How listings are checked and guides are written

What we check

1. Step 1

   Business identity

   We record the business name, ABN and contact details from the business itself, and check the ABN is active on ABN Lookup. Where the trading name differs from the registered entity, we resolve that before publishing rather than after.

2. Step 2

   Official website

   Where we can identify an official website, we check it against the business identity we hold. If the site cannot be located, or does not clearly belong to the same business, the candidate stays unresolved and is not published.

3. Step 3

   Licence or registration, where the category requires one

   Licensing is not universal across this directory. Some categories are licensed, some treat a licence as optional evidence, and some have no licence requirement at all. Where a licence applies we ask for the number and publish it on the profile so you can check it yourself. A listing cannot be marked verified without a licence number when one applies, because the database refuses that combination.

   Licensing, certification and qualification for property professionals — NSW Fair Trading

4. Step 4

   Independent source

   For categories that carry a licence or registration requirement, we look for evidence beyond the business own website. Government registers are the preferred source where they are publicly available.

5. Step 5

   Reviews

   Reviews are submitted through the site and are moderated before they appear. We do not import reviews from other platforms, buy them, or write them ourselves. A review being published means we read it, not that we verified the engagement behind it.

Licence requirements differ by category

A licence is not expected in every category, and we do not treat its absence as a failure where it does not apply. Each category carries one of three settings:

Licence required

A licence or registration is expected before approval. Examples: $Examples: Conveyancers, Buyers Agents, Mortgage Brokers, Financial Planners..

Licence optional

A licence or professional membership strengthens a listing but is not required for approval. $Examples: Tax Depreciation Specialists.

Licence not applicable

No licence applies, so its absence is never held against a business. Examples: $.

Activation and verification are separate

Putting a listing live and marking it verified are two different controls, changed separately and deliberately. A provider can be live while its verification is still outstanding — which is why a live listing is not automatically a verified one. Verification is never applied automatically, and no fee changes either setting.

Candidates we have not resolved

Research on a business can stop short of approval. Where evidence is incomplete the candidate is held as Needs Review; where a specific conflict exists it is held as Blocked. Neither is published. A business appears here only once it has cleared the checks above.

What disqualifies a listing

Any of the following stops a listing being published, or removes one already published:

• An inactive ABN, or contact details that belong to a different business
• A licence number that does not resolve to a current licence, where the category requires one
• An official website that cannot be confirmed as belonging to the business
• Reviews written by the provider, solicited under incentive, or imported from elsewhere
• Requesting a listing in a category the business does not practise in

What verification does not mean

A verified badge means the checks that apply to that category were completed and the business details matched. It is not a recommendation, a quality ranking, or a guarantee of outcome. We do not assess a provider’s advice, pricing or performance. For categories where no licence applies there is nothing for a badge to confirm and none is shown — the business has still had its identity, website and contact details checked.

Being listed is never a substitute for your own judgement: ask for a written quote, check any licence yourself, and speak to more than one provider.

What listing costs

Nothing, currently. No business has paid for its position, and the order listings appear in is not for sale today.

We may introduce paid listings later. If that happens, this page will be updated before it takes effect, and any listing whose position has been paid for will be labelled as such where you see it, not only disclosed here.

What will not change is the checks above. They apply to every listing regardless of what it pays, and no fee will ever verify a business that would otherwise fail them.

How our guides are written

Every guide is written in-house and sourced to primary authorities — NSW legislation, Revenue NSW, the Australian Taxation Office, NSW Fair Trading, ASIC and the relevant industry associations. Each guide lists the sources it relies on at the foot of the page, so any figure or rule can be checked against the body that sets it.

Guides carry the date they were last updated. Rates, thresholds and concessions change, often annually, so we cite the regulator rather than restating a number and hoping it holds. Where a figure is time-sensitive we say so and link to the current source.

Our guides are general information, not legal, financial or tax advice. They are written to help you understand a process and ask a professional better questions.