The OSHA 300 log is the record of work-related injuries and illnesses that most employers with more than 10 employees must keep under 29 CFR 1904. It is three forms: the 300 log itself, the 301 incident report (both due within 7 calendar days), and the 300A annual summary, posted February 1 through April 30.
Recordkeeping software exists to keep all three current at once: it enforces the 7-day window, totals the 300A for you, and produces the records on demand when an inspector asks.
Of all the ways a small business fails an OSHA inspection, recordkeeping is the most avoidable. Your injury numbers might be low and your crew might be safe, but if you can't produce a clean, current OSHA 300 log on demand, you can still be cited. Recordkeeping violations are pure paperwork failures, and they're 100% preventable.
This guide explains what the OSHA 300 log actually is, why spreadsheets and paper quietly set you up to fail, and what 300 log software does to keep you compliant year-round.
What is the OSHA 300 log?
The OSHA 300 log is the federal recordkeeping system for work-related injuries and illnesses. Most employers with more than 10 employees (outside of certain low-hazard industries) are required to maintain it. The size exemption in 1904.1 is based on your company's peak employment for the year, not on any single establishment, so a business that crosses 10 employees at any point during the year is covered. The industry exemption in 1904.2 works the opposite way and applies per establishment. The list of partially exempt industries is Appendix A to Subpart B, and it covers much of retail, finance, insurance, and professional services.
The log is actually three connected forms, all downloadable from OSHA's recordkeeping forms page:
| Form | What it is | Key deadline |
|---|---|---|
| OSHA 300 | The running log of every recordable injury and illness | Log within 7 calendar days of learning of the incident |
| OSHA 300A | The annual summary of the year's totals | Posted February 1 – April 30 each year |
| OSHA 301 | The detailed incident report for each case | Completed within 7 days of each incident |
All records must be retained for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover (1904.33). During that storage period you must keep updating the stored 300 logs as you discover new recordable cases or a case's classification changes; the 300A and the 301 forms do not have to be updated.
OSHA Form 300A: posting requirements for 2026
The OSHA 300A is the one-page summary of everything on your 300 log for the calendar year. It is the form most small businesses get wrong, because it carries three separate obligations that the running log does not.
Totalling and posting the 300A
At the end of each calendar year you must review the 300 log for accuracy, total the columns, and enter the year covered, your company and establishment name and address, the annual average number of employees, and the total hours worked by everyone the log covers (29 CFR 1904.32(b)(2)).
If you had no recordable cases, you enter zeros for each column total and post it anyway. The regulation is explicit about this, and a missing 300A on a zero-injury year is still a citable failure.
Post the summary no later than February 1 of the following year and keep it up until April 30, in each establishment, in a conspicuous place where you customarily post notices to employees. You also have to make sure it does not get altered, defaced, or covered by other material. A 300A buried under a shift schedule on the breakroom board does not meet the standard.
Who has to sign it
The 300A must be certified by a company executive who has examined the 300 log and reasonably believes the summary is correct and complete. OSHA limits that to four people (1904.32(b)(4)):
- An owner of the company, but only if it is a sole proprietorship or partnership
- An officer of the corporation
- The highest ranking company official working at the establishment
- The immediate supervisor of that highest ranking official
A safety coordinator or office manager signing the 300A is one of the more common recordkeeping defects, and it is easy to avoid once you know the list.
Do you have to submit the 300A electronically?
Posting and submitting are different obligations. Under 1904.41, three categories of establishment must submit electronically through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application by March 2 of the following year:
| Establishment | What it submits |
|---|---|
| 20–249 employees in an industry listed in appendix A to subpart E | 300A only |
| 250 or more employees, and required to keep records | 300A only |
| 100 or more employees in an industry listed in appendix B to subpart E | 300A plus the 300 log and 301 forms |
Everyone else submits only if OSHA notifies them to for a specific data collection. Note the employee counts are per establishment and count part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers, so a contractor who is exempt company-wide can still have a covered establishment.
Submission goes through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application, which accepts data three ways: typed into a web form, uploaded as a CSV, or pushed through an API. The window opens in early January, so there is no reason to sit on it until the deadline.
What counts as an OSHA recordable injury?
A work-related injury or illness goes on the 300 log if it results in any one of six outcomes (29 CFR 1904.7(a)):
- Death
- Days away from work
- Restricted work or transfer to another job
- Medical treatment beyond first aid
- Loss of consciousness
- A significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, even if none of the above apply
Five of those are easy to judge. The one that generates almost all the argument is medical treatment beyond first aid.
