Paper logbook to digital: balance forward or every flight?
Checked against the sources below on 29 October 2026. How these guides are written
Log it in Off Chocks, free for your first 50 logged hours.On a computer? Scan this with your iPhone camera to open Off Chocks in the App Store.
You can move a paper logbook into an app in two ways: a balance forward per aircraft type carrying your paper totals as of a date, or every flight entered line by line. You can also combine them: totals for old pages, individual flights for at least the last 90 days so recency works. Keep the paper books. CASA requires a logbook to be kept 7 years after its last entry (CASR 61.355); the FAA and Part-FCL set no period, and your signed endorsements exist only on paper.
Download a free logbook spreadsheetFAA, EASA and CASA columns in Excel and CSV, with the totals rows filled in, ready to import into Off Chocks in one step.- FAA logbook format
- Any manner "acceptable to the Administrator"; no formal FAA approval for an electronic logbook
- Ongoing
- 14 CFR 61.51(a); AC 120-78A para 1-8e
- FAA inspection
- Present your logbook on a reasonable request
- Whenever asked
- 14 CFR 61.51(i)(1)
- EASA electronic logbook
- Readily available to the authority, all items in (a), certified by the pilot
- Ongoing
- AMC1 FCL.050(c)(2), (e)(2)
- EASA page totals
- Accumulated time entered and certified by the pilot
- When each page is completed
- AMC1 FCL.050(j)
- CASA retention
- Keep the logbook, every entry unaltered
- 7 years after the last entry
- CASR 61.355
- CASA electronic logbook
- Printed copy, each page certified as a true copy
- Within 7 days of a direction
- CASR 61.365(2), (3)
- CASA lost logbook
- Rebuild from school or employer records with a statutory declaration
- When needed
- CASA: Flight crew logbooks
Balance forward or enter every flight?
A balance forward is a summary entry: your paper totals for each aircraft type, dated to the last page you are carrying across. The FAA's own magazine, FAA Safety Briefing (May/June 2016), describes the method as "total the existing entries in your paper logbook and make one large summary entry to get your electronic records going".
A summary costs you detail. It has no dates, routes, registrations or approaches, so it proves nothing about recency, and you cannot later filter your old flying by tail number or airport. Entering every flight keeps all of that, at the cost of weeks of typing for a long logbook.
A hybrid splits the job at a transition date. Enter the balance forward as of the day before that date, then enter every flight from that date on. Set the date early enough to cover your recency windows: 90 days for passenger recency under FAA 61.57(a) and (b), EASA FCL.060(b) and CASA 61.395, and the 6 calendar months before the month of the flight for FAA instrument currency (61.57(c)). If you are training for a certificate or rating, enter the qualifying flights one by one too: 61.51(a)(1) asks you to record the experience you use to meet those requirements.
Is a digital logbook legal under FAA, EASA and CASA rules?
The FAA rule says you "must document and record" your training, aeronautical experience and recent experience "in a manner acceptable to the Administrator" (14 CFR 61.51(a)). FAA Safety Briefing reads that as "perfectly legal to maintain the required information in almost any format you choose", and AC 120-78A paragraph 1-8e says electronic recordkeeping under Part 61 "does not require formal FAA approval, acceptance, or authorization".
Under EASA rules, AMC1 FCL.050(c)(2) says the logbook "may be kept in electronic format". Paragraph (e)(2) asks that electronic records be "readily available at the request of a competent authority", contain every item listed in (a), be "certified by the pilot" and use a format the authority accepts. FCL.050 leaves the form and manner to your competent authority, so read its guidance as well.
CASA says your logbook "can be paper or electronic". If CASA directs you to produce an electronic logbook, CASR 61.365(3) is met by a printed copy with each page "certified by the holder as a true copy", produced within 7 days of the direction.
What happens to the paper logbook afterwards?
Under CASR 61.355 you commit an offence if you do not "retain the logbook for 7 years after the day the last entry is made in it", and each entry must be "retained unaltered" for that period. The paper book's own last entry starts its clock, so a book last written in on 14 March 2026 has to be kept until at least 14 March 2033, digital logbook or not. CASA also notes that it does not hold logbook information for individuals, so a lost book has to be rebuilt from other records.
