An email at 4:10 p.m. and a clock that may have started
At 4:10 p.m. on a Thursday, the HR manager at a two-site fabrication company opens a forwarded message from a shift supervisor. An employee hurt lifting a die last Friday finished the week, then got a note from an outside clinic keeping her off her next three shifts. The supervisor asks whether this goes on the log, and whether it should have gone on already.
The manager keeps the company's OSHA 300 log in a shared spreadsheet with one tab per site, and nobody else owns it. Three questions sit under that email: is the case recordable, which site's log does it belong on, and what date did the clock start? The regulation supplies the tests and the clock. The judgments inside them belong to the employer.
This guide covers what goes on the log, how many days you have to enter a case, how to correct an entry, and which log a case belongs on. You will finish able to tell which of those calls are set by the rule and which are yours.
Reference material with citations, not legal advice. You decide recordability and compensability, and you file.
What goes on the OSHA 300 log, and when
The 300 log is a running list of the work-related injury and illness cases an employer has decided are recordable. It is not a list of every incident. Private-industry employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2024, down 3.1 percent from 2023 (BLS, 2024 data, released January 2026). Behind each count in a series like that sits an employer's decision about one case.
Under 29 CFR 1904.4(a), a case is recorded when it is work-related, is a new case, and meets one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7 (or the specific-case rules in 1904.8 through 1904.12). Section 1904.7(a) names the outcomes: "death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness," plus a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional. The section's wording controls, and you apply it. How the 300, 300A and 301 differ is covered in our comparison of the three forms.
The seven-calendar-day window
An employer must enter each recordable case on the establishment's 300 log, and complete its 301 incident report, within seven calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred (29 CFR 1904.29(b)(3), checked 2026).
Each part of that sentence matters. The unit is calendar days, so weekends and holidays count. The trigger is receiving information that a recordable case has occurred, not the date of the injury. In the opening scenario, the Friday injury was not the trigger; the clinic note on Thursday may have been. Whether that note makes the case recordable is the employer's decision, and the date the information arrived is the date to document. Call it Day Zero: the date you knew.
The regulation does not say whether the day you receive the information counts as day one, so confirm that with OSHA before you build a formula around it.
What a log line holds
Section 1904.29(b)(1) requires information about your business at the top of the log and "a one or two line description for each recordable injury or illness." Under 1904.7(b)(3) and (b)(4), a days-away or restricted case also gets a check mark in its outcome space and an entry of the number of days. For the other columns, read the headings and instructions on the current form itself. OSHA provides the blank forms, and our guide on how to fill out the log walks through each column. The harder work is not the layout; it is deciding which cases belong on it.
Privacy concern cases
For a defined set of privacy concern cases, the employee's name is left off the log. The regulation says its list is exhaustive:
"this is a complete list of all injuries and illnesses considered privacy concern cases for part 1904 purposes" — 29 CFR 1904.29(b)(8), eCFR, checked 2026
The list itself is in 1904.29(b)(7). For those cases you enter "privacy case" in place of the name and keep a separate, confidential list of case numbers and names (1904.29(b)(6)).
Do not extend the list by analogy. Read it at the source, and decide whether a given case falls inside it.
Who has to keep one
Under 29 CFR 1904.1, a company with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year is partially exempt from routinely keeping these records (29 CFR 1904.1(a)(1), checked 2026). Under 29 CFR 1904.2, an establishment classified in an industry group listed in Appendix A to Subpart B is also partially exempt, so check that list for your industry.
Partial exemption does not remove the duty to report severe injuries. Under 29 CFR 1904.39, an employer must report a work-related fatality to OSHA within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or eye loss within 24 hours (OSHA, checked 2026). Those are reports to OSHA, not log entries.
What you decide: recordability, work-relatedness and the 180-day cap
The log holds decided cases. For each one, the regulation sets the questions and the employer answers them. Three decisions come up most often: whether the injury or illness is work-related, whether it is a new case, and whether it meets a recording criterion. The rule says what to ask. You decide the answer, and you should write down why.
