In Northern Ireland, paper records remain acceptable through 31 December 2026; mandatory machine-readable records apply to uses from 1 January 2027. Existing record-keeping duties continue during 2026.
For Northern Ireland, DAERA's guidance separates three events: new record content from 1 January 2026, mandatory electronic transfer from 1 January 2027, and conversion of 2027 application records by 31 January 2028 as its published example. Records initially made on paper are to be converted without undue delay; the final date is not permission to postpone creating the application record.
Keep this timetable attached to Northern Ireland jobs. Great Britain's professional-user record duty is enforced by regulation 19 of the Plant Protection Products Regulations 2011, and HSE states three-year retention for professional users. Those GB sources and DAERA's NI transition guidance describe separate legal and administrative contexts.
Prepare a structured file, not just a printout. DAERA lists XLSX, CSV, XML and JSON; it excludes PDF and scanned images from the required machine-readable record. The official workbook is available free through the publication linked above. A login is a separate task: use the DAERA Online Services guide for account access.
Three questions to answer for each application
Identify where the treatment happened, which year it belongs to and whether its information is already structured electronically. Keep those answers visible in your archive index. A contractor operating across the Irish Sea needs to distinguish the records by jurisdiction before applying a date or selecting an output profile.
| Question | Northern Ireland guidance |
|---|---|
| What remains required throughout the transition? | Existing Article 67 application details and at least three-year retention |
| What changes from January 2026? | Additional content, prompt recording and specified access or request rules |
| What is delayed to January 2027? | Mandatory electronic transfer |
| How should paper originals be handled? | Convert without undue delay into the prescribed electronic format |
| What final conversion example is published? | 2027 use recorded electronically by 31 January 2028 |
This table follows DAERA's current transition explanation. Keep record creation, later conversion and retention as separate tasks in your working procedure.
What the 2026 grace period covers
DAERA says it will not apply penalties during 2026 for non-compliance with the new content requirements. It immediately states that existing record-keeping requirements under Regulation 1107/2009 still apply. The grace period is therefore defined by the new content, rather than a suspension of all pesticide records.
The existing details listed by DAERA are product name, application time and dose, treated area and crop. It also requires professional users to retain spray records for at least three years and provide them to the competent authority on request. Maintain those records while improving the information captured for the transition.
For your own procedure, review a sample of 2026 entries before transferring an entire archive. Identify fields that are absent from the older form, name the person who can supply the information and preserve the original note. If an actual value cannot be reconstructed, keep that issue in your internal correction process rather than inventing a code or time to fill a spreadsheet.
New content is more than an electronic filename
The additional NI fields include the product authorisation number, expressed as MAPP, EPPO codes for crops or land uses and BBCH growth stage where the product's label restricts use to a particular stage. Professional users must record each use promptly, without unnecessary delay. BBCH is also relevant when the growth stage matters in the context of the particular use, as explained in DAERA’s template guide.
Adding an XLSX extension to a file does not establish those details. Prepare the actual product identity, crop or land use and applicable growth-stage information first. Then compare the completed entry with the structured output. If a code is selected automatically, confirm that the selected description still matches the crop treated.
DAERA's template guide describes operator name, date, start and finish times, treatment location, product name and number, applicable growth stage, extent, method, dose, water and buffer information. It says choosing a crop from the workbook's dropdown populates its EPPO code. Use the DAERA template guide for that field-by-field procedure.
What becomes compulsory in 2027
DAERA requires the machine-readable format for uses from 1 January 2027. Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2023/564 sets a default conversion limit of 30 days after use and permits shorter national periods. Its option for a longer annual period applies only to uses before 1 January 2030, with records available electronically before 31 January of the following year. DAERA’s published annual timetable must be read within that limit.
The department's explicit example is an application carried out during 2027, which must be recorded electronically by 31 January 2028. Treat that example as the published explanation for the transition, preserving both the prompt-recording requirement and the conversion requirement in your procedure.
Assign ownership of the conversion before the first batch of jobs accumulates. Decide who transcribes any paper notes, who resolves incomplete product or crop details and who checks the saved file. Preserve the relationship between the application note and its electronic entry so a correction can be traced to the operation that generated it.
What “machine-readable” means here
DAERA defines machine-readable records as data that can be extracted, searched, analysed and transferred between systems without manual re-entry. It gives CSV, Microsoft Excel workbooks, XML and JSON as examples, along with other structured formats capable of electronic processing. The chosen format must preserve the required application data and allow it to be supplied on request.
