Getting a yard ready before the October 2026 deadline
If you run a skip yard or a transfer station and you are working out what to change for digital waste tracking in 2026, this page is the readiness job in order. Reporting the loads you take in to Defra's waste tracking service began in October 2026, so this covers what to settle first, what to change at the weighbridge, and what can safely wait.
The job in front of you, in the yard's own words
If your site takes waste in, the record keeping has had two parts to it since October 2026. Every load still carries a waste transfer note saying what the waste was, which EWC code it falls under (the European Waste Catalogue code that classifies the waste), how much of it there was, who carried it and where it went. On top of that, a site that takes waste in has to report each load it receives to Defra's digital waste tracking service, on Defra's own spreadsheet, and the window for submitting a record is short, two working days from the load arriving. That is the deadline that brought you to this page.
Meanwhile it is a Tuesday in the yard. A tipper is sitting on the weighbridge, two skips are going out on exchange, a muck away load is waiting on the grab, and the duplicate book in the office drawer has three notes in it where the carbon has smudged into nothing.
When operators talk about preparing for the new duty, the complaint is rarely that the work is hard. It is that the work is never done at the right moment. The weighbridge ticket is in the cab, the note is in the pad, the EWC code is in somebody's head, and now there is a spreadsheet that bounces on upload while the two day clock keeps running and nobody can see which row is wrong.
So the readiness job is not really learning software. It is moving the moment the record gets written, from the office at the end of the day to the weighbridge at the time of the load, on a device that already lives in the cab or on the gate, and then catching what Defra would reject before you hand it over. That is a change to a working day, which is why the order you do it in matters more than the tool you pick.
Two other pages carry the arguments next door to this one. If what you want is the case for a single-site yard specifically, read the page on digital waste tracking for a single-site yard with 1 to 20 staff. If it is how the records hold together day to day without a dedicated compliance clerk, read the owner operator page. This page is about sequence: what to settle first, and what can wait.
The decision in front of you now the service is live
There are only a few honest options, and it is worth naming the trade-offs before you pick one.
Stay on paper and retype it
The pad still works at the weighbridge in the rain, and it needs no signal. The cost is that the digital record becomes a second job done from memory, and it is no longer a job that can wait for the quarter end, because the report of a received load has its own short clock. Nothing about the service makes that second job smaller.
Fill in Defra's spreadsheet by hand
The government route is a spreadsheet you complete and upload yourself, and registering for the service is its own piece of work. The glossary page on what the service is, and the page on what registering involves, cover that ground rather than this one. What they leave open is what writes the record in the yard, at the moment of the load, before anything can be reported at all, and who checks a row before it goes up.
Put something small at the weighbridge
A full skip hire operations suite will do jobs, routing, bins and invoicing alongside tracking, and the fair question is whether you need the rest of it on a single site. Skiplog is deliberately narrow: the transfer note with the receipt details Defra asks for, offline capture, a receipts export in Defra's template column order for your yard to upload, carrier registration tracking, and the quarterly EA return in the column layout your area office asks for.
Two things to be plain about. Skiplog is built to help your yard meet the record keeping and reporting requirements, and it does not guarantee a compliance outcome, because that depends on what gets typed into each note and on changes to Defra's format outside the software. And it does not submit anything on your behalf: it prepares the rows and you upload them. The page on whether software can submit for you says exactly where that line falls.
Getting the yard ready, step by step
- Put the yard's details in once
Site name, address, region and your EA permit or exemption number, plus the receiver details Defra wants on every load it takes in: the receiving site's name, its environmental permit or authorisation number, and a contact email and phone. Entered one time, so every note, every receipt row and every return is headed with the yard it belongs to. Sign-in is an email address and a password, and the weighbridge and the office each sign in as themselves rather than sharing one login.
- Write one note at the weighbridge, not one at five o'clock
A transfer note with the fields the Environment Agency mandates: waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, built to be completed in under two minutes on a phone or tablet. The same note now also carries the receipt of waste details for an incoming load, including the date and time it was received, so the load is written up once rather than twice.
- Let the signal sort itself out
Capture is offline first. The note saves to the device before anything else happens, and carries a visible status of queued, syncing or synced, so the person on the gate can see where it stands. When connectivity comes back the note syncs on its own.
- Catch the rows Defra would bounce before you upload
The same checks that Defra's upload applies run on the note when you save it, so a missing or wrong receipt field is flagged at the gate rather than days later. On the receipts screen every row is checked again, the export sends only the rows that pass and says how many it held back, and each failing row links to the screen that fixes it.
