How to track and audit changes made by multiple users in a shared Excel workbook?

Question

How can I identify who changed specific cells, when the changes occurred, and what the previous values were in a shared Excel file, especially when co-authoring through OneDrive or SharePoint? And can we do it in offline version ?

Answer 1

Hi @Tommie Bowman

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Based on your description, I understand that you would like to track changes made by multiple users in a shared Excel workbook, including who made the changes, when they were made, and what values were changed.

If the workbook is stored on OneDrive or SharePoint and co-authoring is enabled, you can use the Show Changes feature in Microsoft Excel. Go to Review > Show Changes to view who made edits, where the changes occurred, when they were made, and what was changed. Multiple edits can also be reviewed together using the bulk changes view.

Please note that Show Changes only displays edits to cell values and formulas, including actions such as moving, sorting, inserting, or deleting cells or ranges. The following changes are not shown in the Changes pane:

-Edits to charts, shapes, and other objects

-PivotTable operations

-Formatting changes

-Hiding cells or ranges, or applying filters

For more information, please refer to the following articles:

Show changes that were made in a workbook - Microsoft Support 

Get help with Show Changes in Excel - Microsoft Support 

Regarding the offline scenario, I would like to clarify whether you are referring to opening the workbook locally and editing it using the desktop app without an internet connection.

-If the file is downloaded and stored locally, changes made in the offline version cannot be tracked, as Excel does not provide a built-in audit trail for offline files.

-If the workbook is stored on OneDrive or SharePoint and opened in the desktop app, edits made while offline may not be synchronized immediately and may not be recorded in the Show Changes pane until the device reconnects to the internet and the file is successfully synced.

I hope this information is helpful. If i misunderstand your request, please feel free to let me know. 

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