Blockchain-Based Audit Trails: Improving Transparency and Fraud Detection in Digital Accounting Systems

Blockchain technology has emerged as a transformative innovation in digital accounting, offering robust mechanisms to enhance auditability, data integrity, and fraud prevention. This study examines how blockchain-based audit trails can improve transparency and strengthen fraud detection within modern accounting information systems. Adopting a conceptual–analytical research design supported by secondary empirical evidence, the study analyzes data drawn from recent peer-reviewed case studies, industry reports, and documented implementations of permissioned blockchain systems in auditing and financial reporting contexts. The analysis focuses on core blockchain characteristics—immutability, decentralization, cryptographic security, real-time verification, and transaction mining—and evaluates their implications for audit processes and governance mechanisms. The results highlight that blockchain-enabled audit trails allow continuous access to verified transactional data, significantly improving early detection of anomalies, reducing opportunities for data manipulation, and enhancing the reliability of financial reporting. The study further demonstrates that permissioned blockchain architectures, combined with smart contract automation, can operationally support real-time audit logging and procedural compliance while minimizing human error. However, empirical insights also reveal critical implementation challenges, including interoperability constraints, scalability issues, regulatory uncertainty, and organizational resistance. In terms of contribution, this research offers a conceptual and methodological contribution by developing an integrated blockchain-based auditing framework that systematically links technological features with audit objectives and fraud prevention mechanisms. Unlike prior descriptive reviews, this study explicitly positions its framework against existing auditing and blockchain literature, clarifying how blockchain-based audit trails extend current auditing theory and provide practical design implications for enterprise accounting systems. Overall, the findings advance scholarly understanding of blockchain-enabled auditing and provide actionable insights for auditors, system designers, and regulators seeking to implement next-generation digital audit infrastructures.