Data Collection
Annual Enterprise Survey 2010
The Annual Enterprise Survey (AES) 2009/2010 collection provides statistics on the financial performance and financial position of New Zealand businesses, covering most areas of economic activity. The AES was designed as the principal collection vehicle of data used in the compilation of New Zealand's national accounts. Data used in this survey is compiled from a number of sources, and measures industry levels for a given year. Incremental improvements in measurement, sample design, classification, and data collection may influence the inter-period movements, particularly over longer time periods.
en-NZMethodology
Change to Auckland councils in Local Authority data
Several Auckland councils merged on 1 November 2010, which is after the AES 2010 financial year. Because of the merger many of the councils provided financial statements for a 16-month period (1 July 2009 – 31 October 2010) in the 2010 Local Authority Census (LAC), rather than the usual 12-month period. This change in reporting caused a discontinuity in the time series of the functional splits of LAC data used in the AES between the 2009 and 2010 financial years. See the 'Data quality' section of Local Authority Financial Statistics: Year ended June 2010 for further information.
Changes to agricultural data
The administrative data source (IR10) is the primary source used for capturing the agricultural, forestry and fishing division (ANZSIC06 division A). Therefore modelling is used to calculate additions and disposals (see point 5 in the 'Design issues' section below). The modelling of IR10 data is currently under review so additions and disposals of fixed assets have been suppressed from all agricultural tables in the AES 2010 release.
en-NZStatistical Unit
A statistical unit is the level at which the survey is designed and forms the basis of sample selection. For the AES this is the kind-of-activity unit (KAU). (Definition of 'KAU': a subdivision of an enterprise consisting of a set of one or more activity units for which a single set of accounting records are available.)
Selection Unit
A selection unit is the level at which a respondent to the survey is selected. For the AES this is the enterprise unit. (Definition of 'enterprise': a business or service entity operating in New Zealand. It can be a company, partnership, trust, estate, incorporated society, producer board, local or central government organisation, voluntary organisation or self-employed individual.)
Collection Unit
A collection unit is the level at which statistics are collected. For the AES, this is the same as the statistical unit and is the kind-of-activity unit (KAU). The selection unit (enterprise) may contain many KAUs, meaning that if an enterprise is selected then all of its KAUs will be included in the AES.
Under Coverage
Businesses that are not economically significant are not selected into the AES.
The working definition for 'economic significance' is that if an enterprise fulfils any one of the following conditions, then it is classified as economically significant:
- The Enterprise has greater than $30,000 Annual GST expenses or sales. (To avoid existing enterprises repeatedly changing their economic significance indicator, a buffer zone of $25,000 to $35,000 has been established),
- The Enterprise has more than 3 paid employees (This is the rolling mean employment which is measured as the twelve month moving average of the monthly employee-count figure),
- The Enterprise is in a GST exempt industry, other than residential property leasing and rental,
- The Enterprise is part of a Business Frame (BF) group,
- The Enterprise is a new GST registration and has registered for Salaries and Wages PAYE,
- The Enterprise is a new GST registration and is part of a IRD GST group return,
- The Enterprise has a geographic unit classified to agriculture, it is alive on the BF, and it is classified as economically significant. (Typically these units will be registered for GST and/or have paid employees.)
- IR10 income is greater than $40,000 annually.
Population and Sample Size
AES 2010
- Population size: 445,215 KAUs
- 302,235 units surveyed using tax data from the Inland Revenue Department
- Sample size: 18,394 directly surveyed
- 3,166 units sourced from other Statistics NZ surveys
- 482 units sourced from Ministry of Economic Development data
- There were 120,938 non-sample units.