Identifying different parts of your business

Organisation Parts allow businesses who are on the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) Register to uniquely identify different parts of their business. It’s also an enabling tool that helps your customers and suppliers easily find details about specific parts of your business.

Organisation Parts were introduced to enable businesses to uniquely identify the different parts of their business, for example, divisions or branches that interact with government and other businesses. They may help large businesses operating multiple departments or branches.

An Organisation Part has a unique 13-digit number to distinguish it from its parent, own name, purpose, status, address, contact details and GST number associated with it.

Using NZBN Organisation Parts, larger or more complex Kiwi businesses can streamline and automate systems.

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Video transcript

Hundreds of thousands of Kiwi businesses are already using their NZBN to link to the core business information they need to share, making it easier to connect and interact digitally with customers, suppliers, other businesses, and government agencies.

Smaller businesses may find the NZBN is the only digital identifier they need. However, larger more complex businesses may benefit from taking this to the next level by using globally unique identifiers for different parts of their business. This creates exciting new possibilities, for example, a branch of one business can interact directly with the department of another, streamlining ordering, delivery, and invoicing.

Organisation Parts will make it easier to track product development for example from the paddock to the plate. The NZBN, and Organisation Parts, provide the common standard and shared network which is supporting New Zealand's journey towards digital innovation. They will help future-proof businesses by helping to prepare for unexpected events and to take advantage of new opportunities. To find out more, visit nzbn.govt.nz

Organisation Parts can also be used to send or receive eInvoices by representing different business units, locations and/or expense systems helping ensure they go to the right place.

TIP — If your business has a warehouse or a retail store in a different location to your head office, you can create an Organisation Part to record the trading and contact details of that location.

An example of how NZBN Organisation Parts can identify different parts of a business.

Organisation Parts for eInvoicing

Large or complex organisations implementing eInvoicing can use Organisation Parts to help streamline eInvoicing processes. Instead of using your NZBN, you can create and use Organisation Parts to send or receive eInvoices allowing you to provide more detailed information.

Creating Organisation Parts representing your organisation's different business units, locations and/or expense systems helps ensure eInvoices are sent to the right place.

GS1’s Use Guide [PDF 1.46MB](external link) provides more information on the potential use of Organisation Parts.

How to get an Organisation Part

Some businesses may already have an Organisation Part set up for the New Zealand COVID-19 Tracer programme. Before you create new ones, log in to MYNZBN to check as you may be able to repurpose these for eInvoicing or identifying another address. If you don’t already have an Organisation Part, you can create them by logging into MyNZBN. Before you start, you’ll need:

A RealMe® login (if you don’t have one, you can create one the first time you log in)
Confirmed authority over your business.

Every business with an NZBN can get 2 free Organisation Parts. Here’s how to do it:

Log in to your MyNZBN.
Select the NZBN you want to create an Organisation Part for.
Select the 'Create Organisation Part' option on the right side of the NZBN details screen.
The Organisation Part will appear on the NZBN details page once the required information is added, such as:
- Organisation Part Name
- Function
- Purpose
- Privacy Setting.

Every business gets 2 free Organisation Parts, but you can license more. If you are creating less than 5, these can be created in MyNZBN following the instructions above, at a cost of $60 plus GST each.

Remember to provide your contact details to GS1 when you license your first additional number.

If you're creating more than 5 Organisation Parts, we recommend discussing membership options with GS1 New Zealand to save you money.

GS1 New Zealand(external link)

Making Organisation Parts visible

Depending on how you plan to use your Organisation Parts, this information can be set to either:

Public — seen by anyone searching the NZBN website or requesting NZBN data.
Private — only seen by Authorised users for your NZBN.
Shared — only seen by Authorised users of your NZBN and other organisations.

Log in to MYNZBN and update your privacy settings for each Organisation Part to Public, making it easier for your customers, suppliers, and other businesses to access and use your data.

Organisation Parts and COVID-19

Organisation Parts played an important role in the Government’s COVID-19 Contact Tracing system during the pandemic. They were used to help the Ministry of Health (MoH) quickly set up a contact tracing programme and accurately identify business locations in New Zealand.

More than one million COVID-19 Location Organisation Parts are still active on the NZBN Register, although they’re no longer used for contact tracing after the NZ COVID-19 tracer programme was discontinued.

Repurposing your Organisation Part

Many businesses may not know they created an Organisation Part for the New Zealand COVID-19 Tracer programme and that it’s still active.

So, if your NZBN was used to create a QR code poster, it’s likely still active. You can log in to MYNZBN to find out, and if it is you can edit your Organisation Part and repurpose it for eInvoicing or identifying another address.

To find out whether you still have an active Organisation Part designed for the COVID-19 Contact Tracing programme, or how to repurpose an existing one, follow the easy steps below:

Log in to MyNZBN.
Select the Business Name or NZBN you want.
On the entity details page, select the ‘plus’ icon to reveal any Organisation Parts linked to your NZBN before selecting the name of the Organisation Part you want to view or edit.
Select ‘Edit these details’ option from the Organisation Part details page and update.

If you want to repurpose your Organisation Part(s), update the “Purpose” to correctly identify the part of your business by choosing from the following options:

Branch/Outlet
Warehouse/Storage Facility
Division/Department
eInvoicing
Other — which you can use if the Organisation Part doesn’t fit under any of the above headings.

When you no longer need an Organisation Part

If you no longer need an Organisation Part, you can make it ‘Inactive’ and you can ‘reactivate’ it again at a later date. It is not possible to delete Organisation Parts from your NZBN.