Waste transfer note record keeping, for the person who does the paperwork
If you searched for waste transfer note record keeping software, you are most likely the person in the office who ends up holding every ticket. Skiplog is built for that job: each load written up once with the fields the Environment Agency and Defra's receipt of waste service expect, kept in one register for the site, with the receipt rows and the quarterly return coming out of the same place.
What record keeping software has to do for a yard
Record keeping software, for a yard, has to do four things before it does anything clever: put a transfer note on every load that comes in or goes out, carry the fields the Environment Agency expects on each note, report each load you take in to Defra's waste tracking service inside its deadline, and give you the whole lot when the quarter closes. That is what Skiplog is built around, and it is the office's work far more often than the driver's.
There are now two clocks on the same desk. Each load you receive has to be reported to Defra's receipt of waste service within two working days, and the quarter still has to be added up by waste type and sent to your area office. Weighbridge tickets and duplicate-book copies reach the desk in whatever state the yard was in: one note with no EWC code, one with the carrier's name but not the registration number, a Tuesday load nobody wrote up. Reconciling that against a two working day deadline, with a quarter also building up behind it, is the job.
What this page covers
If the question you are still weighing is whether to give up the paper duplicate book at all, we have a separate page on that swap, and another on moving the records off a spreadsheet. There is a third on correcting a mistyped weight or EWC code before the quarter closes. This page is about where the register lives, how a load gets reported and marked off, and what leaves the office at the end of the quarter.
In Skiplog that means one site per subscription, with unlimited transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked on it. The note is written on a phone or tablet at the point of weighing and read back at the desk, so a load is typed once rather than once on a ticket in the yard, again into a spreadsheet, and a third time into Defra's template. Every note carries a visible status of queued, syncing or synced, so the desk can tell what has reached the office and what is still sitting on a tablet at the far end of the yard.
Setting the site up is short, and it is office work. The yard's name is all that starts an account. The address and postcode, the EA permit or exemption number, the region, the receiver site name, the environmental permit or authorisation and the contact email and phone Defra wants against every load, any position statement, and the column layout you want your returns built in are all site details. They are required before a return or a receipts file exports, so they are worth typing carefully once rather than correcting later.
From the weighbridge to Defra and on to the quarter
- The note is written where the load is weighed
A digital waste transfer note on a phone or tablet, carrying the EA-mandated fields of waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, plus the receipt-of-waste fields Defra asks for on every load it takes in. The form is built to be completable in under two minutes, which is about as long as anyone at a weighbridge will give it.
- A black spot does not break the chain
Notes save to the device first and carry a visible status of queued, syncing or synced, then sync on their own when connectivity returns. The office is not waiting on somebody to remember a load from the far end of the yard.
- A field that would bounce is caught at the save, not at the upload
The same rules Skiplog checks a receipt row against are run on the note form when it is saved, including the offline save, so a value Defra's upload would refuse is flagged while the load is still in front of you.
- The register fills as the day goes on
The site dashboard shows how many transfer notes have been logged, tonnage by waste type and a compliance status overview. That is the screen you read instead of counting a duplicate book in the week before a deadline.
- You can see what Defra is still waiting on
A dashboard card lists the notes not yet reported, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow against the two working day deadline, so the loads still to go into Defra's service are on the same screen as everything else rather than on a separate list somebody keeps by hand.
- Receipts export in Defra's own column order
A receipts screen sits next to the quarterly return. Pick a date range and the rows come out in the column order of Defra's template. Every row is checked against the upload rules first and only the rows that pass are exported, with a count of what was held back and a link from each failing row to the field that needs fixing.
- Marked reported, with Defra's reference against the load
After a receipts download Skiplog asks whether the file has been uploaded to Defra. On confirming, every note in that batch is stamped as reported, and the waste tracking reference Defra gives back can be recorded against the receipt so a load can be shown to be in their system later.
- A rejection or a correction keeps its own clock
Mark a reported receipt as rejected by Defra, with the date on the notice, and the two working day correction deadline runs from there and the load goes back on the due list. Correct or remove a note Defra had already accepted and it is flagged as a correction to report, with the reference it went in under and the old and new value of what changed.
- Registrations are watched alongside the notes
Carrier, broker and dealer registrations are tracked with their expiry dates on one dashboard, with email alerts for anything expiring inside 30 days and the dates available in your own calendar. A lapsed registration is a record keeping problem as much as a licensing one.
