8165.0 - Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, June 2014 to June 2018 
Quality Declaration
Quality Declaration ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 21/02/2019
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EXPLANATORY NOTES
Limiting the scope to only businesses with a GST role means that only entities that are actively trading in goods or services are included. Business entities with a turnover below $75,000 do not have to register for GST and hence those who have not registered will not be included in these counts. Entities not considered to be actively trading in the market sector are not considered to be businesses and, as such, are also excluded from these business counts. 12 Businesses that have not submitted a Business Activity Statement (BAS) and/or have reported zero dollar amounts over five consecutive quarters (or three consecutive years for annual remitters) are treated as 'long-term non-remitters' (LTNRs). These businesses are not considered to be actively trading and are excluded from the counts as they are not remitting GST. 13 Units on the ABSBR have been classified according to the Standard Institutional Sector Classification of Australia (SISCA) 2008, Type of Legal Organisation (TOLO) and Australian and New Zealand Industry Classification (ANZSIC) 2006. These classifications are used to determine whether a business unit is in scope of CABEE. Entities classified to the following categories of SISCA are excluded:
Entities classified to the following TOLO categories are excluded:
Entities classified to the following 4 digit ANZSIC classes are excluded:
14 The exclusion of the General Government institutional sector particularly impacts on counts for the Public Administration and Safety, Education and Training, and Health Care and Social Assistance ANZSIC divisions (O, P and Q respectively). The business counts in these divisions include private sector and public corporation activity only. 15 Most unincorporated entities (sole proprietors; partnerships) are included in the households sector. Some unincorporated businesses are excluded from CABEE because these are operated/controlled by the General Government or Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISH) sectors that are out of scope of CABEE. COVERAGE 16 In addition, the scope for business counts includes some businesses that are yet to be coded by the ATO to an industry, sector and/or main state of operation. Analysis conducted on these businesses indicates that, despite not having a complete set of classificatory data, these businesses were actively trading and also met the other scoping criteria of the collection (refer to the Conceptual and Practical Basis for Counts section for further details). It was therefore considered appropriate that they be included within scope of CABEE. These actively trading businesses have been grouped together into Currently Unknown codes in the data cubes. 17 There are actively trading businesses that have not registered for an ABN because they do not have any obligations under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislation. For example businesses that have turnover that is under the threshold for registration (currently $75,000) may choose not to apply for an ABN. These businesses have not been identified or quantified and are not included in the counts presented in this release. 18 Counts for ‘Currently Unknown’ categories are included in the publication for completeness (to ensure that totals match the sum of the associated categories). However rates involving 'currently unknown' values are not published to ensure administrative changes are not misinterpreted. COMPARABILITY WITH FRAMES FOR ABS BUSINESS SURVEYS 19 The basis for business counts in this release is broadly consistent with that used for frames in most ABS business surveys. There are two exceptions to this:
REFERENCE PERIOD 20 Counts of businesses provided in this CABEE publication are based on annual snapshots of the ABSBR as at 30 June each year from 2014 to 2018 (inclusive). TIME SERIES 21 This release contains snapshots of counts of active businesses at regular points in time. While data presented in this release were produced on a broadly similar conceptual basis to data presented in previous releases, users seeking to analyse change over time should be aware that there have been methodological, classificatory, definitional, administrative and content changes between the different releases of CABEE. Depending on the analysis being undertaken, these changes could adversely affect the comparability of CABEE data over time, and users are advised to consult the web pages of relevant releases to understand the nature and impact of such changes. BUSINESS EVENTS 22 Snapshots of active businesses are used to identify business events, such as those businesses that are entering and exiting the Australian economy, as well as those businesses that continue to survive. The movement of businesses between the profiled and non-profiled populations can have an impact on business entry and exit counts, though this is usually minor. 23 A Business entry is counted when an actively trading business on the ABSBR at 30 June in the reference year, which was not actively trading at 30 June the previous year. Please see the Glossary for a more detailed definition of a Business entry. 