Medical treatment beyond first aid is where judgment is most often needed. Section 1904.7(b)(5)(ii) lists the treatments that count as first aid, and (b)(5)(iii) calls it "a complete list of all treatments considered first aid for part 1904 purposes." The definition of medical treatment in (b)(5)(i) also excludes visits solely for observation or counseling and diagnostic procedures. Read the list rather than relying on what a clinic calls the visit. Restricted work is defined in 1904.7(b)(4): you keep the employee from one or more routine functions of the job or from the full workday, or a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends that. Applying it to the facts of the job is your call.
None of this is a compensability decision. Whether a workers' compensation claim is payable is decided under state law by the carrier or the state agency, on different tests. A case can be on the log and still be disputed as a claim. Keep the two decisions separate in your own tracker.
The 180-day cap
Employers may cap the count of days away from work or days of restriction at 180 calendar days on the log (29 CFR 1904.7(b)(3)(vii), checked 2026). OSHA's wording is that you may "cap" the total days away at 180 calendar days. The trigger is a case whose running count reaches that point, the unit is calendar days, and the capped count goes on that case's line of the log. The word is "may": capping is an option, not a requirement.
Two counting details are set in the section itself. You "begin counting days away on the day after the injury occurred or the illness began" (1904.7(b)(3)(i)), and you count calendar days "regardless of whether or not the employee was scheduled to work on those day(s)" (1904.7(b)(3)(iv)).
A case is recorded once
A case that starts in one year and causes days away in the next calendar year is recorded only once, in the year it occurred (29 CFR 1904.7(b)(3)(ix), checked 2026). OSHA's answer to that question is "No, you only record the injury or illness once." If the employee is still away when you prepare the annual summary, the same paragraph says to estimate the total and "update the initial log entry later," which is one reason a log has to stay open to updates.
How to correct the log: updates during the retention period
Cases do not stay still. A restricted-work case becomes a days-away case, a diagnosis arrives weeks later, or a case surfaces after the year has closed. If you are asking how to correct the OSHA 300 log, the starting point is 29 CFR 1904.33(b), which covers updating the stored log during the five-year retention period.
The regulation says that during the storage period "you must update your stored OSHA 300 Logs to include newly discovered recordable injuries or illnesses and to show any changes that have occurred in the classification of previously recorded injuries and illnesses." If the description or outcome of a case changes, you "remove or line out the original entry and enter the new information" (1904.33(b)(1)).
- A newly discovered case. The seven-calendar-day clock runs from receiving the information. Add it to the stored log it belongs on.
- A changed case. Line out the original entry and enter the new classification and day counts.
- An entry you now think was a mistake. This differs from a case that changed, and 1904.33(b) does not address it in those terms. Confirm the handling with OSHA and document the basis.
Whatever you change, keep a record of what changed, when, and on what information. A spreadsheet that is overwritten holds the current answer but not the earlier one. That is a workflow observation, not a rule. A change to a past year's log can also change the totals on a 300A that was already certified, posted or submitted, so confirm with OSHA or your State Plan agency how to handle it.
Which log a case belongs on: remote employees, temps and multiple sites
An employer must keep a separate log for each establishment expected to be in operation for one year or longer (29 CFR 1904.30(a), checked 2026). For a multi-site employer, that means one log per site, even when one person owns them all. For short-term establishments, 1904.30(b)(1) says "You may keep one OSHA 300 Log that covers all of your short-term establishments." Our guide to keeping the log across several locations covers consolidation.
Remote employees raise two separate questions. The first is where the case belongs. Because logs are kept by establishment, a case for someone who works from home or moves between customer sites has to be assigned to one. Section 1904.30(b)(3) says you must link each employee with one of your establishments, and (b)(4) says a case that happens away from your establishments goes on the log of the establishment where the employee normally works. Confirm with OSHA if your facts are unusual. The second question is whether the case is work-related at all. 29 CFR 1904.5(b)(7) treats a home-work injury as work-related if it occurs while the employee is performing work for pay and is directly related to that work rather than to the general home setting. You apply it to the facts and decide.
