DEFRA's digital waste tracking takes submissions from receiving sites first, so a receipt is what gets filed. Every load you take in has to be reported within two working days of receiving it. The DEFRA Submissions page is the record of what has actually gone across, one submission per receipt, and what DEFRA said back.
It is the page to open first thing on a Monday. Anything sat in Rejected is the work that needs your attention. Everything else has either gone through or is waiting on DEFRA. Receipts you have not submitted yet are not on this page at all, they are on the Receipts page, carrying their own deadlines.
How to do it
In the sidebar, click DEFRA Submissions.
Read the four tiles across the top: what is Filed, what has been Rejected and needs a fix, what is Awaiting response, and the Due by tile, which counts what has to reach DEFRA by the next working day.
Use the status tabs beside the search box to narrow the list down. There are four:
All. Everything that has been sent, in order, with rejections at the top.
Filed. Accepted by DEFRA. Nothing to do, although a row can read Filed with warnings.
Rejected. DEFRA would not take it. This is the only tab that carries a count, because it is the only one with work in it.
Awaiting response. Sent, no answer recorded yet. Leave it.
Open a rejected one. Under "What DEFRA needs before this can be filed" is the reason DEFRA gave, one line per thing to put right.
Each line links to wherever the problem actually lives. Fix on the receipt opens the load. Fix on the site opens the receiving site's own record, for something like a missing permit number.
Come back and click Resubmit to DEFRA.
When it goes through, DEFRA gives it a tracking ID. Copy tracking ID puts it on your clipboard if somebody has asked you for it.
Worth knowing
A load is only filed once it has a tracking ID against it. Until then it is still your problem.
Nothing lands on this page on its own. Approving a receipt does not send it to DEFRA: it waits until somebody presses Submit to DEFRA, which gives you up to 2 working days to double-check the details first.
The exception is a setting called File to DEFRA automatically on approval, under Settings, then DEFRA. With that on, a receipt goes across the moment it is approved, whether that was an admin approving it in review or an operative signing off their own, and it turns up here already sent.
Attempts shows how many times a record has been tried, and how many of those were rejected, which is the quickest way to spot one that keeps bouncing.
To send several at once, tick them in the list and press Submit to DEFRA on the bar that appears. The result comes back per receipt, so you can see which one stalled and why rather than just being told the run finished.
If your site is not connected to DEFRA yet, nothing here will file. Settings, then DEFRA, is where the connection lives. DEFRA issues one API code per organisation, covering every site you operate, and you put that same code against each of your own receiving sites. What differs per site is its permit or exemption number.
You get the code from DEFRA, not from us, by signing in to the Digital Waste Tracking service at waste-tracking.defra.gov.uk with your organisation's Government Gateway or GOV.UK One Login. It is free during DEFRA's public beta, then £26 a year per legal entity.
A business that only carries cannot file yet, because DEFRA has not opened the carrier side. This page explains that rather than showing you a backlog you cannot clear. It has nothing to do with what you pay: DEFRA submission is included on every LoadSnap plan, including the free one, and is never an add-on.
Related: How to register for Digital Waste Tracking and get your DEFRA API code. The two working day rule: when a load must be recorded. Amending or correcting a waste record.