I’m tightening our Release of Information tracking and need a reliable log template. Ideal is an Excel/Office 365 sheet with locked data validation that captures date received, authorization verified, due date with a 30‑day flag, disclosure method, and a final audit trail field — has anyone used a version that holds up in daily use? We average about 35–40 requests a week, so durability matters.
, we wrestled with this too. What’s worked is an Excel table in SharePoint/OneDrive with locked data‑validation lists (authorization verified, disclosure method), a Due Date column that goes red at the 30‑day mark via conditional formatting, and using Excel’s “Show Changes” + version history as the audit trail: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/show-changes-in-excel-3a3ea56d-99c1-41b8-86f6-0004d3bffe3d. We average about 40/week and it holds up, but do protect the sheet and add a tiny hidden “Status Log” tab for odd cases — want the column setup I use?
I’ve had good luck using the B–A “switch cost”: if that drops by about 1.5 SD on age-corrected retest norms and I also see fewer sequencing errors, I treat a 30–40s gain as meaningful. Small caveat, @james_wil79: if A is already <30s, ceiling’s likely, so I confirm with a different set‑shifting task.
I’d set up a Power Automate flow on your Office 365 Excel table that appends a row to a hidden “Log” sheet whenever Authorization Verified or Disclosure Method changes — user, timestamp, and old/new values — so the audit trail holds up even at 35–40/week. For the “30‑day flag,” make Due Date = Date Received + 30 and let conditional formatting do the highlight; if you don’t want a flow, an Office Script can do the same inside the workbook. Want the exact trigger/action steps?