Enrolling with AUSTRAC is genuinely not complicated. It’s unfamiliar, which feels the same as complicated when you’re doing it for the first time — but if you sit down with the right information in front of you, most agencies get through it in well under an hour.
This walkthrough covers exactly what AUSTRAC asks for and in what order, so you can have it ready before you start rather than hunting for an ABN mid-form.
If you haven’t yet, check where this sits in the bigger picture in our piece on why enrolment is only the legal minimum — this article gets you enrolled; it doesn’t make you compliant on its own.
Before you start: check you actually need to
Not every real estate activity is a designated service under the AML/CTF Act. You’re captured if your agency assists in planning or executing the sale, purchase or transfer of real property, including preparing contracts and conducting settlements.
You’re not captured, on current guidance, for:
- General property advice given before a client has decided to buy or sell
- Simple referrals to another agent
- Property management — rent collection, tenancy management
- Court-ordered property transfers
If your agency does any sales work at all, assume you’re in scope. The cost of enrolling unnecessarily is 30 minutes. The cost of assuming you’re exempt and being wrong is a civil penalty. Confirm your specific position using AUSTRAC’s eligibility guidance if there’s any doubt.
What to gather before you open the form
Have these ready, and you’ll complete the form in one sitting instead of stopping to go find them:
- ABN, and ACN if you’re a company
- Legal business name and trading name (if different) — AUSTRAC verifies your ABN against the Australian Business Register automatically
- Legal structure — sole trader, partnership, company or trust
- Principal business address and contact details
- Details of your designated services — specifically, buying and selling real property. Don’t select property management or leasing; they’re not designated services and selecting them unnecessarily can create confusion later
- Names and contact details of directors or partners, if you’re a company or partnership
- Your nominated AML/CTF Compliance Officer — for most small agencies, this is the principal or director. You can update this person later if your circumstances change
One thing worth knowing upfront: the entity that enrols is the licence holder — your agency, not each individual sales agent. If you’re a sole trader, you enrol as an individual. If you’re part of a franchise network, each franchisee enrols separately; the franchise brand itself doesn’t enrol on your behalf.
The enrolment steps
1. Create your AUSTRAC Online account (if you don’t have one) Go to AUSTRAC Online and sign up using your business email address. If you already have an account from another reporting obligation, log in with that instead.
2. Start a new business enrolment From the Business menu, select Enrol new business, then Enrol a new business.
3. Confirm your link to Australia You’ll be asked to confirm whether you provide services through a permanent establishment in Australia, or whether you’re an Australian resident entity providing services from overseas. For the vast majority of agencies, this is a straightforward confirmation.
4. Enter your business details Provide your ABN, legal name, trading name, structure and address. AUSTRAC cross-checks your ABN against the Australian Business Register, so make sure it’s current before you start.
5. Select your designated services Choose Property and Real Estate Services, then the specific activity that applies — buying and selling. This is the step where over-selecting (ticking property management) causes the most confusion down the track, so stick to what you actually do.
6. Provide director or partner details If you’re a company or partnership, list all directors or partners with names and contact details. This is AUSTRAC conducting its own due diligence on who’s behind the entity — not related to your customer due diligence obligations.
7. Nominate your Compliance Officer Your enrolment won’t proceed without naming someone. If you haven’t formally settled who this will be long-term, you can name an interim contact and update it later.
8. Submit, and understand what happens next You’ll get a submission receipt number immediately, and an email confirming AUSTRAC has received your form. Read that carefully: a receipt is not confirmation you’re enrolled. AUSTRAC reviews the submission and notifies you by email when enrolment is actually complete, along with your unique AUSTRAC Account Number (AAN) — the reference you’ll use in all future correspondence with them.
The form saves your progress for up to 14 days if you need to step away and come back, but there’s no reason to draw it out. Have your details ready and this is a single sitting.
After you’ve submitted
Enrolling answers one question — “does AUSTRAC know we exist?” It doesn’t answer the much bigger one: do you have a risk assessment, customer due diligence procedures, staff training and record-keeping actually in place? Those obligations started on 1 July regardless of when you enrol, so the moment your submission is in, the next job is building the program behind it.
Lead Comply’s free account includes a guided AUSTRAC enrolment checklist alongside full customer due diligence workflow and seven AML/CTF training modules for your whole team — no credit card, no expiry. It won’t submit the AUSTRAC form for you, but it will make sure nothing from this list gets missed, and gives you a running start on everything the enrolment doesn’t cover.
