Definition

Contemporaneous records

Records created at or near the time of the events they describe. Far more credible to auditors than reconstructions.

Auditors distinguish contemporaneous records (created at the time, dated by independent systems) from reconstructed records (assembled later from indirect evidence). Examples of contemporaneous records: timestamped boarding passes, hotel reservation emails, credit card transactions with merchant locations, cell phone billing records with cell-tower data, EZ-Pass histories, social media posts with geotags. A daily trip log entered as you traveled is also contemporaneous; a spreadsheet you compiled at tax time is not.

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