Open the official closing-stock instructions. The 2026 submission deadline was 15 October. That date has passed at this review: take an outstanding or correction query to the National Fertiliser Database service through MyAgFood or the contact in the guide.
Gather the transactions and stock evidence
Gather purchases, deliveries, completed applications and transfers. Identify contractor-supplied material and stock received directly from a merchant.
Use full product names and units. List unopened bags separately from estimated remainders in opened packs. Write down how each quantity was established and mark estimates as estimates.
Check the fertiliser transactions recorded against the farm. Compare those with the original documents and resolve a mismatch with the responsible supplier or service.
Read the official declaration fields
Select the declaration year, then choose nil stock or stock held. For stock held, enter each branded product and its quantity in tonnes, converting kilograms where necessary.
Add each item, check the complete list, confirm submission and retain the official confirmation.
Before choosing nil stock, check stock at the selected year's reference time. For a stocked entry, match each product with its original identity, convert quantities carefully and keep the calculation in the working file. Do not type the number of bags into a field expecting tonnes.
Keep the reference stock separate from today’s count
Use the stock held at the end of 14 September as the reference balance. Prepare the historical balance from reliable transactions if the physical count occurred later. Keep later deliveries and applications outside that earlier balance.
Write down any correction and keep its supporting documents. Do not backdate a later physical count as though it had been taken at the reference time.
For an unresolved difference, prepare a short enquiry naming the year, product, quantity and transaction concerned, and keep the reply beside the declaration so a later review can follow the reasoning.
Resolve contractor and transfer questions
Include contractor-supplied fertiliser and farm-to-farm transfers in the reconciliation. Give the contractor the correct customer reference and compare the resulting transaction with the actual supply.
Do not count the same movement twice when both the invoice and the transfer appear in your file: keep both original references and note how they connect.
For a correction or a missed declaration, contact the database service with the year, the product list and the original evidence, and keep the submitted declaration, acknowledgement and later corrections in order.
Work through a product balance before opening the declaration
Work out each branded fertiliser separately: opening stock, plus receipts and inward transfers, less completed use and outward transfers, gives the expected closing quantity. Use it to look into differences before entering quantities, and do not treat a calculated figure as a physical count.
For example, a holding begins with 400 kg of one product, receives 1,000 kg and applies 900 kg before the reference time. With no other movement the expected remainder is 500 kg, or 0.500 tonnes. That is product mass, not 500 kg of nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium; keep the product analysis beside any nutrient calculation made with the adviser. If two further 250 kg deliveries arrive after the reference time, today's stock changes but the earlier 500 kg does not.
If you are rebuilding a missed count, work backward through every receipt, transfer and application in between. Mark a missing delivery ticket as unresolved, and compare the spreadsheet dates with the delivery history, because correct arithmetic cannot fix wrongly dated entries.
Check which event each date describes. An order date, invoice date, delivery date and spreading date can be different. Use the evidence for the movement concerned and explain an unusual sequence. Ask the merchant to clarify a transaction recorded against another customer, and ask the contractor about material delivered directly to a field. Check that the contractor allocated supplied fertiliser to the customer's herd number through the transfer facility.
Review the declaration list one line at a time
Check that every added product appears in the complete declaration list before confirming submission. Use a second pass against the working count: first check identity, then quantity, then the selected year. Check each field separately for transcription mistakes. Do not assume a typed row has been added merely because it remains visible in an entry box. Follow the guide's add-item step.
Keep your spray records in one place. Free to start.
Before a nil declaration, go through every storage place and all stock under your control. A tidy main shed is not enough if another known quantity is still unaccounted for, and a purchase later in September does not show a non-zero balance at the earlier reference time. Decide from the reconstructed position and take an unresolved case to the database service.
If someone else prepares the entry, agree who checks the calculation and who submits it, and ask for the official acknowledgement once the submission is done. A saved worksheet or an email saying "ready" is only preparation, so label the working file with the stage actually reached.
For the already elapsed 2026 deadline, describe the situation honestly when seeking assistance: not submitted, submitted with an incorrect quantity, wrong year selected, or acknowledgement unavailable. Include what you can verify and what remains uncertain. Use the database contact printed in DAFM's guide for the procedure applicable to the case. Do not promise an extension, accepted correction or particular outcome without the service's response.
Separate nutrient evidence from pesticide evidence
Check the Eco-Scheme fertiliser-allowance clarification alongside the nutrient plan.
Give the nutrient adviser the reconciled product balances and the field plan. The closing-stock declaration and Eco-Scheme eligibility are separate checks; neither settles the other.
Keep pesticide applications with their fields and treatment history, and check every Eco-Scheme practice you selected against its evidence list.
Review maps and physical features carefully
Review the classification of areas under the 2026 spaces-for-nature option. Compare the actual current information with your filed map instead of carrying forward a previous percentage without review.
Take the adviser a specific discrepancy: the parcel, the mapped feature, what you see now and the source showing the difference. Do not hand over an unlabelled folder of field photographs.
If photographs are requested, follow the official instruction on the system and subject. Keep the submission confirmation if one is issued: a picture saved on a phone does not show it was sent by the required route.
Read the 2026 application information in its own year
Eco-Schemes form part of the 2026 area-based online application. Check that the relevant schemes were selected and review the GAEC 7 crop-rotation and diversification changes for arable land. Use the 2026 terms and conditions for a 2026 enquiry; a general launch page from 2023 is historical context.
Find the statement of lands and maps for the application year and compare parcel references, occupied areas and recorded crops with it. Note rented parcels, recently changed boundaries and any feature whose classification is disputed, and describe the difference by reference rather than drawing a new map over the submitted one.
Use account support for registration or password problems and BISS support for application questions. Prepare the task before choosing the contact route. For an access problem, explain which account and stage are affected. For an application question, provide the claim year, reference and selected practice without disclosing account credentials.
Prepare the tree-and-hedge evidence specifically
For AP4 in BISS 2026, trees and hedges had to be planted and receipts uploaded during the application. Check both the purchase receipt and completed planting against the current instructions. Take a missing or late item to your adviser; do not assume that ordering plants establishes completed planting.
For the enquiry, note the supplier, species, quantity, receipt date, planting location and work actually completed, and describe substitutions, undelivered plants, failures or unfinished sections accurately. Ask which evidence the current terms require for your option, and keep payment and delivery documents apart from site observations.
If land tenure, access or a boundary is unclear, settle that with the people responsible before asking for a scheme decision. Provide a sketch of the planting line and compare the planted locations with the parcel information submitted for AP4. Do not change an official declaration just to match an informal contractor sketch.
Next step
Reconcile the reference-date stock and declaration acknowledgement, then connect field allocations through the crop-record guide.