You do not need a separate log for complaints, audit findings and improvement ideas. Put them all in one register, give each one an owner and a due date, and check the action worked before you close it. A few months in, the analysis sheet shows you which problems keep coming back.

Effective Excel Registers

Part of the alphaZ ER series of Excel registers, built for listings that grow and need to be sorted and filtered. Supplied in fully editable MS Excel format, with a Google Sheets version included, and all text in Calibri font for improved readability.
The register is set up with:

• Drop-downs for who raised and who owns each issue, status, category and significance, with the lists editable on the Instructions sheet
• Conditional formatting to highlight open issues, major significance and open actions past their due date, and to set closed issues apart
• Filters on the register, and a statistical analysis sheet with charts by category for any date range

alphaZ documents - tried and tested registers with no junk, jargon or unnecessary columns, developed over 25 years through practical use in the real world.

Further Reading

Further guidance on nonconformity, corrective action and improvement:

• ISO 9001 Clause 10.2 - Nonconformity and Corrective Action
• Corrective Action and Audit Follow-up
• ISO 9001 Clause 10.3 - Continual Improvement
• ISO 9001 knowledge base

How to Download

This file is included in the alphaZ subscription. This register is also included in every alphaZ toolkit covering ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, ISO 22301 or ISO 42001, including the integrated toolkits, and in the BS EN 1090 Toolkit and the FORS Document Compliance Toolkit, so the toolkit route gives you this file plus everything else you need in one download.

Need Help Implementing?

If you'd like a hand reviewing the trends for management review, following actions through to close, or with your wider management system, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.

Issues and Actions Register Template

An issues and actions register template in Microsoft Excel for logging problems, complaints, nonconformities, audit findings, improvement ideas and general actions in one place, and following each one through to a checked close. A Google Sheets version is included.

Every ISO management system standard, in its improvement clause, asks you to react to nonconformities, look for the cause, take corrective action and review whether that action worked, keeping a record as you go. Whether it is ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 or ISO 27001, the issues register is where that record lives, and it is one of the documents looked at during ISO certification audits to see whether problems are being closed out rather than just logged.

What's Included in this Issues and Actions Register

The workbook is laid out as separate sheets, each doing one part of the job:

• Issues Actions Register - the main log, set out in three stages across the row. The issue summary records the date, who raised it, the customer, job, process or area and a description. The action section records who it is assigned to, the due date and the corrective or preventive action taken. The final review records the check that the action was effective and the review of cause. Status, category, significance and a note of whether a problem form was completed sit alongside.
• Statistical Analysis - the number of issues logged and still open, and a breakdown by category, for any start and end date you choose, with pie and bar charts.
• Root Cause Analysis - a place to step back and review an issue or a run of similar issues: the possible causation factors, the people affected and consulted, the root cause identified and the remedial action taken.
• Instructions - how to use the register, and the lists behind the drop-downs, with categories such as audit finding, customer complaint, supplier issue and improvement request that you can edit to suit your business.

The download also includes a link to a short video tutorial on using the register.

From Issue to Closed Action

Each issue is logged as it happens, given an owner and a due date, and stays open until the action has been taken and checked. Open issues stand out, and an open action that passes its due date is highlighted, so nothing drifts quietly off the list. Closing an issue means recording that the action worked, not just that something was done.

Because everything goes into the one register with a category against it, the analysis sheet can show where issues are coming from over any period. That is useful input to management review, and it is where the root cause sheet comes in - a recurring type of issue is reviewed as a whole so the underlying cause can be dealt with rather than each occurrence being fixed on its own.

Who Needs an Issues and Actions Register?

Any organisation implementing or maintaining an ISO management system, from a single standard to an integrated system covering several. It works just as well without certification in view, as the single place a business records what went wrong, what it is doing about it and whether the fix held.

Pairs with the Problem Form

Significant problems, incidents and complaints can be written up in full on the F-Q10 Significant Problem / Incident / Complaint Form, with a short summary and a reference to the form added to this register. A deeper investigation into a single problem can be worked through on the F-Q70 Root Cause Problem Review. If you prefer a different layout, the F-IMS52 Problems and Issues Register is an alternative register for the same job.