Is there a free trial, and what does it include?
Yes: both Skiplog plans carry a 60-day free trial, the annual plan at £99 a month billed once a year and the monthly plan at £129 a month. The trial is the whole product on one site, transfer notes, the receipt-of-waste rows for Defra and the quarterly EA return, and when it ends billing runs through Stripe, which is the only place card details ever go.
The short answer on the trial
Skiplog declares a 60-day free trial on both of its plans. The annual plan is £1,188 a year, which works out at £99 a month, and the monthly plan is £129 a month. The trial is not a cut-down demo: one site, unlimited waste transfer notes, unlimited carrier, broker and dealer registrations tracked, and the same feature list a paid month carries, including the receipt-of-waste rows laid out in Defra's template column order for your yard to upload.
Sixty days is set that long on purpose. A yard cannot judge a compliance tool in a week. Two months is enough to run real loads over the weighbridge, write notes on a tablet in a black spot and watch them sync when the signal comes back, send a receipts batch to Defra inside its two working days, let a registration expiry date get close, and pull a quarterly return out as a CSV. If you start in the right month, a quarter end falls inside the trial, which is the one thing worth testing before you pay for anything.
Starting takes the site screen first: the yard's name, address and postcode, the permit or exemption number, the region, and the receiver contact details that go on every load you report. Payments go through Stripe. Skiplog keeps your subscription status and a Stripe customer reference, never card numbers, so card details sit with Stripe rather than with us.
What is worth testing inside the 60 days
- Write a real note at the weighbridge
A transfer note is built with the EA-mandated fields, waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, and is made to be completable in under two minutes on a phone or tablet. The note form also takes the receipt-of-waste details Defra asks for on each load, and warns on save when a field would fail Defra's upload rules. Hand it to whoever actually writes the tickets and watch how long it takes them.
- Walk to the part of the yard with no signal
Notes save to the device first with a queued, syncing or synced status showing on the note, then sync on their own when connectivity returns. The status is the point: you should be able to see which loads are still on the tablet.
- Export a receipts batch and upload it to Defra
The receipts screen checks each row against Defra's upload rules, exports only the rows that pass, in Defra's template column order, and links each failing row to the screen that fixes it. After the download it asks whether you have uploaded them, and on confirming it stamps those notes as reported. Do that once with real loads and you will know whether the spreadsheet goes in clean.
- Let the two working day clock run on you once
The dashboard lists the loads you have not yet reported to Defra, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow. You can record the Defra reference a reported load went in under, mark a load Defra rejected so the new deadline runs from the notice date, and see a correction flagged on a note Defra had already accepted.
- Put a registration in and let the date come round
Carrier, broker and dealer registrations sit on a dashboard with their expiry dates, with email alerts for anything expiring inside 30 days and the same dates available in your own calendar. Sixty days is long enough for a real renewal date to come into view.
- Generate a quarterly return and look at the file
The quarterly EA return comes out as a one-click CSV in a configurable EA-specified column layout, ready to submit without reformatting by hand. Compare it against however you build the return today, and check the site dashboard's tonnage by waste type against your own figures.
What the trial leads into
Annual, £1,188 a year
The same product for £99 a month, billed once a year, for yards that plan a season ahead. One site, unlimited transfer notes, unlimited registrations tracked, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet. A 60-day free trial first.
Monthly, £129 a month
The same product paid month by month, cancel whenever you like. One site, unlimited transfer notes, unlimited registrations tracked, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet. A 60-day free trial first.
Questions
Is there a free trial of Skiplog?
Yes. Both plans, annual and monthly, declare a 60-day free trial. It covers the full product on one site: digital transfer notes with waste type, EWC code, weight, carrier and destination, offline capture with a visible sync status on every note, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet for your yard to upload, the quarterly EA return as a CSV, registration expiry tracking with the dates in your own calendar, and the site dashboard with tonnage by waste type. Nothing is held back for paying accounts.
Does the trial include the Defra receipt-of-waste side, or only transfer notes?
It includes both. The note form takes the receipt-of-waste fields Defra asks for on every load, and the receipts screen checks each row against Defra's upload rules before you export, so you export the rows that will pass, in Defra's template column order. Your yard does the upload to Defra's service; after the download Skiplog asks whether you have uploaded them and stamps those notes as reported, and you can store the Defra reference each load went in under. A load Defra rejects can be marked with the date on the notice, which sets the correction deadline, and a correction to a note Defra had already accepted is flagged so it gets reported again.
How does payment work when the trial ends?
Billing runs through Stripe, and Stripe is the only place card details go: Skiplog stores a subscription status and a Stripe customer reference, never a card number. The 60 days are free on both plans, so the decision is annual at £99 a month billed once a year, or monthly at £129 a month, cancel whenever you like. The pricing page sets out what each plan includes and the limits on it, and the page on cancelling covers what ending a subscription does.
What happens to my records at the end of the 60 days?
A lapsed trial does not lock your records away: everything you recorded stays readable and exportable, because waste records have to span quarters and inspections. Records are kept while the account is open, and a note you remove comes off your register and your returns but stays on file for the two years the regulations require. If you want it all gone, Delete account in the app removes your account, your site and every record on it at once, and cancels a live subscription first. There is a separate page on what happens to your records if the trial lapses or you cancel.
Can I write real transfer notes during the trial, or only test ones?
Real ones. A note is built with the EA-mandated fields, waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, and is made to be completable in under two minutes on a phone or tablet. Notes save to the device first with a queued, syncing or synced status showing, then sync on their own when connectivity returns. Skiplog is built to help you meet the record-keeping requirements, not to guarantee a compliance outcome: the accuracy of what the weighbridge types in is still yours, and so is pressing send on Defra's service.
Can I generate a quarterly EA return while I am still on the trial?
Yes, and it is one of the two things most worth doing before you commit. The quarterly return comes out as a one-click CSV in a configurable EA-specified column layout, ready to submit without reformatting by hand. Run it against a quarter of your own loads and compare it with however you do the return today. If the file does not suit your yard, you have found that out inside the free 60 days.
How many sites and how many notes does the trial cover?
One site, which is the shape of both plans: Skiplog is built for a single permitted yard or transfer station, not a group. Waste transfer notes are unlimited and registrations tracked are unlimited, during the trial and after it. If you run more than one permitted site, read the page on whether one subscription covers more than one site first, and the guide on choosing software for a small permitted site goes through where a single-site tool stops making sense.
How do I get on the trial if sign-up is not open?
Join the waitlist. Skiplog is being built for UK skip yard and transfer station operators with 1 to 20 staff, and the waitlist is how the first trials are opened. Sign-in is by email and password, so there is nothing to set up in advance. If you are still weighing the free government route against paid software, the page on whether the government waste tracking service is free works that question through.