14 CFR 61.51 sets no retention period. It does require you to present your logbook on a reasonable request from the FAA, the NTSB or a law enforcement officer (61.51(i)(1)), and your paper book holds the original instructor endorsements and signatures. A typed copy in an app carries none of those signatures, so the paper books stay in the drawer.
Part-FCL sets no retention period either. The AMC calls the logbook "a permanent record of the licence holders flying", and signed entries, such as the PIC's signature against SPIC or PICUS time and the instructor's signature on an SEP or TMG revalidation flight (AMC1 FCL.050(i)(10)), exist only on the page where they were signed.
How do you check the totals after the move?
Check page by page, the way the paper book was built. The EASA logbook layout in AMC1 FCL.050 carries three total lines on every page, "total this page", "total from previous pages" and "total time", and paragraph (j) asks you to enter and certify the accumulated time when each page is completed. Whatever layout your book uses, sum each column of the transcribed page in a spreadsheet and compare it with the page total written in ink. A difference is either a typing error or an addition error in the original.
If the error is in the paper book, carry the corrected figure into the digital record and explain it in the remarks. Leave the ink entry alone: CASR 61.355(2) requires each entry to stay unaltered, and CASA can direct a correction under 61.360(3) if it wants one.
Night, instrument and cross-country time can never exceed total time on the same line. Watch the time format: paper books usually use hours and minutes while apps often store decimal hours, so 1:30 becomes 1.5, never 1.3.
Mistakes pilots make
- Entering a balance forward and then typing in the same flights as well. Every hour in the overlap counts twice; pick one method for each date range.
- Expecting a balance forward to carry recency. A summary has no dated takeoffs, landings or approaches, so currency starts from the first individual flight.
- Throwing the paper books out once they are typed in. Under CASA rules they must be kept 7 years after the last entry, and in every system they hold the only signed endorsements.
- Typing 1.30 for one hour thirty. In decimal hours that is 1 hour 18 minutes; the right figure is 1.5.
What Off Chocks tracks
- Balance Forward (Logbook, Import, Balance Forward) takes your paper totals per aircraft type, with ICAO type, engine type and category, an As of Date, and separate simulator cards. A running grand total stays on screen to check against the book.
- A balance forward counts toward your totals and dashboard but not recency, because it holds no dated flights. Log recent flights one by one for currency.
- For transcribed flights, CSV / Spreadsheet Import maps your columns, skips rows that duplicate flights you already have, and lets you undo the import within 30 days.
- Printed logbooks in FAA, EASA and CASA layouts carry earlier totals forward onto the first page, and exporting them is free on every plan.
Common questions
- Do I have to enter every flight from my paper logbook?
- None of 14 CFR 61.51, AMC1 FCL.050 or CASR 61.345 asks you to retype old flights into a new logbook. The FAA's own magazine lists a single summary entry as an option. Enter recent flights individually so recency and currency can be worked out, and keep the paper books as the evidence behind the summary.
- Can I throw away my paper logbook after going digital?
- Under CASA rules, no: CASR 61.355 requires you to keep it 7 years after its last entry. The FAA and Part-FCL set no period, but the paper book holds your original signed endorsements, so keep it.
- Does the FAA accept an electronic logbook?
- Yes. 14 CFR 61.51(a) asks for records "in a manner acceptable to the Administrator", and AC 120-78A says electronic recordkeeping under Part 61 needs no formal FAA approval.
- How do I prove hours that sit in a balance forward?
- With the paper books the balance was taken from. Note the date and the last page carried across in the remarks of the balance forward entry so anyone can trace it.
- What if my old logbook is lost?
- CASA says you may rebuild your history in a new logbook from other records, such as your flying school's or employer's, with a statutory declaration. Under FAA or EASA rules, ask your authority how it wants a lost logbook handled.
Sources
- 14 CFR 61.51 Pilot logbooks (eCFR, up to date as of 27 Oct 2026)
- FAA Safety Briefing, May/June 2016: eLogbook Logistics (p. 11)
- FAA AC 120-78A: Electronic Signatures, Electronic Recordkeeping, and Electronic Manuals (2016)
- EASA Easy Access Rules for Aircrew, October 2026 revision: FCL.050 and AMC1 FCL.050
- Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998, Compilation No. 103: CASR 61.345 to 61.365
- CASA: Flight crew logbooks (updated 20 Oct 2026)
This is a plain-words summary to help you keep your own records, not legal advice. The regulation and your operator's procedures always take precedence.