Back in June 2011, we reported that an Australian Business Register update breaks ABN Lookup Feature. Within a couple of weeks, the Australian Business Register (ABR) team did add a URL direction which allowed the ABN (Australian Business Number) Lookup via a web browser to continue working.
What this highlighted was that the method of using a web browser URL to access the ABN Lookup was no longer supported and could be altered at any time in the future.
Below is an example using the ABN Lookup Website:
http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?SearchText=29002589460
The officially supported method to access the ABN Lookup was by using Web Service calls. We tried to get the changes to use the Web Services in place for the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, but sadly did not get the code finished and tested in time.
So with the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Service Pack 1, sites with Australian companies (installed using country of Australia) will now have the updated Business Activity Statement Reporting add-on (BAS_RPRT.DIC) including the new ABN Lookup window which calls the ABR Web Services and displays the returned data.
So when you click on the globe icon next to a ABN field on the Company, Debtor/Customer, Creditor/Vendor windows, the window below will open:
New ABN Lookup window
You can use the tabs in the bottom half of the window to review additional data about the ABN.
While this change is a great improvement in functionality, it does rely on being able to access the Web Services. So if you are using a proxy server or some sort of URL blocking, please make sure the Web Service End Points below are added to the "Allowed" list.
Web Service End Points:
Attached to the bottom of this post is the documentation about the Web Services.
Thanks to the developers who worked on this cool new feature.
David