paper-trail

paper-trail (plural paper-trails)

1. Alternative form of paper trail
   • 2010, John Francome, Inside Track:

     Jane found herself looking at the conventional paper-trail of a young woman's financial life –credit-card bills, reams of bank statements and a building society passbook.

   • 2015, Charles Tyrie, The Langley Boy to Be Better Than the Best!:

     For example, not only did we have to provide a child safety policy, we had to demonstrate that we operated one, that the policy documents were in the filing system, that staff had been inducted in the new policies and that there was a 'paper-trail', a horrible expression, to demonstrate that that a system was embedded in the school's management and teaching practices.

   • 2015, Ravi Narayanan, Understanding the Government Machine:

     The applicant would still need to approach the agency with the same application perhaps more than once so that a reasonable paper-trail of indecision on the case, or a stalemate or deadlock of the case situation is created.