Tagline vs Stockbook
Stockbook has been a fixture of Australian herd recording for years. Tagline is a newer, web-native platform built around NLIS, eNVD and LPA compliance. Here's an honest look at where each fits.
If you run beef cattle in Australia, your record-keeping software has one job above all others: keep you compliant — NLIS movements lodged, withholding periods respected, and an LPA audit you can pass without a week of paperwork. Both Stockbook and Tagline target that job. They take different roads to it.
The short version
Stockbook (Outcross Systems) is a mature, feature-deep desktop application with a long track record in stud and commercial herds. Tagline is a web + mobile platform built from the ground up on the modern NLIS and eNVD APIs, with AI that turns a phone photo of a chemical label, paddock book or kill sheet into an audit-grade record. If you want a desktop herd book with decades of refinement, Stockbook is proven. If you want compliance that lives on your phone in the yards and an audit pack that exports in one click, that's where Tagline is aimed.
Feature comparison
| Capability | Tagline | Stockbook |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Web + mobile (any device, no install) | Desktop-first (+ Stockhand mobile) |
| NLIS compliance | ✓ Included in every tier | Included, file-based |
| NLIS & eNVD direct API | ✓ Built on the uplifted NLIS API + eNVD | No eNVD API |
| AI photo → record extraction | ✓ Labels, paddock books, invoices, kill sheets | — |
| Withholding period (WHP/ESI) tracking | ✓ Automatic, blocks sale if not clear | Manual |
| LPA audit pack | ✓ One-click CSV across 10 reports | Reports available, more assembly |
| Multi-property (PICs) | All tiers; flat A$2,400/yr unlimited | Top tier only (Agrisphere) |
| BREEDPLAN / stud features | ✓ EBVs, pedigree, ET, sale catalogues | ✓ Strong stud heritage |
| Starting price (A$/yr, +GST) | $432 (Smallholding) | $500 (Lite) |
| Pricing model | Transparent, published, flat caps | Per-herd-size tiers |
Where Tagline pulls ahead
It's built for the yards, not the office desk
Stockbook grew up as a desktop application. Tagline runs in any browser and on your phone, so you record treatments, scan tags and check withholding periods standing at the crush — not by transcribing a paper note into a PC that evening. One entry, on the spot.
AI does the time-consuming paperwork
Photograph a chemical bottle and Tagline reads the product, batch number, expiry and APVMA number into your inventory. Photograph a handwritten paddock book or a supplier invoice and it extracts the entries. This is genuinely new — no legacy herd-recording product does it.
NLIS is never an add-on
Tagline includes NLIS compliance at every price tier. Reconciliation between what NLIS holds and what's actually in your paddocks is the core of the product — and it's built on the modern (uplifted) NLIS API plus the Integrity Systems eNVD endpoint, so consignments aren't re-keyed into a separate portal.
Where Stockbook may suit you
Stockbook is a deep, established product with a strong stud-recording heritage and years of refinement. If you already run it, your team knows it, and you're comfortable desktop-first, it does the job well. Tagline's bet is that the next generation of producers wants compliance that's mobile, AI-assisted, API-connected and transparently priced.
Try the comparison yourself
- Tagline starts at A$36/month (A$432/yr) with NLIS included.
- The trial starts with a clean database populated from your real NLIS data.
- Multi-property groups cap at a flat A$2,400/yr, no matter how many PICs.