Updating the OSHA 300 Log After Year End: What Changes and What Does Not

For five years, keep stored 300 Logs current with newly discovered cases and changes in outcome; updating the 300A and the 301s is optional. Line out the original entry rather than overwriting it, so the change is visible.

Late medical updates are normal and should not cause panic.

Gather these first, and keep them with the record afterward:

• The 300 Log with line-outs or a change history showing original and new entries
• The privacy case list for the same years
• Certified 300A summaries and the worksheets behind them
• The date and reason for each post-year-end change

Keep the 300 Log, the privacy case list, the 300A, and the 301 reports for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover (29 CFR 1904.33); 2026 records are kept through the end of 2031. During those five years you must keep the 300 Log current: add newly discovered recordable cases and update entries whose classification or outcome changes, lining out the original. Updating the 300A and the 301s is optional. If the business is sold, the seller transfers the records and the buyer keeps them for the rest of the period (29 CFR 1904.34).

1. Receive the new facts.
2. Update the log for the year the case occurred.
3. Preserve the original entry and the basis.
4. Decide whether an optional summary update helps.

Tip: Update stored OSHA 300 Logs during the five-year retention period when new cases or outcome changes appear.

Teams sometimes edit the annual summary because the log changed after posting.

The log keeps changing after the 300A comes down, and a year-end PDF that never gets updated drifts away from the facts. The fix is to treat stored logs as live records: every late fact updates the right year's log, with the original lined out and the change dated.

As the safety manager you usually own the decision itself, so the most useful habit is writing down the fact each call rests on at the time you make it.

• OSHA does not require updating the 300A summary but the log update still matters.
• If a site closes, its records still have to be kept and produced on request for the full five years.

In March 2027, HR learns that an employee who reported a minor burn in November 2026 later had a skin graft. The 2026 log is updated: the case is added as recordable (it was never entered), with the date the new facts arrived noted. The posted 300A stays as it is.

Updates to stored logs change the rates you report internally and can affect what you would resubmit to the ITA, even though the posted 300A does not have to be redone.

300log keeps each establishment's log by year, so a late update goes on the log for the year the case occurred and that year's totals are recalculated.

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