Digital waste tracking for a single-site yard with 1 to 20 staff
Skiplog is digital waste tracking software built for one yard with one to twenty staff, not for a multi-depot fleet. Log a waste transfer note on a phone or tablet in under two minutes, keep recording when the signal drops, get the loads you took in ready for Defra's receipt of waste spreadsheet, and export the quarter's EA return as a CSV instead of rebuilding it from a spike of tickets.
Digital waste tracking sized for one yard
Skiplog is digital waste tracking software built for a single site with one to twenty staff: a skip yard, a tip, a transfer station where the same two or three people weigh the load, book the muck away, talk to the driver about the skip exchange on the basement dig, and go looking for a transfer note when someone from the Environment Agency asks for one.
A normal day does not leave a clean hour for records. Two skips out before eight. A tip run at ten. A weighbridge ticket that goes on the spike, a carbon copy that goes in the cab and comes back soft after a wet afternoon, and a pad of transfer notes in the office drawer where the top sheet was filled in from memory because the driver was already reversing out. Somewhere in the same drawer is the carrier registration that needs renewing, on a date nobody has written down.
Since 1 October the job has had a second half. A permitted receiving site has to report the waste it takes in to Defra's receipt of waste service, either through software or on Defra's own spreadsheet, and the service gives you a short window, two working days, to get each load in. That is a per-load clock running alongside the quarterly return, and on a small yard it lands on whoever happens to be in the office.
The job is short to say and hard to do: record every load at the moment it happens with the fields the regulator asks for, report what you received before the clock runs out, keep the yard's registrations current, and do all of it without adding somebody whose whole day is typing. The mandate does not make your yard bigger, and it applies to a site with three people the same way it applies to a site with three hundred.
Our guide on what changes in 2026 covers the scope and the timing, the page on getting a yard ready walks the preparation in order, the page on whether software can submit waste tracking data on your behalf explains who presses the button, and the page on waste compliance software for owner operators makes the wider case for running duty of care paperwork without a compliance clerk. This page is about the software decision itself, at your size.
The decision in front of you
Most single-site operators are weighing three options.
Stay on paper and type the loads in twice. Cheapest today. It means the weighbridge ticket is written once by hand, then keyed again into Defra's spreadsheet inside two working days, then rebuilt a third time at quarter end for the EA return. That holds while the yard is quiet and falls over in a busy week.
Buy a full skip hire and fleet suite. Those are built for a business running many vehicles, with routing, hire periods, invoicing and depot management wrapped around the compliance part. If you have twenty staff and one yard, you are paying for, and being trained on, a great deal of software you will not open.
Put in one narrow tool that does the record-keeping part properly. That is Skiplog. It does not plan routes, does not run your hire book, does not raise invoices and does not replace your weighbridge. It records the movement of waste with the fields the Environment Agency mandates, carries the extra fields Defra's receipt of waste service asks for on every load you take in, keeps your carrier, broker and dealer registrations with their expiry dates in one place, and turns the same records into the receipts spreadsheet and the quarterly return.
The trade-off is real. A narrow tool means you keep whatever you already use for the commercial side, and the submission to Defra stays a thing your yard does rather than something a supplier does quietly for you. In return, nobody on your site has to learn a system designed for a company ten times the size, and the part with a legal deadline attached gets handled first.
A load, from the weighbridge to Defra and the quarterly return
- Open the note where the lorry is
The transfer note form runs on a phone or a tablet and is built to be completed in under two minutes, so the person who weighed the load is the person who writes the record, while the ticket is still in their hand.
- Fill the fields the EA mandates
Waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site appear as fields, not as a blank box somebody has to remember how to fill. The note is built around the mandated fields rather than around a free-text pad.
- Add what Defra asks about a load you took in
The same note carries the receipt-of-waste fields, including the date and time the load was received, and it is checked as you save against the rules Defra's upload applies, so a field that would bounce is flagged at the weighbridge rather than in the spreadsheet a day later.
- Save it signal or no signal
Skiplog is offline-first. The note saves to the device first and carries a visible status, queued, syncing or synced, and queued notes sync automatically when connectivity returns. The device also keeps a copy of the screens you have already opened, so a load can be recorded in a black spot and sent when the signal comes back.
- The office sees the register, not a shoebox
Once a note has synced it sits on the yard's register where the office can read it. A note recorded in error can be removed, which takes it off your returns as well, and a removed note stays on file for the two-year retention the waste rules set.
