When someone deletes a task, project, contact, deal, account, invoice or expense in Autovella, it goes to the Recycle Bin and stays there for 30 days. An administrator can Restore it, or delete it permanently. The Audit Log records who created, updated or deleted records and who logged in. You will find both under Settings, Data Management.
In this guide
Where to find the Recycle Bin and Audit Log, and who can use themWhat happens when you delete somethingHow to restore a deleted recordHow to permanently delete records and empty the Recycle BinHow to use the Audit Log to see who changed whatFrequently asked questions
Where to find the Recycle Bin and Audit Log, and who can use them
Both tools live in Settings, in the Data Management group of the left-hand menu:
- Recycle Bin: Restore or permanently delete removed records.
- Audit Log: History of changes made across the org.
The Data Management group is shown to Admins. Other roles do not see it by default.
The Recycle Bin has three separate permissions, which an administrator can give to a custom role if needed:
- View the bin (read).
- Restore items (update). Without it, the Restore button is hidden.
- Delete permanently and Empty Recycle Bin (delete). This is the most sensitive permission, so grant it sparingly.
If you open the page without view permission you see Access Denied: You don't have permission to view the recycle bin. The Audit Log is available to users with read access to Settings. Roles are explained in Roles, permissions and team sharing.
What happens when you delete something
The Recycle Bin covers seven kinds of record:
- Tasks
- Projects
- Contacts
- Deals
- Accounts
- Invoices
- Expenses
Deleting one of these from its page hides it from the normal lists and views in Autovella but does not erase it. The bin records its name, who deleted it and when. Other items, for example sprints and RAID log items, are not stored in the Recycle Bin, so deleting those is final. Autovella asks you to confirm before such deletions.
After 30 days the record is deleted for good by an automatic daily clean-up. There is no setting to lengthen or shorten this period, so restore anything you need before it expires.
How to restore a deleted record
- Go to Settings, then Data Management, then Recycle Bin.
- Find the record. Use the filter buttons across the top (All or one record type) and the Previous and Next buttons to page through the list.
- Check the columns: Type, Name, Deleted By, Deleted On and Expires In. An item with 3 days or fewer left shows a red badge.
- Click Restore on the row and confirm Restore in the pop-up (It will become accessible again).
- You will see a message such as Task restored successfully. The item disappears from the bin and returns to where it was in Autovella.
Things to know when restoring:
- Restoring a task also restores its subtasks and recalculates the project's progress.
- Restoring a project makes it appear in Projects again. Guest links to a restored project start working again if they have not been revoked or expired.
- Restoring does not undo changes made before the deletion, and it does not rebuild anything that was permanently deleted.
- If you cannot find a record, check you are looking at the right type filter, and that it was deleted within the last 30 days. Records deleted more than 30 days ago are gone.
Restore early. Items close to expiry carry a red badge, so sort out anything you recognise there first. If someone deleted a project by accident, the Audit Log (described below) tells you who did it and when.
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How to permanently delete records and empty the Recycle Bin
Permanent deletion cannot be undone. Use it when you must remove data sooner than 30 days, for example at a customer's request.
- In the Recycle Bin, click Delete on a row to remove one item, or click Empty Recycle Bin in the page header to remove everything.
- Read the warning. For a single item it says This cannot be undone and all associated files will be removed. For the whole bin it states how many items will be deleted.
- Confirm with Delete permanently or Empty recycle bin.
Permanent deletion also removes the item's attached files and its sharing settings. Be especially careful with these:
- Account: permanently deleting an account also permanently deletes its projects (including their tasks, timesheets and expenses), its invoices and its contacts.
- Project: permanently deleting a project also deletes its tasks.
- Task: permanently deleting a task also deletes its subtasks and removes dependency links that point to it.
Empty Recycle Bin only appears if you have the delete permission. It works through every item in the bin, and if a single item fails to delete, the others still go through.
How to use the Audit Log to see who changed what
Open Settings, Data Management, Audit Log. The heading shows how many entries match your filters, and each row has these columns:
- Timestamp: when it happened.
- Actor: the person's name and role.
- Action: Created, Updated, Deleted, Login, Logout or Login Failed.
- Type: Task, Project, Contact, Deal, Account, Invoice, Expense, Timesheet, Sprint, Team, Role, User or Auth.
- Entity: the name of the record, or a short description.
- Changes: for updates, click the arrow beside N fields to see the fields that changed, with their old and new values.
Filters
Narrow the list with Search entity name..., All Entity Types, All Actions, All Users and the From date and To date fields. Click Refresh to reload, and use Prev and Next to move through pages (50 entries per page).
Practical examples
- Who deleted this project? Set Action to Deleted, Entity Type to Project and search for the name.
- What changed on this invoice? Search the invoice number, filter Action to Updated and expand the changes.
- Suspicious sign-ins? Choose Entity Type Auth and Action Login Failed, then narrow by user or dates.
- Who gave this person admin rights? Filter Type to User or Role.
The Audit Log is read-only, so entries cannot be edited or deleted from the app. History is not kept forever: older entries are cleared on a retention schedule, so if you need history for compliance, contact support to confirm how long it is kept for your organization.
For a single record, the page also shows Created by, Created, Modified by and Modified details, and tasks have a History section listing their changes.
Frequently asked questions
30 days. After that they are permanently deleted by an automatic daily clean-up, and cannot be restored. The Expires In column shows how many days each item has left.
Tasks, projects, contacts, deals, accounts, invoices and expenses. Other items such as sprints and RAID log items are not stored in the bin, so deleting them is permanent.
Admins by default. Restoring needs the Recycle Bin update permission, and Delete and Empty Recycle Bin need the delete permission, which an administrator can give to custom roles.
No. Permanent deletion removes the record, its attached files and sharing settings, and for an account its projects, invoices and contacts as well. Only use it when you are sure.
Use Settings, Data Management, Audit Log. Filter by entity type, action, user and date range, and expand an Updated entry to see the old and new values of each field.
Yes. It records Login, Logout and Login Failed events, which you can find by choosing the Auth entity type.