OSHA 300. 300A. 301.The recordkeepingevery construction site needs.

The four artifacts of OSHA recordkeeping

Three paper forms plus one electronic submission. Construction sites confuse them constantly because Form 300 and Form 301 are completed in the same window but serve different purposes. The 300A is the only one that gets posted; the ITA upload is the only one that goes to OSHA directly.

Any ONE of the six triggers makes the case recordable. First aid is a closed list under 1904.7(b)(5)(ii). If the treatment is not on the list, the case is medical treatment and is recordable.

Five steps. The first two are classification decisions. The last three are paperwork.

1. 1

   Confirm the case is work-related

   Apply the 29 CFR 1904.5 work-relatedness test.

   An injury or illness is work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the condition, or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition. The work environment includes any location where employees are working as a condition of employment. Travel between job sites counts; travel from home to a single permanent workplace does not. Document the determination either way.

2. 2

   Apply the recordable criteria

   Check the case against 29 CFR 1904.7.

   The case is recordable if it resulted in any of: death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant diagnosis by a licensed health care professional. If only first aid was provided and none of the other triggers apply, the case is NOT recordable. The first-aid list in 1904.7(b)(5)(ii) is a closed list — anything not on it counts as medical treatment.

3. 3

   Log the case on Form 300

   Add one line per case within 7 calendar days.

   Record case number, employee name, job title, date of injury or onset, location, and description of the injury or illness and the part of body affected. Mark exactly one outcome column: G (death), H (days away from work), I (job transfer or restriction), or J (other recordable case). Fill in column K (days away count) and column L (days of restricted or transferred work) where applicable.

4. 4

   Complete Form 301 for each case

   Capture the narrative detail of how it happened.

   Form 301 collects the information that Form 300 summarizes: employee identifying data, treating health care professional and facility, time and location of the incident, what the employee was doing immediately before the incident, what happened, the nature of the injury or illness, and the object or substance that directly harmed the employee. Complete within 7 calendar days of learning of the case.

5. 5

   Roll up Form 300A and submit electronically

   Year-end summary, posting, and ITA upload.

   At year-end, total each column on Form 300 and transfer to Form 300A. A company executive must certify the summary. Post in a visible workplace location from February 1 through April 30 of the following year. Construction establishments with 20 or more employees at any point during the prior year must submit 300A data electronically via the OSHA Injury Tracking Application by March 2. Larger employers in designated high-hazard industries also submit Forms 300 and 301 case data.

The three paper forms answer different questions. Use this when an auditor asks for documentation or when an executive needs to certify the year-end summary.

Recordkeeping citations are common because the rules look procedural and most contractors treat them as such. Each of these mistakes shows up repeatedly in OSHA inspection histories.

1. 01

   Counting every doctor visit as recordable

   A doctor visit is not automatically recordable. If the visit ends with only first-aid measures from the 1904.7(b)(5)(ii) list (a tetanus shot, a bandage, an over-the-counter medication, irrigation of an eye), the case is NOT recordable regardless of who provided the care. The trigger is the treatment, not the provider.

2. 02

   Missing the 7-day deadline for new cases

   29 CFR 1904.29(b)(3) requires the case to be entered on Form 300 and Form 301 within 7 calendar days of the employer learning about it. Backdating logs at year-end is a recurring source of recordkeeping citations. The discovery date, not the incident date, starts the clock.

3. 03

   Posting 300A late or in the wrong location

   Form 300A must be posted in a conspicuous place in each establishment where notices to employees are customarily posted, from February 1 through April 30. Posting it only on a company intranet, or only in a corporate office, does not satisfy the requirement for a job-site establishment.

4. 04

   Recording subcontractor or staffing-agency worker injuries on the wrong log

   Under 29 CFR 1904.31, the employer who supervises the day-to-day work records the case. For a staffing agency worker supervised by the host contractor, the host contractor records the case on its own 300 log. The case is never recorded on both employers logs.

5. 05

   Failing to submit 300A through the Injury Tracking Application

   A construction establishment with 20 or more employees during the prior year must submit Form 300A data electronically via the OSHA ITA by March 2 each year. Posting the paper 300A in the break room does not satisfy the electronic submission requirement. The two are independent obligations.

6. 06

   Missing the 8-hour and 24-hour reporting deadlines for severe incidents

   29 CFR 1904.39 requires all employers, including those otherwise exempt from routine recordkeeping, to report any work-related fatality within 8 hours and any in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. These deadlines apply regardless of company size or industry exemption.

Civil penalty maximums are adjusted annually for inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The figures below reflect 2026 CPI-adjusted maximums per 29 CFR 1903.15(d). Penalties apply per violation; multiple violations on a single citation can compound rapidly.

Penalty figures shown are approximate 2026 CPI-adjusted maximums. OSHA publishes the exact annual figures each January in a Federal Register notice. Always check the current OSHA Civil Penalties page before any enforcement-related decision.

Frequently asked questions

• OSHA Recordkeeping (29 CFR Part 1904) — the underlying federal regulation governing Forms 300, 300A, and 301.
• OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301 — official downloadable government forms with instructions.
• OSHA Recordkeeping Handbook (OSHA Publication 3169) — detailed guidance on recordable case classification and edge cases.
• OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) — electronic submission portal for Form 300A data and (for designated industries) Forms 300 and 301.
• BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) — annual incident-rate data drawn from a national sample of employer 300 logs.
• OSHA Civil Penalties (29 CFR 1903.15) — annual CPI-adjusted penalty schedule for serious, willful, repeated, and failure-to-abate violations.
• 29 CFR 1904.39 — Reporting fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations, eye loss — the 8-hour and 24-hour severe-incident reporting rules that apply to all employers.