Recordable, or just first aid?
OSHA settles this by defining first aid as a closed list. If the treatment appears on the list below, it is first aid and the case is not recordable on that basis alone. If it does not appear, it is medical treatment and the case is recordable. The regulation states plainly that this is a complete list (1904.7(b)(5)(iii)):
- Non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength
- Tetanus immunizations
- Cleaning, flushing, or soaking surface wounds
- Wound coverings such as bandages, gauze pads, butterfly bandages, or Steri-Strips
- Hot or cold therapy
- Non-rigid support such as elastic bandages, wraps, or non-rigid back belts
- Temporary immobilization devices used while transporting an accident victim, such as splints, slings, neck collars, or back boards
- Drilling a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining a blister
- Eye patches
- Removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab
- Removing splinters or foreign material from anywhere other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs, or other simple means
- Finger guards
- Massages
- Drinking fluids for relief of heat stress
The parenthetical exceptions in the standard are where cases flip. A non-prescription drug taken at prescription strength on a professional's recommendation is medical treatment. Sutures or staples are medical treatment, while butterfly bandages are not. A rigid brace designed to immobilize is medical treatment, while an elastic wrap is not. Immunizations other than tetanus, such as hepatitis B or rabies, are medical treatment. Physical therapy and chiropractic treatment are medical treatment, while a massage is not.
Two things that do not make a case recordable on their own: visits to a professional purely for observation or counseling, and diagnostic procedures such as x-rays and blood tests. Who provides the treatment also makes no difference: the same procedure is classified identically whether a paramedic or a supervisor performs it.
Recordable or reportable? They are different duties
Recording and reporting are two separate obligations, and confusing them is one of the most common recordkeeping mistakes. Recording means writing the case into your own files: a line on the 300 log and its own 301 form. Nobody at OSHA is notified. Reporting means picking up the phone and telling OSHA directly, and it applies only to the most severe outcomes.
Under 29 CFR 1904.39, you must report:
| Outcome | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Death of an employee from a work-related incident | Within 8 hours |
| In-patient hospitalization of one or more employees | Within 24 hours |
| Amputation | Within 24 hours |
| Loss of an eye | Within 24 hours |
You report by calling the nearest OSHA area office, calling 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742), or filing through the reporting application on osha.gov. If the area office is closed, the 800 number and the online form are the only two options that count. A voicemail, a fax, or an email does not satisfy the rule.
Two things worth holding onto. Every reportable event is also recordable, but the reverse is not true, and most recordable cases never get called in. And the reporting duty applies to every employer covered by the OSH Act, including the small businesses and low-hazard industries that are partially exempt from keeping the 300 log at all.
Employee access and privacy concern cases
The 300 log is not an internal document you can keep in a drawer. Under 1904.35(b)(2), current employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized collective bargaining agent all have the right to a copy of the 300 log for an establishment they worked in, and you must hand it over by the end of the next business day.
You are not allowed to strip the names out before you do. The privacy protection happens earlier, when you write the case down in the first place.
What is a privacy concern case?
For a privacy concern case you enter "privacy case" in the space where the employee's name would go, and you keep a separate confidential list matching case numbers to names so you can still update the case and produce it for the government. Like the first aid list, 1904.29(b)(8) states this is a complete list:
- An injury or illness to an intimate body part or the reproductive system
- An injury or illness resulting from a sexual assault
- Mental illnesses
- HIV infection, hepatitis, or tuberculosis
- Needlestick injuries and cuts from sharp objects contaminated with another person's blood or other potentially infectious material
- Other illnesses, where the employee voluntarily asks that their name not go on the log
If you think the person could still be identified from the description even without the name, 1904.29(b)(9) lets you use discretion in how you describe the injury on the 300 and 301, as long as you still record enough to identify the cause.
Free OSHA 300 log template (Excel & PDF)
Download a free, ready-to-use OSHA 300 log template that covers all three forms (the 300, 300A, and 301) in one file. The Excel version auto-calculates your 300A summary totals as you fill in the log, so you never have to add up the year's numbers by hand. The PDF is print-ready if you prefer a paper copy to post.
