Free tool
Evidence Timeline Builder
A dated chronology of what happened, built one event at a time, with your employer's process mapped alongside it and measured against the ACAS Code of Practice 2015.
This is the document representatives build first and clients almost never have. It is not a diary and it is not a statement. It separates what you can evidence from what you remember, and it gets stronger every time you add to it.
Stress scrambles the order of events. That is normal, and it is why the record is built from documents rather than memory wherever it can be. Build it in two passes: get the events down first, then go back and say how you know each one.
Privacy warning. Do not complete this tool on an employer-owned device.
Nothing you type here leaves this device. The tool runs entirely inside your browser. Nothing is sent to us or stored on any server, and nothing is written to this browser.
You can save your work. Save a file to your own device at any point and load it back later. The file is yours, and nobody else sees it unless you choose to share it.
Free, with nothing to sign up for and no email address required. Allow twenty minutes for a first pass. Come back to it as documents arrive.
The tool in full
What it records, and what it works out
Nothing here is held back for the tool. If you would rather work through it on paper, this is the whole of it.
- A dated card for every event: what happened, who was there, and whether the date is exact or approximate.
- How you know each event: a document you hold, a record your employer holds, something you saw or heard yourself, something you were told, or not sure yet.
- The record that evidences each one, named, and your own view of whether it helps or goes against you.
- Thirteen dates in your employer's process, from the start of the investigation to the end of employment.
- The intervals between them: notice before the hearing (paragraph 11), evidence supplied with the invitation (paragraph 9), suspension reviews (paragraph 8), investigation length (paragraph 5), separation of investigator and decision-maker (paragraph 6), and the time taken to decide and to hear an appeal (paragraphs 4, 18, 26 and 29).
- A master chronology, an evidence register, the points to expect questions on, and a list of records to ask for.
- Where employment has ended, which tribunal time limit applies and the earliest possible last day.
Read alongside: Investigation and suspension and Disciplinary hearing preparation checklist.
Primary sources. ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures 2015, paragraphs 4 to 29; Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10; Employment Rights Act 1996, section 207B. Every reference to the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is to the version dated 11 March 2015, which is in force. The revised Code published in draft on 30 July 2026 is not in force and is not used.
What this is. General information about the standard the law and the Code set, for England and Wales. It is not an assessment of your case and it does not predict any outcome. Dates shown are indicative: confirm any deadline before you rely on it.
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