Common Record
  1. We map every business trading in your area. From open government data and Overture Maps. Every fact keeps its source and the date it was seen.
  2. We check it against your register. One export from TechnologyOne, Civica, Pathway or a spreadsheet. We never need access to your systems.
  3. Your officers get the difference, with the evidence. A short list, not a data dump. Each line says what the evidence shows and where it came from. Your officer decides what happens next.

For Australian councils

What’s missing from your registers

Common Record checks your food premises register, fire safety statements and rate book against the public record. Your officers get a short list, and the evidence for every line on it.

Request a pilotSee a sample report
340360Lot 5Lot 6Lot 7Lot 21Lot 22Lot 9Lot 10Lot 11TO BINDAREEWATTLE CREEKSTATIONRAILWAYMAIN STREETMAIN STREETSTATION ROADBOURKE ROADMITCHELL STREETMITCHELL STREETBANK STREETCREEK LANEWATTLE CREEKDEMO SHIRE · A FICTIONAL TOWN0100200 mN

Registers drift

A café opens on the main street and never tells council. A bakery closes and stays on the inspection program for three years. A property stopped farming in 2019 and still pays the farmland rate.

Nobody did anything wrong. Checking every entry means walking every street or reading every form, and nobody has the hours. So the gaps sit there, costing fees, rates and inspection time, until an auditor asks about them.

What the auditors found

None of the Victorian councils audited in 2023 consistently inspected all of their high-risk food premises.

The Auditor-General also found no systematic way of finding unregistered ones.

Victorian Auditor-General, Regulating Food Safety, 2023

A late annual fire safety statement can cost a NSW building owner $4,000 a week.

Council has to know the building exists before it can chase the statement.

Burwood Council, fire safety non-compliance

The NSW Audit Office listed incorrect rating classification of properties among councils’ common revenue findings.

In 2024, and again in 2025.

Audit Office of NSW, Local Government 2025

The registers it checks

All registers
01Food premises registerEnvironmental healthFood businesses trading in your area that are not on your register, and registered premises the evidence says have closed.All states02Annual fire safety statementsBuilding and fire safetyBuildings that look like they carry essential fire safety measures but are not on your statement register, and statements that are overdue.NSW03Liquid trade waste approvalsWater and sewerBusinesses of a discharging type (food, mechanics, car washes, laundries) connected in your area with no trade waste approval on file.All states04Farmland rating categoryRates and revenueFarmland-rated properties where the open evidence (land use, land area, the business behind it) no longer lines up with a farming business. Zoning adds weight but never decides.All states05Rating exemptionsRates and revenueExempt properties whose owner is no longer a registered charity, or whose ABN has been cancelled.All states

How a pilot runs

By email, start to finish, with a call only if you want one. Four to six weeks in all, and most of that is paperwork.

  1. 01 · Day 1

    You ask

    Tell us your council and the register you want checked. You get a reply within two working days.

  2. 02 · Weeks 1 to 3

    The agreement

    A short data agreement and privacy assessment. Nothing is uploaded until it is signed. Or start with no data at all.

  3. 03 · 1 day

    Setup

    We map your area and send your officers their sign-in.

  4. 04 · 5 minutes

    Your register

    An officer uploads one export and checks the columns.

  5. 05 · 2 weeks

    Your officers use it

    They confirm or dismiss each finding, with a reason. About two hours of their time.

  6. 06 · End of week 2

    You decide

    A written summary, four questions, then subscribe or stop. You keep your findings either way.

What it costs

The pilot

Free

One register, two weeks. Nothing to sign beyond the data agreement.

After the pilot

from$7,500

A year, plus GST, for one register. The exact price depends on the size of your council.

Well under every state’s tender threshold, so it doesn’t need a tender.

What it never does

Decide
Every finding is a prompt for an officer to check. Your officer decides what happens.
Contact a business
Only your officers do that, if they choose to.
Publish
Findings stay inside your council’s workspace.
Scrape
Public, open data only. Every fact carries its source and the date it was seen.

Your data

Where it lives
Registers and findings are stored in Sydney.
Before you send anything
Nothing is uploaded until a data agreement is signed.
When you leave
You get an export of your findings. Everything else is deleted, and we confirm it in writing.

One register. Two weeks. Free.

Send one register export. Two weeks later your officers have the list and the evidence. If it isn’t worth their time, you have lost an afternoon.

Request a pilotor write to hello@commonrecord.com.au