- The quarter leaves as a file
Generate the quarterly EA return as a one-click CSV, in the column layout you set on your site, ready to submit without reformatting it by hand. You check it and send it. Skiplog does not submit on your behalf.
- The record stays reachable afterwards
Records are kept while the account is open, 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, and a lapsed trial does not lock records away: they stay readable and exportable.
Choosing how the records get closed out
There are three honest ways a yard of one to twenty staff keeps on top of this.
- Keep the paper and retype it. Cheapest in cash, dearest every other week, and now it is retyping into Defra's template as well as into a return. The loads that never reach the book are the ones that matter if an inspector asks.
- Build the spreadsheet. Workable while one person owns it, fragile the week they are away, and nothing in a spreadsheet makes anybody fill in an EWC code at the weighbridge or tells you which row Defra will refuse.
- Capture the note once and let the register, the receipt rows, the totals and the export come off it. That is the approach Skiplog takes, and it is deliberately narrow.
Narrow is the point. A yard with a handful of staff does not need a fleet system to answer the questions these deadlines actually ask, which are which loads are not yet reported, how many notes there are, and how many tonnes of what. The cost of the wide product is not only the price, it is the amount of setup somebody has to own before the first note can be written.
Where Skiplog stops
It writes transfer notes, warns on a field that would fail an upload, shows the site's counts and tonnage by waste type, lists what is due to Defra, exports receipt rows in Defra's template column order for your yard to upload, records the reference that comes back, tracks carrier, broker and dealer registrations, and exports the quarter as a CSV in the columns you have set. It does not produce hazardous waste consignment notes, it does not run skip hire bookings, routing or invoicing, and it does not file anything with Defra or the Environment Agency for you: you review the file and upload it yourself.
Two things said plainly. Skiplog is built to help your site meet its record keeping and reporting requirements, and what a regulator makes of your records still depends on what you and your drivers put in them and on format changes outside our control, so this is a tool rather than a guarantee of a compliance outcome. And it is not open yet.
What that changes for the desk the paperwork lands on
A load is typed once, not three times
The note is written at the point of weighing and arrives at the desk as a record. The receipt rows for Defra, the register, and the tonnage by waste type all come off those same notes, so none of them is a second piece of copying somebody owns.
Nothing quietly runs past the two working days
Overdue, due today and due tomorrow are read off the dashboard, and a note is stamped as reported only when you confirm the file went up. The yard is not keeping a parallel list of what has and has not been sent.
The columns asked for, set once
Receipt rows come out in Defra's template order, and the quarterly return comes out in the column layout held against your site. Nobody is dragging columns around in a spreadsheet the night before a deadline.
Something to show, long after the load left
Generated quarterly returns are kept with their totals, so a file the EA already holds can be downloaded again unchanged. Receipts batches keep their dates, note count and who confirmed them, and each reported load can carry Defra's reference and, if it came to it, the date and reason from a rejection notice.
Every note names who wrote it
The weighbridge and the office can each sign in as themselves, rather than the yard sharing one login, so the person at the desk is not guessing who recorded a load before asking about it.
You can say where the records sit
Sign-in is by email and password. The application and its Postgres database are hosted on Amazon Web Services, Stripe takes card payments and card details never touch Skiplog, and Resend sends password resets, invites and registration expiry reminders. There is no independent security audit, no certification, no single sign-on and no two-factor sign-in today, and we would rather you heard that here than find out later.