- See which loads are still to report
A dashboard card lists the notes you have not yet put into Defra's system, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow against the two working days the service allows, so the clock is on a screen instead of in a separate list on the desk.
- Check the rows before you upload
The receipts screen checks every row against Defra's upload rules. By default the export takes only the rows that pass and tells you how many it held back, and each failing row links straight to the field that needs fixing.
- Export the receipts in Defra's column order
Pick a date range and export the receipt rows in the column order of Defra's own template, so the file goes up as it comes out. Your yard makes the upload to the service.
- Mark them reported and keep the reference
After a receipts download Skiplog asks whether you have uploaded them, and on confirmation stamps each note in the batch as reported. The waste tracking reference Defra gives a load can be stored against the note, so you can show later which reference it went in under.
- If Defra rejects a load, the new clock is on the screen
A reported receipt can be marked as rejected with the date and reason from the rejection notice, which sets a fresh correction deadline on the dashboard. Correcting or removing a note that already carries a Defra reference flags it as a correction still to report.
- Registrations sit on a dashboard with their dates
Carrier, broker and dealer registrations are tracked with their expiry dates, and Skiplog is built to email an alert for any registration expiring within 30 days. Unlimited registrations on either plan.
- Export the quarterly return at quarter end
Generate the quarterly EA return as a one-click CSV export in a configurable EA-specified column layout, ready to submit without manual reformatting. You make the submission, and the figures are worth checking against your tickets first.
What Skiplog does on a yard of one to twenty people
The record is made where the load is
The note is written at the weighbridge in under two minutes rather than reconstructed that evening from a soft carbon copy. That is the difference between a record of what happened and a record of what somebody remembered.
The signal is not the deciding factor
A note saves to the device first and shows queued, syncing or synced, so whoever wrote it can see whether it is still on the tablet or away. Signing out gives up that device's queue and clears the saved screens from it, which matters on a tablet that lives in the gate hut.
The two-day clock is on a screen, not in your head
Loads you have not yet put into Defra's system show on the dashboard as overdue, due today or due tomorrow. On a small site that is the difference between a reporting deadline and a nagging feeling.
The ticket is typed once
The receipt-of-waste fields sit on the same note as the transfer note fields, so a load weighed at the gate becomes a row for Defra's spreadsheet and a line in the quarter's return without anyone keying it a second time.
A bounced upload is caught before it bounces
Rows are checked against Defra's upload rules on the receipts screen and again on the note form as you save. The export defaults to the rows that will pass, says how many it held back, and points each failing row at the field to fix.
Defra's columns, not your retyping
Receipt rows export in the column order of Defra's template for your yard to upload, and the batch records its dates, its note count and who confirmed it.
A rejection has a date and a deadline
Mark a receipt as rejected with the date and reason off the notice and the correction deadline is worked out for you. A correction to a load Defra already accepted is flagged with the reference it went in under, with the old and new value of what changed.
The weighbridge and the office are two people
You add the people who work on the site as their own accounts, invited by email, and each signs in with an email address and password. Every transfer note then names whoever recorded it, instead of three people sharing one login.
A registration does not lapse quietly
Expiry dates sit on the tracking dashboard, and Skiplog is built to email an alert for any registration expiring within 30 days. On a small site that reminder usually has to live in somebody's head.
The quarter is visible while it builds
Notes logged, tonnage by waste type and a compliance status overview on one dashboard, so the quarter is something you can look at in February rather than discover in April.
Sized for one site, not a depot network
Each plan covers one site, with unlimited transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked. There is no routing module, hire book or depot management to configure around a yard with one gate and one weighbridge.
Claims you can repeat to an auditor
Records are kept while the account is open, because waste records have to span quarters and inspections, and a lapsed trial leaves them readable and exportable. Skiplog is described, in its terms and in this copy, as helping you meet the mandate's requirements, not as guaranteeing a compliance outcome: what your team records, and any future change to the regulator's format, are not ours to promise.
