Auto Processing is a daily clear-out of your Flagged For Review queue. At the time you choose, it looks at every record waiting there, turns the ones that are ready into Waste Transfer Notes, and leaves the rest for a person — with a clear reason for each.
It doesn’t send anything to Defra. That’s a separate, optional step — see DWT Auto Submit.
New to how Gate works? Start with Is Your Gate Workflow Set Up Right? — it shows where Auto Processing fits alongside Auto-Create WTNs and DWT Auto Submit.
What Happens in a Run
For every record waiting in Flagged For Review, Auto Processing asks one question: is it ready?
- Yes → a WTN is created, just as if you’d ticked it and pressed Create. It appears in Waste Movements, and — if the load is your site’s receipt — on your Digital Waste Tracking page ready to submit. Any signatures collected at the gate are carried across.
- No → the record stays in Flagged For Review, untouched, for someone to finish off.
What counts as “ready”?
That depends on whether Matching Templates is switched on for your account (in Gate Settings):
| Matching Templates | A record is ready when… |
|---|---|
| Off | It shows a green Ready badge in Flagged For Review, exactly as it was logged. Amber warnings count as not ready — Auto Processing never fills gaps or guesses. |
| On | A template matches the record (within your confidence setting) and the finished WTN has everything it needs — waste code, weight, recovery code, carrier, receiver and so on. |
A few records are always left for a person, whatever the settings:
- Bolt Upload scans — records Bolt read from a photo or scan of a paper document. Check what the AI read, then press Create. (CSV imports, including CSVs processed with Bolt Document Processing, are treated like any other record — if they’re ready, they’re processed.)
- Records matched to a season ticket docket template — approve these by hand.
- Records where the template result would still be missing something — the report tells you what.
Setting It Up
Auto Processing lives in Work Flows → Gate, in the Flagged For Review Auto Processing panel. You’ll also see a one-line status at the top of Flagged For Review, with a link straight to these settings.
- Open Work Flows → Gate and expand Flagged For Review Auto Processing.
- Switch on Enable auto-processing.
- Choose a Run time (UTC). Pick a time after most of the day’s loads are in. If you also use DWT Auto Submit, choose a time before its run, so today’s WTNs are ready for it.
- With Matching Templates on, choose an Auto-submit confidence:
- Any match — process a record if any template matched it.
- Exact rules only — only when every rule on the matching template uses “equals”, so there are no partial or “contains” matches.
- Optionally turn on the run report email (see below).
- Press Save Settings.
Any admin on the account can change these settings, including secondary admins. They’re shared by the whole company — there’s one run time for everyone, not one per admin. Drivers can’t change them.
Remember: times are in UTC. In summer (BST), 06:00 UTC is 07:00 UK time.
Run Now
Press Run Now to process the queue immediately rather than waiting for the daily run. You’ll see a summary such as:
Done — 1 WTN created 8 records checked · 7 not ready yet — still in Flagged For Review
If Auto Processing is switched off, Run Now only processes records that Auto-Create WTNs has already approved — it won’t sweep the rest of your review queue.
The Run Report Email
Turn on Email me a run report and add up to 10 addresses (if you don’t add any, it goes to the account’s contact email). The report is sent after each daily run and each Run Now, and shows:
- WTNs created — WTN number, producer, waste and net weight. Loads where you aren’t the receiver are labelled not queued for DWT.
- Still in Flagged For Review — each record’s date, ticket or vehicle reg, producer, and why it wasn’t ready (for example “Weight is missing or zero” or “No template matched”).
- Errors — anything that couldn’t be turned into a WTN.
There’s an Open Flagged For Review button in the email to go straight to the records that need attention. No email is sent when there’s nothing waiting to process.
Tip: records you never intend to create a WTN for — old test data, duplicates — will appear in every report until you delete them from Flagged For Review.
Recent Runs
The panel lists your last few runs with the date and time, WTNs created, records found and records skipped, plus any errors. “Skipped” means left in Flagged For Review — nothing has been lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Auto Processing send anything to Defra?
No. It only creates WTNs. Sending them to Defra is done from the Digital Waste Tracking page, or automatically by DWT Auto Submit if you’ve turned it on.
What’s the difference between Auto Processing and Auto-Create WTNs?
Auto-Create WTNs acts the moment a load is logged, so a ready load never appears in Flagged For Review at all. Auto Processing runs once a day over everything already waiting there — including records that weren’t ready when they were logged but have since been finished off. Many sites use one or the other; some use both.
A record has one amber warning — why wasn’t it processed?
Auto Processing only acts on records that are completely ready. A warning — for example a missing receiver permit number, or no weight-estimated flag — means a person should look first. Fix it in Flagged For Review and it’ll be picked up on the next run, or press Create yourself.
Can two runs create the same WTN twice?
No. Each record is locked while it’s being processed, so the daily run, Run Now and Auto-Create WTNs can overlap safely.
Who is shown as the creator of an auto-processed WTN?
The person who logged the load — for example the driver who used Log New Transfer — so it appears in their own My Movements list.
What’s Next
- Is Your Gate Workflow Set Up Right? — how all the Gate automations fit together.
- DWT Auto Submit — send the WTNs Auto Processing creates to Defra automatically.
- Flagged For Review — finishing off the records Auto Processing leaves behind.
- Quick-Fill Templates — build the templates that Matching Templates uses.