What is GDPR?
So accountability is a fuzzy word, but it's an important word in the GDPR. Accountability means that you, as a company, as a data controller, are accountable for the data that you have about people. It means that you need to protect it, keep it safe, keep it updated, but it also means that you need to be able to document that you've done the right things.
That you can prove it; that's why an audit trail is important. That's why having principles defined and written down is important. It's important to have policies and show that they're actually following it. So let's say that you're getting a request from a user to be deleted. The accountability principle means that you have a policy telling people or your employees how they should be handling those requests.
It also means that you can prove that you're actually responding within the timeframe of a month, but it also means that you are able to prove that you are complying with those principles.