Report receipt of waste within two working days, without keeping a separate list
Defra's receipt of waste service asks a receiving site to report each load it takes in within two working days. Skiplog is built to show you, on the dashboard, exactly which loads are still to go in, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow.
The clock starts at the weighbridge, not at the quarter end
Digital waste tracking went live in 2026 and a permitted receiving site now reports every load it takes in to Defra's receipt of waste service, within two working days of receiving the waste. GOV.UK's guidance sets that window, and the Environment Agency has said plainly that there is no small site exemption for it.
That changes the rhythm of the office. A quarterly return is one job, four times a year, and you can see it coming. Receipts reporting is a rolling two day clock that starts again with every skip that comes through the gate, so the question in the office is no longer whether the quarter end is near, it is which of this week's loads have already gone in.
Most yards answer that with a second list: a printout on the desk, a column in a spreadsheet, a highlighter on the weighbridge tickets. The second list is the problem. It is kept by hand, it drifts out of step with the notes, and it is the first thing to go when two lorries turn up at once.
What the card shows
Skiplog puts one card on the site dashboard, beside the notes logged and the tonnage by waste type. It lists the transfer notes that have not yet been marked as reported to Defra, and it splits them into three groups so the order of work is decided before you sit down:
- Overdue, the loads whose two working days have run out
- Due today, the loads where today is the last day
- Due tomorrow, the loads you can clear now and stop worrying about
The deadline is counted in working days, so a load taken in late on a Friday is not treated the same as one taken in on a Tuesday morning. Nothing on the card is typed in by an operator. It is read from the notes you already recorded at the weighbridge and from whether each one has been stamped as reported, so the card and the register are built from the same records.
Why the two days are the hard part, not the spreadsheet
Getting the rows into Defra's template is a known job with a known shape. Knowing which rows still need doing is the part that costs a yard its evenings, because it is a question about the past rather than about the load in front of you.
A busy transfer station can take in more loads in a week than it files transfer notes for in some whole months of a quieter season. Count them twice, once as notes and once as uploads, and the two counts will part company. That is the gap Skiplog is made to close: the register of notes and the record of what has gone into Defra's system are the same record, so the answer to "what is left?" is a card, not an afternoon of cross-referencing tickets against a download folder.
How it works in Skiplog
- Open the dashboard
The card sits with the rest of the site overview. It names the notes still to report and groups them as overdue, due today and due tomorrow, so the first glance of the morning tells you whether anything is late.
- Work the overdue group first
The grouping is the running order. Anything in overdue is past its two working days and goes into Defra's service before the loads whose clock still has a day on it.
- Download the receipt rows
The receipts screen sits next to the quarterly return and exports the rows in the column order of Defra's own template. Your yard uploads that spreadsheet to Defra's service; Skiplog prepares the file, it does not send it.
- Answer the question when you come back
After a receipts download Skiplog asks whether you have uploaded them to Defra. Confirm, and every note in that batch is stamped as reported, which takes it off the card. Say no and nothing is stamped, so the loads stay on the list where you can see them.
What that gives the office
No second list to keep
The reported mark lives on the note itself, so there is no printout, no highlighter and no separate spreadsheet column to maintain against the register.
Late loads are separated from in-time loads
Overdue is its own group rather than a date you have to work out in your head from a ticket. The work that matters most is at the top of the card.
The mark comes from the download, not from memory
Notes are stamped as reported only when you confirm the batch you have just uploaded, so nothing is marked done because somebody thought it had been.
An empty card is a real answer
When the card has nothing in it, every load Skiplog holds has been marked as reported. That is a short, checkable statement to make to a site manager or an auditor asking where the yard stands.
Questions
How long do I actually have to report a load I receive?
GOV.UK's report receipt of waste guidance sets the window at two working days from receiving the waste. Read it for the authoritative wording, including who is in scope. Skiplog's card is built to that window and groups your unreported notes against it.
Does Skiplog submit to Defra for me?
No. Skiplog prepares the receipt rows in the column order of Defra's spreadsheet template and your yard uploads them to Defra's service. The dashboard card and the reported mark are there so you know what has been uploaded and what has not.
How does the card know a load has been reported?
From the confirmation you give after a receipts download. Skiplog asks whether you have uploaded that batch to Defra, and on confirm it stamps each note included in the file as reported. Only stamped notes leave the card.
What happens to a load over a weekend?
The deadline is counted in working days, so weekend days do not use up the window. A load taken in on a Friday is grouped by the working days it has left, not by the calendar.
Is this the same thing as the quarterly waste return?
No, they are two separate jobs. Skiplog also generates the quarterly EA return as a one-click CSV in a configurable column layout, but that is quarterly and goes to the Environment Agency. The receipts card is about the rolling two working day reporting of loads you take in.
What if I find a load that is already overdue?
It shows in the overdue group so you can get it into Defra's service next rather than discover it at the quarter end. Defra's guidance is the authority on late reports and what to do about them; Skiplog's job is to make sure the load is not invisible.
Can I try it before the deadline work piles up?
Skiplog is not open to everyone yet, so the waitlist is the way in. Both plans carry a 60-day free trial: Annual at £1,188 a year, which is £99 a month billed once, and Monthly at £129 a month.