Every homeowner who is halfway switched on now runs a check on the business before they sign a solar contract. They punch the ABN into a government site, they look for the accreditation, and if the numbers do not line up, they walk. That is a good thing for our industry. It is also the exact check a decent operator should be running on their own subbies, their own suppliers, and the shell outfits that keep popping up in their patch.
So this piece works two ways. It is the due diligence pass your customers do on you, so you know what they see. And it is the same pass you should run before you pay a deposit, hand a subbie a purchase order, or let a canvassing crew put your brand on their van. The tools are free, they take about five minutes, and the difference between doing it and not doing it is sometimes an entire deposit vanishing into an entity that was registered a fortnight ago.
Where the ABN actually lives on a solar deal
Start with the paperwork. Every legitimate quote, contract and tax invoice from a business registered for GST has to carry an Australian Business Number. If the quote in front of you does not have one, that is not a formatting oversight, that is your first flag.
The number that matters is the one on the document that creates the legal obligation: the contract you sign and the invoice you pay against. Not the logo on the flyer, not the trading name on the van, not the brand the rep keeps saying at the door. Solar sells under a mess of trading names, marketing brands and licensing arrangements, and one operating company will often trade under three or four. That is legal. What matters is that the ABN on the contract belongs to the entity you think you are dealing with, and that the same entity is the one on the accreditation and the one taking your money.
The mismatch to watch for is a rep pitching under a well-known brand while the contract, the ABN and the bank details for your deposit all point to a different, unfamiliar entity. Sometimes that is a legitimate licensee. Sometimes it is a thin company set up to collect deposits and dissolve. The ABN is how you tell the two apart.
Step one: run the ABN through ABN Lookup
The Australian Business Register runs a free public search at ABN Lookup (Australian Business Register, n.d.). You can search by the ABN itself or by name at the ABN Lookup search page (Australian Business Register, n.d.). Type in the number from the contract and read what comes back.
Three things on that result page do real work.
The ABN status tells you whether the number is active or cancelled. Active is the baseline. A cancelled ABN on a live quote means the entity is not currently trading in the way it is presenting, and you should not pay anything until that is explained in writing.
The entity name is the legal name attached to the number. This is the name that has to match your contract, your invoice and, later, the accreditation. A trading name can be almost anything; the entity name is the business you are actually contracting with.
The GST registration status and its effective date tell you whether the business is registered for GST and from when. In Australia a business must register for GST once its turnover hits the threshold, so an established installer doing real volume will normally be GST registered. A large solar job quoted by an entity that is not registered for GST is worth a second look. The GST effective date and the ABN registration date also give you the entity’s age, which matters more than it sounds.
Step two: match the entity to the accreditation
This is the step the government tools never mention, and it is the one that catches the most trouble in solar specifically. Accreditation attaches to a legal entity, not to a brand. So finding the entity name on ABN Lookup is only half the job. You then have to confirm that same entity holds current accreditation.
Installer accreditation moved from the Clean Energy Council to Solar Accreditation Australia, and you can check an installer’s current status through Solar Accreditation Australia (n.d.). Retailer signatory status to the industry code of conduct now runs through the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (n.d.), which the Clean Energy Council administers. The point for verification is the same: the name that comes up as accredited or as an approved retailer has to line up with the entity name on the ABN and the contract. If the brand is CEC-approved but the entity actually signing and banking your deposit is a different company that is not on the list, the accreditation does not cover the deal in front of you. I wrote more on the mechanics of that in verifying CEC accreditation and public liability cover.
Step three: use the ASIC register for company history
If the entity is a company, and most solar businesses of any size are, ASIC holds the registration record. ASIC’s own guidance on how to run this check sits at check another business is trustworthy (ASIC, n.d.). The register tells you when the company was registered, its status, and its directors.
Two signals are worth your attention. How long the entity has existed gives context to everything else. A company registered years ago with a clean, continuous history is a different risk profile to one incorporated last month. And director history, where visible, tells you who is actually behind it. If a director has a trail of companies that were wound up, that is a pattern, and directors who trade on while insolvent are a real risk in this industry, as I covered in director liability and insolvent trading in solar.
The red flags that are specific to solar
Most of the trouble in this space is not exotic. It is a small number of patterns that repeat, and they cluster around unsolicited door-to-door selling. The ACCC’s own guidance on solar panel systems and home batteries (ACCC, n.d.) and on telemarketing and door-to-door sales (ACCC, n.d.) exists because these patterns keep costing people money. Unsolicited rooftop solar selling was serious enough to draw the first designated complaint under Australian consumer law, as reported by the ABC (2025) and by Choice (2025).
Here is what the ABN check surfaces:
An ABN registered only weeks before the sales campaign. A brand-new entity running an aggressive doorknock campaign and collecting deposits is the classic shell pattern. New is not automatically bad, but new plus door-to-door plus a deposit request is a combination that earns extra scrutiny.
