Free ABN lookup

What does an ABN lookup actually tell you?

Five things: the entity's legal name, whether the ABN is active or cancelled, the entity type (sole trader, company, trust, partnership), whether it is registered for GST, and the state and postcode of its registered address.

What it does not tell you is anything about money. The register records how a business is set up, not whether it pays its bills, holds assets, or is about to fail. People chasing a debt often treat a green "Active" as reassurance. It is not one.

What does a cancelled ABN mean if they owe you money?

It means the entity told the ATO it stopped carrying on business, or the ATO cancelled it for them. It is one of the clearest early warnings you can get for free — but it does not, on its own, mean the debt is gone.

Two things to separate. A cancelled ABN is an ATO registration ending. A deregistered company is a separate ASIC event, and that one does extinguish the entity you would sue. A company can trade on with a cancelled ABN, and a company with an active ABN can still be days from administration. Check the ABN here, then check the company's status on ASIC Connect before you spend money on recovery.

If the ABN went inactive while your invoice was outstanding, treat it as urgent rather than fatal. Act on it before the position hardens — and check that the debt is still inside the limitation period while you are at it.

ABN or ACN — which one belongs on your invoice?

Both, if you are dealing with a company. The ACN is a nine-digit number ASIC issues to a company and it never changes. The ABN is eleven digits from the ATO, and for a company it is usually the ACN with two digits in front.

The distinction matters at exactly one moment: when you name the party. You sue the legal entity, and for a company that is the entity identified by its ACN. An ABN can be cancelled and re-registered; the ACN is the durable identifier. If you are about to send a formal demand to a company, put both on it.

Why doesn't the name on my invoice match the register?

Almost always because you have a trading name and the register holds the legal one. "Joe's Cafe" is a business name; the entity behind it might be "Smith Family Investments Pty Ltd" or a trust. Business names are registered separately with ASIC and are not the entity.

This is the single most common reason a demand or a claim goes to the wrong party. Trusts make it worse: the ABN may be held by a trust, but a trust is not a legal person — the party you deal with, and the party you would name, is the trustee. If the lookup returns an entity type containing "Trust", find out who the trustee is before you send anything.

Does a valid ABN mean they can pay you?

No, and this is the assumption that costs people the most. Registration is a formality. It says nothing about solvency, and there is no financial test to keep an ABN active.

The behaviour that actually predicts non-payment is payment behaviour. CreditorWatch's default data puts a business with one payment default at roughly a 20% chance of failure within twelve months, two defaults at 42%, and three or more at 62%. Against that, an active ABN tells you nothing at all. The 2026 Australian Debt Collection Report sets out which industries and which named large businesses are the slowest payers in the country.

The practical version: if they have already missed payments with you, the register will not reassure you and should not. Move faster, not slower.

When is an ABN check not enough?

• You are chasing an individual. Someone acting privately — a personal loan, unpaid rent between individuals — may have no ABN at all. That is normal, not suspicious.
• The debtor is a trust. The ABN identifies the trust; the trustee is who you deal with. Get the trustee's name.
• You need to know whether they can pay. That is a credit check, and the register is not one.
• The company may be deregistered. ABR shows ABN status; ASIC shows company status. They are different registers and they disagree more often than people expect.
• The debt is already out of time. Most Australian contract debts stop being enforceable after six years. Verifying the entity does not revive one.

What should you do once the ABN checks out?

Put the demand in writing, addressed to the legal entity exactly as the register spells it. Naming the wrong party is the mistake that wastes months, and it is the one this tool is genuinely good at preventing.

You can build that letter free and send it yourself. If you have already asked and been ignored, a letter from you is unlikely to change anything — what changes it is the debt leaving your hands. We send a solicitor-approved demand on our letterhead for $29, delivered and tracked, and escalate it to a partner law firm on day 14 if it stays unpaid.

What other free tools are here?

• Letter of demand generator — build and download a formal demand as Word or PDF
• Limitation checker — whether the debt is still legally recoverable, by state and debt type
• Debt and interest calculator — what you are owed once interest is added
• Payment plan template — a formal instalment agreement
• Progress claim generator — construction payment claims with GST and retention