24 A Business exit is counted when an actively trading business on the ABSBR at 30 June the previous year is no longer actively trading at 30 June in the reference year. Please see the Glossary for a more detailed definition of a Business exit. 25 A surviving business is defined as a business on the ABSBR that is active at 30 June of the reference year and was also active at 30 June of the previous year. Please see the Glossary for a more detailed description of a Business survival. INTRA-YEAR ENTRIES AND EXITS 26 It is possible that a business can enter after 30 June in a given year and exit before 30 June in the following year. A small number of these instances occur in any given financial year. These businesses will not be included in the data in this publication. DATA QUALITY 27 These counts are not subject to sampling error as they represent a complete enumeration of economically active businesses on the ABSBR. However they are subject to non-sampling error and the cyclical administrative workflows of the ATO may also impact on data interpretability. 28 There are six known sources of error in these counts that are likely to impact on the number of actively trading businesses reported. However, the ABS believes that these sources of error are likely to have a relatively small impact on the accuracy of the business counts contained in this release:
INDUSTRY 29 Each business (either an ABN unit or TAU on the ABSBR) has been classified to a single ANZSIC 2006 industry class, irrespective of any diversity of activities undertaken. The industry class allocated is the activity which provides the main source of industry value added (sales of goods and services, wages and salaries or number of employees as a proxy), which is generally based on a description provided by the business. For comparability, the ANZSIC code that a business was classified to as of 30 June 2018 is the code that is used for that business for all years in this publication. For further information on ANZSIC 2006, see the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0) on the ABS website. AUSTRALIAN STATISTICAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARD (ASGS) 30 In Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, Jun 2012 to Jun 2016 (cat. no. 8165.0) the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) was updated to ASGS 2016. More information about the SA2s including correspondences between ASGS 2011 and ASGS 2016 can be found in Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.001).
STATISTICAL AREA LEVEL 2 31 SA2s are medium-sized general purpose areas built up from whole SA1s (Statistical Area Level 1). Their purpose is to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically. The SA2 is the smallest area for the release of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) business counts statistics. There are 2,310 SA2 regions covering the whole of Australia without gaps or overlaps. These include 18 non-spatial SA2 special purpose codes, comprising Migratory-Offshore-Shipping and No Usual Address for each State and Territory. SA2 data can be aggregated to larger geographical areas, including Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3), Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4), Greater Capital City Areas (GCCSA), and States and Territories. 32 The issues of geocoding multi location businesses are more pronounced for count data at the SA2 level, as multi location businesses (businesses registered under a single ABN/TAU but operating in more than one location) will only be attributed to a single SA2. As such, care should be taken not to assume that business counts at the SA2 level reflect all business operations within that SA2. For further information, refer to Main State (below) and Data Quality (above). 33 SA2 data is only coded for ABN units. TAU units are included in "Unknown" categories for SA2. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA 34 LGAs are special purpose areas which do not align directly with ASGS. Their purpose is to represent a community that is administered by one local government council. LGAs are geocoded using the Geocoded National Address File (GNAF) via the same coder used to determine SA2 and state. 35 The issues of geocoding multi location businesses for LGA are much the same as for SA2. As such, care should be taken not to assume that business counts at the LGA level reflect all business operations within that LGA. For further information, refer to Main State (below) and Data Quality (above). 36 SA2 data is only coded for ABN units. TAU units are included in "Unknown" categories at the LGA level. 37 More information about geographic structures that do not align directly with ASGS can be found in Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 3 - Non ABS Structures, July 2018 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.003). MAIN STATE 38 Businesses can operate in more than one state or territory. For the purposes of this release, businesses that operate in multiple states and territories are attributed to one state or territory (Main State), to prevent double counting of businesses. For businesses in the non-profiled population, main state is derived from the main business address. For businesses in the profiled population, main state is the state or territory with the highest employment. Therefore, for some businesses in the profiled population, main state is not necessarily the state or territory of the main business address. EMPLOYMENT SIZE 39 The technical definition of employing businesses depends upon whether the unit resides in the profiled or non-profiled population. Employing units are defined as:
