a paper trail
paper trail
Physical or digital documentation of a person's activities. The con artist wrote fraudulent checks all over the state, leaving a paper trail for police to follow. Frank swore that he wasn't using the company's computer for illegal activities, but the digital paper trail he left proved otherwise.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
a paper trail
A paper trail is written evidence of someone or something's activities. Police investigations found a paper trail of checks that were written on false bank accounts. Unlike conventional voting systems, many electronic systems leave no paper trail to allow results to be double-checked.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012