OSHA 300 log case worksheet
One check mark, two numbers, and the day of the injury in neither. The box follows the most serious outcome of the case, not whatever happened last.
Work out the row for one case
A few questions, then the exact entry.
First aid, the complete list
These fourteen treatments are first aid for recordkeeping. Anything else is medical treatment, and medical treatment makes a work-related case recordable. OSHA closes the list outright: this is a complete list. Who provided the treatment makes no difference to which side of the line it falls on. 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(5)(ii).
- AUsing a non-prescription medication at nonprescription strength (for medications available in both prescription and non-prescription form, a recommendation by a physician or other licensed health care professional to use a non-prescription medication at prescription strength is considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes);
- BAdministering tetanus immunizations (other immunizations, such as Hepatitis B vaccine or rabies vaccine, are considered medical treatment);
- CCleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin;
- DUsing wound coverings such as bandages, Band-Aids™, gauze pads, etc.; or using butterfly bandages or Steri-Strips™ (other wound closing devices such as sutures, staples, etc., are considered medical treatment);
- EUsing hot or cold therapy;
- FUsing any non-rigid means of support, such as elastic bandages, wraps, non-rigid back belts, etc. (devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilize parts of the body are considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes);
- GUsing temporary immobilization devices while transporting an accident victim (e.g., splints, slings, neck collars, back boards, etc.).
- HDrilling of a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluid from a blister;
- IUsing eye patches;
- JRemoving foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab;
- KRemoving splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs or other simple means;
- LUsing finger guards;
- MUsing massages (physical therapy or chiropractic treatment are considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes); or
- NDrinking fluids for relief of heat stress.
Privacy concern cases, the complete list
On one of these six the employee's name does not go on the log. You write the words privacy case in the name column instead, and keep a separate confidential list of case numbers and names. This list is closed too, so an employee asking for their name to be left off anything else does not make it a privacy case. 29 CFR 1904.29(b)(6) to (b)(9).
- iAn injury or illness to an intimate body part or the reproductive system;
- iiAn injury or illness resulting from a sexual assault;
- iiiMental illnesses;
- ivHIV infection, hepatitis, or tuberculosis;
- vNeedlestick injuries and cuts from sharp objects that are contaminated with another person's blood or other potentially infectious material
- viOther illnesses, if the employee voluntarily requests that his or her name not be entered on the log.
The row, not the verdict
Recordable or not is the question that gets asked. It is also the half that does not go anywhere: what you have to write down is the row, which is one check mark in one of four columns and two day counts beside it, filled in independently of which box you checked.
One check mark, two numbers
The four classification columns are ranked. Column G is death, then H is days away from work, then I is job transfer or restriction, and J is everything else that is recordable. A case gets one check mark, in the column for its most serious outcome.
So a case where somebody stays home for three days and then comes back on light duty for two weeks is a days-away case. It is checked in H, not in I, even though the restricted work lasted four times longer and happened most recently. What goes in I is nothing, and what goes in the two day columns is 3 and 12. Both numbers are entered, because the log asks for both.
The day of the injury is in neither count
Counting starts the day after. That is a single sentence in the regulation and it moves every figure on the row by one. For restricted work it does more than that: a restriction imposed only for the day the injury happened is not a restricted work case at all, so it never reaches column I. The same restriction starting a day later is one day of restricted work.
Calendar days, except for the days nobody was going to work anyway
Days away are calendar days. Weekends, holidays and vacation count, so a fortnight off is 14 days rather than 10. Then the rule doubles back on itself: if the employee was hurt on a Friday, was not scheduled for the weekend and came back on Monday, the answer is zero days unless a clinician says they should not have worked. A calculator that counts the gap between two dates returns 2 here, and 2 is wrong.
The ceiling is shared, so the order of events changes the numbers
You can stop counting at 180 days. The regulation says "180 calendar days away from work and/or days of job transfer or restriction", which reads as though each column might get its own 180. The form instructions settle it: you stop "once the total of either or the combination of both reaches 180 days".
One ceiling across two columns has a consequence worth seeing. Days are allocated in the order they happened, so whichever spell ran last is the one that loses days to the ceiling. A hundred days away followed by a hundred restricted records 100 and 80. Reverse the order and the same case records 80 and 100.
A case that crosses new year is still one case
It stays on the log for the year the injury happened and the count carries straight over 31 December. There is no second entry on the new year's log and the days do not reset. If the employee is still off when the annual summary is due, you estimate, post the summary, and come back and correct the entry later.
Where this tool will mislead you
The inputs are judgements and it takes them from you rather than making them. Whether a restriction genuinely keeps somebody from a routine job function, whether a treatment falls outside the first aid list, whether an event at work contributed at all: these decide the answer, and a person decides them.
Two limits are deliberate. Asking whether a named treatment is recordable gets you nothing here, because that is a lookup and your dates are what make your case different from the example in a training slide. The second is that an unestablished fact never counts as a "no". Leave something open that bears on the row and the tool refuses and names the question instead of picking the likelier answer, on the grounds that a confident wrong row is worse than no row.
State plans can be stricter than the federal rule, and nothing here is legal advice or an inspection. If a figure disagrees with the regulation it cites, tell me and it gets fixed.
Terminology
- Recordable
- Work-related, a new case, and meeting at least one of the general recording criteria. All three have to hold, and this worksheet walks the first and the third.
- Restricted work
- The employee is kept from one or more routine job functions, or from working a full shift. Routine means a task performed at least once a week, so losing a monthly duty is not restricted work, and neither is simply producing less.
