Planned outage: Identity verification services using NZ Driver Licences
The New Zealand Driver Licence database is undergoing maintenance from 5pm Saturday 23rd November to 12am Sunday 24th November 2024.
During this outage, you won't be able to use your New Zealand Driver Licence to verify your identity when you’re applying for an NZBN or confirming your authority. You will however be able to use your New Zealand Passport.
Your NZBN is linked to your core business information, which is stored on the NZBN Register. This information is called your Primary Business Data (PBD).
Primary Business Data (PBD) is the information you’re most likely to be asked to share with other businesses and government agencies so they can work with you.
Your PBD includes information such as your:
Legal business name
Trading name
Registration status
Email
Phone number
Physical address
Registered address.
The table below shows what would be a complete set of Primary Business Data on the NZBN Register for the following two different fictional businesses.
Example 1: Gorgeous Grapes Limited A family-owned and operated wine-making company, incorporated in 1998. The company registered for GST in 2003 and commenced trading in 2005. The company has vineyards in Central Otago, Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay, administrative headquarters in Blenheim, and a national sales and marketing team in Auckland.
Example 2: Jessica Forbeteaux Jessica is a sole trader, a part-time residential builder who specialises in small repair and renovation jobs. She is based at home in Vogeltown, Wellington and advertises her availability to work in the Wellington, Manawatu- Whanganui and Hawkes Bay regions. She set up her own business in May 2017. She secured her first small job as a sole trader in January 2018. As she does not expect to earn more than $60,000 in her first year of trading, she has not registered for GST yet.
Primary business data
Purpose
Example 1
Example 2
Legal entity name
The NZBN entity’s official (proper, legal) name.
Gorgeous Grapes Limited
Jessica Helga Forbeteaux
Trading name or names
Names (other than the legal name) used for business purposes.
GoGo Fine Wines
Forbeteaux Homes
Trading area(s)
Where the NZBN entity conducts business in New Zealand.
Central Otago District Marlborough District Hawke’s Bay District Auckland
Wellington City Porirua City Hutt City
NZBN
The NZBN allocated by the NZBN Registrar
9412312341235
9412312341236
Entity type
Legal structure of the business.
NZ Limited Company
Sole trader
Registration status
NZBN registration status and any solvency issues (eg, in liquidation or removed)
Where the NZBN entity is a registered company or a limited partnership, the address of the registered office in New Zealand.
274 Plinth Avenue Springlands Blenheim 7241 New Zealand
224B Main Street Vogeltown Wellington 6023
Postal address
The address for physical postal deliveries.
PO Box 12-123 Springblock Blenheim 7241
224B Main Street Vogeltown Wellington 6023
Address for service
The physical address in New Zealand at which writs, summons, notices, and other legal documents can be served (as appropriate) on the entity, its management, employees and/or its Director(s) or Owner(s).
The primary, physical address at which the NZBN entity wishes to receive physical deliveries of ‘goods’ and other items that are not postal deliveries.
1234 State Highway 123 Renwick
224B Main Street Vogeltown Wellington 6023
Invoice address
The address the NZBN entity uses to receive emailed invoices.
invoices@gogowine.co.nz
invoices@ forbeteauxhomes.nz
GST number
The NZBN entity’s Inland Revenue verified GST number(s), if any.
000-123-321
Not applicable
Australian Business Number (ABN)
The NZBN entity’s ABN (if any).
Not applicable
Not applicable
Māori Business Identifier
Shows whether the NZBN entity self-identifies as a Māori business and, if it does, the factors that indicate that the entity is a Māori entity.
Yes. Ownership
Not applicable
Different types of address
There are multiple addresses which businesses can enter as part of their NZBN information. Incorporated business types like companies and limited partnerships will always have a 'Registered address' publicly available, however in some cases this may be the address of their accountant or lawyer.
It is important for businesses to add their 'Office address' or 'Delivery address' to their NZBN information if these differ from their 'Registered address' to ensure that other businesses or the government agencies they deal with have the information they need to do business with them. Go back to table
Keep your core business information up to date
Your core business information is a valuable business asset, and it’s important you keep it up to date. This ensures that other businesses or the government agencies you deal with have the information they need to do business with you. Make the NZBN Register your first stop when something changes, because the organisations you deal with most often rely on your details being accurate.
Imagine you’ve placed purchase orders with a number of suppliers, and then you move premises. Updating your address on the NZBN Register means your suppliers are notified about the change, if they are using the NZBN watchlist feature.
Make your Primary Business Data shareable
The more information that you make publicly available, the easier it is for other businesses to connect with you, the better your NZBN can work for you, and the less work you’ll have to do to keep everyone informed.
Some of the NZBN data is mandatory and automatically public under the NZBN legislation and this will differ slightly depending on the business structure. For the remaining data, businesses can choose whether to add the information and make it public. This means that some businesses will not have a complete NZBN data set if they have chosen not to provide some information or have kept some information private.
Regardless of the type of business, the more information that businesses choose to make publicly available, the easier it is for other businesses to connect with them and keep up to date with any changes.
If your trading name is publicly available, another business can verify that yours is the organisation they were intending to deal with. If you make your phone number publicly available, then people will know how to contact you to buy your products or services.
Integrate NZBN data into your business
The more you know about your customers, the better your service to them can be. Subscribe to the NZBN API and integrate your systems with NZBN data to automatically find, share and update information about businesses.
You can integrate the NZBN into your systems and processes, so you know you’re using up-to-date data when you deal with other businesses. This makes business faster and more efficient for you and your customers. When a business you work with makes a change to its information, you can be notified automatically via the NZBN API.
Find out more about our NZBN Notification API to help ensure the data you hold on your customers is kept up-to-date.
You can use the NZBN API to find other businesses’ Primary Business Data, for example to prepopulate a customer onboarding form with their NZBN information such as their legal name, business type and contact details.
Update your NZBN Primary Business Data
Let’s get the NZBN working for you by making sure all of your information is correct.
