In our quest to continuously improve the features that are being used by our customers, we are making a small change in the way we handle the Australian Business Number (ABN) field in the Payroll section for Superannuation-Funds. This will help our customers to avoid human errors by entering incorrect ABN for their super-funds.
What are we doing?
While trying to add a new super-fund for an employee, you will be allowed to enter only valid ABN. We will be respecting the format of the ABN that is created by the Australian Business Register (ABR). The format of the ABN would be:
The 11 digit ABN is structured as a 9 digit identifier with two leading check digits. The leading check digits are derived using a modulus 89 (remainder after dividing by 89) calculation.
To verify an ABN:
- Subtract 1 from the first (left-most) digit of the ABN to give a new 11 digit number.
- Multiply each of the digits in this new number by a "weighting factor" based on its position as shown in the table below.
- Sum the resulting 11 products.
- Divide the sum total by 89, noting the remainder.
- If the remainder is zero the number is a valid ABN.
You may also visit this link to verify if the ABN you are trying to enter is valid or invalid.
How does it impact you?
If the ABN provided by the employee is valid, then the system will continue to work without any changes.
If the ABN provided by the employee is invalid, then you can continue to view this ABN without any issues. But, only if you try to add a new ABN or update an existing ABN, then you will be prompted with an error message “ABN is invalid”. In order to fix this error message, you employee will have to enter a valid ABN and the data will be saved successfully.