Deleted records and the audit trail

Deleting a record in Fortuna is the first of two steps. A deleted record leaves every balance, chart, projection and export, but it can still be found and restored. Only a record that has been deleted can then be removed permanently. The audit trail is the append-only record of significant actions on your records. The rules are in Concepts.

Erasing your whole account is a different and irreversible operation, on the Privacy and data rights page.

UC-40: Restore or Permanently Remove a Deleted Record

Screen: Deleted records, /deleted. This is the only view in which deleted records appear (UI-BR-12). In this version it lists deleted transactions, accounts and categories.

1. Each deleted record is a card with a tag such as “Deleted transaction”, its name, its amount and date where it has them, and a second line such as an institution or currency. If other records still refer to it, a line says “N other records still refer to this one.”
2. Press Restore to bring the record back into the views it belongs to. Nothing asks you to confirm; restoring can be undone by deleting again.
3. To remove a record for good, press Remove permanently. It is a separate control, in the warning color.
4. A dialog, “Remove permanently?”, names the record ("… will be removed for good.") and says “This cannot be undone. Unlike deleting, there is no way to bring it back afterwards.” If other records still refer to it, it adds how many, and that “The instance may refuse to remove it, or may take them with it.” Choose Remove permanently or Keep it.
5. The result is reported on the card.

Notable alternatives:

• Removal refused. The API’s reason, which names what still refers to the record, appears on the card. The control is not hidden.
• Restoring refused. The API’s reason appears on the card.
• Nothing is deleted. “Nothing is deleted”, “Records you delete appear here, where they can be brought back or removed for good.”
• A live record is never offered permanent removal. Deleting always comes first.
• A failed load shows the reason and Try again.

UC-41: Read the Audit Trail

Screen: Audit trail, /audit. The top bar has a refresh icon and a sign-out button.

1. The screen lists the entries for your own records, newest first. Each shows the action and the kind of record, as “Create · Transaction” for example, with a result icon (succeeded, refused or unknown), the time in your time zone, the refusal reason if there was one, and “Record” followed by the record’s reference.
2. A notice at the bottom says “The audit trail is append-only. Entries cannot be changed or removed, including by you — a trail that can be pruned is not one.” There are no edit or delete controls.
3. Narrow the list with Any period, a range picker, and Action, which offers Any action, Created, Updated, Deleted, Imported and Exported. Clear filters appears when either is set.

Notable alternatives:

• No entries. “Nothing recorded yet”, “Significant actions on your records appear here as they happen.” With filters: “Nothing in that period” and “No entries match the filters you have set.”, with Clear filters.
• An entry for a record since removed is shown with what it recorded, and its reference is plain text, not a link, so it does not pretend the record can still be opened.
• A failed load shows “The audit trail could not be read.” or the reason, with Retry.

Sources

This page is written from the interface’s Use Case Specification (UC-40, UC-41), checked against the code in lib/features/lifecycle and lib/features/audit.