After Action Report Template: What to Include and How to Write One

An after action report template is a fixed structure for reviewing an event, project phase, or incident right after it happens, so the team captures what worked, what didn't, and why while the details are still fresh. The format traces back to the U.S. Army, which developed the after-action review as a way for units to debrief after training or operations without waiting for a formal report weeks later. The same structure now shows up well outside the military: software teams run it after an incident, event planners run it after a conference, nonprofits run it after a fundraiser, and project teams run it at the close of a major phase.

At its core, an after action report answers four questions in order: what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, why there was a gap between the two, and what the team will do differently next time. A template just makes sure those four questions get asked every time, in the same order, instead of the review drifting into a general conversation about how the project felt.

The report itself is usually short, one to two pages for most projects, longer only when an incident caused real damage or cost. Length isn't the goal. The goal is a record that someone can open six months later and understand exactly what happened and what the team decided to do about it, without having to track down the people who were in the room.

Most teams already talk about what went wrong after a project ends. The conversation happens in a hallway, a Slack thread, or a rushed five minutes at the end of a meeting that's already running long. None of that gets written down in a form anyone can find later, so the same mistake resurfaces on the next project, and the team relearns a lesson it already paid for once.

An after action report template fixes this by forcing two things a casual conversation almost never produces: a written record, and a specific owner for whatever needs to change. The Project Management Institute has repeatedly linked structured post-project reviews to lower repeat-failure rates on future projects, and the mechanism is straightforward. A team that writes down why a delay happened is a team that can check, next time, whether the same warning signs are showing up again.

The template also protects the review from becoming a blame session. When the format asks 'what was supposed to happen' before 'what actually happened,' the conversation starts from the plan, not from a person. That ordering keeps the review focused on the gap between expectation and reality, which is where the useful lessons actually live, rather than on who gets credit or blame for the outcome.

A complete after action report template has seven parts. Smaller reviews can compress a few of these into one section, but skipping any of them tends to produce a report that reads well and changes nothing.

Below is a ready-to-copy after action report template. Paste it into Google Docs, Word, Notion, or a Notelyn note and fill it in during or right after the review.

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AFTER ACTION REPORT

Project / Event: ___ | Date of Review: ___ | Facilitator: ___ Participants: ___ Report Period Covered: ___

OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE What was this project or event supposed to accomplish? -

TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS | Date | Event | Notes | |------|-------|-------| | | | |

WHAT WENT WELL - -

WHAT DIDN'T GO AS PLANNED - -

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS | Gap / Issue | Why It Happened | Contributing Factors | |-------------|------------------|----------------------| | | | |

LESSONS LEARNED - -

ACTION ITEMS | Recommendation | Owner | Due Date | Status | |-----------------|-------|----------|--------| | | | | | | | | | |

DISTRIBUTION Who should receive this report, and where will it be stored for future reference? -

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The Root Cause Analysis table sits between the gaps and the lessons on purpose. Jumping straight from 'what went wrong' to 'what we'll do differently' tends to produce fixes aimed at symptoms, since nobody stopped to ask why the gap happened in the first place.

The Distribution line at the bottom matters more than it looks. An after action report that only the people in the review meeting ever see doesn't change anything for the next team that runs a similar project. Name where it lives and who should read it before the next similar project kicks off.

The template only works if the review that produces it is run well. A rushed ten-minute conversation squeezed into the end of a closing meeting rarely surfaces the real causes behind what went wrong.

Writing a good after action report while also facilitating the review is hard. Whoever is running the discussion is usually too busy managing the room to also capture root causes and action items accurately. Notelyn removes that trade-off by generating a structured report from a recording of the review itself.

An after action report template doesn't need to be complicated to be useful. Use the seven sections above, ask the four core questions in order, and assign every recommendation to a named owner with a date before the review ends. Those habits are what turn a debrief from a conversation people forget into a document the next project actually reads.

Start with the copyable template in this guide on the next project review, incident debrief, or event wrap-up. If your team already records these sessions, or wants to start, Notelyn can generate a complete after action report from the audio automatically, with what went well, what didn't, root causes, and action items already organized. For the habits that keep those action items from stalling out after the report is written, see our guide on meeting notes with action items, and for turning any recap into next steps, see meeting follow up.