or bulk-clearing a Verified mark appends a matching “signature revoked” record rather than erasing the history. That is why a cell you un-verify shows as revoked in the Proof tools — it’s expected, and it keeps proof coverage and trust badges honest. None of this edits the cell.
What changes in Excel — and what does not
Your cells do not change. The audit trail records statuses, not edits — no value, formula, or formatting is touched. The only grid changes are the transient green Go To Cell highlight (#7DC57E, restored on next navigation/close) and, if you turn it on, the Highlight Audit lens — both temporary.
Where it is saved: the .mxaudit sidecar
Marks live in a companion file named like the workbook with a .mxaudit extension (e.g. Model.xlsx → Model.mxaudit), in the same folder. It auto-saves on every change and auto-loads when you reopen the model.
- Format: indented JSON —
WorkbookName,CreatedAt/UpdatedAt, aVersion, theEntriesarray, and your auditSettings(default reviewer/initials/status, behavior flags). Statuses are written as readable names ("Verified"). - Save As creates an independent
.mxauditfor the new file and re-points the live entries; the original’s sidecar is left intact. - Not stored in workbook custom properties, hidden sheets, or custom XML — the marks are sidecar-only. (Only the Verified sign-off lands in the Proof ledger, which is a workbook custom XML part.)
Sharing & reporting: import & export
- Import another
.mxaudit(auto-backs-up your current set first to a timestamped…_backup_….mxaudit). - Export to CSV, Export to Worksheet (an “MXP Audit Status” sheet with hyperlinks), or Export to Workbook (a standalone dashboard with KPI cards and a per-sheet breakdown). All are one-way snapshots you trigger.
Undo & recovery
- No Ctrl+Z. Changing or removing a status auto-saves immediately. Because marks never alter cells, there’s nothing in the model to undo.
- A removed Verified mark is recorded as a revocation in the Proof ledger rather than erased — history stays complete.
- To recover, re-import a saved
.mxaudit(the import auto-backup or an exported copy); Save As also preserves the original sidecar.
Caveats & limitations
- The companion file must travel with the workbook for marks to follow it.
- Range marks are one entry. A status applied to a range is stored as a single entry over that range, not per cell.
- Coverage is a count, not a verdict. “80% reviewed” means you’ve marked 80% of formula cells — it doesn’t assert correctness.
- Keytip collision: on some builds the
ATkeytip is shared with another command on the tab — use the button if the keytip is ambiguous.
Related
- Highlight Audit — color cells by audit status, in the grid.
- Review Issues & Flag Cell — the companion findings layer; a Questionable/Erroneous mark can create a linked issue.
- Why This Number & Sign formulas — where a Verified mark’s reviewer sign-off shows up.
- Create issues & marks from Compare — mark a moved output for audit from a comparison.