The decision record

Most audit trails start at the instance: what changed, when. The decisions that shaped the data beforeimport — why this classification rule, why this source wins that field, why this device was excluded — usually live in a consultant's notebook, if anywhere. ServiceMatch keeps that record itself. (For the taxonomy of what gets decided, see Governance decisions.)

What lands on the record

• →Classification rules — authored, revised, or retired, with rationale.
• →Source precedence decisions, per attribute.
• →Exclusions and quarantines, with the trigger that caused them.
• →Service-model changes: claims accepted, placements made, stages promoted.
• →Operator overrides — first-class records that take precedence and stay attributable.

Traceability runs both directions

From any golden record, you can walk back to the decisions that shaped it — which rules fired, which precedence choices applied, which claims placed it. From any decision, you can see the records it touched. Per-device reasoning cards assemble the full chain — identity, classification, evidence, declaration, provenance, next action — in plain language.