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Enrol with AUSTRAC

Enrolment is how a firm tells AUSTRAC it is a reporting entity. It has its own deadline, and the other duties rely on it: until AUSTRAC knows the firm exists as a reporting entity, the firm is not on the Reporting Entities Roll (s 51D), has no AUSTRAC Account Number, and has no channel through which to lodge reports.

Who must enrol​

A firm must enrol if it is, or becomes, a reporting entity. That happens when it provides a designated service as part of its business, which is explained on the obligations overview.

Two consequences are easy to miss:

  • A single instance is enough. A firm does not need a compliance department or a volume of work. Providing one designated service makes it a reporting entity.
  • A practice that provides none of the listed services does not enrol, however it describes itself.

What to have ready​

Enrolment asks for firm-level information rather than customer information. Having it assembled first avoids a half-finished application.

  • Legal name, exactly as it should appear on correspondence with the regulator.
  • Australian Business Number: this identifies the entity enrolling, which is not always the trading name.
  • Principal place of business address, and a postal address if different.
  • Contact details for the person AUSTRAC will deal with, including a direct email address that is monitored. If you stop partway, AUSTRAC lets you resume a saved enrolment form for up to 14 days.
  • The designated services the firm provides. Expect to nominate the categories that apply, which is why the overview starts with the service test.
  • Details of the AML/CTF Compliance Officer, if one has been appointed by then. The appointment has its own deadline, covered on Appoint your AMLCO.
Firm Profile in Duely, where legal name, ABN, address and AUSTRAC enrolment details are recorded.Firm Profile in Duely, where legal name, ABN, address and AUSTRAC enrolment details are recorded.
Firm Profile in Duely, where legal name, ABN, address and AUSTRAC enrolment details are recorded.

What enrolment produces​

Enrolment places the firm on the Reporting Entities Roll and gives it an AUSTRAC Account Number. Duely stores this against the firm as the AUSTRAC registration number, alongside the enrolment date and the contact email.

Those three fields are captured on the firm record, not inferred. Nothing validates them against a live AUSTRAC register, so a typo in the registration number is stored as typed and will surface later when someone tries to reconcile it. Enter them from the AUSTRAC correspondence rather than from memory.

Where this sits in Duely​

Enrolment itself happens with AUSTRAC, not in Duely. Duely holds the resulting details and uses them on the firm profile, on the Firm Compliance Report PDF, and in the XML for suspicious matter reports.

In the product, this is part of firm setup. The sequenced setup path is on Your first 30 days, which covers where enrolment sits relative to appointing an officer and building a program.

A note on timing​

A firm must apply to enrol no later than 28 days after it first provides a designated service (s 51B(1)). Missing the deadline is a civil penalty contravention (s 51B(3)), and each day the application is late counts as a separate contravention (s 51B(2C)). Enrolment opened on 31 March 2026, so a firm can enrol before it starts.