Business and charity registers

Backed can look an applicant's ABN, NZBN or charity number up in four public registers, and fill form answers from what the register holds. Each register is off until an Administrator turns it on in Settings > Profile and terms > Integrations > Registers.

The four registers are:

Australian Business Register — ABNs: the entity name and type, its status, GST registration and DGR endorsement.
ACNC Charity Register — whether an ABN belongs to a registered charity, with its size and subtypes.
NZBN Register — NZBNs: the entity name and type, its status and registration date. Applicants can also search it by name.
New Zealand Charities Register — New Zealand registered charities, by NZBN or charity registration number.

Before you start

You need the Can access Organisation settings permission to open the page, and the Can manage Integrations permission to change anything on it, including your organisation's own register key. Without that second permission the page shows each register's settings and the field mapping, and says that changing them needs the permission.

Turn a register on or off

Each register has its own section. Turn Use this register on or off. The section confirms the change.

If someone else changed the same register while you had the page open, the section says Someone else changed this register and nothing is saved. Select Reload to see their change, then make yours again.

Whose access is used

The Australian Business Register and the NZBN Register need a key. By default the section reads Using Backed's register access, and Backed's own access is used for every lookup.

To use your organisation's own key instead:

Select Use your own key.
For the Australian Business Register, enter your ABR GUID. For the NZBN Register, enter your Subscription key, and a Client ID and Client secret only if your subscription uses them.
Select Test and save key.

Backed asks the register with the key before it saves anything. If the register does not accept it, the field says so and nothing is saved. Once it is saved, the section reads Using your own key. The key is kept encrypted, and Backed never shows it again.

To change the key, select Replace and enter the new one. To go back to Backed's access, select Remove.

The ACNC Charity Register and the New Zealand Charities Register need no key.

Test a register

Select Test to ask the register a known lookup. The section says whether the register answered, or why it did not: it did not answer in time, it refused the request, it had a problem, or it did not accept the key.

Each section also shows when the register last answered and when it last failed, or Not asked yet. Every lookup, search and test is listed in the integration logs.

Map register facts to your fields

Under Field mapping, each register lists the facts it holds, such as Entity name or Registered for GST, and what kind of value each fills: text, Yes or No, or a date.

For each fact, choose the Field Tag it fills. When an applicant looks a number up, every field in the form carrying that tag is filled from the register. Only tags whose fields can take the value are offered: a Yes or No fact is never offered a tag used on a date field.

Where your organisation has the standard field library's tag for a fact, it is chosen for you and marked Proposed. Nothing is saved until you select Save mapping.

Select Lock to stop the applicant changing a field once it is filled from the register. A fact that is Not mapped fills nothing, so it cannot be locked.

A register that is off fills nothing until it is turned on, even when its facts are mapped.

To have applicants look up a New Zealand charity number, map the New Zealand Charities Register's Charity registration number to a Field Tag. A field carrying that tag then looks up what is entered in it.

What applicants see

An ABN or NZBN field takes only a valid number. If the number fails its check digit, the field says This ABN is not valid. or This NZBN is not valid., and nothing is looked up.

When the applicant leaves the field or selects Look up, a card under the field shows what the register holds, with Checked on and the date. For an NZBN that is the entity's name, its status as the register gives it (such as Registered or Removed), its entity type, trading names and Registered on date. The New Zealand Charities Register's answer for the same NZBN is shown beside it: the charity's status, its charity number and the date it was registered.

With the NZBN Register on, the applicant can also search it under Search the NZBN register by name. After 3 letters it lists up to 10 entries, each with its name, NZBN and status, and choosing one fills the NZBN.

A charity number (CC and its digits) entered in a field tagged as above is looked up in the New Zealand Charities Register the same way. A charity that has been deregistered shows Deregistered with the date and the reason.

If a register doesn't answer, the card says Not verified. The applicant's answer is kept, they can carry on, and the number is checked again later. Registering walks through it from the applicant's side.

Require register facts for a round

A grant round can require NZBN registered or Registered charity (NZ), as well as the Australian register facts, before an application can be submitted. An application that fails a requirement cannot be submitted. If the register doesn't answer, the application is accepted and marked Not verified. See Eligibility screener.

The monthly re-check

Early on the 1st of each month, Backed asks each register that is on again about every number it has answered for, starting with those it could not reach last time. If a status, GST, DGR or charity fact has changed for an applicant with an open application, the Administrators who can see that application get the Registry details changed message.

The Register card on the applicant's page shows the latest answer and what changed, and Check now asks the registers again straight away (see Applicants).

In a sandbox

A sandbox makes no register calls. Its lookups answer with sample register data, and its register settings cannot be changed.