Audit Log Before State

before on an AuditLog preserves exactly what a record looked like prior to a change. When a compliance manager investigates a change — for example, why a collectionDate on a ChainOfCustody differs from the original paper form — they can read before to see the prior value and after to see the new value. Together, before and after provide an immutable diff of every data change in piper, meeting regulatory requirements for traceable data modification records.