How to report an incident

An incident is a formal record of a failure, accident, or significant event involving an asset. It is the record you reach for when someone asks, months later, exactly what happened.

When to use this

Report an incident when:

• An asset failed in a way that caused harm, loss, or disruption
• There was an accident or near miss involving equipment
• An insurance claim, regulatory submission, or internal review is likely
• You need to prove what condition the asset was in at a specific moment

For a fault that just needs fixing, a corrective work order is enough. Serious failures usually need both.

Important Report the incident early. The snapshot captures the asset as it is at the moment of reporting. Report it a fortnight later, after the asset has been repaired and reassigned, and the snapshot records the tidied-up version.

Requirements

• Available on: Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
• Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager, Employee can report. Viewers cannot.

Steps

1. Go to Dashboard → Assets (Individual) and open the asset involved.
2. Find the Incidents section and choose Report Incident.
3. Complete the form:

1. Submit.

All incidents across the organization are listed at Dashboard → Incidents, filterable by status.

What happens next

• The incident is created with status Open.
• A snapshot of the asset's complete state is captured and locked. Its condition, assignment, maintenance history and document status at that moment are frozen into the incident.
• The incident appears on the asset and in the Incidents list.
• Later changes to the asset do not alter what the incident says the asset looked like.

Working the incident

Incidents move through four statuses: Open, Investigating, Resolved, Closed.

Add threaded notes as the investigation progresses. Notes are added over time and preserved — findings, decisions, who was consulted.

Raise a corrective work order for the physical repair. The incident records what happened; the work order gets it fixed.

Why the snapshot matters

Most systems let you look up an asset's current state. That is not the same as evidence.

If a forklift fails and injures someone, the questions asked six months later are about the forklift as it was that day — who was responsible for it, when it was last serviced, whether its inspection certificate was current. By then the forklift has been repaired, reassigned, and re-certified.

The snapshot is why those questions stay answerable. It cannot be edited, by anyone, including you.

See Immutable incident snapshots for how this works.

Common mistakes

Waiting until the investigation is finished to report. The snapshot is taken at reporting time. Reporting late is the one mistake that cannot be corrected afterwards.

Fixing the asset first, reporting second. Report, then repair.

Recording conclusions instead of observations. Write what was seen. Conclusions belong in the notes as the investigation develops.

Using severity as a priority field. Severity describes the consequence of what happened, not how fast you intend to respond. Response speed belongs on the work order.

Troubleshooting

I can't find Incidents in the sidebar. Incidents need Orbit or above. See Plans and capabilities.

I can't report an incident. Viewers cannot report incidents. Every other role can.

The snapshot shows out-of-date information. It shows the asset as it was when the incident was reported. That is the point — it is evidence, not a live view.

I need to correct something in the snapshot. You cannot, and this is deliberate. Add a note to the incident explaining the correction. The original stays.

The incident is on the wrong asset. Report a new incident against the correct asset and note the error on the original. The snapshot is tied to the asset it was taken from.

Related articles

• Immutable incident snapshots
• Corrective maintenance
• Preparing for audits after an asset failure
• How to create a work order
• Viewing asset history