Dealers can buy the software for electronic registers or develop their own.

The Department does not "approve" actual computer software to be used for registers. Rather, the regulations define what must be kept in the registers, how that information is to be kept and made available to authorised inspectors and how it should be backed up.

The electronic register must be kept using software which ensures that information:

• Contains all the information contained in the Form 1 - Dealer's Register of Transactions;
• Can be displayed on screen and printed in a form which looks like the paper version of the Form 1;
• Can be displayed and printed at each place of business from which the dealer operates;
• Includes the date on which each entry was made and who made the entry; and
• Is backed up weekly up to an electronic storage facility at separate premises.

The electronic register software must also ensure that, if the information in the register is changed or deleted, a record is kept of the information before it was changed or deleted, including the date on which the information was changed or deleted and who changed it.

Dealers may use paper registers, which must be a series of bound books which:

• Are in the form of the Form 1 - Dealer's Register of Transactions;
• Are numbered in series on the front covers;
• Are used for the purposes of the register and not other purposes; and
• Use white paper of not less than 297mm by 210 mm (A4).

Each record in the book must be numbered consecutively and if a record is to be amended or deleted, the original record must remain decipherable. In other words 'whiteout' or liquid paper' is not to be used to correct an entry.