OSHA Compliance Insights
Expert advice, compliance guides, and recordkeeping tips to help you maintain a safer workplace and avoid costly penalties.
How to calculate the average number of employees for the OSHA 300A (and total hours worked)
The 300A's two employment boxes have their own rules: OSHA's pay-period method for the annual average, and hours actually worked, not hours paid, for the total. A fill-in worksheet, a seasonal worked example, and the cases the worksheet doesn't spell out, plus why the headcount for electronic submission is a different number.
OSHA Recordkeeping Software Prices Compared (2026): What Nine Tools Cost and What Each One Files
OSHA 300 log software runs from free to 'starting at $5k per year,' and the cheap tools differ in what they actually file. Here are the published prices, read from each vendor's own site on October 29, 2026, next to what each says it does for the 300, 300A, 301, and the ITA — how the filing reaches OSHA, and who decides whether a case is recordable.
EHS Software Alternatives for Small Employers: Suites, Recordkeeping Tools, or a Spreadsheet?
Most 'best EHS software' lists compare ten enterprise suites a 40-person company will never buy. The honest comparison has three categories — full EHS platforms, recordkeeping-focused tools, and the spreadsheet you already own — and the right answer depends on your obligation, not the vendor's feature count. Here is the map, including what each category genuinely does better.
How Does Your TRIR Compare? BLS Industry-Average Injury Rates for 2024, by NAICS
The 2024 BLS numbers are out: private industry averaged 2.3 recordable cases per 100 full-time workers — a record low. Here are the industry-by-industry TRIR and DART benchmarks, and how a small employer should actually read them.
Free OSHA 300 Log Template (Excel): Where It Works, and the Five Places It Breaks
OSHA's own forms are free, and a spreadsheet version of the 300 Log is legal under 1904.29(b)(4). For a small, stable employer it is genuinely enough. Here is where a template stops enforcing the rules — day counts, privacy cases, reclassification, year-end totals, the ITA file — and how to tell which side of that line you are on.
OSHA Recordkeeping Software for Small Business: What It Actually Has to Do (and When a Spreadsheet Is Enough)
OSHA does not approve any recordkeeping software — the regulation only tells you what the records must do. So the honest way to shop is to turn Part 1904 into a checklist: the recordability decision, three forms that stay consistent, six deadline clocks, the ITA file, a five-year audit trail. Here is that checklist, where a spreadsheet genuinely passes it, and where it stops.
Can You Keep Your OSHA 300 Log Electronically? The Equivalent-Form and E-Storage Rules
Yes — OSHA explicitly allows electronic 300 Logs, in software or a spreadsheet, under the equivalent-form rules of 1904.29. But four duties survive the switch: two production clocks, a hard-copy posting requirement, and a certification that still ends up on a wall. Here is exactly what the regulation, the FAQs, and a 2025 interpretation letter require.
Counting days away and restricted work days on the OSHA 300 Log (1904.7)
Once a case is recordable, you still have to count the days correctly. This guide covers when the clock starts, calendar vs. workdays, the 180-day cap, cross-year cases, and what to do when an employee leaves before recovery.
The OSHA 301 Incident Report: The Case File Behind Every 300 Log Line
The 300 Log is the index. The 301 Incident Report is the case file behind each line — and its access rules are nothing like the Log's. Here's what the 301 captures, the 7-day completion clock, the workers' comp shortcut and its trap, and who can get a copy of what.
TRIR and DART Rates Explained: A Plain-English Guide for Small Employers
Your TRIR and DART rates tell insurers, clients, and OSHA how safe your workplace really is. Learn how to calculate them from your 300 Log, which cases count in each, how to get the hours right, and what the numbers mean.
How to Fill Out the OSHA 300 Log: The Complete Column-by-Column Guide
Every column of the OSHA 300 Log explained, with worked example entries, the 7-day deadline, the rules for correcting the log when a case changes, and the year-end totals that feed your 300A. The complete guide for small employers.
How to Submit Your OSHA Data Electronically via the ITA Portal
If your establishment meets certain size and industry thresholds, you are required to submit injury and illness data to OSHA electronically each year by March 2. Here is exactly how to do it — account setup, the web form and CSV paths, 300/301 case detail, the errors the portal throws, and how OSHA finds the employers who skip it.