What happens to your waste records if the trial lapses or you cancel
If your 60-day free trial runs out or you cancel a plan, Skiplog is built so your transfer notes, your Defra receipt references and the returns you have generated stay readable and exportable, not shut behind the billing screen. Skiplog is not open for sign-ups yet, so what follows is how the product is built to behave: records come off it only when you delete the account, and that is an act you t
Why this question matters more here than with most software
A yard's transfer notes are not files you can shrug off at the end of a subscription. They are the record of who took what off your site, and they have to be produceable long after the load has gone to the next gate. So the honest question to ask any waste tracking supplier is not what the software does while you are paying, it is what it does on the day you stop.
Skiplog's answer is written into the way it holds records. Everything is kept while the account is open, because waste records have to span quarters and inspections. A lapsed trial is not a lock on the register. Cancelling a plan ends the billing, not the record keeping.
Alongside the notes, Skiplog keeps the carrier, broker and dealer registrations you track with their expiry dates, the accounts of the people you add to the site so every note names who wrote it, and each quarterly return you have generated, so a return already sent to the EA can be downloaded again unchanged. It also keeps the receipts side of the same loads: every batch of receipt rows you exported for Defra's spreadsheet with its dates and note count, the reported mark on each note in it, the Defra reference a load was accepted under, the date and reason off any rejection notice, and a record of each correction made to a note Defra had already taken, with the old and new value of what changed.
The one action that clears all of it is Delete account, and it is yours to press.
What each ending does to your records
| What happens | What it does to the records | What you should do first |
|---|---|---|
| The 60-day free trial runs out and no plan is started | Notes, tracked registrations, receipt batches and generated returns stay readable and exportable | Download the quarterly CSV, and the receipt rows, for any period you have not sent yet |
| You cancel the Monthly plan at £129 a month | Billing stops, the records stay while the account is open | Nothing, unless you also want the account gone |
| You let the Annual plan at £1,188 a year run to its end | Billing stops, the records stay while the account is open | Nothing, unless you also want the account gone |
| You stop with a load received and not yet reported to Defra | The note and its receipt row stay on file, ready to export again | Export the ready rows and upload them to Defra before the clock on that load runs out |
| A load already has a Defra reference against it | The reference, the reported mark and the batch it went up in stay with the note | Keep the reference: it is what shows later that the load is in Defra's system |
| You remove a single transfer note | It comes off your register and your returns, and stays on file for the two years the regulations require | Check the note you are removing is the duplicate, not the real load |
| You remove a person from the site | Their account comes off the people on your site | Get their tablet back into signal first, because signing out gives up that device's queue |
| You use Delete account in Billing | The account, the site and every record on it are removed at once, and a live subscription is cancelled first | Export everything the EA or Defra could still ask you for, and remove other people on the site screen |
Questions
What happens to my waste records if my free trial ends and I do not subscribe?
Both plans come with a 60-day free trial, and the end of it is built to be a billing event, not a shutter over your register. Your transfer notes, your tracked carrier, broker and dealer registrations, your receipt batches and any quarterly return you have already generated stay readable and exportable. That is the rule Skiplog retains records by: everything is kept while the account is open. If you decide Skiplog is not for you, the right order is to export first and then delete, rather than walking away and hoping.
If I cancel my plan, are my transfer notes deleted?
No. Cancelling ends the payments, it does not clear the register. Records are kept for as long as the account is open, and the only thing that removes them is using Delete account in Billing. Monthly is cancellable whenever you like, so you can stop paying in one month and still have the quarter's notes in front of you the next.
Can I get everything out before I stop using Skiplog?
Yes, and this is the step to do before anything else. There are two exports to take: the quarterly EA return, a one-click CSV in the EA-specified column layout you have set for your area office, and the receipt rows for Defra's own spreadsheet, in Defra's template column order, which the receipts screen exports for the dates you pick. A return you have already generated is kept and can be downloaded again unchanged, so what you sent and what you keep on file match. Take a copy of each quarter and each receipts period you care about and store it where the rest of your site paperwork lives.
What happens to the Defra references on loads I have already reported?
They stay with the note. When you confirm a receipts batch has gone up, each note in it is marked reported, and the reference Defra gives back is stored against that load with the date it was recorded. If Defra rejects something, the rejection's date and reason are held too, and the date sets the correction deadline Skiplog counts for you. Correcting a note that already carries a reference flags it as a correction to report to Defra, so the change can be put through Defra's service inside the window it allows and shown later against the reference the load was accepted under.
How do I actually delete the account and everything on it?
Open Billing in the app and use Delete account. Your account, your site and every record on it are removed at once, and if a subscription is live it is cancelled first, so you are not left paying for something that no longer exists. Download any records the EA or Defra still needs from you before you press it. If you have added other people to your site, remove them on the site screen first, so a yard's records are never deleted out from under someone still signed in to them.
If I remove one transfer note by mistake, is it gone for good?
Removing a note takes it off your register and out of your returns, but it does not erase it. A removed note stays on file for two years, which is the span the regulations ask you to hold a transfer note for, rather than vanishing the moment someone taps the wrong row. If the load had already been accepted by Defra, the removal is flagged as a correction to report, so it does not quietly fall out of a record Defra holds. Treat removal as something you do to a duplicate or to a note written against the wrong load, not as housekeeping.
What about notes still sitting on the yard tablet when I stop?
Notes recorded offline save to the device first and sync when the signal comes back, with a visible queued, syncing or synced status on each one. That means a tablet can be holding a load the office has not seen yet, and a load the office has not seen cannot be exported or reported. Before anyone signs out of a device for the last time, get it back into signal and let the queue clear, because signing out gives up that device's queue and clears the saved screens from it. The cleanest sequence is sync, export, then delete.
Does anyone else hold a copy of my records after I cancel?
Skiplog runs on Amazon Web Services, where the application and its database sit. Stripe holds a customer reference and the card details that never touch Skiplog, not your waste records, and Resend handles password resets, expiry reminders and invites to join a site. There is no stated backup retention schedule after deletion, so do not plan on recovering a deleted account from a copy held somewhere else. That is the practical reason to export before you delete rather than after, and the page on where your records are stored sets out the full list of what is held and who touches it.