Why keep a decision log at all
Without a log, decisions live in meetings, texts and memory. A month later nobody can say exactly what was agreed or why. The same debate starts again, and good decisions are not repeated because nobody can find them.
A log turns each decision into a record that can be checked. Over time it becomes the most useful history a business has, because it shows not only what happened but what people expected to happen.
The eight fields
Decision. One sentence with a verb. Reason. Two or three lines on why it matters now. Score. Opportunity, risk and effort, each rated from 1 to 3. Owner. One named person. Due date. A specific day. Expected result. What would count as success. Actual result. What happened, written on the due date. Lesson. The gap between the two, in plain words.
That is the whole template. Anything more tends to stop the log from being kept.
How the score keeps the log useful
Ratings make the log sortable. North Star Vision combines the three ratings with a published formula, so the open decisions sort themselves and anyone can see why one sits above another. The score is for ranking, not precision.
Close records only after the check
The most common mistake is closing a decision when the work is done. Done is not the same as working. A record stays open until someone writes the actual result next to the expected one. That one rule is what turns a to-do list into a decision log.
A filled-in example
The following is a generic illustration, not a client. Decision: send every quote the same day it is written. Reason: quotes sit in the office for days. Score: opportunity 3, risk 2, effort 1. Owner: office lead. Due: two weeks out. Expected: quotes go out the same day. Actual: written on the due date after looking at quote dates. Lesson: whatever the gap shows.
Paper, sheet or portal
Start wherever the team will keep it. A notebook works for one owner. A shared sheet works for a small team. The North Star Vision portal keeps the same fields, ranks them, sends a Monday Brief and keeps every change in the record's history, in English, Spanish or Portuguese.