- Export the batch in Defra's column order, then upload it yourself
On the receipts screen you pick a date range and export the rows in Defra's template column order, ready for their service rather than reshaped by hand. After the download Skiplog asks whether you have uploaded them, and on confirming it stamps each note in the batch as reported, with the batch's dates, note count and who confirmed it kept on file.
- Keep the two working day clock on one screen
A dashboard card lists the loads not yet reported, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow, so the clock is on a screen somebody already looks at instead of in a separate list. Once a load is in Defra's service you can store the reference it went in under, against the note.
- Know what to do the day a rejection notice lands
If Defra rejects a load you mark it rejected, give the date of the notice, and Skiplog sets the correction deadline from that date so the row goes back on the clock rather than off it. If you later correct a note Defra has already accepted, it is flagged as a correction to report, with the reference it was accepted under and what changed.
- Get the carrier registrations on a screen
Put the carrier, broker and dealer registrations you rely on into the tracking dashboard with their expiry dates. Anything expiring within 30 days is flagged and an email alert goes out, and the dates can sit in your own calendar, so a lapsed registration is not something you find out about from a driver at the gate.
- Watch the dashboard while the habit beds in
Once notes are going in, the site dashboard shows transfer notes logged, tonnage by waste type and a compliance status overview. A few weeks of that tells you whether the new habit has taken hold while there is still time to change it.
- Set the return's columns, then generate one from real loads
Set the column layout your area office asks for, then generate the quarterly EA return: one click, a CSV in that layout, ready to submit without manual reformatting. A dry run on real loads shows whether the carrier names, destinations and EWC codes your yard types in shorthand still read clearly in a statutory file.
- Leave the plan until last
Work out who writes the notes and on what, who presses upload, and watch the dashboard for a few weeks, then pick annual or monthly. Both plans carry a 60-day free trial, so the billing decision is the one that can wait.
The decisions that cost the most if you leave them late
Pick the device before you pick the process
The note is built to be completed in under two minutes on a phone or tablet, so the real question is which phone or tablet is on the gate at seven in the morning, who it belongs to and whether it is charged. Settle that and most of the rest follows.
Decide who presses upload, and when
The report of a received load has two working days on it, and the dashboard card groups what is overdue, due today and due tomorrow. The software can hold the clock up in front of you, but somebody in the office has to own the moment the batch is exported and uploaded. A fixed time each morning is easier to keep than a good intention.
Get the receiver details right the first time
The receiving site's name, its permit or authorisation number and the contact details go onto every row you hand Defra. A typo there is a typo on every load, so it is worth one careful five minutes on the site screen rather than a correction run later.
Decide where the carrier's number comes from
Every note asks for carrier details alongside waste type, EWC code, quantity and destination site, so the registration number has to come off the carrier's own ticket at the gate rather than be chased the following week. Agree that habit now and the note really does fill in two minutes.
Write down the EWC codes your yard actually uses
Most sites move the same handful of streams week in, week out. The note asks for waste type and EWC code together, so agreeing your own shortlist in the office beforehand keeps the code from becoming a conversation at the weighbridge with a lorry waiting.
Decide what happens on a no-signal day before it happens
Notes save to the device first and show queued, syncing or synced until they reach the office. The decision that needs making is human: who glances at that status at the end of a shift, and on which screen, because a note still sitting on a tablet is a load not yet reported.
Decide who keeps the references
The reference a load went into Defra's service under can be stored against the note, and a later correction to an accepted load is flagged with that reference and what changed. Agree now who types the reference in, or you will be looking for it in an inbox when somebody asks.
Agree the return's columns with the people who read it
The quarterly export is a CSV in a configurable EA-specified column layout, set per site. Ask your area office what they want to see before the quarter you have to submit, rather than during it.
Put the registrations in before one is close to expiry
Expiry dates only help if they are in the system ahead of time. Registrations tracked are unlimited on either plan, and anything inside 30 days is flagged and emailed, so the earliest useful day to add them is today.
Know where the record lives, and for how long
Records stay while the account is open, and a lapsed trial does not lock them away. Read the retention answer below before anybody deletes an account, because deletion takes everything at once.
Leave the plan until the work is settled
Annual is £1,188 a year, which is £99 a month billed once a year, and monthly is £129 a month. One site, unlimited waste transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked on either, with a 60-day free trial on both, so the billing rhythm is the only thing left to choose.