- Days away
- Calendar days the employee could not work because of the case, starting the day after it happened, and ending when they return or when a clinician says they could have.
- Privacy concern case
- One of six situations where the employee's name is replaced on the log by the words "privacy case" and kept on a separate confidential list.
Questions recordkeepers actually ask
The employee was out for three days and then on light duty for two weeks. Which box do I check?
One box, and it is days away from work, column H. Not job transfer or restriction, even though the restricted work is what happened most recently and lasted longest.
The 300 Log is classified by the most serious outcome of the case, with column G, death, being the most serious and column J, other recordable cases, the least. Days away outranks restricted work, so it takes the check mark.
The day counts are separate and both are filled in: three in column K, twelve in column L. One check mark, two numbers. Classify on the outcome that happened last and you check I, record twelve days, and leave column K empty on a case that had days away in it.
Do I count weekends, holidays and vacation days?
Yes, if the employee could not have worked on them. The count is of calendar days, not scheduled workdays, so a week off work is seven days rather than five.
There is an exception that runs the other way. If somebody is hurt on a Friday, is not scheduled for the weekend and comes back on Monday, you record nothing unless a physician or other licensed health care professional says they should not have worked during those days. Without that opinion the answer is zero days, not two.
The same applies to an injury the day before a planned shutdown or holiday. 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(3)(iv) to (vi).
Does the day of the injury count?
No, and it is excluded from both counts. Counting starts the day after. 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(3)(i).
It goes further for restricted work: a restriction or a job transfer imposed only for the day the injury happened is not a restricted work case at all, so it does not even reach the column. The same restriction starting one day later is one day of restricted work. 1904.7(b)(4)(iii).
Is 180 days a cap on each column or on both together?
Both together. This is worth getting right because the regulation on its own reads as though it could go either way. 1904.7(b)(3)(vii) says you may cap the total "at 180 calendar days away from work and/or days of job transfer or restriction", and the "and/or" leaves room for 180 in each column.
The instructions on the 300 form settle it. You stop counting "once the total of either or the combination of both reaches 180 days". So a case cannot record 360 days between the two columns.
A shared ceiling has a consequence: which column loses days depends on the order the spells happened in. A hundred days away followed by a hundred restricted records 100 and 80. The same two spells the other way round record 80 and 100.
What happens to a case that runs past 31 December?
Nothing splits. You record the injury or illness once, on the log for the year it happened, and the day count keeps running across the new year rather than restarting. The case does not get a second entry on the following year's log. 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(3)(ix).
If the employee is still off when you prepare the annual summary, you estimate the total, use the estimate for the summary, and update the original entry later when the real figure is known or the count reaches the cap.
The employee was taken to an emergency room. Is that automatically recordable?
No. What matters is the treatment, not where it happened or who gave it. First aid is a closed list of 14 treatments, and OSHA states outright that the professional status of the person providing the treatment makes no difference. Cleaning a wound and putting a dressing on it is first aid in an emergency room exactly as it is in the plant.
Anything not on that list is medical treatment, and medical treatment on a work-related case makes it recordable. The list is printed in full on this page.
A clinician wrote a restriction but the employee did their whole job anyway. Do I record it?
Yes. A recommended restriction that meets the definition is recorded whether or not the employee complied with it. 1904.7(b)(4)(viii). The same logic runs through the day counts: if a clinician set a return-to-work date, that date governs the count in both directions, whether the employee came back earlier or stayed home longer.
Vague restrictions work the same way. If you are told "light duty" or "take it easy for a week" and cannot get the clinician to clarify whether the employee can do every routine function and work a full shift, you record it as restricted work. The doubt resolves against the employer, so one phone call is worth making before you assume.
When do I leave the employee's name off the log?
On a privacy concern case, and that is a closed list of 6 situations printed on this page. You write the words privacy case in the name column and keep a separate confidential list of case numbers and names.
The closure matters in both directions. An employee who asks for their name to be left off can only trigger it for an illness, so the same request about a broken arm does not make it a privacy case. 29 CFR 1904.29(b)(6) to (b)(9).
Does this tool decide whether the case was work-related?
It walks 29 CFR 1904.5 with you, which is more than a yes or no. Work-relatedness is presumed for anything arising from an event or exposure in the work environment, and escaping that presumption needs a specific hit on a closed list of 9 exceptions.
Five of those exceptions only apply where the non-work cause is the sole cause, and the tool will not let an unestablished sole cause count as an escape. Where that is unsettled it says so and refuses rather than handing back the answer an employer would prefer.
Where these rules come from, and why there are two sources
Two primary documents, read on 2026-09-15 and committed to this repository so every sentence quoted here can be checked rather than taken on trust. The regulation is 29 CFR part 1904, read from the eCFR. The classification and day-count instructions are on OSHA's Form 300, Rev. 04/2004.
The split between them is not a technicality. Two of the rules this page leads with are not in the regulation at all. The phrase "most serious" appears nowhere in part 1904, so the ranking of the four columns is cited to the form. And the shared 180 day ceiling is only resolved on the form: the regulation's "and/or" reads as though each column might get its own. Where a rule comes from the form rather than the regulation, the tool says so on that line.
One trap worth recording, because it would be invisible. The 2001 final rule preamble at 66 FR 6122 states the one-check-mark rule with this very example, and it letters days away as column I and restricted work as column H. That is the 2001 form's lettering and it is the reverse of the current form. The letters here were read off the current form twice, once from the 300 Log header and once from the 300A summary.
Both documents are works of the United States federal government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105, which is why the first aid list and the privacy list are reproduced here in full rather than paraphrased. That is the same footing as the Field Operations Manual behind the penalty calculator.