How ABN name checking works

Article Contents

1. Overview
2. Do I need to enter ABNs for contacts?
3. When an ABN is required, what checks are performed?
4. ABN name checking exceptions
5. What ABN inconsistencies are ignored?
6. I need to bypass the ABN checks

Overview

Hiro's Address Book is designed to help you keep your customer information accurate and up-to-date by integrating with the Australian Government’s Australian Business Register. This feature checks that the names of your company contacts match the registered name associated with their Australian Business Number (ABN).

Do I need to enter ABNs for contacts?

While adding an ABN to a contact is optional, company contacts must have a valid and active ABN if used as a billing entity when lodging a job.

Contacts do not require ABNs when raising an invoice or performing an invoice credit/reissue, but you will be prompted when saving your invoices that an ABN is missing or unhealthy (e.g., cancelled).

Our users appreciate the added protection this brings, offering several key benefits:

• Ensuring billing entity names on invoices match legally registered names, which can reduce payment delays and improve your chances of debt recovery
• Receiving alerts if a contact’s ABN is cancelled, helping you avoid bad debtors
• Correctly entering trust entities, which can significantly increase your recovery options if a debtor fails to pay (learn more about trust management here).

This simple step adds peace of mind, ensuring smoother invoicing and safeguarding your business from potential risks.

When an ABN is required, what checks are performed?

If you are performing any of the above-mentioned actions, the company contact entered into Hiro's Address Book you use on the project will need to:

• have an ABN entered that is registered on ABR;
• have its ABN listed as "Active" status on ABR; and
• have a name in Hiro that matches a name in ABR from one of the contact's ABN's:
  
  • legal entity name;
  • registered business name/s; or
  • registered trading name/s.

ABN name checking exceptions

There are some exceptions and special rules built into Hiro where the name you save for an Address Book company contact can differ from the corresponding ABN record on ABR:

1. Append "(Attn: " to the end of the contact's name - e.g., you need to have two separate contacts in the Address Book that have the same name, but you need to differentiate the attention to person that will appear at the top of an invoice. For example, you might have two Address Book contacts saved with the following company names where a name mismatch error will not occur:
   
   
   • Spacely Sprockets Pty Ltd (Attn: Suzie Richards)
   • Spacely Sprockets Pty Ltd (Attn: Freddie Jones)
     
     
2. Append extra information about the contact to the end of the contact's name, separated with a hyphen. For example, you might want to create two Address Book contacts with the same name, with each contact representing a different department or location:
   
   
   • Happy Go Lucky Pty Ltd - Brisbane
   • Happy Go Lucky Pty Ltd - Sydney
     
     
3. Where a company has entered administration, you can append "(Receivers and Managers Appointed)" to the end of the contact name, which will not trigger a name mismatch error.
   
   
4. Where an entity is a Trust, additional validation is performed by Hiro. Because Trusts are not legal entities and cannot sue or be sued, it is important to raise invoices for work your organisation performs in the name of the Trustee that has responsibility for that Trust. Additional information about how Hiro treats Trusts can be found here.

What ABN inconsistencies are ignored?

When you enter the name of a contact into the Address Book, the following inconsistencies of the name versus the corresponding ABN record in the ATO's database are ignored:

• Case sensitivity
  Most names in the ATO's ABN Lookup service are stored in uppercase - e.g., "HAPPY GO LUCKY PTY LTD". You do not need to enter the contact name into Hiro in uppercase; you can enter it how that business would ordinarily style their business name - e.g., "Happy go Lucky Pty Ltd".
  
  
• Pty Ltd
  When you enter the name of a proprietary limited company into the Address Book, Hiro will automatically style the end of the legal name as "Pty Ltd", regardless of how that component is styled in the ATO's ABN Lookup database.
  
  For example, if a proprietary limited company is stored in the ATO's database as "Happy Go Lucky Pty Limited", Hiro will automatically restyle the Address Book contact name as "Happy Go Lucky Pty Ltd".
  
  
• Public companies (Limited)
  For public companies, the end style of the legal name when entered in as a contact's name in the Address Book will always be consistently styled as "Limited".
  
  For example, if a public company is stored in the ATO's database as "Spacely Sprockets Ltd", Hiro will automatically restyle the Address Book contact name as "Spacely Sprockets Limited".

I need to bypass the ABN checks

If you wish to use an Address Book contact for a job or invoice that does not have a valid, active ABN, or the name of your contact does not match the name on the ABN, you can generate one time use "override codes".

You can learn more about how this system works here.