Paper, PDF, spreadsheet, web tool, or software: all of them are legal. OSHA accepts equivalent forms as long as they carry the same information and stay as readable as the government versions (29 CFR 1904.29(b)(4)). The real difference between the options is who does the classification thinking, who does the February math, and who watches the dates. Here's each option with its honest failure mode.
Option 1: OSHA's own PDFs (free)
The official forms package is free and complete: 300, 300A, 301, instructions, and the employment worksheet. It's the baseline that works everywhere.
The honest failure mode: the PDF does nothing for you. Recordable-or-not is your call to research, day counts are yours to track, column totals are February arithmetic, and no PDF has ever reminded anyone of a deadline. Fine at one or two cases a year with a diligent office manager. Our fillable-forms guide covers the quirks.
Option 2: a spreadsheet template
Perfectly legal as an equivalent form, and plenty of contractors run years on a decent Excel sheet. If you build one, match the columns (A through M, exactly), keep one file per establishment per year, and back it up somewhere that survives a dead laptop, because the retention rule is five years.
The honest failure mode: templates inherit their author's mistakes. The common ones we see: no privacy case handling, day counts that quietly include the day of injury, totals formulas that miss rows, and a sheet that can't answer the only hard question, which is whether the case belongs on the log at all.
Option 3: a free web tool
This category exists because the PDF-and-spreadsheet chores are automatable. Our free 300 log builder runs entirely in your browser: add cases, get classification structure and privacy-case masking, watch the 300A total itself, print clean copies, export CSV or JSON. Nothing uploads, no account exists, and it's genuinely free because it's the demo for the paid product. Other free web tools exist with different trade-offs; whatever you pick, check where the data lives and whether you can get it back out.
The honest failure mode: browser-only tools live in one browser. Clear your storage, switch computers, or share duties with a colleague and you'd better have used the backup button. And a form tool still isn't a calendar: the February 1 and March 2 dates stay your job.
Option 4: recordkeeping software
Paid tools earn their money when they do the parts the free options can't. Judge any of them, ours included, against this checklist:
- Recordability guidance with the rule cited, not just blank fields. The classification decision is where logs actually go wrong.
- OSHA's actual forms as output, filled, not lookalike reports.
- The February autopilot: 300A totals, executive certification, posting reminders, and an ITA e-file export that validates before you upload.
- Field reality: phone reporting that works offline on a jobsite.
- Pricing that fits a crew: per-seat pricing punishes companies where everyone should be able to report an injury. At 25 people, per-seat tools commonly cost several times a flat-priced one; we walked the math in our SafetyCulture comparison.
- A trial without a demo call. If you can't try it, that tells you something.
SiteSafetyHQ is our answer to that checklist, flat at $39 to $199 a month by company size, and the pricing is on the page.
Which option fits which company
| Your situation | Honest fit |
|---|---|
| 10 or fewer employees all of last year | You're likely partially exempt. A simple voluntary record still helps with GC paperwork. |
| 11 to 19 employees, rare incidents | PDFs, a careful spreadsheet, or the free tool all work if someone owns the dates. |
| 20 or more employees (construction) | You're in e-file territory with real deadlines stacking. Automation starts paying for itself. |
| GCs asking for TRIR, logs, or prequal packets | Software: the records and rates need to be current on demand, not rebuilt per request. |
Start free, upgrade when the math says so
Use the free 300 log today; it's the real structure with the totals done for you. When the company crosses into e-file territory or the GC paperwork gets old, the paid product picks up the same job end to end: phone intake, cited recordability answers, official forms, deadlines watched.
No card, no demo call. Flat $39 to $199/mo by company size.
Quick answers
Is an Excel version of the OSHA 300 log legal?
Yes. Equivalent forms are explicitly allowed as long as they contain the same information and are as readable and understandable as the official forms (29 CFR 1904.29(b)(4)). The legality is the easy part; the formulas and the classification calls are where spreadsheets bite.
Does OSHA publish an official Excel template?
No. OSHA distributes the fillable PDF package. Spreadsheet versions floating around the internet are third-party creations, including the good ones.
Can I switch methods mid-year?
Yes. The log is a calendar-year record; carry the year's existing cases into the new format so the year stays complete, and keep whatever you produced before under the 5-year retention rule. Our free tool and the app both import from CSV-shaped data for exactly this reason.
Primary sources (checked August 4, 2026): 29 CFR 1904.29 (forms and equivalents) · osha.gov/recordkeeping/forms (official package) · 29 CFR 1904.33 (retention)
SiteSafetyHQ is an independent product, not affiliated with OSHA. Workflow help, not legal advice.