Audit and Records Management
Total Accountability. Zero Blind Spots.An immutable, tamper-evident record of every access, download, permission change, and disposal event in your deal rooms - captured automatically, exported cleanly for regulator review, and retained inside your Microsoft 365 tenant. No gaps, no rebuilding from email threads, no vendor-side black box.
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- Evidence-Grade Immutable Audit Logs: Tamper-proof records with full forensic context (user, IP, device, action, duration) - cryptographically signed and impossible to modify
- Compliance-Ready Reports in Seconds: Auto-formatted for SOC 2, ISO, HIPAA, FINRA, SEC - export to auditors instantly with no manual work
- Policy-Driven Retention & Destruction: Automated archival, retention, and disposition of every deal room. Every destruction closes with a signed Certificate of Destruction, inside your Microsoft 365 tenant.
Compliance officers and security teams at Airna, Cape, Heidelberg Materials, and Quifa trust Govern 365
What is Audit and Records Management?
Audit and records management automatically captures every access event on sensitive documents – who opened them, when, how long they viewed them, and whether they downloaded or shared them. Govern 365 creates immutable audit logs stored in your Microsoft 365 tenant, providing tamper-proof proof of data access and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Why It Matters
Regulators (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FINRA) require audit logs proving who accessed sensitive data. Without them, compliance audits fail. With them, you pass audits with defensible, forensically sound evidence.
Insider threats and unauthorized access go undetected without access logs. Audit logs reveal unusual access patterns-rapid downloads, after-hours access, or bulk exports-stopping breaches before they happen.
During M&A, discovery, or investigation, you need proof documents were handled correctly. Audit logs provide irrefutable evidence of who accessed what and when, preventing costly discovery battles and fines.
What’s inside Audit and Records Management
Three capabilities that work together to give you a defensible record of every deal – from first access to final disposition.
Evidence-Grade Immutable Audit Logs
Every action in the room – views, downloads, permission changes, Q&A activity, uploads, deletions, watermark renders – is logged the moment it happens. The log is tamper-evident: entries cannot be edited or removed, and the sequence is cryptographically chained so gaps and alterations are detectable. When a regulator or auditor asks for the chain of custody, you can prove not just what the log says, but that the log hasn’t been modified.
- Every user action logged with timestamp, IP, and user context
- Cryptographic sequence chain for tamper-evidence
- Exports to Excel, PDF, and structured formats ready for regulator review
- Integrates with Microsoft 365 unified audit for tenant-wide visibility
Compliance-Ready Reports in Seconds
When content reaches the end of its retention period or a closed deal room is disposed of, Govern 365 produces a cryptographically signed certificate documenting what was disposed, when, under which policy, by whose approval. The certificate is tamper-evident and permanently retained in your tenant – even after the underlying content is gone. It’s the record regulators, counterparties, and insurance carriers ask for when they need proof that content was destroyed properly.
- Per-document and per-room disposal certificates
- Cryptographically signed, tamper-evident
- Includes policy reference, approver identity, and disposal method
- Permanently retained in your tenant
Policy-driven Retention & Destruction
From active deal to defensible disposal – automated, auditable, proven.
Enterprise deal rooms don’t end when the deal closes. They need to be retained for regulatory windows, archived under tight access controls, and ultimately destroyed – with proof. Govern 365 automates every step, entirely inside your Microsoft 365 tenant.
- Retention that follows your policy, not your memory. Apply retention schedules at the tenant or per-room level; the system enforces them automatically.
- Archive without lock-in. Archived rooms remain in your M365 tenant under your control, with read-only enforcement and scoped access.
- Destruction with proof. Every deletion produces a signed Certificate of Destruction enumerating what was destroyed, when, by whom, and verified against backups.
Backed by Microsoft Purview
Audit and records management in Govern 365 is built on Microsoft Purview – the same governance engine your compliance team already uses to manage sensitivity labels, retention policies, and eDiscovery across your Microsoft 365 tenant. Retention rules defined in Purview apply to Govern 365 content automatically. Legal holds placed in Purview suspend Govern 365 disposition. If your tenant already has Purview configured, Govern 365 inherits the policy instantly. No parallel governance engine to maintain.
- Inherits policies directly from Microsoft Purview – no duplication needed.
- Retention and legal holds apply automatically to all Govern 365 content.
- No parallel governance engine – everything stays within your Microsoft 365 tenant.
- Instant compliance if Purview is already configured.
- Consistent, audit-ready enforcement across all documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Audit log entries cannot be edited or deleted, and the sequence is cryptographically chained – each entry references the hash of the previous entry. Any alteration or removal breaks the chain detectably. This is the standard required by SOC 2, ISO 27001, and most regulator frameworks for audit integrity. When a regulator asks for chain-of-custody evidence, you can prove not just what the log says, but that the log hasn’t been tampered with.
Retention is policy-driven through Microsoft Purview. Typical configurations retain audit logs for seven years to align with SOX, HIPAA, and similar frameworks – but your compliance team sets the policy. Audit entries that reach the end of retention are disposed of with the same certificate-of-destruction workflow as content records, so the chain of evidence stays complete.
Yes. Audit logs export to Excel, PDF, JSON, and CSV formats. Exports can be scoped by room, user, date range, or event type – an auditor reviewing a specific deal doesn’t have to wade through every event in the tenant. The export format matches the evidence fields auditors ask for in SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR reviews.
In your Microsoft 365 tenant. Govern 365 never stores audit records, retention metadata, or certificates of destruction on our infrastructure. This matters because your regulatory certifications apply to your tenant – not to a vendor’s cloud. Tenant-resident governance means your compliance posture is whole and traceable, not split between your environment and a third-party silo.
A deletion removes the content. A certificate of destruction documents what was deleted, when, under which retention policy, by whose approval, and using what disposal method – then the certificate itself is cryptographically signed and permanently retained. Regulators, counterparties, and insurance carriers often require the evidence of disposal, not just the disposal itself. The certificate is the artifact they accept.
Yes. Legal hold integrates with Microsoft Purview eDiscovery. Placing a hold on a room or document suspends all retention-driven disposition for content in scope, with the hold itself captured as an audit event. When the hold is lifted or amended, normal retention resumes automatically. Hold events, releases, and scope changes are all audit-logged.
Immutable audit logs, policy retention, and certificates of destruction are included in every edition, starting with Founder at $2,400/year. Advanced compliance automation – recertification and smart disposition – is available on Enterprise Edition.
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