Validating ABNs, Australian Phone Numbers and Addresses in Intake Automations

Description and use

Validating ABNs, phone numbers, and addresses in intake automations for Australian businesses reduces manual data cleanup.

Problem

Intake or invoicing automations for Australian businesses often receive bad data in the ABN, phone number, and address fields, leading to manual cleanup.

Outcome

Implementing checksum validation for ABNs, E.164 normalization for Australian phone numbers, and standardized storage for addresses reduces manual data cleanup and improves data quality in intake automations.

Workflow

• Extract raw ABN string and strip non‑digits. Check length is 11. Subtract 1 from first digit. Multiply each digit by its weight (10,1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19). Sum and verify total modulo 89 equals 0. If valid, optionally look up ABN via official service. Extract raw phone string and strip non‑digits. If starts with "61", remove it. If starts with "0", remove it. Ensure remaining digits count is 9. Prepend "+61" to form E.164. Store address state as one of NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT. Store postcode as a four‑character string. Keep original full address for reference. Perform these checks in form or webhook handler. If a field fails, flag for review but do not reject the enquiry.

Evidence

An Australian Business Number has 11 digits and a published checksum. Subtract 1 from the first digit, multiply each digit by its weight, sum, and the total must divide evenly by 89.

Source

Store state as one of NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT.

Source