Every year, a predictable scramble plays out in safety offices across the country: it's late January, and someone realizes the OSHA Form 300A has to go up on the wall on February 1. If your log has been kept honestly all year, this is a non-event. If it hasn't, it's a fire drill. Here's what the rule actually asks for.
The three forms, and how they relate
OSHA's injury and illness recordkeeping rule (29 CFR Part 1904) uses three forms that work together:
- Form 300 — the Log. A running list of every recordable work-related injury and illness for the year, one row each, with the classification (days away, restricted duty, etc.).
- Form 301 — the Incident Report. The detail behind each 300 entry: what happened, how, and the treatment. A workers' comp first report or an equivalent form can satisfy this.
- Form 300A — the Summary. The year-end totals from the 300, with no employee names. This is the one you post publicly.
You keep the 300 and 301 throughout the year; the 300A is derived from them at year-end.
What counts as "recordable"
Not every injury lands on the log. An injury or illness is recordable when it's work-related, is a new case, and meets at least one general-recording criterion — most commonly:
- 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
That "beyond first aid" line trips people up. OSHA defines first aid as a specific, closed list (things like a single dose of non-prescription medication at over-the-counter strength, cleaning a surface wound, using a bandage). Anything past that list generally makes the case recordable.
Recordable is not the same as reportable. Reporting is the separate obligation to call OSHA directly: a fatality within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Those calls happen regardless of what your 300 log says.
The posting window: February 1 to April 30
The 300A summary for the prior calendar year must be:
- Certified by a company executive as correct and complete, and
- Posted where notices to employees are customarily displayed, from February 1 through April 30.
It stays up for the full three months — not just a day. Even an establishment with zero recordable cases posts a 300A showing zeros.
Who's partially exempt
Two carve-outs reduce the burden for some employers:
- Small employers — companies with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the year are exempt from routinely keeping the 300/301/300A (though they must still report fatalities and severe injuries).
- Low-hazard industries — establishments in certain industry classifications listed in the rule are partially exempt.
If either applies, keep the reporting obligations in mind even when the logging obligation is lifted.
Electronic submission is a separate deadline
Posting on the wall is not the same as sending data to OSHA. Establishments above certain size and industry thresholds must electronically submit their 300A data (and, for the largest establishments in designated industries, 300 and 301 detail) through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application by the annual March 2 deadline. Thresholds change, so confirm which category your establishment falls into each year.
Retention
Keep the 300 log, the 300A summary, and the 301 reports for five years following the year they cover — and update the 300 log during that period if you learn of a recordable case you missed.
Where the year-round work actually is
The February posting is easy when the log is already right. The hard part is the other eleven months: catching every recordable case, classifying it correctly, and not letting the paperwork drift. That's a data-discipline problem, not a forms problem — which is exactly where software earns its place.
SE Worldwide keeps the 300 log current as incidents are reported and classified, flags likely recordability for a human to confirm (recordability carries judgment that legally requires a person's call — our AI suggests, a person decides), assembles the 300A with a certification bound to a tamper-evident audit trail, and tracks both the posting window and the electronic-submission deadline so neither sneaks up on you.
This article is general information about health, safety, and environmental regulations, not legal or compliance advice. Rules change and apply differently by site — verify against the current regulation and your own obligations. See our Terms of Use.