ABS Business Reporting help

If you can’t log in, it may be that you have not yet created an account. The first time you use ABS Business Reporting you will need to click on 'Sign up'.

If you have already created an account but still can’t log in, please call us on 1800 735 060 (+61 2 6252 8814 outside Australia) Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm AEST.

We recommend accessing ABS Business Reporting using the latest version of the following compatible browsers:

• Microsoft Edge
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari

At times, high volumes of traffic may cause issues accessing the ABS Business Reporting webpage. Please wait and try again later.

If you still have problems, please call us on 1800 735 060 (+61 2 6252 8814 outside Australia) so we can assist you.

Your reference number is shown on the email or letter you receive from the ABS about the survey. It has two letters (AT or MU) followed by eight numbers such as ‘AT12345678’. 

If the business you are reporting for uses Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online, connecting securely to your accounting software in ABS Business Reporting can make it faster and easier to complete your survey.

By choosing to connect, you will be able to see information from accounting software on screen as you complete your survey. You can select accounts or categories from accounting software to include for each survey question, and a total will be generated automatically. 

Once you have worked through all the questions, you will see a report with a total amount for each question, which you can review and submit to the ABS. 

For more information, watch the short video on our page Why should I connect to accounting software in ABS Business Reporting?.

Currently ABS Business Reporting allows connection to Xero, QuickBooks Online and cloud-based MYOB accounting software. If the business you are reporting for uses other accounting software, you will need to ‘Continue without accounting software’.

When you connect to accounting software in ABS Business Reporting, the businesses you see listed will depend on your accesses within your accounting software. If you cannot see the business you are looking for, check your accounting software permissions.  

If you are using QuickBooks and another user logs in, when you return you may need to reconnect your business again. From the dashboard, press 'Manage connections', then 'Add business', then select QuickBooks and follow the prompts to reauthorise the business.  

If you are unable to resolve this issue through your accounting software or managing connections in ABS Business Reporting, please contact us on 1800 735 060 (+61 2 6252 8814 outside Australia). 

When completing your Quarterly Business Indicators Survey using ABS Business Reporting, you can choose to connect to your Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks accounting software, or to enter information manually without connecting to accounting software. 

If you have selected one of these options, and would now like to change, please call us on 1800 735 060 (+61 2 6252 8814 outside Australia) so we can assist you. 

We recommend saving a copy of any surveys you have previously submitted prior to calling us, as these surveys will no longer be available after you change the way you report.

If you see a message that your report has already been claimed, it is likely that another authorised person has begun a survey for this business. Often this occurs when the accountant and business owner have both started a survey. Please check with other authorised people to confirm who should report, and call us on 1800 735 060 (+61 2 6252 8814 outside Australia) if you need to reset a report.

Items on the report may not line up exactly with your accounts, and you may have an account that needs to be split across multiple parts of the report. To do this leave the account from your accounting software unallocated, and add a manual entry to each of the report items with the value required. 

If you connect to accounting software, you can still report information that is different to what is in your accounting software. This may be useful if accounts are not finalised at the time of reporting to the ABS. Press ‘Manual entry’, add a description and a value and press ‘Save’.  

Currently, eligible small businesses selected for Quarterly Business Indicators Survey can submit a report through ABS Business Reporting. These businesses will receive an email or letter with instructions on how to complete their survey using ABS Business Reporting. 

Small businesses selected for other surveys may be asked to report using other platforms. We are working to expand the use of ABS Business Reporting to other surveys in future.