Core features enable student users to capture unique identifiers and compile records containing provisional user-assigned taxonomic identifications, digital images, geospatial data, and collection event details for specimens obtained in the field. The first version of the application was developed for the iPhone and released by Apple in November 2011. The development of a second iPhone version with enhanced features, and other smartphone counterparts is currently underway with funding support from the Amgen Foundation and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

For data submitted by members of the professional community, BOLD currently employs a suite of automatic tools to identify data anomalies such as contaminated sequences, sequences with stop codons, and low quality trace file reads. This information is then conveyed to a team of data curators, who vet and annotate records according to their validity.

The BOLD Student Data Portal (BOLD-SDP) is a customized workspace and analytical workbench for educational users. BOLD-SDP permits additional sequence classification and tagging to further ensure the accuracy and consistency of barcode data entering BOLD from the educational community. Most of the analytical and validation features of BOLD are exposed via web service to BOLD-SDP and wrapped by audience-specific interfaces. This enables teachers and students using the BOLD-SDP to leverage the full power of the parent workbench through simplified consoles. The end result will be higher quality records entering BOLD, where additional quality analyses can take place.