The Australian Business Register (ABR) stopped displaying trading names from 1 November 2025.
This means that organisations can no longer be identified by trading names. As a result, churches will need to operate using their legal entity name (the name listed with your ABN). In some instances, such as when you’re operating an Op Shop with its own brand name, you can also register a business name.
For most churches, the simplest way to get this right is to change your legal entity name registered with the ABR and ACNC to match the one that you use in your common operations. By this we mean the name that you use on your church building signage, correspondence, and on your website/social media pages. And, of course, your constitution should also reflect the name that you use.
Like banks and financial institutions, Baplink is required to ensure that the accounts it provides to QB churches are in the correct legal name. QB must also be aware of the proper legal names for a range of reasons including its trustee obligations to the churches.
QB and Baplink will be in touch with any churches where we have found an anomaly with church names on the ABR, ACNC, and church constitutions, and point you in the right direction to make these changes.
If you have any questions, please contact Holly on holly.hayward@qb.org.au.