| Information about the Business Frame |
Availability
| Valid From: .. | 11/30/2009 |
| To: .. | Ongoing |
| Frequency: .. | |
Design
Purpose:
| The Business Frame (BF) is a statistical business register of New Zealand businesses. It records details such as business names and addresses, predominant type of industrial activity performed, institutional sector, employment levels, and the degree of overseas ownership. The primary purpose of the BF is as a statistical register or frame for the statistical outputs produced by Statistics NZ. Using a single centralised frame for all Statistics NZ business and economic outputs facilitates the integration of different outputs and data sources, and ensures that classifications and statistical unit definitions are applied consistently. |
General Information ..The Business Frame (BF) is a database of the individual economic units which make up the New Zealand economy. It includes private businesses ranging from self-employed individuals, farms and small stores to large corporations. Also recorded are organisations such as clubs and societies, Government departments, local authorities, churches and voluntary groups. As at November 2009, information is recorded for approximately 470,000 economically significant enterprises and the locations (geographic units) at which they operate.
The maintained population for the Business Frame is economically significant enterprises. An enterprise is said to be economically significant if it meets one or more of the following criteria:
- annual expenses or sales (subject to GST) of more than $30,000
- 12 month rolling mean employee count of greater than three
- part of a group of enterprises
- registered for GST and involved in agriculture or forestry
- over $40,000 of income recorded in the IR10 annual tax return.
The BF coverage is maintained by continually monitoring all GST-registered enterprises and all enterprises with paid employees recorded on the IRD client registration file to determine if they meet the 'economic significance' requirements for 'birthing' onto the Business Frame.
The prime objective of the BF is to provide an up to date and accurately classified list of all economically significant Enterprises for designing, selecting and operating Statistics New Zealand’s economic and financial survey program. The BF facilitates the integration of business tax data with Statistics NZ survey data by holding a link between the BF enterprise unit and the administrative tax unit. The BF is also used as a source of standard classifications for data sources that can be linked or matched.
The Business Frame is maintained by using administrative tax and Companies Office data, frame maintenance surveys, feed back from other Statistics NZ surveys and other data sources eg media, other lists etc.
There are three different types of statistical unit on the BF.
(a)
Enterprises
Enterprises generally correspond to legal entities such as companies, incorporated clubs & societies, state owned enterprises & statutory bodies, central & local government etc., and other entities such as sole proprietors, partnerships, and trusts.
(b)
Kind Of Activity Unit (KAU)
This represents a sub-division of an Enterprise consisting of a set of one or more Geographic units for which a single set of accounting records is available from the owners. Every Enterprise on the BF has one or more KAU unit records associated with it.
(c) Geographic Unit
The geographic unit represents a business location engaged in one, or predominantly one, kind of economic activity at a single physical site or base (eg a factory, a farm, a shop, an office). Geographic units are unique to enterprises and an enterprise unit can have from one to many geographic units (business locations). Typically an enterprise unit only has a single geographic unit, unless the enterprise has paid employees permanently working at more than one location. Geographic units can be transferred between enterprises, for example enterprise B purchases a factory (a geographic unit on the BF) as a going concern from enterprise A.
Variables held on the BF include:
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
The BF is not an output. The Business Demography output is derived from BF data.
Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..Overview of the history of the Statistics NZ Business Frame
Statistics NZ has maintained a list of businesses for the purposes of providing survey populations for many years. In the mid 1970's this was restricted to manufacturers. In the late 1970s the ECMR (Economic Master Register) was set up, progressively covering most industries, except for agriculture. The ECMR was maintained from a variety of sources including administrative lists of factories, other business lists and enumeration for retailing businesses. For a brief period of time before the Business Directory was set up in 1986 tax records of employers was used as an updating source. Statistics NZ maintained an independent agriculture register for the purposes of operating the then annual agricultural census.
In 1986 the BD (Business Directory) was created.
From 1986 to 1994 the BD was primarily maintained from:
(a) The Annual Business Directory Update (ABDU) survey carried out each February.
(b) Monthly birth survey based on new compulsory GST registrations from IRD.
(c) Survey feed back.
Before 1991 the BD excluded agriculture. In 1991 the BD was merged with the Agriculture Survey register.
In 1994 the BD coverage was extended to all GST registrations (voluntary, compulsory, special and forced). The maintained population on the frame for non agricultural units was restricted to units with a compulsory, forced or special GST registration status and voluntary registered units with annual GST activity > $30,000. All GST active agricultural units were included.
In 1996 the BD mainframe system was rebuilt to a client server hardware environment and the name changed to the BF (Business Frame).
In July 2003 a new maintenance strategy was introduced that extended the use of tax data for maintaining the BF and stopped the BF update surveys collecting detailed employment data directly from businesses.
More detail on the BF population from 1986 to 2009 .
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..See non sampling error section above.
Related Data Sources ..The LBF (Longitudinal BF) is created on a monthly basis from the BF.
Business Demography Statistics are derived and published from LBF information each year.
Sampling Errors ..Not applicable
Non-sampling errors BF quality is an important influence on the quality of the surveys using the BF. This document on the Statistics NZ web site describes non sample errors associated with the BF.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/products-and-services/non-sampling-error/snz-bus-frame.htm
Caveats on Release ..
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Other Comments
Classification(s) used
Classifications |
Classification Versions |
Classification Type |
BT96 - Business Type - New Zealand Standard Classification 1996 |
V1.0 |
NZ Standard |
ANZSIC06 - Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006 |
V1.0 |
NZ Standard |
ANZSIC96 - Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification - NZ Version 1996 |
V4.1 |
NZ Standard |
NZISC96 - New Zealand Standard Institutional Sector Classification 1996 |
V1.0 |
NZ Standard |
MB09 - Meshblock 2009 |
V1.0 |
NZ Standard |
Glossary of Terms
| Term | Description |
| |
| ANZSIC | Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification. |
| Business Frame (BF) | A database of individual private and public sector businesses and organisations engaged in the production of goods and services in New Zealand. |
| Business Type | A classification used by the BF to distinguish between companies, State Owned Enterprises (SOE), Central and Local Government, Societies, Individuals, Partnerships, Trusts etc. The Business Type is linked to the institutional sector code. |
| |
| Employee Count (EC) | Count of the paid employees employed by the statistical unit. |
| |
Enterprise Unit (ENT)
Geographic Unit (GEO)
Institutional Sector
Kind of Activity Unit (KAU)
Legal Name
Longitudinal Business Frame (LBF)
Meshblock (MB)
NZISC
Rolling Mean Employment (RME)
Trading Name | A business or service entity operating in New Zealand such as a company, partnership, Trust, estate, incorporated society, producer board, local or central government organisation, voluntary organisation or self-employed individual.
A separate operating unit engaged in New Zealand in one, or predominantly one kind of economic activity, from a single geographic location or base.
A classification which separates public, private and financial sector enterprises. The Institutional Sector is linked to the Business Type.
An institutional unit or part of an institutional unit which engages in one or predominantly one kind of economic activity without being restricted to a geographic area. Value added statistics must be able to be produced for a KAU, or be able to be readily or meaningfully imputed. Economic activities are the lowest level categories of the industrial classification in use.
The formal name of the business.
The Longitudinal Business Frame (LBF) is constructed monthly from all current and historic BF data, taking into account all updates that have occurred on the BF since the last construction.
Statistics NZ's basic spatial unit (BSU).
New Zealand Institutional Sector Classification.
A 12 month moving average of the EC (employee count).
The name under which a business trades. |
Contact Details
Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.