Decision Log Template: Record the Why Before It's Lost
A simple decision log template: what changed, why, who agreed, a link to the source, and a status so old decisions stop looking current. Write it the same day.
Quick answer: A useful decision log has one entry per decision with six fields: date, decision, why, who agreed, a link to where it was settled, and a status (active or superseded). Write the entry the day the decision is made, keep the log in one place, and link to it from handoff docs instead of summarizing it.
Why the "why" gets lost
A post in r/CustomerSuccess described a familiar moment. A customer asks why the rollout timeline changed, and the answer exists somewhere: an old email thread, meeting notes, a CRM update, or one person's memory. Finding what changed is easy. Reconstructing why is not.
The most useful reply put the fix in one line: write the why down when the decision is made, in one place, with a date and an owner, because rebuilding it from email later is where it gets lost. It added a second point that's easy to miss: when an account changes hands, the handoff doc should point to the decision log rather than summarize it, because summaries drop exactly the reasoning the next person gets asked about.
There's a newer version of the same problem. In r/Solopreneur, a founder described changing their pricing model, then weeks later having an AI assistant argue for the old pricing, quoting their own notes doc back at them. The note was from before the change, and nothing in it said so. An old decision looked exactly as current as the new one.
A decision log template
| Field | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date | The day it was decided | 2026-10-06 |
| Decision | One sentence, stated plainly | Move the rollout from November to January |
| Why | The real reason, in one or two sentences | Their IT team can't finish SSO setup before the holiday freeze |
| Who agreed | Names and roles | Account lead, customer's IT manager |
| Source | Link to the email, meeting notes or ticket | Link to the 6 Oct call notes |
| Status | Active, or superseded by a later entry | Active |
Keep it to one row or one short paragraph per decision. A log that takes ten minutes per entry won't get written; one that takes one minute will.
How to keep a decision log that people actually use
- Write it the same day. The reasoning is clearest right after the meeting. A week later you're reconstructing it from email, which is the problem you're trying to avoid.
- Keep it in one place. On the account record in your CRM for customer decisions, in the project doc for product decisions. Not split across Slack, email and three notebooks.
- Link, don't summarize. The source link lets anyone check the full context. A summary written by someone who wasn't in the room can quietly change the story.
- Mark superseded decisions. When a decision is reversed, don't delete the old entry. Change its status to "superseded by [date]" and add the new one. You keep the history, and nobody mistakes the old decision for the current one.
- Point handoffs to the log. When an account or project changes owner, the handoff doc says "see the decision log" and highlights the two or three entries that matter most.
Decision logs and AI tools
If you give AI tools your notes as context, the log matters even more. In Claude, for example, documents you add to a Project's knowledge base are used as context for chats in that project (checked on 6 October 2026). A tool reading a notes doc has no way to know which decision is current unless the doc says so.
Two habits fix most of it:
- Put the status at the start of every entry, so "SUPERSEDED" is the first thing a person or a model reads.
- Keep the current decisions at the top, or in a separate "current" section, so the active version is what gets read first.
For the wider habit of keeping one context file for all your AI tools, see our AI workflow for solo founders.
How Blip AI makes decision logs faster to write
The template is simple; the hard part is writing the entry at the end of a meeting when you're already late for the next one. We build Blip AI, a dictation app that types polished text into any app with a text field: your CRM, Notion, Google Docs, Confluence or Slack in the browser.
- Say the entry right after the call. Click into the log, hold Fn on Mac, Ctrl + Win on Windows or Ctrl + Super on Linux, and say what was decided, why and who agreed. Speech runs at about 150 words per minute against about 52 for the average typist, so a full entry takes under a minute.
- Clean text, not a transcript. Blip removes filler words and fixes punctuation and formatting, so the entry reads clearly months later.
- Tell everyone with Action Mode. Start with "Hey Blip" and describe the message, for example "Hey Blip, tell the team we moved the rollout to January because SSO won't be ready, details in the decision log." Blip drafts the Slack message or email for you to check and send.
- Names and products spelled right. Add customer, product and project names to Blip's dictionary.
- Your history stays local. Dictation history is stored on your device, not on Blip's servers.
Blip runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, and the free plan includes 2,000 words a month. Download Blip AI. For writing up the customer side of the same call, see how to write a customer call recap email.
FAQ
What should a decision log include? A decision log should include the date, the decision in one sentence, why it was made, who agreed, a link to where it was settled, and a status showing whether it's still active or has been superseded by a later decision.
When should you write a decision log entry? Write it the same day the decision is made, ideally right after the meeting or thread that settled it. Writing it later means rebuilding the reasoning from email and memory, which is how the "why" gets lost.
How do you handle a reversed decision in a decision log? Don't delete the old entry. Mark it as superseded, with the date and a pointer to the new entry, then add the new decision. That keeps the history while making it clear which decision is current.
Where should a team keep its decision log? In one place people already use: on the account record in the CRM for customer decisions, or in the main project doc for product decisions. Splitting it across tools means nobody trusts any one copy.
Do decision logs help with AI assistants? Yes. If you give AI tools your notes as context, a clear status on every entry and current decisions at the top stop the tool from treating an old, reversed decision as the current one.