Can you use your own spreadsheet to report receipt of waste?
Yes, there is a spreadsheet route for reporting the waste you receive, and no, it is not your spreadsheet: the file you upload has to sit in Defra's template, in the columns the service reads. Your own workbook can carry on running the yard, while the rows that go to Defra come out in the order the template expects.
Where a spreadsheet still works, and where it does not
If you run a skip yard or a transfer station, the loads have probably lived in a workbook for years: date, carrier, EWC code, weight, where it went. The question now is whether that workbook is still enough once every load you take in has to be reported to Defra's waste tracking service.
The short answer is that a spreadsheet route exists, and it is not your spreadsheet. GOV.UK's guidance sets out two ways to report the waste you receive: through software that reports the records, or by uploading a file on Defra's own template, with the columns the service reads. Your sheet can stay exactly as it is for jobs, hauliers and invoices. The file that goes to Defra has to match the template.
So the decision in front of you is not really spreadsheet or software. It is who retypes the weighbridge ticket into the template's columns: a person in the office, every load, inside the reporting window, or a screen that lays the rows out for you from the note already written at the weighbridge.
Questions
Can I use my own spreadsheet to report receipt of waste?
Not as the file you submit. GOV.UK's guidance describes two routes for reporting the waste you receive: software that reports for you, or a spreadsheet upload on Defra's template. The template fixes which columns exist and the order they come in, so a workbook you laid out yourself is not the file the service is reading. Keep your own sheet if the yard runs on it, then produce the template rows from the same records rather than typing them again.
What happens if I upload a file in my own column order?
Reasonably, expect it to come back. An upload is read against the template, so headings that do not match, or columns sitting in a different place, give the service nothing it can use. The cost is rarely the bounce itself, it is the hour afterwards: the reporting window keeps running while somebody works out which column was wrong. That is the argument for producing the rows in the template's order in the first place rather than retyping them into a layout of your own, and there is a separate page on receipt of waste spreadsheet upload errors if you want that detail.
Do I need software at all, or is the spreadsheet route enough?
If you take in a handful of loads a week and someone in the office has the time, the spreadsheet route is open to you and nothing obliges you to buy anything. The pressure is volume and timing: every load, keyed twice, inside the window, with nobody off sick and no week where three skips come in at once. GOV.UK also publishes a list of software providers for the reporting route, which is worth reading as a list of software that works with the service rather than as a recommendation. Skiplog sits between the two: the note is typed once at the weighbridge and the Defra rows come out of it.
Can Skiplog produce the spreadsheet rows instead of me typing them?
That is what the receipts export screen is for. You pick a date range, see the loads you took in over that period, and download the receipt rows in Defra's template column order, ready for your yard to upload. The note behind each row is the one written at the weighbridge, with waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination on it, so the same record serves the register and the report. There is a separate page on the export itself if you want the detail of the columns.
Does Skiplog send the records to Defra for me?
No, and the plans say so plainly: receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet, for your yard to upload. Skiplog puts the rows in the template's order and your operator does the upload, so the submission and the judgement about what is right to submit stay with the person who holds the permit. Skiplog is built to help you meet the reporting requirement, not to guarantee a compliance outcome that rests on your own weights, codes and carrier details.
If I report by spreadsheet, do I still have to keep records?
Yes, keeping the records is a separate duty from reporting them, and a workbook on one office PC is the usual place that falls over. Skiplog keeps every transfer note you record while the account is open, because waste records have to span quarters and inspections, and a note you remove comes off your register and returns but stays on file for the two years the regulations require. A lapsed trial does not lock the records away either: they stay readable and exportable. You can also pull the quarterly EA return as a one-click CSV in a configurable column layout.
Will the spreadsheet route stop being an option later?
We cannot tell you that, and anyone who answers it confidently is guessing. GOV.UK's guidance is the place to check, and it is worth re-reading whenever the service changes. What Skiplog does is avoid hard-wiring one shape: the receipts export follows Defra's template order, and the quarterly EA return has a configurable column layout. If a column moves, the place to change it is the export, not your typing.
My spreadsheet needs signal and an office PC. What about the weighbridge?
That is the other half of the problem. A tablet in a yard with one bar cannot open a cloud workbook and have someone type into it in gloves, so the ticket waits on a clipboard until somebody gets back to the office, and the clock has already started. Skiplog saves a note on the device first, with a visible queued, syncing or synced status on it, and sends it when connectivity returns. The receipt rows are then built from notes written where the load actually arrived, not from a pile of tickets reconstructed on Friday.