40 In the profiled population, businesses report employment as the number of persons who receive remuneration in wages or salaries (including working proprietors and working partners), or are paid a retainer fee by their employer. Employment excludes non-salaried directors, volunteers, persons paid by commission only, and self employed persons such as consultants and contractors. Data for the profiled population are collected through direct contact with businesses and reflect a point in time headcount of current employees. 41 In the non-profiled population, payees estimates are updated monthly for those units whose reported payees and/or ANZSIC has changed, and yearly for those units that haven't changed throughout the past two years. The process uses Business Activity Statement wages and salaries information and ABS survey information to bring the counts into closer alignment with the target variable (i.e. number of employees at the end of the financial year). Adjustment factors are calculated, based upon unit record differences between reported employment in ABS business surveys and information from the ATO, including payment summaries. These factors, along with payment summary information, form the inputs into the derived employment variable and, in turn, the employment size range. 42 The methodology used to derive the non-profiled population business counts for employment size changed in 2009-2013 CABEE to provide a more accurate representation of the size of businesses. A more detailed description of the methodology and its effects are described in Improved Employment Range (Technical Note) in 2009-2013 and 2010-2014 CABEE. 43 The employment data extracted from the ABSBR are generally suitable for the purposes of attributing an employment size classification to each in-scope business. ANNUAL TURNOVER SIZE 44 For businesses in the non-profiled population, annual turnover values are based on data reported to the ATO through Business Activity Statements (BAS). For businesses in the profiled population, annual turnover reported via BAS for ABNs is apportioned to the relevant TAU. 45 Where businesses report zero values on their BAS or have failed to report at all, these data are compared with auxiliary BAS data, which are then used for the purposes of assigning annual turnover values for each in-scope business. In cases where auxiliary BAS data are not available, an imputation based on auxiliary ABSBR data (including wages and salaries and employment data) is used. 46 The imputation technique described therefore classifies all in-scope businesses to a single annual turnover size range in CABEE. REVISIONS 47 The ABS Business Register receives updated information when a business entity reports changes to either the ABR or the ATO, such as a new registration, revised payee information, or when the business entity reports changes in its business structure or activity. These reporting changes can impact upon the business entity's industry classification (ANZSIC), institutional classification (SISCA), legal classification (TOLO), geographic classification (state/territory) or business size (employment or turnover categories). These changes to the register generate revisions to data previously published in earlier editions of CABEE. 48 Some of the revisions to currently unknown categories are attributable to updated classificatory information, such as ANZSIC, SISCA or TOLO, where this information did not previously exist for the business entity. CONFIDENTIALITY 49 A new confidentiality methodology was first implemented in Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, Jun 2012 to Jun 2016 (cat. no. 8165.0) and continues with this release. The change was made to enhance the current process and utilise existing ABS infrastructure. The confidentialising process applied is expected to maximise the availability of data without introducing any bias to the counts. It perturbs data in such a way that the data presented at detailed levels will not always be additive. That is, component values will not always sum to the total due to perturbation. The discrepancies between components and totals due to perturbation can occur both within and between data cubes. Each component is individually perturbed. The effect on individual cells is minimal. COMPARISON WITH OTHER BUSINESS COUNTS DATA 50 Users comparing data from this release with other ABS data should do so with care, as some other ABS data may exclude non-employing businesses or particular industries or sectors. For further details see the Explanatory Notes in the relevant publication. PREVIOUS RELEASES 51 Information regarding previous releases of CABEE may be accessed on the ABS website. NEXT RELEASE 52 The next release of CABEE is currently scheduled for February 2020. OTHER ABS RELEASES 53 ABS releases which may be of interest to users of Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits are listed below.
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