Free template · No email, no form
A JSEA template that names the right Act.
Most of the ones in circulation were written for the model WHS laws. Victoria never adopted them. Here is one written for the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 — three pages, ready to print, nothing to fill in first.
A4 landscape · risk matrix, crew sign-on and review log included.
Three documents people use interchangeably, and shouldn’t
Getting these straight is most of the work. Each answers a different question, and swapping one for another is how a genuine check goes missing while the paperwork still looks complete.
JSEA
“What could go wrong, and what are we doing about it?”
Assesses. Breaks one job into steps and answers each step's hazards, prepared before the work with the people who will do it. No law names it — it is how a business discharges duties that are very real.
Permit
“Is this specific job authorised to start right now?”
Authorises. A named person signs that the checks are done and the conditions hold, for a stated window. It references the JSEA; it does not replace it.
SWMS
“How is this high risk construction work done safely?”
A specific document the OHS Regulations 2017 require for high risk construction work. If your work falls in that category, a JSEA does not satisfy the requirement and the reverse is also true.
The template below is a JSEA. Page 1 of the permit books references it by number, and the JSEA references the permit back — two documents, two jobs, and kept straight they cannot disagree with each other.
Three sheets, and the first one is free advice
The same document a business on our free plan prints, with the masthead left blank so you can write your name on it in pen and use it this afternoon.
The guidance sheet is the pad’s inside front cover, so it carries no page number of its own. Inside the form, the analysis is page 1 and the record is page 2.
How to write one that works
The page most templates leave out. Nine points covering how to break a job into steps, how to write a hazard so it tells a reader what it would actually do to a person, how to work down the hierarchy of control, and why a rating that does not move between the before and after columns means the control is doing nothing.
The analysis
Eleven numbered steps across the sheet. Each one carries the hazard, the risk before controls, the controls themselves, the level those controls reach on the hierarchy, the risk after, and the person who does it. Landscape, because a hazard and the controls that answer it do not fit in a portrait column without becoming abbreviations — and abbreviations are what nobody reads.
The record
The risk matrix and what each rating requires, the crew sign-on with a separate tick for who helped write it, and a review log. Consultation is a legal duty and the signatures are its record — which is why the form distinguishes the people who were in the room from the people who were briefed afterwards.
Four ways a filled-in JSEA goes back to being a blank one
None of these leaves a mark on the paperwork. That is exactly why they are worth naming before you start.
Rating a hazard down so the job can start
The single most common way a risk matrix gets misused. A residual rating of High or Extreme means the work does not proceed as planned — the answer is more control, a different method, or escalation. Never a signature.
A column of circled PPE
PPE is the last line and never a control on its own. If every step bottoms out at PPE, the job was never made safer; the injury was only made less likely to be severe. Go back up the hierarchy.
Written at a desk, alone
Consultation is a duty under the OHS Act, and the people doing the job are the ones who know where it bites. A JSEA written without them is a form, not an analysis.
Filed and never looked at again
A JSEA describes the job as planned. New crew, new plant, weather, a near miss — a changed job is a different job, and the document is alive only while it still matches the work.
Why the state matters
If your template says PCBU, it was written for somewhere else.
Every other state and territory adopted the model Work Health and Safety laws. Victoria did not. We run on the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and the OHS Regulations 2017 — a different Act, different language and a different duty holder. A Victorian business handing a crew a document that names a PCBU under a WHS Act is describing a legal framework it does not operate under.
The template names the duties it supports: eliminating risk so far as is reasonably practicable and reducing it where that is not practicable (s 20), providing and maintaining safe systems of work (s 21), and consulting employees when identifying or assessing hazards (s 35). It is a template, not advice, and it does not replace training, competency or supervision. The business remains responsible for its own safe system of work.
The same document, in your business’s name
The JSEA pad plus seven permit books — permit to work, hot work, working at heights, roof access, electrical access, excavation and confined space entry — all printable with your business name across the masthead and your logo if you upload one. That is the free plan, and there is no card.
- QR hazard & incident reporting — unlimited workers, no login, no app to install
- Your full employee register — add your crew and invite them to the worker app
- Routine QR check forms — fill them in, keep the history
- Printable permit & JSEA forms in your own name
- First-aid assistant — instant, step-by-step guidance
- Stock take — count what you hold, from the floor
- Ask Ardmor — 10 questions a month
- Your document library — store, view and draft 3 SOPs a month
Questions people actually ask
- Is a JSEA legally required in Victoria?
- Not by that name. Neither the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 nor the OHS Regulations 2017 define the term. What is required is the duty behind it: to eliminate risk so far as is reasonably practicable and, where that is not practicable, to reduce it (s 20); to provide and maintain systems of work that are safe (s 21); and to consult employees when identifying or assessing hazards (s 35). A JSEA is the ordinary way a business does those three things for a particular job and can show afterwards that it did.
- What is the difference between a JSEA and a SWMS?
- A SWMS is a specific document the OHS Regulations 2017 require for high risk construction work, with prescribed content. A JSEA is a general risk assessment for any job and is not named in the legislation. If your work is high risk construction work, you need the SWMS — a JSEA does not substitute for it. For everything else, the JSEA is the document that does the job.
- Is this written for Victoria or for the model WHS laws?
- Victoria. The state never adopted the model WHS laws, so the words are different: no PCBU, no WHS Act, and a different duty holder. A template that uses the model-law language was written for another state, and that is the first thing a competent person notices.
- Do I have to give you my email to download it?
- No. There is no form and no email gate on this page — the file downloads when you click. We would rather you used a template that names the right Act than collected your address.
- Can I put my own business name and logo on it?
- Yes, and that part is free too. Create a free account and the same document prints with your business name across the masthead and your logo if you upload one, along with seven permit books. No card is required.
- How many steps does the template hold?
- Eleven on one sheet. A longer job runs onto a second copy — the step numbers continue and both sheets carry the same JSEA number. Splitting a job to make it fit the paper is the wrong way round.
Need the permits that reference it? The hot work permit is free to download too, written under the same Act.