For professionals
Evidence reports for HR and workplace investigations
A grievance or disciplinary outcome has to be defensible on process as much as on conclusion. TraceFolio turns the correspondence, notes and statements in an investigation file into a dated, source-cited chronology, and states plainly where the evidence does not settle a point.
The problem this solves
Investigation files are messy by nature: forwarded email chains, meeting notes of varying quality, HR system exports, and statements taken weeks apart.
The chronology is what makes an outcome defensible at tribunal, and it is the part built under time pressure by someone who also has a day job.
Evidence you probably already hold
- Grievance or disciplinary correspondence
- Meeting and investigation notes
- Witness statements
- Policies and procedure documents
- Email and messaging exports
- Absence, performance and HR system records
What the report gives you
- A dated chronology of the events the documents record, with uncertain dates flagged instead of assumed
- Findings cited to file, page and passage, so an outcome letter can point at the record
- Conflicting accounts presented as conflicts, which is what an investigation needs rather than a smoothed narrative
- A commitments register: what was promised to the employee, by whom, and when
- An explicit statement of what the file does not establish, which protects the process as much as the conclusion
A worked example
A grievance alleging an unaddressed complaint
What goes in
- Six weeks of email between employee, line manager and HR
- Two sets of meeting notes
- The grievance policy
What comes out
- A chronology showing when the complaint was first raised and each subsequent step
- A contradiction where meeting notes and email disagree about what was agreed at a meeting
- A commitments register recording a written undertaking to respond within a stated period
- A note that no document records the outcome being communicated
The example is illustrative of the report structure, not a real client matter.
Why verification matters here
If an outcome is challenged, the question is often whether the investigation record was assembled at the time or reconstructed later.
Every report is hashed and certified when it is produced, with a public verification page. That gives you a fixed, checkable point in time for the record you relied on.
What it does not do
- It does not decide whether a grievance is upheld, or whether conduct amounted to misconduct.
- It does not give employment law advice or assess tribunal prospects.
- It reads only the documents supplied, so an account given only verbally will not appear.
Pay per report, or by the month
A single investigation is a one-off report. An HR consultancy or in-house team running several cases a month fits a monthly plan.
Practice
£49per month
2 report credits each month
Works out at
£24.50 per Detailed Report
16% below the £29 one-off price. Annual billing £490 (2 months free).
Includes
- 2 report credits each month
- Every report tier available, priced in credits
- Certified Execution Record and verification page on every report
- Email support
A sole practitioner, small letting agency or independent consultant with a couple of matters a month.
Firm
£119per month
5 report credits each month
Works out at
£23.80 per Detailed Report
18% below the £29 one-off price. Annual billing £1,190 (2 months free).
Includes
- 5 report credits each month
- Lowest per-report cost at typical small-firm volume
- Priority processing when capacity is contended
- Email support
A small firm with a steady caseload: letting agents, HR consultancies, claims handlers and small legal practices.
Chambers
£299per month
15 report credits each month
Works out at
£19.93 per Detailed Report
31% below the £29 one-off price. Annual billing £2,990 (2 months free).
Includes
- 15 report credits each month
- Best effective per-report price
- Priority processing when capacity is contended
- Named contact for onboarding
A busy practice or claims team producing evidence reports as a routine part of the work.
What a credit buys
| Report | Credits | One-off price |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Report | 0.5 | £9.99 |
| Detailed Report | 1 | £29 |
| Extended Report | 3 | £79 |
How plans work
- A credit is one Detailed Report. A Quick Report costs half a credit and an Extended Report costs three.
- Credits refresh at the start of each billing period and do not roll over.
- If a report needs more credits than you have left, you can pay the standard one-off price for it. A plan never blocks you from getting a report.
- Cancel at any time. You keep every report and verification page you have already produced.
Plans are billed by Stripe and can be cancelled at any time from your account page. Credits are spent when you start a report, and any report you produce stays yours, with its verification page, after a plan ends.
Questions from hr & employment disputes
Does it decide whether a grievance should be upheld?
No. It sets out what the documents record, in order, with citations, and it flags where accounts conflict or the record is silent. The decision remains a human one and the report is explicit about that.
Can I share the report with the employee?
Yes. Many teams share it because every line is traceable to a document the employee has, or can request. Whether to disclose it is your process decision.
Will it handle personal data appropriately?
Reports are private to your account, source files are deleted on a short retention schedule, and no evidence content is published on the verification page. The privacy page sets out the retention periods and the subprocessors involved.
What if the notes contradict each other?
That is treated as a finding, not a problem to tidy away. Conflicting accounts are presented side by side with both sources cited, so the investigation can address the conflict directly.
Related reading
Create your evidence report
Upload a matter you are working on now and see the chronology, contradictions and citations it produces.