Free incident report template
Document an incident clearly: what happened, impact, timeline, root cause, actions taken and steps to prevent it.
What's in this template
Incident report: [Short incident title]
Incident ID: [ID] Date and time: [Date], [start time] to [end time] ([time zone]) Reported by: [Name, role] Severity: [Low / Medium / High / Critical] Status: [Open / Resolved]
Summary
[Two or three sentences describing what happened, who or what was affected and how it was resolved.]
Impact
- [People, customers or systems affected]
- [Duration of the impact]
- [Cost, data or safety consequences, if any]
Timeline
- [Time]: [First sign of the issue]
- [Time]: [Incident reported to Name or team]
- [Time]: [Response action taken]
- [Time]: [Incident resolved]
Root cause
[Explain the underlying cause, not just the trigger. What allowed this to happen?]
Actions taken
- [Immediate step to contain the incident]
- [Step to restore normal operations]
- [Communication sent to those affected]
Prevention
- [Corrective action] · Owner: [Name] · Due: [Date]
- [Corrective action] · Owner: [Name] · Due: [Date]
Witnesses or contacts
- [Name, role, contact]
Reviewed by: [Name, title] · [Date]