Decision log template
A decision log is a running record of the significant decisions made by a project, a team or a board: what was decided, why, which options were turned down, who made the call and when to look at it again. This free Excel template has a column for each, drop-down statuses, and a flag that turns amber when a decision reaches its review date.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
Its value shows months later, when someone new asks why things are done this way and the answer takes one search instead of a hunt through old emails.
What's in the template
The download has 3 sheets: Decision log, Example - Decision log, plus a read-me.
Decision log: [project, team or board] (example rows from the Example sheet):
| ID | Date | Decision | Context (why a decision was needed) | Options considered | Why this option | Decided by | Impact (cost, people, systems) | Review date | Status | Review flag | Superseded by | Where recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D001 | 2026-08-24 | Replace our three job systems with one job-management system | Scheduling, timesheets and invoicing sit in separate systems, so the office keys every job in twice | Keep all three; link them together; replace them with one system | Linking them would cost almost as much as replacing them, and one system ends the double keying | Board | £28,000 in year one; training for 25 office staff | 2027-08-31 | Agreed | calculated | Board minutes, 24 Aug, item 5 | |
| D002 | 2026-09-07 | Go live with the new system on 4 January | Office is quieter after the Christmas break | 4 January; after the March year end | January avoids a clash with the year end | Operations director | Old system licence ends on 31 December | 2026-11-30 | Superseded | calculated | D005 | Project meeting, 7 Sep |
| D003 | 2026-09-14 | Lease eight electric vans as the diesel leases end | Six diesel van leases end in November and two more next year | Renew the diesel leases; buy used diesel vans; lease electric vans | Lower running costs over four years outweigh the higher lease cost; chargers fit at the depot | Board | £1,100 a month more in leases; £14,000 for depot chargers; driver training | 2027-06-30 | Implemented | calculated | Board minutes, 14 Sep, item 3 | |
| D004 | 2026-09-28 | Fixed prices for small jobs under £1,500 instead of site quotes | Estimators spend a day a week quoting small jobs that rarely go ahead | Keep quoting; charge for quotes; a fixed-price menu | Keeps small customers without tying up estimators | Managing director | Menu prices to be updated every six months | 2027-03-31 | Agreed | calculated | Email to the leadership team, 28 Sep | |
| D005 | 2026-10-12 | Move go-live for the new system to 4 May, after the year end | Supplier can't move the historic job records before February, and March is the year end | Go live in January without job history; go live in March; go live in May | Engineers need job history on their phones from day one, and March would clash with the year end | Operations director | Old system licence extended to May: £3,800 | 2027-02-15 | Agreed | calculated | Project meeting, 12 Oct | |
| D006 | 2026-10-12 | Office staff in the office Tuesday to Thursday | Teams have drifted into different patterns and new starters are learning slowly at home | Five days in the office; fully flexible; three set days | Gives new starters time alongside experienced staff and keeps two flexible days | Leadership team | Desk booking needed midweek; hybrid working policy to be updated | 2027-04-30 | Proposed | calculated | Leadership meeting, 12 Oct; staff feedback due 30 Oct |
How to keep a decision log
- Agree what counts as a decision worth logging, for example anything that commits more than a set amount of money, changes how people work, affects customers or would be costly to reverse. Write the threshold at the top of the log so it doesn't fill up with trivia.
- Log it the same day, while the reasons are fresh. Whoever chaired the discussion makes sure it goes in.
- Write the decision so someone could act on it: "Lease eight electric vans as the diesel leases end", not "Vans discussed".
- Record the options you rejected, and why. That's what stops the same debate restarting in six months.
- Name who decided: a person, or a body such as the board. "We" can't be asked about it later.
- Set a review date for any decision that rests on assumptions that could change, such as prices, volumes or a supplier's plans. The Review flag shows when it's due.
- Never rewrite history. If a decision changes, add a new row, mark the old one Superseded and put the new ID in its "Superseded by" column.
Decision log, minutes or action plan?
| What it records | Good for | |
|---|---|---|
| Minutes | The business of one meeting | The formal record and evidence of that meeting |
| Decision log | Every significant decision, wherever it was made: a meeting, an email or a call | Answering "what did we decide about this, and why?" years later |
| Action plan | What people have agreed to do, and by when | Making sure decisions are carried out |
They work as a chain: a meeting produces a decision, the decision goes in the log, and the work it creates goes in the action plan.
Board decisions in UK companies
For a UK company board, a decision log sits alongside the minutes rather than replacing them. Minutes of directors' meetings must be kept for at least ten years (Companies Act 2006, section 248).
Decisions made between meetings need a record too. Under the model articles for private companies, directors can take a unanimous decision outside a meeting, by indicating to each other by any means that they agree, for example by email (article 8). The company must keep a written record of every unanimous or majority decision for at least ten years (article 15). A decision log is a practical home for the ones made by email. Your own articles may differ, so check them; this isn't legal advice.
Example: a fictional contractor's log
The Example sheet holds six decisions from a fictional 70-person building maintenance contractor. Two show how the log handles change. In September the operations director set the new job-management system to go live on 4 January (D002). In October the supplier said it couldn't move the historic job records before February, and March is the year end, so go-live moved to 4 May (D005). D002 stays in the log, marked Superseded with D005 against it, so anyone reading it sees the original plan, the new one and the reason for the change.
Another row shows why review dates matter: the van leasing decision (D003) rests on fuel and electricity prices, so it's due for review before the next leases are renewed.
Common mistakes
- Logging everything, until the decisions that matter are lost among the ones that don't.
- Decisions with no reasons. The log then says what happened but never why, which is the part people need.
- "Decided by: the team". Nobody can be asked about it in a year's time.
- Editing old entries when plans change, which wipes out the trail.
- No review dates, so decisions based on last year's prices or volumes are never revisited.
- A log nobody can find. Link it from the project folder or the board pack.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a decision log and meeting minutes?
Minutes are the record of a single meeting. A decision log collects the significant decisions from every meeting, email and call into one list you can search, with the reasons beside each.
Who should keep the decision log?
One named owner per log: the project manager for a project, the company secretary or the managing director's assistant for a board, the team lead for a team. Anyone can propose an entry; the owner makes sure each one is complete.
What is an architecture decision record?
The software version of the same idea. The UK Government Digital Service asks its teams to record decisions that affect a service's architecture, with the context, the decision and its consequences, and to keep them in version control. Once a decision has been acted on, a change gets a new record and the old one is marked as superseded, with a link to its replacement.