AUSTRAC Online, step by step

Create your AUSTRAC Online account and set up the login code

How to create your AUSTRAC Online account, set up the login code, and get back in when it does not arrive. With AUSTRAC's own screenshots.

Published

Before you start

Do I need to do this?
Yes, once, before anything else. One person at your practice creates the first account; others can be invited to join it later.
When?
Before you enrol your business. Enrolment has to happen within 28 days of starting to provide a designated service.
How long does it take?
About 15 minutes, plus waiting for two emails.
What to have ready
An email address that is yours alone, not a shared inbox. A mobile phone if you want to use an authenticator app for the login code.

Sign up

Go to online.apps.austrac.gov.au and select Sign up to enrol a new business.

Type your email address, tick the reCAPTCHA box, and select Verify.

Open your email. AUSTRAC has sent you a message. Select Verify inside it.

Read the privacy notice and select Accept.

Enter your name and details, then select Next.

Choose a password that meets every rule listed on the page, then select Next.

Set up the login code

AUSTRAC calls this multi-factor authentication. Every time you log in you will enter your password and then a code. You choose where the code comes from.

Choose an authenticator app or email, then select Next (the picture shows the app option chosen). Email is simpler. The app works when your email is slow.

If you chose the app

Install Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator or another reputable authenticator app on your phone. Scan the square QR code on the screen with the app, then select Next.

Type the code the app shows and select Submit.

AUSTRAC shows you ten recovery codes. Print them or write them down and keep them with your business papers: each one works once, and they are how you get in if you lose the phone. Then select Done.

If you chose email

You chose email and selected Next at step 7. AUSTRAC now emails you a code.

Open the code AUSTRAC emails you, type it in, and select Submit.

Log in again

The screen tells you to log in again. Enter your username and password and select Log in, type the code from your app or email, and select Submit. You are in.

What you will see when it worked

After you log in with the code, AUSTRAC Online opens on its home page with a Business menu on the left. You will also have an email from AUSTRAC confirming the account was created. It is your cue to enrol the business. The next task is enrol your business.

If something goes wrong

  • The verification email never arrives. Check that the email address you typed in step 2 is correct, and if not, go back and do step 2 again. Otherwise, check the spam folder, ask whoever looks after your email whether it was filtered, and try a different browser (AUSTRAC suggests switching from Edge to Chrome).
  • Your password reset keeps failing. Your username may not be your email address. If the reset email still does not come, contact AUSTRAC with your username, email address, phone number and a short description of the problem.
  • You lost the phone with the authenticator app. On the screen that asks for the code, select Use recovery code and enter one of your codes. Or select the reset MFA link on the one-time password (OTP) screen, enter your username and password, select Submit, then select Proceed in the email AUSTRAC sends, and set the code up again.
  • You never wrote the recovery codes down. Use the reset MFA link on the one-time password (OTP) screen. It works without them.

Record it in AML Mate

AML Mate's Registration tracker is where the enrolment itself gets marked off in the next task. For now, put the name of the person who holds the AUSTRAC Online login, and the email it was created with, in the Notes box under Registration Details, so the practice knows who to ask when the login code is needed. Open the Registration tracker.

Sources

Screenshots © AUSTRAC for the Commonwealth of Australia 2026, used under CC BY 4.0. AUSTRAC does not endorse AML Mate.

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This guide is based on AUSTRAC's publicly available guidance. It does not constitute legal or compliance advice. Consult a licensed compliance professional for complex situations.