A readiness pass, line by line
| What to sort | How it works today in most yards | What it looks like once it is digital |
|---|---|---|
| The note itself | A duplicate pad in the cab or the office drawer, carbon copy to the driver | A note on a phone or tablet carrying waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site |
| When the record gets written | Typed up at the end of the day, or the end of the week, from the weighbridge ticket | Written at the weighbridge in under two minutes, while the load is still there |
| The receipt details Defra asks for | Typed a second time into a spreadsheet from the ticket, days later | Captured on the same note at the gate, including the date and time the load was received |
| Reporting a load you have taken in | A spreadsheet filled in by hand, with a two working day clock nobody is watching | A receipts export in Defra's template column order for your yard to upload, with a dashboard card showing overdue, due today and due tomorrow |
| A row Defra would reject | Found when the upload bounces, with the clock still running | Checked against Defra's upload rules on the note and again before the export, with each failing row linked to its fix |
| Proof a load is in the system | A memory, or a line in a diary | Each note stamped as reported, with Defra's reference stored against it and corrections to an accepted load flagged |
| Carrier details | Copied off the carrier's ticket if somebody remembers, or chased the following week | A required part of every note, taken at the gate with the waste type, EWC code, quantity and destination |
| Signal on site | No signal means no record until somebody remembers | The note saves on the device first and shows queued, syncing or synced until it reaches the office |
| Carrier registrations | A renewal date in a diary, or in somebody's head | Expiry dates on a dashboard with an email alert inside 30 days, and the dates in your own calendar |
| Quarter end | An evening of retyping into a spreadsheet and reshaping columns by hand | One click to a CSV in the EA column layout you have set for the site |
| The older records | Two years of pads in a box file, in whatever order they went in | On file for the two years the regulations require, readable and exportable |
What it costs when you are ready
Annual, £1,188 a year
For yards that plan a season ahead: the same product for £99 a month, billed once a year. Digital transfer notes, offline capture with a visible sync status, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet for your yard to upload, the quarterly EA return as a ready-to-submit CSV, registration tracking with expiry reminders, and the site dashboard. One site, unlimited notes, unlimited registrations, 60-day free trial.
Monthly, £129 a month
The same product paid month by month, cancel whenever you like. The same list: digital transfer notes, offline capture, Defra receipt rows for your yard to upload, the quarterly EA return CSV, registration tracking with expiry reminders and calendar dates, and the dashboard with tonnage by waste type. One site, unlimited notes, unlimited registrations, 60-day free trial.
Questions
When exactly do I have to be ready by?
The change Skiplog is built for is digital waste tracking, with the duty on sites that receive waste starting in October 2026. The dates, the service behind them and who they apply to are set out on our explainer about what changes and when, and on the short answer page about when digital waste tracking becomes mandatory. If your site is in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, start with the page on whether digital waste tracking applies there.
What should I do first if October has already come round?
Work in this order. Get the yard's details, your permit or exemption number and the receiver contact details in. Start writing notes at the weighbridge on real loads so the receipt details are captured as the load arrives. Put your carrier registrations and expiry dates on the dashboard. Then export one receipts batch, upload it yourself and mark it reported, and generate a quarterly return from the same loads. The hard change is where and when the note gets written, not the export at the end.
Does it work when there is no signal in the yard?
Capture is offline first. A note saves to the device before anything is sent, carries a visible queued, syncing or synced status, and syncs automatically when connectivity returns. That is the whole reason the product exists in a yard rather than an office, and it is also why somebody should glance at that status at the end of a shift: a note still on a tablet is a load not yet reported.
What has to go on the digital note?
The fields the Environment Agency mandates: waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site. On top of those, a load you take in carries the receipt of waste details Defra asks for, including the date and time it was received, the form and containers, and the vehicle. Skiplog's note carries them together and is built to be completed in under two minutes on a phone or tablet, so it can be done at the weighbridge rather than from memory later.
Does Skiplog send my loads to Defra for me?
No. It prepares the rows in Defra's template column order on the receipts screen, you download them and upload them to the service yourself, and then confirm in Skiplog that you have done so, which stamps each note in the batch as reported. Our page on whether software can submit waste tracking data on your behalf explains where that line falls and why it matters.
What happens if Defra rejects one of my loads?
Mark it rejected, enter the date on the rejection notice and the reason, and the correction deadline is set from that date so the row goes back on the clock rather than quietly off it. Rows are also checked against Defra's upload rules before the export, and only the rows that pass are exported, with each failing row linked to the screen that fixes it, so a bounce should be the exception rather than the routine.
How long are my records kept?
Everything stays while the account is open, because waste records have to span quarters and inspections. A transfer note you remove comes off your register and your returns but stays on file for the two years the regulations require, and a lapsed trial does not lock records away: they stay readable and exportable. Deleting the account, from Billing, removes it all at once, so download anything the EA still needs from you first.
Can I try it before committing?
Both plans carry a 60-day free trial, so you can record real loads and see how the notes, the receipts export, the registrations and the quarterly return behave in your own yard before paying anything. Skiplog is on a waitlist today, so joining it is the way to get access as early as possible.