Confirming your authority
Before you can update or change a business’s details on the NZBN Register you need to confirm you have the authority to do so. It could be your own business, or someone else’s.
If you secured an NZBN for a sole trader, partnership or trust, you’ll have authority over that business automatically, and you’ll be able to make changes right away.
If not, you’ll need to confirm that you are authorised to manage information on behalf of the business.
How to confirm your authority
To confirm your authority to update information for a business, here’s what to do:
- Search for the business on the NZBN Register
- Once you’ve found it, select ‘Get access to update these details’
What happens next depends on the type of business it is.
For authority over a company on the Companies Register where another director already has authority
The director will be notified and will have 20 days to confirm your authority. If they don't verify your authority within 20 working days, you’ll need to confirm your authority with the Registrar of Companies.
For authority over a company on the Companies Register where no director currently has authority
You'll be prompted to confirm your authority with the Registrar of Companies.
More about confirming your authority with the Registrar(external link)
For authority over a sole trader, partnership or trust
You’ll be prompted to confirm authority via the NZBN Register. There are a few things you’ll need:
- The IRD number of the sole trader, partnership or trust.
We need this to make sure you’re asking for authority over the right NZBN. - Proof that you have authority to act for the business.
For this you’ll need:- Sole trader – details from the sole trader’s New Zealand driver licence or passport, or a copy of a similar ‘identity’ document. (Any documents you upload must be 20MB or less).
- Partnership – the exact name of the partnership, as it appears on the partnership agreement.
- Trust – the exact name of the trust, as it appears on the trust deed.
Search for a business to confirm authority
What you can do once you’ve confirmed your authority
Once you’ve confirmed your authority to act for a business, you can update the information we hold about it on the NZBN Register.
You can make changes to your NZBN details via MyNZBN at any time.
See the list of businesses you can manage
Granting and revoking authority over your NZBN
If you own a business, or are a director of a company, you can grant authority to someone else to update company details. For example, you might want to grant authority to your accountant. You can also revoke an authority, at any time.
Granting authority for companies
If you’re the director of a company and you have authority, you can grant authority to someone else. Once that person initiates the process to get access (as described above), you can grant them authority to manage the details of your business on the NZBN Register, via the ‘Manage authorities’ page of MyNZBN.
Granting authority for sole traders, partnerships and trusts
If you have authority over a sole trader, partnership or trust, you can grant someone else authority via your NZBN dashboard. You’ll simply need the email address of the person you’re granting authority to.
The steps are:
- Log in to your NZBN dashboard
- From 'My Businesses' select the business you want to grant authority over
- Click on the 'Maintain Authority' tab
- Select 'Grant Authority' from the menu
- Enter the person's email address, and choose 'Apply'
Log in to your NZBN dashboard now
Revoking an authority
You can revoke an existing authority too. For example, if you change your solicitor or accountant, you may want to revoke an authority they may hold. You can revoke authorities via MyNZBN
Your own authority
If you’re a director of a company, or a sole trader, partner of a partnership, or trustee of a trust, you can't revoke your own authority.