Where the paper way and Skiplog part company
| The job | On paper today | With Skiplog |
|---|---|---|
| Where the record gets made | In the cab or the office drawer, hours after the skip left, by someone filling in from memory | At the weighbridge, by the person who weighed the load, in under two minutes |
| What happens with no signal | The paper ticket is the only copy until it reaches the office | The note saves on the device with a queued status and syncs when the signal returns |
| Reporting a load you took in | The ticket is keyed into Defra's spreadsheet a second time, and somebody keeps a list of which ones are done | The same note carries the receipt fields; the dashboard shows what is overdue, due today and due tomorrow, and the export is in Defra's column order for you to upload |
| An upload Defra will not accept | The file bounces and the two-day clock keeps running while you hunt for the bad row | Rows are checked against Defra's rules first, only passing rows export by default, and each failing row links to the field to fix |
| A note that should not be on the record | A crossing out on a carbon copy, if anyone spots it before quarter end | Removed from the register, which takes it off the return, and the removed note is still held for the regulations' two-year retention |
| What quarter end costs | An evening rebuilding three months of loads from a spike of weighbridge tickets | An export of records that were already made |
| What a renewal depends on | A date in a drawer, or one person remembering it | Expiry dates on a dashboard and an email alert inside 30 days |
| Who owns the accuracy of the record | You do | Still you. Skiplog helps you meet the requirements, it does not guarantee a compliance outcome, and the figures are worth checking against your tickets before you submit |
What it will cost when it opens
60-day free trial
Two months to put Skiplog on the yard tablet, run real loads through it, report a few receipts and watch a quarter start to build.
Annual, £1,188 a year
The same product for £99 a month, billed once a year, for yards that plan a season ahead. Billing runs through Stripe.
Monthly, £129 a month
The same product paid month by month, cancel whenever you like. Billing runs through Stripe.
Both plans, one yard
One site, unlimited waste transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked, with offline capture, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet for your yard to upload, the quarterly EA return CSV, registration expiry reminders and the site dashboard included on either plan.
Questions
What counts as a small operator?
One site with roughly 1 to 20 staff: a skip yard, a tip or a transfer station where the operator, the transport side and the paperwork are the same two or three people. Skiplog is built around that shape rather than around a multi-depot fleet, and each plan covers one site. There is no small site exemption in the mandate, which is why a narrow tool exists for this size.
Can I record a waste movement with no mobile signal?
Yes. Skiplog is offline-first: a transfer note saves to the device first and shows as queued, then syncs automatically when connectivity returns. The device also holds a copy of the screens you have already opened, so the form is there in a black spot, and the status on each note tells whoever wrote it whether it is still on the device or synced.
How does Skiplog help me report the waste I receive to Defra?
The receipt-of-waste fields, including the date and time a load was received, sit on the same transfer note you write at the weighbridge, and your receiver details live on the site screen so they do not get retyped. A receipts screen checks each row against Defra's upload rules, exports the rows that pass in the column order of Defra's template, and your yard uploads that file to the service. After a download Skiplog asks whether you have uploaded them and marks the batch as reported.
What happens if Defra rejects a row?
You can mark a reported receipt as rejected with the date and reason from the notice, which sets a fresh correction deadline on the dashboard. You can also store the waste tracking reference Defra gives an accepted load, and if a note with a reference is later corrected or removed, Skiplog flags it as a correction still to report along with the old and new value of what changed.
Will it tell me before a carrier registration expires?
Your carrier, broker and dealer registrations are tracked on a dashboard with their expiry dates, and Skiplog is built to send an email alert for any registration expiring within 30 days, so the renewal reaches you as a diary item rather than a discovery. Renewing the registration itself is a matter for the regulator, not something Skiplog does for you.
Does Skiplog submit anything to the Environment Agency or Defra for me?
No. The quarterly EA return comes out as a one-click CSV export in a configurable EA-specified column layout, ready to submit without manual reformatting, and the receipt rows come out in Defra's template order for your yard to upload. You make the submissions and you check that the figures match your tickets, because Skiplog helps you meet the requirements rather than guaranteeing a compliance outcome.
What will it cost?
Skiplog is not open to customers yet, so nothing is on sale today. When it opens there will be a 60-day free trial, then two plans: Annual at £1,188 a year, which works out at £99 a month, or Monthly at £129 a month. Billing runs through Stripe, and card details never touch Skiplog.
If the trial or the subscription lapses, do I lose the records?
No. Records are kept while the account is open, and a lapsed trial leaves them readable and exportable, which matters because waste records have to span quarters and inspections. A note you remove comes off your register and returns but stays on file for the two years the regulations require. Deleting the account from the billing screen removes the account, the site and every record on it at once, so export anything the regulator still needs from you first.