What to ask before you buy any of it
| The question to ask | Why it decides the week |
|---|---|
| Does the capture form ask for waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier, destination and the receipt details at the moment of weighing? | Fields left for later get filled in from memory, or not at all, and the gap only shows up when an upload bounces or the return will not add up. |
| Will it take a note with no signal, and can you see which notes have reached the office? | Half a yard is a black spot. A system that needs a bar of signal quietly pushes the load back onto a biro. |
| Can a note be finished in under two minutes on a tablet? | A lorry is waiting on the weighbridge. Anything longer gets abandoned halfway and the load reaches the desk as a scribble. |
| Does it export in Defra's own template column order? | Defra takes its spreadsheet and nobody else's. A file in the wrong column order is a file somebody retypes. |
| Does it check a row before you upload it, or leave you to find out afterwards? | A refused upload spends the two working days on working out which row was wrong. |
| Can you see which loads are still not in Defra's system? | Without that list somebody keeps a second list on paper, which is the thing you were trying to stop. |
| Can you record the reference Defra gives back, and mark a rejection? | Being told a load is reported is not the same as being able to show it was accepted, and a rejection starts a fresh deadline. |
| Does the quarterly export come out in the column layout you file in? | If it does not, somebody reformats a spreadsheet by hand every quarter and the saving disappears. |
| Can you read and export the records two years later, and pull back a return you already sent? | An inspector asks about a load long after the quarter closed, and the answer has to match the file the EA holds. |
| What happens to the records if you stop paying? | Retention is a legal obligation, not a feature of your subscription. Find out before you are relying on it. |
| Does it watch carrier, broker and dealer registrations as well as the notes? | A load taken from a lapsed carrier is a duty of care problem that no amount of tidy paperwork afterwards fixes. |
What it costs when it opens
Annual, £1,188 a year
For yards that plan a season ahead: the same product for £99 a month, billed once a year. One site, unlimited waste transfer notes, unlimited registrations tracked, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet, and a 60-day free trial.
Monthly, £129 a month
The same product paid month by month, cancel whenever you like. One site, unlimited waste transfer notes, unlimited registrations tracked, receipt-of-waste rows ready for Defra's spreadsheet, and a 60-day free trial. Card payments are handled by Stripe.
Questions
Is this record keeping software or a full skip hire system?
Record keeping. Skiplog creates digital waste transfer notes with the EA-mandated fields and the receipt-of-waste fields, lists what is still to be reported to Defra, exports receipt rows and the quarterly EA return, shows a site dashboard of notes logged, tonnage by waste type and compliance status, and tracks carrier, broker and dealer registrations with their expiry dates. It does not do bookings, routing or invoicing.
Does Skiplog report receipt of waste to Defra for me?
No, your yard uploads the file. Skiplog builds your receipt rows in the column order of Defra's own template for a date range you pick, checks every row against the upload rules first, and exports only the rows that pass, telling you how many it held back and pointing each failing row at the field to fix. When you confirm the upload, each note in that batch is stamped as reported, and the waste tracking reference Defra gives back can be recorded against the load. We make no claim to be approved by Defra or listed as a provider.
What happens if Defra rejects a load, or if I have to correct one it accepted?
Mark the receipt as rejected and enter the date on the notice: the two working day correction deadline runs from that date and the load goes back on the due list on the dashboard. If you correct or remove a note that already carries a Defra reference, it is flagged as a correction to report, holding the reference it went in under and the old and new value of what changed, so the fix can be made in Defra's service and shown later.
What does a transfer note in Skiplog carry?
Waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, the EA-mandated fields, together with the receipt details Defra asks for on a load you take in, on a form built to be completed in under two minutes on a phone or tablet. If you want the field-by-field detail before you decide, read our transfer note template page.
What happens when the yard has no signal?
Notes save to the device first and show a visible status of queued, syncing or synced, then sync automatically when connectivity returns. The office sees the note once it has synced, rather than waiting for a paper copy to come back with the driver. Signing out gives up that device's queue and clears the saved screens from it.
What comes out at the end of the quarter, and can I get it back later?
A one-click CSV export of the quarterly EA return, built in the column layout you set on your site, so it is ready to submit without reformatting it by hand. Generated returns are kept with their totals, so a return you have already sent can be downloaded again unchanged. You review and submit it; Skiplog does not submit on your behalf.
How long are the records kept, and can I get them out?
Everything is kept while the account is open, 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. A lapsed trial does not lock records away: they stay readable and exportable. Deleting the account removes it all at once and cancels a live subscription first, so download anything the EA still needs from you before you do.
What does it cost, and where does the data live?
Two plans, both the same product on one site with unlimited transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked: £99 a month billed annually, which is £1,188 a year, or £129 a month paid monthly and cancelled whenever you like. Both start with a 60-day free trial, long enough to run real loads, a receipts export and a quarterly return in your own yard before you commit. Sign-in is by email and password, the application and its database are hosted on Amazon Web Services, Stripe takes card payments and card details never touch Skiplog, and Resend sends password resets, invites and expiry reminders.