OSHA Form 301 Seven-Day Rule: When the Incident Report Must Be Complete

You have 7 calendar days from receiving information that a recordable injury or illness occurred to enter it on the 300 Log and complete the 301. Weekends count, and the clock starts when you learn the case is recordable, which can be days after the incident itself.

• Day 0: you receive information that a recordable injury or illness occurred.
• Within 7 calendar days: the case is on the 300 Log and its 301 (or equivalent) is complete.
• Year end: the log is reviewed, totaled on the 300A, and certified by a company executive.
• February 1, 2027 to April 30, 2027: the certified 300A is posted.

OSHA recordkeeping uses three forms (29 CFR 1904.29). The OSHA 300 Log lists every recordable case with a one- or two-line description. The OSHA 301 Incident Report, or an equivalent form such as an insurance first report of injury that carries the same information, holds the detail for each case. The OSHA 300A Summary totals the log at year end. Each recordable case must be on the 300 and the 301 within 7 calendar days of receiving information that it occurred. The 300A is the only form you post, from February 1 to April 30, and a company executive certifies it first (29 CFR 1904.32).

Teams confuse incident notification with the seven-calendar-day recordkeeping clock. Enter each recordable case on the 300 Log and complete the 301 within seven calendar days after learning the case is recordable.

1. Open the case as soon as the incident is reported.
2. Decide recordability as soon as the facts allow.
3. Enter the case on the 300 and start the 301 within 7 calendar days.
4. Mark missing 301 fields and complete them as information arrives.

Enter the case as soon as you catch it and keep both dates: when you learned of the case and when you recorded it. A late entry is far better than a missing one, and you can complete the 301 with the facts you have while the rest is gathered. Recordkeeping failures can be cited, with maximum penalties of $16,550 per violation in 2026.

Teams wait for every claim detail before starting the 301 packet. Start the 301 with the facts you have and fill the gaps as they arrive; the 7-day clock does not wait for the claim file.

When the three forms live in separate files, the log, the incident reports, and the summary drift apart, and the certified numbers stop matching the case files. The fix is to treat the forms as one record with three views: a case number ties each 300 row to its 301, and the 300A is only ever totaled from the reviewed log.

Coordinators tend to do the data entry and chase the facts, so a short list of what to ask for, and from whom, saves more time than any template.

• The seven-day clock is tied to receiving information that a recordable injury or illness occurred.
• Case descriptions are read by employees and former employees, who can request the log, so write them as if they will be shared, because they will be.

An employee reports a sore wrist on Monday; the nurse gives an ice pack (first aid), so nothing is recorded. On Thursday a doctor prescribes a rigid splint, which is medical treatment. The case became recordable on Thursday, so the 300 entry and the 301 are due by the following Thursday, not the Monday after the first report.

300log builds the 300 row, the 301 detail, and the 300A totals from a single incident record, so the three forms cannot drift apart, and it exports each one as a PDF when you need to post, print, or hand over a copy.

For a quick answer without an account, use the free recordability checker.

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