An entity name that does not match the invoice or the bank details. If the deposit is going to an account or entity that is not the one on the contract, stop. That mismatch is the mechanism by which deposits disappear.
Cancelled ABN or lapsed GST status on a business presenting itself as a going concern taking large payments.
A rep who cannot or will not give you an ABN. In my experience across 17-plus years in this trade, a straight seller hands over the ABN without blinking, because it costs them nothing and it closes the trust gap. Reluctance is the tell.
What to do before you sign or pay
If everything matches, proceed. If anything does not, the move is simple and it is the same one every time: pause and get it in writing. Do not pay a deposit against a verbal explanation. Ask for written confirmation of the correct legal entity, its ABN, and its current accreditation, then verify that yourself rather than taking the rep’s word. Australian consumer law also gives you cooling-off rights on unsolicited agreements, and I would not treat those as a substitute for checking first. There is more on protecting a deposit in solar deposits and your consumer rights.
This whole check runs alongside the two other things worth confirming in the same sitting: that the installer’s accreditation is current, and that you understand your cooling-off window. Three checks, one due-diligence pass, done before any money moves.
Being the business that passes the check
Flip it around, because this is the operator angle that actually matters. The check above is being run on you, at the kitchen table, while your rep sits there. Every second the homeowner spends squinting at a phone trying to reconcile your brand name with your entity name is a second the momentum bleeds out of the sale. The businesses that win are the ones where the rep can put the ABN, the accreditation and the registration on the table before the customer even asks.
That is the gap I am building CurrentFlow to close. The idea is that a rep carries verifiable proof of the business’s ABN, accreditation and registration right alongside their digital business card and the job details, so a customer’s due diligence takes seconds and becomes a reason to trust you rather than a reason to stall. It also cuts the other way: the same discipline is how you should be vetting your own subbies and the entities you buy from, so you are never the one left chasing a deposit into a dissolved company.
References
Australian Business Register. (n.d.). ABN Lookup. https://abr.business.gov.au/
Australian Business Register. (n.d.). Search: ABN Lookup. https://abr.business.gov.au/Search/Index
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Solar panel systems and home batteries. https://www.accc.gov.au/business/specific-products-and-activities/solar-panel-systems-and-home-batteries
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Telemarketing and door-to-door sales. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/telemarketing-and-door-to-door-sales
Australian Securities and Investments Commission. (n.d.). Check another business is trustworthy. https://www.asic.gov.au/for-business-and-companies/business-basics/check-another-business-is-trustworthy/
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2025). Unsolicited rooftop solar sales subject to first ACCC ‘super complaint’. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-08/solar-door-to-door-accc-complaint/105094468
Choice. (2025). Door-to-door solar sales targeted in ‘super complaint’. https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/your-rights/articles/calc-designated-accc-complaint
New Energy Tech Consumer Code. (n.d.). Find an approved seller. https://www.newenergytech.org.au/find-an-approved-seller
Solar Accreditation Australia. (n.d.). Check installer accreditation status. https://saaustralia.com.au/accreditation-status-check/
FAQ
What does a cancelled ABN mean on a solar quote?
A cancelled ABN means the entity is not currently registered to trade the way it is presenting on the document. It can happen for administrative reasons, but on a live quote that is asking you for a deposit, treat it as a stop sign. Do not pay anything until the business explains the discrepancy in writing and you can confirm the correct, active entity on ABN Lookup.
The brand on the van is CEC-approved but the contract shows a different company. Is that a problem?
It can be. Accreditation and approved-retailer status attach to a specific legal entity, not to a marketing brand. If the entity signing the contract and banking your deposit is not the one that appears as accredited on Solar Accreditation Australia or listed as an approved seller in the New Energy Tech Consumer Code directory, then the accreditation does not cover your deal. Ask for written confirmation of the correct entity before you go further.
Is a recently registered ABN always a scam sign?
No. Plenty of legitimate new businesses start up every year. The concern is the combination: a very new ABN, an unsolicited door-to-door pitch, and a request for a deposit into an entity whose name does not match the brand. Any one of those on its own is common; all three together is the pattern worth pausing on.
What should I do if a solar rep will not give me their ABN?
Take it as a reason not to proceed. A legitimate business hands over its ABN without hesitation because it costs nothing and it builds trust. If a rep cannot or will not provide it, you cannot run any of the verification steps above, which means you cannot confirm who you would actually be paying. No ABN, no deposit.
Does checking the ABN protect my deposit?
It reduces the risk, but it is not a guarantee. Verifying the entity, its GST status, its age on the ASIC register and its accreditation is your best defence against paying into a shell company. On top of that, Australian consumer law gives you cooling-off rights on unsolicited agreements and other protections, which are worth understanding before you sign rather than after.