OSHA Compliance Software

What OSHA compliance actually requires

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, every covered employer has a duty to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm, the OSHA General Duty Clause, on top of the specific standards in 29 CFR 1910 (general industry) and 29 CFR 1926(construction). In practice that means a written safety program, hazard assessment and job hazard analyses, the programs specific standards require (for example Hazard Communication with GHS safety data sheets, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout, PPE, and an emergency action plan where applicable), employee training and competency, inspections, and the injury-and-illness records OSHA can ask to see. Complys keeps these connected and current rather than scattered across binders and spreadsheets.

OSHA recordkeeping: Forms 300, 300A and 301

Employers with more than ten employees, unless in a partially exempt, lower-hazard industry, must record work-related injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 300 Log, summarize them each year on the 300A, and keep an incident report (301) for each recordable case (29 CFR Part 1904). The 300A summary must be posted from February 1 to April 30. Establishments that meet OSHA’s size and industry criteria also submit their data electronically through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA)between January 2 and March 2; since the rule that took effect on 1 January 2024, establishments with 100 or more employees in designated high-hazard industries must submit their 300 and 301 data as well as the 300A. Complys keeps the underlying incident records, training and evidence organized so preparing those forms is straightforward, it does not itself file to the ITA or decide recordability for you.¹ Incident reporting & recordkeeping →

How long to keep records, and who is partially exempt

The injury-and-illness records are not a file-and-forget task: the 300 Log, the annual 300A summary and each 301 incident report must be kept for five yearsfollowing the calendar year they cover, and updated if you later learn more about a recorded case. Not every employer has to keep them routinely, though, businesses with ten or fewer employees at all times in the previous year, and establishments in certain lower-hazard industries (the partially exempt list), are excused from routine 300/300A/301 recordkeeping. Crucially, the exemption does not remove the duty to report a fatality or a severe injury, and it does not apply if OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics asks you to keep records. Complys holds the records and the history in one place so the retention and update duties are simply handled.

Reporting severe injuries

Separate from recordkeeping, every employer, regardless of size or exemption, must reportserious events directly to OSHA: a work-related fatality within 8 hours, and a work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Having incident details, witness records and follow-up actions already captured makes meeting those clocks far less frantic.

Federal OSHA vs State Plans

OSHA is a federal agency, but around half the states run their own OSHA-approved State Plans (for example Cal/OSHA in California), which must be at least as effective as federal OSHA and can add requirements, California’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) is a well-known example. Some State Plans cover only state and local government workers. It matters because your exact obligations, forms and deadlines can differ by state, so confirm whether you are under federal OSHA or a State Plan for each location you operate in. Complys is built to hold each site’s program and records rather than assume one national rulebook.

What OSHA penalties look like

OSHA penalties are set per violation and adjusted for inflation most years. As of the adjustment effective 21 May 2026, the maximum is $16,550 per serious or other-than-serious violation, $165,514 per willful or repeated violation, and $16,550 per day for failure to abate a hazard beyond its deadline, there was no inflation increase for 2026, so the figures match 2025. Violations stack, and one uncorrected hazard found across several sites can be cited as repeated. OSHA can reduce a proposed penalty for factors such as employer size, good faith and inspection history, and the evidence behind good faith and history, a current written program, briefed JHAs, in-date training and abatement records, is exactly what Complys keeps in one place. It does not reduce or negotiate penalties for you.²

What triggers an OSHA inspection

OSHA inspections are almost always unannounced, and the agency works to a published order of priorities: imminent danger first, then a fatality or catastrophe, then worker complaints, then referrals from other agencies, the media or inspectors, then programmed inspectionstargeting higher-hazard industries, and finally follow-up visits confirming earlier violations were fixed. Because you rarely get notice, the difference between a smooth inspection and a bad one is whether your program, training and records are current on an ordinary day, which is what a live readiness view is for, rather than a pre-audit scramble.³

Multi-employer worksites: who gets cited

On a shared site, a general contractor with subcontractors, for instance, more than one employer can be cited for the same hazard. Under OSHA’s Multi-Employer Citation Policy, a business can be a creating employer (it caused the hazard), an exposing employer (its workers are exposed to it), a correcting employer (it was responsible for fixing it), or a controllingemployer (it had general supervisory authority over the site, so it must exercise reasonable care to prevent and detect violations). A general contractor is often treated as a controlling employer even when it did not create the hazard. That is why prequalifying subcontractors and keeping their safety programs, training and documents current is not just paperwork, it is how a controlling employer shows the reasonable care the policy expects.⁴

Who needs OSHA compliance software, and where it goes wrong

It is most useful for businesses with field crews, subcontractors, equipment and client prequalification demands, construction and trades, manufacturing, facilities, logistics and similar. The failures that hurt at an inspection or a client audit are rarely exotic: a written program that doesn’t reflect the actual work; JHAs that exist but were never briefed; training that lapsed without anyone noticing; the 300A not posted on time; or the records for a prequalification review (ISNetworld, Avetta) spread across inboxes. A connected system is really about removing those avoidable gaps.

The training OSHA actually requires

A common misconception is that OSHA mandates an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 card. Those are voluntary OSHA Outreach courses, genuinely valuable, and frequently required by states, general contractors or prequalification schemes, but not a blanket federal requirement. What OSHA does require is that workers are trained on the specific hazards of their job, and many standards carry their own training and documentation duties: Hazard Communication, lockout/tagout, respiratory protection, PPE, fall protection, confined spaces and powered industrial trucks each require training, often with retraining when the job, equipment or a near-miss reveals a gap. The practical burden is proving who was trained, on what, and when, and keeping it in date. Complys tracks training and certifications per worker with expiry reminders so that evidence is always current, whether an inspector, a client or a State Plan asks for it.

How Complys organizes OSHA compliance

Complys is the record-keeping, readiness and evidence layer, not a filing agent and not a guarantee of compliance. It holds your written safety program, JHAs/JSAs, training and OSHA 10/30 cards with expiry reminders, inspection and incident records, and subcontractor documents and COIs, and turns them into a live readiness view so an OSHA visit or a client review is business-as-usual, not a scramble. You keep control of what is submitted where; Complys makes sure the evidence behind it is current and in one place.

¹ Plain-English summary, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations for each location against current OSHA and any State Plan guidance. Source: OSHA recordkeeping (osha.gov). ² Penalty maxima effective 21 May 2026, OSHA civil-penalty adjustments (osha.gov). ³ Inspection priority order, OSHA Field Operations Manual, Ch. 11 (osha.gov). ⁴ Multi-employer worksites, OSHA Multi-Employer Citation Policy (CPL 02-00-124). Reviewed September 2026.