What lockout/tagout records does OSHA 1910.147 require?

General information, not legal advice.

The short answer

Among the records OSHA's lockout/tagout standard, 29 CFR 1910.147, asks employers for are two certifications:

1. A certification of the periodic inspection. Each energy-control procedure is inspected at least once a year, and each inspection gets a certification naming the machine, the date, the employees, and the person who did the inspection.
2. A certification of training. The employer certifies that employees were trained, with their names and the dates of training.

The rule text we read says the certifications are kept, but it does not give a number of years.

This guide covers only these two certifications. They are not necessarily the only records the rule asks for: this guide does not cover the energy-control procedures themselves or how they are written down, so read the full text of 1910.147 for that and for everything else it asks. The rest of this guide is about writing those two records so they are complete, easy to find, and believable later.

Record 1: the yearly inspection of each procedure

What the rule asks. Inspect each energy-control procedure at least annually, and certify the inspection. The certification names:

• the machine
• the date
• the employees
• the inspector

Practical habits (ours, not the rule's):

• Keep a list of every procedure you have. The list is your to-do list for the year.
• Write one certification per procedure per inspection. A single "we checked everything" note is hard to match to a machine later.
• Date it the day the inspection happened, not the day someone got around to typing it up.
• Name the person who actually did the inspection, not the person filing the paperwork.
• "At least annually" is a minimum. Set the reminder early enough that a busy month does not push you past the year.

Record 2: the training certification

What the rule asks. Certify that employees were trained, with each employee's name and the dates of training.

Practical habits:

• Record names exactly as they appear on your staff list, so a search finds them.
• Write the training date, not the date the sheet was filed.
• If you have a signed sign-in sheet, keep a copy with the certification.
• There is no single OSHA retention rule for training records; each standard says its own. If the same session also covered another OSHA standard, check that standard's own record rule too.

How long to keep them

The text we read requires the certifications to be kept and states no number of years. We are not going to put a number on it for you. Our suggestion, not the rule's: because that text names no period, the simplest course is not to plan a throw-away date. We did not research state rules; check whether one applies where you work, and follow any longer period your insurer or your own policy sets.

Questions worth being able to answer quickly

When someone asks about your lockout/tagout program, these are the plain questions behind it:

• Which procedures were inspected in the last year?
• For each one: when, by whom, and with which employees?
• Who has been trained, and on what dates?
• Has any of this been changed after the fact?

The last one is the hardest to answer. In a binder or an ordinary spreadsheet, a date can be changed or a name added, and it can be hard to prove later what the record said on the day.

Checklist

• Habit: A current list of every energy-control procedure
• Rule: An inspection of each procedure at least once a year
• Rule: A certification for each inspection: machine, date, employees, inspector
• Rule: A training certification: each employee's name and the dates of training
• Rule: Certifications kept (the rule text we read states no number of years)
• Habit: Signed sheets or photos stored with the certification they support
• Habit: A reminder set before each procedure's year runs out
• Habit: Mistakes fixed by adding a new, dated correction, never by changing the old record
• Habit: State rules and insurer requirements checked separately

How Cibotti helps

Cibotti does not decide whether you meet a rule. It helps you keep these records and prove, later, that they say what they said on the day they were written.

• A routine for each procedure. Set a routine to repeat every 12 months for each procedure and give it to a person. Cibotti shows what is due and overdue, and tracks whether each one was done on time.
• Your wording, typed or spoken. Write the certification wording into the routine once, with blanks [[like this]] for the machine, date, employees and inspector (or for the trainee names and training dates). Each time it is due, staff fill in the blanks by typing or speaking. The Oversight box next to inspection, maintenance and training entries shows what the lockout/tagout rule asks.
• Fingerprinted when saved. Each record gets a fingerprint when saved and is chained to the record before it. Every 10 minutes the newest fingerprint is sent for a Bitcoin timestamp, which Bitcoin confirms some hours later. Once an entry is covered, any change to it shows when the chain is checked. A correction is a new entry. Attach the signed sheet or a photo, and the file's fingerprint is kept with the record. For several photos, use a project task (below).
• Proof and sign-off, or an outside confirmation. Run the yearly inspections as a project whose tasks need photo proof and a manager's sign-off (the person who did the work cannot sign off their own task). An outside trainer can confirm a training record through a one-time link, with no account.
• Ready to show. Export your entries to CSV or JSON. If you run the yearly inspections as a project, you can also produce its Project Record PDF.

Sources

The rule details in this guide come from the official text, read on 2026-10-08. Each link opens the current official text in a new tab; check it there before you rely on a detail.

• 29 CFR 1910.147 on eCFR (opens in a new tab): lockout/tagout.

Try it

The fastest way to judge this is to see it. Open the live demo at https://cibotti.app ("Open the live demo"), set up a yearly routine for one procedure, and then look for a way to change a saved record. The app has none; a correction is a new entry. If you save anything there, use made-up details: the demo company is shared, and entries in it are permanent.

John, Cibotti