RECORDREFERENCE OUTLINE

GxP Record Correction Log

Correction log built on the principle that the original entry stays readable, with a permitted-versus-never table, per-correction reasons, an escalation assessment for corrections that changed a decision, and an electronic section treating the audit trail as the digital strike-through. Maps to WHO TRS 996 Annex 5 and PIC/S PI 041-1.

What a template is not

A template is a document baseline to adapt inside your own quality system. SPEQ does not approve, validate, or take responsibility for what you issue from it, and using one is not evidence of compliance.

CHECKING ACCESS

Checking your Professional access…

REGULATIONS MAPPED
WHO TRS 996, Annex 5PIC/S PI 041-1
DOCUMENT TYPE
Record
LAST UPDATED
August 2026
PURPOSE

Correcting a record is the most scrutinised routine act in documentation practice, because a correction done badly is indistinguishable from concealment. What separates an ordinary correction from a finding is whether anyone can still read what was there before, and why it changed. Whether a given correction also changed a decision — and therefore belongs in deviation handling rather than in this log — is your assessment.

What's Inside

The correction standard as a permitted-versus-never table, so the rule is legible before it is needed
Correction log recording the original value, the corrected value, and the reason in separate fields
Identity and date of the person making the correction, contemporaneous rather than added at review
Assessment of whether the correction changed a result, a time, a quantity or an identity
Escalation assessment for corrections that changed a decision, routing them out of this log
Electronic corrections, with the audit trail treated as the digital equivalent of the strike-through
Periodic review of the log, because repeated corrections in one place describe a process problem

How to Use It

1Use a single strike-through only; correction fluid, overwriting or a replaced page is indistinguishable from concealment, whatever the intention
2Record a reason whenever the correction changed a result, a time, a quantity or an identity — not only when asked
3Sign and date the correction as you make it; a correction attributed at review time has lost its contemporaneity
4Escalate a correction that changed a decision as a deviation, because handling it as documentation means it receives no investigation
5Apply the same discipline electronically — a change made with the audit trail disabled is the digital equivalent of correction fluid
6Review the log for clusters; one form corrected repeatedly is a form problem, not a series of individual lapses
DOCUMENT CONTENTS

The full section structure of this template — every section and sub-section, so you can use it as a baseline for your own site document.

Document Control
Document InformationApproval SignaturesRevision HistoryDistribution List
1The Correction Standard
2Correction Log
3Escalation Assessment
4Electronic Corrections
REGULATORY CONTEXT

WHO TRS 996 Annex 5 sets the record-correction expectations — the original entry stays readable, the change is attributable, dated and explained — and PIC/S PI 041-1 carries the data-integrity treatment of amendments across GMP and GDP, paper and electronic. Neither defines when a correction stops being documentation and becomes a deviation in your quality system. That threshold is your determination, and the escalation assessment here is SPEQ practitioner synthesis intended to make you set it in advance.

MAPPED STANDARDS
WHO TRS 996, Annex 5PIC/S PI 041-1
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