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| File or record | Position in DAERA guidance |
|---|---|
| XLSX workbook | Listed example of a machine-readable format |
| CSV data file | Listed example of a machine-readable format |
| XML or JSON output | Listed structured formats |
| PDF report | Digital, but not a machine-readable application record for this purpose |
| JPEG or another scanned image | Does not meet the described machine-readable standard |
| Customer reference PDF from a contractor | Permitted as a reference where the contractor maintains the compliant original |
A searchable-looking report is therefore a different deliverable from the structured original. Preserve a file that retains the necessary values and relationships, then produce a human-readable copy as needed. Keep the purpose of each file clear in its filename and your archive index.
Requesting and supplying records
Article 4 requires information requested by the competent authority without undue delay. If the authority expressly requests the prescribed electronic format before the applicable Article 3 conversion period expires, provide it before that period expires or within 10 working days, whichever comes first. DAERA’s shorter summary does not remove the earlier limit in the regulation. Keep the request and identify the applicable period before arranging the response.
Prepare an export procedure that someone can carry out when the usual record keeper is away. Document where the structured originals are stored, which application period they cover and how to identify contractor-held records. Reopen the selected file and compare it with a known application before treating it as the final submission copy.
The same guidance says contractors provide customers access to, or copies of, relevant PPP records without undue delay or restrictions. Where the customer requests the required machine-readable format, the contractor must provide it without undue delay, including when it is needed for the Department. The contractor guide explains that handover.
The contractor's original and the customer's copy
DAERA places responsibility for creating and retaining the prescribed original with the contractor as the professional user who does the spraying. The contracting business may keep a copy such as PDF for its own reference, provided the contractor retains the original correctly.
Agree the distinction in the job administration. Name the structured-file custodian, the customer contact and the route for requesting a corrected record. Store a reference to the contractor's job alongside the customer copy. A PDF report can help the customer read a job, while the agreed handover must still make the underlying structured records available when required.
Use the free official workbook or another suitable system
DAERA supplies its workbook to support agricultural and horticultural food-crop users without specialist software or mobile applications. It expressly allows users to employ their own template or software. The choice of brand does not change the information and output tasks described in the guidance.
For paper capture, DAERA’s Northern Ireland Code also contains a suggested Annex F treatment sheet, printed page 127. Its columns can be adapted to the treatment. Transfer all required details into the structured record for uses from 1 January 2027; the Annex PDF alone does not satisfy the machine-readable requirement.
Start with a real completed application when assessing a system. Check the crop description, code, conditional stage, product identity, quantities and times in the saved output. Ask how original entries are corrected, how a contractor supplies a customer's period and how the business retrieves records after a software change. Keep the answers and sample export with the purchase or configuration decision.
Keep payment standards and record-transition policy separate
DAERA's Sustainable Agriculture Programme Q&A says Farm Sustainability Standards replaced cross compliance from 1 January 2026 and introduced a revised penalty matrix. The department's PPP guidance separately describes the grace policy for new record content and continuation of existing Article 67 duties.
Archive payment-scheme correspondence with its framework and year. Keep the treatment evidence available by application as well, so one request does not require reconstructing the farm's whole payment history. Do not assign a universal payment-reduction percentage to every missing field: use the actual notice and applicable procedure when organising a response.
A practical transition handover
Prepare a short register of systems and record locations: paper book, working spreadsheet, contractor original and customer report. For each, identify the responsible person, application period and relationship to the others. Select several jobs and follow them through from the original note to the electronic file, resolving omissions with the source of the information.
Record the procedure used for conversion and retain a reviewed example in your own training notes. Repeat the check when you introduce another operator, contractor or file format. Use spray log apps and exports to compare capture and retrieval workflows without confusing software marketing with the department's requirements.
Prepare the file, separately from portal access
Before transferring a treatment archive, identify the source file, record keeper and year of use. Open a representative entry and confirm that product identity, field, crop and units remain understandable in the structured copy. Keep the original and the export distinguishable until they have been reconciled.
For help reaching government services, use the DAERA Online Services login guide. For the wider legal-field checklist, use pesticide record keeping requirements. Neither a login nor a PDF reading copy replaces the structured NI treatment record described above.