The CA opens the Tally voucher. The GSTIN is 27AAPFU1234A1ZF. The total is ₹2,80,000. The CA asks: where did this come from? The clerk says: "The system extracted it." The CA says: "Show me the scan." The clerk opens a table of extracted strings. No scan. No crop. No validator log. The CA says: "I cannot audit this."
That is the failure mode that sells the product to a CA. Not accuracy. Not speed. Evidence. The CA wants to see the scan crop beside the field. The CA wants to know which validator passed and which did not. The CA wants to know who confirmed the row. That is an audit trail. Not a score.
Every invoice: scan crop, extracted fields, validator verdict (AUTO_EXPORTED or NEEDS_REVIEW), failures list, warnings list, duration, checks_run. If a human confirmed, who confirmed and when. Everything is explainable. Nothing is a confidence badge.
What the CA needs
The CA needs three things. First: the scan. Not the extracted string. The actual page. A crop of the GSTIN, the total, the date. If the GSTIN is smudged, the CA needs to see the smudge. A table of naked strings is not evidence.
Second: the validator log. Which checks ran. Which passed. Which failed. If the row auto-exported, the log shows GSTIN pass, HSN pass, arithmetic pass, regime pass. If the row went to review, the log shows which check failed and why. The CA can verify that the gate worked.
Third: who confirmed. If a clerk confirmed the row in review, the audit trail shows who and when. The CA can verify that a person looked at the scan. That is the trust chain: machine proof, human confirmation, Tally voucher. Every link is documented.
Validator log
GSTIN, HSN, arithmetic, regime
Review confirm
Who, when, why
Tally voucher
Imported with audit trail
What this is not
This is not a statutory audit trail. The Act and GSTN have their own requirements. This is the product trail: what we extracted, what the gate decided, who confirmed. It is enough for the CA to verify the machine's work. It is not enough for a GSTN query. That is GSTN's trail.
Confidence 92% is not a trail. "Looks fine" is not a trail. "Extracted by AI" is not a trail. A crop is a trail. A validator log is a trail. A name and timestamp is a trail. The CA asks "show me." The product shows.
What the clerk should write
When a clerk confirms a borderline scan, the note the CA wants is short: "GSTIN crop matches print; total closed; POS missing, used buyer prefix 27; composition not checked on portal." That is an audit trail. "Looks fine, 94%" is not.
Portal checks: if the policy requires status verification (cancelled, composition), the clerk should note the portal date. Next month's clerk should not repeat a stale screenshot. Status changes. The audit trail should say when you looked.
- EntryLedger/validation
Routing contract and audit trail. Every verdict is explainable.
- EntryLedger/how-it-works
Pipeline and review. Evidence beside the field.
What is stored?+
Crop, fields, verdict, failures, warnings, who confirmed. Everything explainable.
Can the CA see the scan?+
Yes. Crop beside the field. Every export carries the trail.
Statutory trail?+
No. Product trail. Statutory is the Act and GSTN.