Audit Log · DOLE OSHS · ISO
DOLE OSHS and ISO audit trail (from your WorkHive Logbook)
Who this is for
- Plant safety officers
- QA / EHS managers
- Plant managers facing inspection
- ISO compliance coordinators
- DOLE inspectors using the tool
- Auditors from certification bodies
- Contractors providing audit support
What's in this guide
What DOLE and ISO auditors actually sample
The first time a Philippine plant moves from paper to digital, the safety officer worries: will the auditor accept this? The honest answer is yes, easily, when the digital system satisfies three properties that paper never quite did. The auditor wants:
- Time-of-event recording. The entry was made when the event happened, not constructed weeks later to satisfy the audit. A server-side timestamp settles this.
- Worker identification. The person who made the entry is named (not initials). Paper has signatures that may be illegible; digital has authenticated user IDs.
- Non-editability after submission. Once submitted, the entry cannot be silently rewritten. Edits are recorded with the editor and the before and after values.
WorkHive Audit Log surfaces all three for any record the auditor requests. What changes is the sampling step: it stops being a search through folders and becomes a filter.
The 3 immutability guarantees
- Server-side timestamp. Every entry is stamped at the moment it hits the server, not the client. A worker cannot backdate by adjusting their phone clock.
- Authenticated authorship. Entries are tied to the worker's account (which the employer maps to a person on the payroll). No anonymous edits.
- Append-only edits. If an entry needs correction, the original stays in the audit log with the correction appended: who made it, when, and the before and after values of what they changed. Auditors see the full history, not just the current state. One thing it does NOT capture is a stated reason for the edit: there is no field asking why, so if your procedure requires a documented justification, put it in the entry text itself, where it becomes part of the record the audit trail then protects.
Retention rules per record type
| Record type | DOLE OSHS minimum | ISO recommendation | Covered by the 3-year default? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety observations | 5 years | 3+ years | No: raise it |
| Incident investigations | 10 years | 5+ years | No: needs the 10-year maximum |
| PM completion records | 3 years | 3 years per cycle | Yes |
| Logbook entries (general) | 3 years | 3 years | Yes |
| Permit to work records | 3 years | 3 years | Yes |
| Training records | For employment duration + 3 years | For employment duration + 3 years | Depends on tenure: check it |
Read that last column before you tell an auditor anything. WorkHive keeps audit history for 1,095 days: three years: by default, and the setting is one hive-wide window rather than a different rule per record type. You can raise it, and you should: the range is 90 days to 3,650 days, ten years, which is the ceiling the system will accept. Two consequences worth acting on today. First, the three-year default does NOT meet the DOLE minimum for safety observations (5 years) or incident investigations (10 years), so a plant that leaves it alone will lose records it is required to hold. Second, because the window is hive-wide, you set it to the longest obligation you carry: in practice the ten-year incident requirement, and everything else is covered by the same setting. Storage is cheap and the worker may need the history years after leaving the plant, for OFW applications, promotion cases and regulatory disputes; the cost of a longer window is not the reason to keep it short.
Export patterns auditors accept
Three patterns satisfy DOLE OSHS and ISO auditors. The Audit Log exports CSV, filterable by actor, action, target and date range; the print-ready PDF comes from the Analytics Report:
- Date range: all entries in a window (typically 30 days for a sample), exported from the Audit Log as CSV with timestamp, author, asset, category and entry text. Print it, or hand over the file - auditors accept either, and the file is the one they can search.
- Asset history: every entry for one asset over its lifecycle, filtered in the Audit Log by that asset. Used when the auditor is investigating a specific failure or compliance gap.
- Compliance mapping: entries grouped by ISO clause or DOLE rule, which is the view management review and surveillance audits ask for.
Every row carries its WorkHive entry ID, so an auditor can ask to see any single entry live rather than taking the export on trust.
Mapping to ISO 9001, 14001, 45001
A clause is satisfied by your management system, not by a tool. What software can do is hold the evidence an auditor samples against that clause, so read the list below as “where your records for this clause live”, not as conformity you can buy.
- ISO 9001 (Quality): WorkHive Logbook entries with corrective-action tags give you the records Clause 10.2 (nonconformity and corrective action) asks you to retain. The PM compliance dashboard evidences Clause 7.1.5 monitoring and measuring resources.
- ISO 14001 (Environment): Logbook entries with environmental-aspect tags (spill, leak, emission) evidence Clause 9.1.1 monitoring of environmental performance.
- ISO 45001 (OH&S): Safety observations, near-miss logs, and incident investigations evidence Clause 9.1.1 monitoring, measurement, analysis and performance evaluation, and Clause 10.2 incident investigation.
The tool this guide is about
WorkHive Audit Log makes DOLE and ISO audits a 1-hour exercise
Server-side timestamps, authenticated authorship, append-only edits, audit history kept 3 years by default and adjustable up to 10. Date-range, asset-history and compliance-mapping exports. Direct mapping to ISO 9001 / 14001 / 45001 clauses and DOLE OSHS rules. Free at the worker tier. The full audit log is supervisor-only; there is no separate compliance-reporting tier above it, so what an inspector can be shown is what you see today.
Open Audit LogNo hive yet? Join WorkHive first (free, takes 30 seconds).
Frequently asked questions
Does DOLE accept digital logbooks for OSHS Rule 1063?
What are the immutability guarantees?
How long should I retain records?
What export does an ISO auditor want?
Can a worker request their own audit log if they leave the plant?
How does this map to ISO 9001 / 14001 / 45001?
Sources
- Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS) Rule 1063: Safety and Health Records.
- ISO 9001:2015, Quality management systems: Requirements, Clauses 7.1.5 and 10.2.
- ISO 14001:2015, Environmental management systems: Requirements with guidance for use, Clause 9.1.1.
- ISO 45001:2018, Occupational health and safety management systems: Requirements with guidance for use, Clauses 9.1.1 and 10.2.
- WorkHive Audit Log: a supervisors-only record filterable by actor, action, target and date range, with CSV export for audit evidence. workhiveph.com
- Related WorkHive guides: Digital logbook rollout · Voice journal