If you are working in IT (and even directly not) then I suggest taking a look at Powershell.
Very good chance that you will be able to create your own customized auditing script. For free.
And learning Powershell is likely to prove very useful for future applications and requirements.
Also there are some things you can do via Group Policy.
Reference:
https://www.varonis.com/blog/windows-file-system-auditing/
Here is a link that encompasses both Group Policy and Powershell:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Easy-File-Server-Audit-94817a68
Overall for the most part I expect that you will be working mostly with "Gets" and not actually changing any file attributes.
Generally safe but do indeed always ensure that you have backups the are recoverable and readable.
Just start simple addressing the basic requirements and expand accordingly.