New York electronic pesticide annual reporting

Who this is for: a commercial applicator, technician, or the office that files for them, who keeps daily use records in New York and has to turn the calendar year into an electronic report. Date: 2026-09-24. Re-read nysprl.com and the DEC page linked below in the week you file. This program has changed before.

Compliance disclaimer

This is an operator checklist, not legal advice, and not a filing. TreatLog is not a DEC filing agent, is not certified NYSPRL client software, and is not an EPA, DEC, or Cornell endorsement. You remain responsible for the accuracy of your records and for what you upload. A CSV we generate is a worksheet. It is not an acceptable annual report by itself. Full notice: treatlog.com/legal/compliance.

The report and the daily record are not the same object

DEC’s Pesticide Reporting Law page says certified commercial applicators, technicians, aquatic anti-fouling paint applicators, and commercial permittees annually submit the pesticide applications or sales they made from January 1 through December 31. Reports are due February 1. Since a 2022 change to the Pesticide Reporting Law, DEC does not accept paper reports. Submission is electronic, in a format the department developed or accepts, through the programs on nysprl.com. The statute is ECL Article 33, Title 12, including ECL § 33-1205.

DEC is explicit about paper field notes: the printable PRL field-notes template is for people who still write the day down on paper before they type it into an electronic file. Those templates are not an acceptable annual report. Do not mail them, email them, or upload them as the report. The data has to go into DEC’s electronic spreadsheet or software and then to DEC.

What the daily use record has to be able to show

ECL § 33-1205 and DEC’s commercial-applicator recordkeeping guidance (OGC 3 and program policy DSHM-PES-05-10) describe pesticide use records that include:

EPA registration number
Product name
Quantity of each pesticide used
Date applied
Location of the application by address, including the five-digit ZIP code
Dosage rate
Method of application
Target organism
Place of application — specific enough that someone can go back to the exact spot (the kitchen, apartment 5), not only the street

Those records are kept at least three years and have to be available if the department asks. “Corresponding records” of dosage, method, and target are part of that retention even where the annual file is a shorter extract. Read the current DEC page and the statute before you throw a year of notebooks away. TreatLog’s default retention setting is seven years so a multi-state shop can keep a longer clock; seven years is not a New York legal conclusion.

A second clock exists in the regulations

6 NYCRR § 325.25 tells registered pesticide businesses to keep use records and to file an annual report with the department by January 15 covering the previous calendar year, listing quantity and EPA registration number. The PRL page operators actually file on talks about February 1 and nysprl.com. Those are not automatically the same submission. Confirm which report your certification and your business registration require. This checklist does not merge them into one deadline.

Zero applications

Older reminder notices said a certified applicator filed even in a year with no applications. The NYSPRL home page, as retrieved on 2026-09-24, says a later policy change means if you did not make applications or sell pesticides during the report year, you are not required to file a PRL report for that year. The PRL Service Bureau’s “no report filed” note says the same thing. Re-read nysprl.com in January. Do not trust a 2023 blog post, or this one, over the page that accepts the file.

Businesses are not required to file for their employees, though many do. An applicator who thinks “the company did it” and an employer who thinks “each tech did it” is how a year goes missing. Agree in writing, in the fall, whose certification numbers are on whose file.

What not to upload

TreatLog’s CSV or JSON stub.
A printable field-notes PDF.
A customer service ticket, even one that shows the EPA number.
A file built in software DEC has not described, if the current nysprl.com instructions say non-department forms can be rejected. Use the reporting option the site lists now (the home page has pointed people at Option A, Option D, and Option O). Download the current version. Old .xls Option D/O files are called out on the home page as something to replace.

After you submit, DEC’s process has used two emails: one that you submitted, and a later one that the report was accepted or that it failed with errors. A submission receipt is not acceptance. Watch the mailbox, including spam. This paper does not quote a fine. Enforcement is the department’s, and dollar figures change.

Rows that commonly fail, from DEC’s own descriptions of the record, are worth a human pass before upload:

ZIP code missing or not five digits.
Quantity in a unit you cannot explain, or a blank quantity.
EPA registration number that does not match the jug (distributor products are a frequent place this happens).
Address without a place (which room, which unit).
Certification ID numbers that don’t match the person who applied.

If you have not seen your own file fail yet, use DEC’s list of common issues on nysprl.com. Do not invent a horror story.

What TreatLog exports today

The NY pack in the MVP is a stub plus validation. It is not a certified NYSPRL vendor file and it will not upload itself.

The application can hold: applied-at, site address with city, state, and ZIP, areas, target pests, method, applicator and license snapshot, and per product the EPA Reg. No., brand, undiluted amount and unit, dilution, and total volume.

The file you download today is one row per application-product: state, applied-at, application id, brand, EPA Reg. No., undiluted amount, unit, areas, and an incomplete flag. CSV or JSON. Dry-run is the default. Incomplete rows are kept and flagged, not deleted. “Mark filed” records that your office says it was submitted, and an optional confirmation reference. It does not log into nysprl.com.

Gaps to know before you promise an auditor or a tech that the export is the PRL file:

ZIP, dosage rate, method, target organism, street address, and applicator certification number are not columns in that CSV, even when the application has them.
There is no mapping onto Option A / D / O.
Quantity in the stub is the undiluted amount stored on the product line. Whether that is the quantity DEC expects on your reporting option is something you confirm against their instructions, not something this export certifies.

CA is the other stub that exists. TX, FL, WA, IL, OH, and NC return pack_unavailable until that pack is built.

Plans, month-to-month: Field Free $0 (one state profile, not this pack), Treat Starter $49 (one state pack), Treat Compliance $99 (up to three packs — CA and NY are already two), Treat Multi-State $179. You still file.

A year that does not become a January scramble

Log each application with the EPA number, the quantity, the address and ZIP, the dosage, the method, the target, and the specific place. Do it the day of the job. The annual file is only as good as those rows.
In the fall, list every certification number that must appear on a report and who is producing it.
Download a NY dry-run. Treat incomplete=yes as a punch list, not as a file to upload.
Type or paste into the current DEC option. Upload at nysprl.com. Wait for acceptance, not just the first email.
Keep the daily records for the retention period even after the annual report is accepted.
If the missing column is ZIP on the export, or certification number, say so. That sentence is the ask. You should get a ping when it ships, not a newsletter.

Walk through a year of rows

Bring the file you are afraid to upload: book a 10-minute demo. A one-state solo can start free and see the stub. Export problems: support@treatlog.com. A February cycle or a design-partner slot: sales@treatlog.com.