diff --git a/backend/src/lib/audit.js b/backend/src/lib/audit.js
index fbafb10..f70f3cc 100644
--- a/backend/src/lib/audit.js
+++ b/backend/src/lib/audit.js
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ async function insertAuditLog({ payload, payloadHash, signature }) {
 
   for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= AUDIT_DB_RETRY_ATTEMPTS; attempt += 1) {
     try {
-      await pool.query(
+      await optimizedWrite(
         `INSERT INTO audit_logs (merchant_id, action, status, ip_address, user_agent, payload_hash, signature)
          VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7)`,
         [
@@ -112,6 +112,10 @@ async function insertAuditLog({ payload, payloadHash, signature }) {
           payloadHash,
           signature,
         ],
+        {
+          label: "insert_login_audit_log",
+          merchantId: payload.merchant_id,
+        }
       );
       recordCircuitSuccess();
       return { success: true };
diff --git a/backend/src/lib/audit.test.js b/backend/src/lib/audit.test.js
index 52b53d3..de32778 100644
--- a/backend/src/lib/audit.test.js
+++ b/backend/src/lib/audit.test.js
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ const { mockQuery, mockIsRetryablePoolError, mockConsumeRateLimit, mockHashPaylo
 vi.mock("./db.js", () => ({
   pool: { query: mockQuery },
   isRetryablePoolError: mockIsRetryablePoolError,
+  queryWithRetry: mockQuery,
 }));
 
 vi.mock("./audit-replay.js", () => ({
diff --git a/backend/src/services/auditService.js b/backend/src/services/auditService.js
index ab36d0a..f76740a 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/auditService.js
+++ b/backend/src/services/auditService.js
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ async function insertAuditLog({ payload, payloadHash, signature }) {
 
   for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= AUDIT_DB_RETRY_ATTEMPTS; attempt += 1) {
     try {
-      await pool.query(
+      await optimizedWrite(
         `INSERT INTO audit_logs (merchant_id, action, field_changed, old_value, new_value, ip_address, user_agent, payload_hash, signature)
          VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9)`,
         [
@@ -94,6 +94,10 @@ async function insertAuditLog({ payload, payloadHash, signature }) {
           payloadHash,
           signature,
         ],
+        {
+          label: "insert_audit_log",
+          merchantId: payload.merchant_id,
+        }
       );
       recordSvcSuccess();
       return { success: true };
@@ -118,11 +122,9 @@ export const auditService = {
   /**
    * Retrieve paginated audit logs for a merchant.
    *
-   * Uses a single SQL query with a COUNT(*) OVER() window function so that
-   * the total row count and the page data are fetched in one round-trip to
-   * the database instead of two (issue #770).  The composite index on
-   * (merchant_id, timestamp) created in migration 20260425000000 is used by
-   * the ORDER BY clause to avoid a sequential scan on large tables.
+   * Splits paginated queries into parallel count and row retrieval queries (issue #770)
+   * executed via optimizedQuery to allow cacheability and avoid full table scan
+   * materialization in Postgres.
    */
   async getAuditLogs(merchantId, page = 1, limit = 50) {
     let p = parseInt(page, 10) || 1;
diff --git a/backend/src/services/auditService.test.js b/backend/src/services/auditService.test.js
index 6dba514..d3eb9a8 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/auditService.test.js
+++ b/backend/src/services/auditService.test.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ const { mockQuery, mockIsRetryablePoolError, mockConsumeRateLimit, mockHashPaylo
 vi.mock("../lib/db.js", () => ({
   pool: { query: mockQuery },
   isRetryablePoolError: mockIsRetryablePoolError,
+  queryWithRetry: mockQuery,
 }));
 
 vi.mock("../lib/audit-replay.js", () => ({
@@ -132,26 +133,30 @@ describe("auditService", () => {
 
   // ── SQL optimization: getAuditLogs (issue #770) ───────────────────────────
 
-  it("fetches logs and count in a single window-function query", async () => {
+  it("fetches logs and count using optimized parallel queries", async () => {
+    mockQuery.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+      rows: [{ total_count: "3" }],
+    });
     mockQuery.mockResolvedValueOnce({
       rows: [
-        { id: 1, action: "update", field_changed: "email", old_value: "a@b.com", new_value: "c@d.com", ip_address: "1.2.3.4", user_agent: "ua", timestamp: new Date(), total_count: "3" },
-        { id: 2, action: "login", field_changed: null, old_value: null, new_value: null, ip_address: "1.2.3.4", user_agent: "ua", timestamp: new Date(), total_count: "3" },
+        { id: 1, action: "update", field_changed: "email", old_value: "a@b.com", new_value: "c@d.com", ip_address: "1.2.3.4", user_agent: "ua", timestamp: new Date() },
+        { id: 2, action: "login", field_changed: null, old_value: null, new_value: null, ip_address: "1.2.3.4", user_agent: "ua", timestamp: new Date() },
       ],
     });
 
     const result = await auditService.getAuditLogs("merchant-1", 1, 2);
 
-    expect(mockQuery).toHaveBeenCalledOnce();
-    const [sql] = mockQuery.mock.calls[0];
-    expect(sql).toMatch(/COUNT\(\*\) OVER\(\)/i);
+    expect(mockQuery).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2);
+    const [countSql] = mockQuery.mock.calls[0];
+    const [logsSql] = mockQuery.mock.calls[1];
+    expect(countSql).toMatch(/COUNT\(\*\)/i);
+    expect(logsSql).not.toMatch(/COUNT\(\*\) OVER\(\)/i);
     expect(result.total_count).toBe(3);
     expect(result.logs).toHaveLength(2);
-    // Ensure the synthetic total_count column is stripped from returned rows
-    expect(result.logs[0]).not.toHaveProperty("total_count");
   });
 
   it("returns zero total_count when no rows match", async () => {
+    mockQuery.mockResolvedValueOnce({ rows: [{ total_count: 0 }] });
     mockQuery.mockResolvedValueOnce({ rows: [] });
     const result = await auditService.getAuditLogs("merchant-nobody", 1, 10);
     expect(result.total_count).toBe(0);
@@ -159,9 +164,10 @@ describe("auditService", () => {
   });
 
   it("clamps page and limit to valid ranges", async () => {
+    mockQuery.mockResolvedValueOnce({ rows: [{ total_count: 0 }] });
     mockQuery.mockResolvedValueOnce({ rows: [] });
     const result = await auditService.getAuditLogs("merchant-1", -5, 200);
-    const [, params] = mockQuery.mock.calls[0];
+    const [, params] = mockQuery.mock.calls[1];
     expect(params[1]).toBe(100); // limit clamped to 100
     expect(params[2]).toBe(0);   // offset for page 1 = 0
     expect(result.page).toBe(1);