Evidence Bundle: Every Escrow Event in One ZIP

An escrow that closes cleanly leaves a paper trail behind it. Every state transition writes an immutable row to escrow_events. Triggers prevent updates and deletes — once an event lands, it stays. The H9 evidence bundle is the export of that trail, packaged for the audit moment.

What goes in the bundle

The deposit reference (IBAN, structured payment reference, transaction ID once reconciled), the ship-guard release event with the timestamp the seller was unblocked, the carrier and tracking number, the inspection acceptance event with the timestamp and the user who accepted, the dispute thread (if any) with all evidence files, the settlement breakdown with the fee snapshot, and the chronological event log itself with timestamps to the second.

Format

A ZIP file with a top-level manifest.json (the structured event log) and supporting files: PDFs of the deposit instructions, photo files referenced by the events, a settlement.csv. The buyer’s compliance officer or the seller’s auditor can open the ZIP and reconstruct exactly what happened.

Per-deal access

Either party can download the bundle for any escrow they were a participant in, from the escrow detail page (/escrow/[id]). Platform admins can download bundles for any escrow under their scope. The download is logged — somebody asking "who has the evidence" gets a row, not a guess.

Why immutable events

Because evidence that can be edited isn’t evidence. The escrow_events table has triggers that reject UPDATE and DELETE. New rows can be appended (a correction-event for an erroneous original event), but the original row stays. The bundle exports the full append-only history, including any corrections, with each event’s timestamp showing exactly when it was recorded.