Workers you supervise day to day count too. OSHA's interpretation says the rule "requires employers to record the recordable injuries and illnesses of employees they supervise on a day-to-day basis," including temporary, leased or contract workers who are not on your payroll (OSHA, 2018). How a host employer and a staffing agency divide recordkeeping beyond that test depends on the facts, so confirm with OSHA.
In a State Plan state, the state agency administers its own program. OSHA lists 22 State Plans covering both private-sector and state and local government workers (OSHA State Plans, checked 2026), so check your state agency's recordkeeping and reporting pages alongside the federal text.
Keeping the record defensible: retention, access and what the log feeds
An employer must keep each OSHA 300 log, 300A summary and 301 incident report for five years following the end of the calendar year the records cover (29 CFR 1904.33(a), checked 2026). That duty stays with the employer, whatever tool holds the entries.
Access has its own clocks. When an employee, former employee or employee representative asks for a copy of the log, the employer must provide it by the end of the next business day and may not charge for a first copy (29 CFR 1904.35(b)(2), checked 2026). When an authorized government representative asks for Part 1904 records, the employer must provide copies within four business hours (29 CFR 1904.40(a), checked 2026).
The log also feeds the annual summary. The 300A must be posted no later than February 1 of the year after the year it covers and kept posted until April 30 (29 CFR 1904.32(b)(6), checked 2026), and a company executive must certify it (1904.32(b)(3)). Our guide to the 300A annual summary covers both. A log with unfinished day counts in January produces a summary with unfinished totals.
Some establishments also submit electronically. Covered establishments must submit their injury and illness data to OSHA through the Injury Tracking Application by March 2 of the year after the covered year; calendar-year 2025 data was due March 2, 2026 (OSHA ITA user guide, checked 2026). Under 29 CFR 1904.41(a), establishments with 20–249 employees in industries listed in Appendix A to Subpart E submit 300A data, those with 250 or more employees that must keep records also submit 300A data, and those with 100 or more employees in Appendix B industries also submit 300 and 301 data. Check the Subpart E appendices to see whether you are covered.
For calendar year 2023, OSHA received Form 300A data on more than 1.5 million work-related injuries and illnesses from more than 385,000 establishments (OSHA, 2023 summary). The employer submits those data; ClaimsIntake never submits to OSHA or to anyone else.
Where tools fit, and what to check next
Many employers keep the OSHA 300 log in Excel or Google Sheets, with email for the trail. That setup is flexible and familiar, and many were built carefully. A spreadsheet holds dates and counts, but not the rule that produced a date or the version of the rule in force when a clock started. OSHA's Injury Tracking Application and state agency portals are free, authoritative channels, each working one agency at a time. Incident apps and EHS suites capture events; whichever tool you use should keep the recordability decision with a named person and the citation next to it.
ClaimsIntake's OSHA 300, 300A and 301 log workbook computes days-away and restricted-day counts and rolls the log into the 300A, which suits a single-state employer with a few sites. The app now being built will be designed to build the 300 log from decided cases only, with an append-only audit trail and rule-version history. In both, the employer decides recordability and files.
Before your next entry, run three checks:
- For recent cases, compare the date you received the information with the date you entered the case.
- List every establishment, confirm each has its own log, and confirm where remote employees are assigned.
- Take open questions on day counting, remote-work assignment or changed cases to OSHA or your State Plan agency.
Reference material with citations, not legal advice. You decide recordability and compensability, and you file.
ClaimsIntake is published by Rovaryn Digital Inc., a software publisher. It is not a law firm and is not affiliated with OSHA or any State Plan. To hear when the app opens and when the related guides publish, join the waitlist.