⬇ Download the Excel template (.xlsx) · ⬇ Download the printable PDF
Here is the structure of the OSHA 300 log itself. Print this table or use the downloads above:
| Case No. | Employee name | Job title | Date of injury | Where it occurred | Describe injury/illness | Classify (G/H/I/J) | Days away (K) | Type (1–6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 3 |
Classify each case in one column: G Death · H Days away from work · I Job transfer/restriction · J Other recordable. Type code: 1 Injury · 2 Skin disorder · 3 Respiratory · 4 Poisoning · 5 Hearing loss · 6 All other illness.
Why spreadsheets and paper fail an OSHA audit
Most small businesses track injuries in a spreadsheet or a paper binder. Both work fine right up until an inspector asks for them. Here's where they break down:
- No deadline enforcement. Nothing reminds you of the 7-day logging rule or the February 1 posting date. Miss it and it's a citation.
- Easy to lose or fall behind. A binder gets misplaced; a spreadsheet stops getting updated mid-year.
- Manual summary math. The 300A totals are calculated by hand, and errors are common.
- Hard to produce on demand. When OSHA asks, "scattered across three people's emails" is not an acceptable answer.
What OSHA 300 log software does
Purpose-built recordkeeping software removes the manual work and the missed-deadline risk. At its core, it:
- Captures each recordable incident in a structured, consistent format
- Enforces the 7-day logging window so nothing slips
- Keeps the 300, 300A, and 301 data centralized and current
- Makes the annual 300A summary easy to produce and post on time
- Retains records for the required five years automatically
Spreadsheet vs. recordkeeping software
| Capability | Spreadsheet / paper | Recordkeeping software |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline reminders | 🔴 None | 🟢 Built in |
| 300A summary totals | 🟠 Manual math | 🟢 Calculated for you |
| Audit-ready in seconds | 🔴 Rarely | 🟢 Always |
| 5-year retention | 🟠 Manual | 🟢 Automatic |
| Single source of truth | 🔴 Scattered | 🟢 Centralized |
Frequently asked questions
Do small businesses have to keep an OSHA 300 log?
Most employers with more than 10 employees must, unless they're in a partially exempt low-hazard industry. Even exempt businesses must report severe incidents and may be asked to keep records by OSHA at any time.
What happens if I don't keep my 300 log current?
Recordkeeping failures are citable on their own, separate from any actual injury. Missing logs, a late 300A posting, or incomplete records can each result in penalties, which is why automating it is worth it.
When must the OSHA 300A be posted?
From February 1 through April 30 of the year following the year covered, in each establishment, in a conspicuous place where you customarily post notices to employees. You post it even if you had zero recordable cases that year, entering zeros for the column totals.
What is the difference between a recordable injury and first aid?
First aid is a closed list of 14 treatments in 1904.7(b)(5)(ii), including non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength, wound coverings, hot or cold therapy, and removing splinters by simple means. Any treatment not on that list is medical treatment, which makes the case recordable.
Who is allowed to certify the OSHA 300A?
Only a company executive: an owner if the company is a sole proprietorship or partnership, an officer of the corporation, the highest ranking company official working at the establishment, or that official's immediate supervisor.
Who is exempt from OSHA 300 logs?
Two groups. Companies with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, measured on company-wide peak employment, and establishments in the partially exempt low-hazard industries listed in appendix A to subpart B, which covers much of retail, finance, insurance, and professional services. Both must still report fatalities, in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye, and both must keep records if OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics asks in writing.
Where do I post my OSHA 300 log?
You do not post the 300 log itself, because it carries employee names. You post the 300A summary, in each establishment, in a conspicuous place where you customarily post notices to employees, from February 1 through April 30.
What happens if you submit OSHA 300 late?
Each deadline is citable on its own, separate from any injury. A 300A that goes up after February 1, a log that is not current within 7 calendar days of learning about a case, and a missed March 2 electronic submission are three different failures, and none of them require anyone to have been hurt for a citation to be written.
Recordkeeping is one item on a longer list of paperwork an inspector can ask for, and it rarely gets looked at in isolation. Our breakdown of the written programs a small business owes covers the rest, what actually happens during an inspection walks through the visit itself, and the mistakes small contractors repeat is worth reading before your first one.
Keep your injury records audit-ready year-round. Safety Team Technologies includes digital recordkeeping alongside automated training and hazard reporting, so your compliance records are centralized, current, and ready the moment OSHA asks. See how recordkeeping works or start your free trial.
