How to prepare the BDO annual report

For a small retailer, the biggest problem with the BDO report is usually not the form itself, but the mistaken assumption that „the shop only has a few documents, so it certainly doesn't apply to me”. Meanwhile, the obligation may arise from different areas of the business: the introduction of packaged products, the offering of plastic bags subject to the recycling levy, the marketing of certain products or the generation of waste for which records are kept. Therefore, the first step is not to log into the system, but to find out, what type of annual report Your company is expected to submit. Official sources distinguish between two main modes: the report on waste generated and waste management and the report on products, packaging and the management of waste arising from them. In practice, the small trader is most likely to encounter the latter, especially if he or she sells packaged products, offers commercials to customers or operates as a shop or wholesaler subject to product obligations. Both types of report are submitted electronically via an account in the BDO system, and with the product report the basic deadline is 15 March for the previous calendar year. 

Step 1: determine what your company is reporting on

Before you start filling in the form, check why your business is in BDO at all. For a small trading company, the most common titles are offering plastic shopping bags subject to the recycling levy, introducing packaged products, some obligations for single-use plastic products or keeping waste records. This is important because it determines which sections of the report have to be filled in. If a shop offers plastic carrier bags, it should show the number of lightweight and other plastic carrier bags purchased and issued in the annual report, and these data must be derived from the current records. If the company is a generator of recordable waste, it will need data from the KEO and KPO. If, on the other hand, it introduces packaged products, it needs to rely on packaging weights by material. In practice, it is this step that determines whether further filing will be straightforward or turn into guesswork. 

Step 2: prepare your data and documents before you enter the form

The most common mistake small companies make is that they log into BDO without any data prepared. Meanwhile, the system is just a place to file a report, not a source of information. Before starting work, it is a good idea to collect a set of documents for the previous year: records of plastic bags, summary of packaging weights by type of material, information on products covered by obligations, waste transfer cards, waste record sheets and confirmation of settlements if the company has carried out special obligations. The BDO manual for product reports confirms that the form is submitted in the context of the entity's registered office and includes individual sections depending on the type of obligation. For a small trading company, this means that before clicking „add new report”, you already need to know which sections will be filled in and what figures will go into them. If a shop has several points of sale, the data should be collected in an orderly way, because the subsequent reconstruction of the number of commercials issued or the masses of packaging from invoices and notes usually ends in errors. 

Step 3: complete the BDO report according to the relevant scope

Once logged into the BDO system, you select the relevant reporting module and create a new annual report for the relevant year. Next, it is most important that you do not fill in all the sections „in stock”, only those sections that are based on your entry and actual obligations. For a small trading company, this usually means completing the sections on packaging, plastic bags or other product obligations, rather than the entire form. If the company is submitting a waste report, the figures should be consistent with the records kept. If it is submitting a product report, the figures must correspond to statements prepared earlier, not estimates. In the case of plastic bags, the official material indicates explicitly that the trader must keep records of the number of bags purchased and issued separately for each commercial unit and later show these figures in the annual report. This is a good example of a wider principle: any figure entered in the BDO should have a source in the records kept on an ongoing basis. Once the data has been completed, the form needs to be checked, electronically signed in the system and sent to the relevant Marshal. 

Step 4: Verify the report and keep it in order after dispatch

The last step is often neglected, and it is the one that determines the security of the company. Once the report has been sent, it is worth checking that it has been recorded and submitted in the correct context of the entity, and retaining the set of source data on which it was prepared. A small trading company should also draw lessons immediately for the following year: if collecting data from different locations was a problem, it is worth implementing simple monthly record-keeping; if commercials or packaging were a problem, it is necessary to sort out their ongoing count; if the company is unsure whether it has chosen the right sections of the form, it is better to verify this earlier than to correct the report under time pressure. In practice, a well-prepared BDO annual report does not start in March, but in the daily organisation of documents throughout the year. That is why the step-by-step guide should end not with just „sent”, but with a structured process to do it more easily in the next reporting period. 

If you want to ensure that your small trading company's BDO annual report has been prepared on the right data and to the right extent, it is worth sorting this out before the deadline, rather than only when completing the form. For details, see Contact page there, you can describe your business and match the support to your company's actual responsibilities.