Test and tag software: what to check before you buy

Last reviewed 28 October 2026. Prices and features of other products were read on their own sites that day.

Test and tag software keeps the record that WHS regulation 150 asks for (who tested the item, the date, the outcome and the next test date), schedules the retest, and produces the report a client's auditor wants to see. There are three kinds on the Australian market: desktop software tied to a particular brand of tester, cloud platforms that take readings from several brands, and phone apps where you scan a tag and record pass or fail by hand. Which one fits depends on two things: whether you need measured readings captured automatically, and whether you run a one-person round or a team with clients who expect their own register. The checklist, the price table and the decision rule below are what to settle before paying for anything. TagVault is one of the phone apps and is described on the same terms as the others.

What the software has to record

The legal minimum is small and the same in every state that adopted the model regulations. Regulation 150(3) requires a record of the testing that shows the name of the person who carried it out, the date, the outcome and the date the next test is due; the record may take the form of a tag attached to the equipment, and it is kept until the equipment is next tested, permanently removed from the workplace or disposed of (Safe Work Australia, model WHS Regulations). Nothing in the regulation requires measured values, a photo, or a particular file format. The standard adds the tag's content and the retest intervals; regulators publish those intervals and this site lists them with their sources.

So the first test of any product is whether those four fields are captured on every item, every time, and whether the next test date is worked out from the item's environment rather than typed from memory. The second is whether you can get the record back out. The PCBU, not the software vendor, is the one the regulation makes responsible for keeping it.

The checklist: ten questions for any vendor

1. Four fields. Does every test record carry tester, date, outcome and next due date, and can a client see them without you?
2. Interval source. Where do the 3, 6 and 12 month intervals come from, and can you change one for a client whose risk assessment says otherwise?
3. Export. Can you download the full register and test history as CSV today, without asking support? Try it in the trial.
4. What stops when you stop paying. Read access, export, client reports: which of these survive a lapsed subscription?
5. Tester link. Which tester models, by name, send readings in? If yours is not listed, is there a CSV import?
6. Offline. Can you scan and record in a plant room with no signal, and what happens to the records when you come back into range?
7. Reminders. Who gets told when a retest falls due, how far ahead, and in whose name?
8. Other tests in the same register. RCD push-button and trip-time tests, emergency lighting discharge tests, three-phase and microwave leakage, or appliances only?
9. Team. Price per user, and whether a second tester's records land in the same client register.
10. Who owns the client list. If you sell the round, can the buyer take the data with it?

The three kinds, with prices checked today

Every figure below was read on the vendor's own page or the retailer's listing on 28 October 2026, and each is linked. Vendors change prices; check before relying on one.

A decision rule

• You own a Seaward, Metrel or Kyoritsu tester and want its readings stored without typing: start with that brand's software (PATGuard 3, aPAT, PATLink) or PATGuard Cloud, because the tester link is the whole point and the phone apps do not have one.
• You are buying a tester and software together: Clevermode and the FASTtag bundles are priced that way; compare the kit price against the tester you would buy anyway.
• You record pass or fail on the tag and the readings on the tester's own memory, and your problem is remembering retests across many small clients: a phone app with scheduling and client-facing registers is enough, and it is the cheapest route in. That is the case TagVault was built for; iCertifi's app is the iPhone option.
• You are a sole operator with under about fifty items across two or three sites: a spreadsheet with the four fields and a retest-date column meets the regulation. Buy software when you miss a retest, not before.
• You are in Queensland: none of this changes the licence rule; commercial test and tag there needs an electrical contractor licence covering the work (requirements page).

How TagVault answers the ten questions

In the same order, from the shipped app and its code rather than a brochure. The four fields are saved on every record and shown in the client's portal. Intervals come from the item's environment class (construction 3 months, factory and workshop 6 months, hostile environments and flexed office equipment 12 months, as the regulator tables state them) and the schedule is created when the result is saved. The console exports the register and the test history as CSV at any time; that export, read access and the client portal are deliberately never switched off when a subscription lapses. There is no tester link yet: results are two taps, or a CSV import at the end of the day. Scanning and recording work offline and sync when the phone is back in range. Four weeks before a retest falls due the system drafts the client reminder, and nothing is sent until the operator approves it, in the operator's name. RCD (push-button, trip time, test current, type), emergency lighting discharge, three-phase and microwave leakage tests sit in the same register as the appliances. Team pricing is A$99 a month for up to five testers writing to the same client registers. The client list and every record are the operator's to export and take. What it does not do: it does not run on iPhone, it does not read your tester, and it does not decide whether an item or a workplace needs testing or whether anyone is a competent person.

Get TagVault on Google Play

When this page does not apply

• Construction and demolition sites. AS/NZS 3012 sets the records and intervals; check that any software handles the 3-month construction interval and on-site records.
• Medical equipment in patient areas. AS/NZS 3551, a different register.
• Large employers testing in-house. An asset management or calibration system (Pinnacle AssetPro and EXTAG, both Australian, market to this group) may already hold the register; the test and tag record can live there.
• New Zealand. Testing and tagging is not mandatory there; the record rules above are Australian. The software works the same way.

Questions

Do I need software to test and tag?

No. Regulation 150(3) is met by a tag or a logbook with the four fields, kept until the next test. Software earns its place when the number of items, clients or retest dates is more than you can keep straight by hand, which for most operators is the first time a client asks for a register they can show an auditor.

Does the software need to connect to my tester?

Only if you want measured values (earth continuity in ohms, insulation resistance in megohms, leakage) captured without typing. The regulation asks for the outcome, not the readings. If the readings matter to your clients, choose from the tester-linked column; if pass or fail is what goes on the tag, a phone app is enough.

What does it cost?

From $110 one-off for brand software to about $1,650 for the top desktop package, $200 to $220 a year for Clevermode, $129.99 a year for iCertifi's app, and A$49 or A$99 a month for TagVault, all as read on 28 October 2026 and linked in the table.

What happens to my records if I stop paying?

Ask each vendor; the answer differs and few pages state it. Whatever you choose, export a CSV of the register and test history at the end of every month so the record you are responsible for is never only inside someone else's system.