Global Location Numbers

The key to automated business processes and complete visibility - accurately identifying and sharing your business locations in an efficient and standardised way.

Global Location Numbers (GLNs) are unique identification numbers used to identify legal entities as well as physical, digital, mobile and functional locations. They can be assigned to all of your locations (e.g., a warehouse, the finance department, a hospital or community pharmacy, loading docks, farms, or an ERP system), making them easily identifiable and sharable throughout global supply chains and systems.

Here’s what GLNs can do for you:

Improve visibility to increase trust and streamline track and trace - everyone is using globally standardised identifiers.

Improve digital communications between business partners and throughout the supply chain, with computers able to automatically route information to a correct digital location.

Provide standardised identification for e-invoicing, increasing order and invoice process efficiencies.

Automate regulatory and compliance processes, such as document control and border clearances.

Save more time by eliminating manual documentation and data entry.

What can a GLN identify:

  • A legal entity answering the question of “who” is involved in a commercial relationship. A business, government body, department, charity, individual, or institution that has a legal standing with the capacity to enter into agreements or contracts. The New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) is a GS1 GLN.
  • A physical location - GLNs are often used to identify physical locations like a branch or storage location including places within these like a dock door, room or pallet location.
  • A mobile location such as a coffee cart, ship or an ambulance.
  • A functional location – a GLN or ‘organisational part’ based on the specific tasks being performed there e.g. inwards goods, despatch, finance or marketing.
  • A digital location – an electronic (non-physical) address that is used for communication between computer systems.

Optimise your supply chain – smoother, standardised, end to end traceability.

When GLNs are encoded into GS1 barcodes or RFID tags, they can be scanned to provide full visibility of "who" (e.g., the party or function) and "where" an item came from and where it has been during transit. 

In New Zealand, Covid-19 posters had GS1 GLNs encoded in the QR Code to help identify and record specific physical contact locations. 

GLNs; a key to EDI and eInvoicing - automate processes to save you time and money.

GLNs are also very useful in electronic data interchange (EDI), where standardised, structured business information (including specific locations) is automatically shared between organisations for things like e-invoicing, purchase orders, advance shipping notices, bills of lading, or payments with remittance advices. GLNs streamline legal entity and physical location information sharing between trading partners because they're globally unique, recognised identifiers.

My Locations - Our new location management tool making it easier to manage your GLNs

My Locations makes it easy, enabling you to assign and manage all your GLNs in one place. Unless marked private or restricted, you can also look up a GLN for any business in NZ.

Like to get some GLNs?

GLNs are sometimes known as Organisation Parts – you will have used them when you created your Covid-19 posters. As well as these, if you have an NZBN, you're entitled to two government-funded Organisation Parts. Log in to NZBN to find out more.

Pricing

Members

GS1 members receive five additional free GLNs as well as preferential, member pricing to license larger amounts of GLNs.

Discover more about GS1 Membership Fees.

Quantity of numbers 

Licence fee

1

$60

100

$105

1,000

$265

10,000

$525

100,000

$2,600

Note: All prices are GST exclusive.

GS1 Membership

GS1 Membership includes a variety of benefits:

Beneficial and informative GS1 training 

Priority membership support

5 Free Global Location Numbers (GLNs)

Pricing

Affiliates

If you are not a member of GS1 NZ but would like to licence GLNs, you can sign up as an Affiliate and pay an annual fee. Annual fees are outlined in the table and include the use of our location manager service (My Locations).

Fees for individual or blocks of GLNs in the table above also apply to Affiliates.

* GS1 fee structure is based upon Annual Turnover, which allows easier entry into the market for smaller businesses.

Gross annual turnover*

Affiliate annual fee pricing

$0-1 Million

$90

$1-2 Million

$130

$2-10 Million

$220

$10-30 Million

$420

$30-100 Million

$1,600

$100-500 Million

$1,800

$500-1 Billion

$3,000

Over $1 Billion

$3,800

Over $5 Billion

Price on application

Note: All prices are GST exclusive.

GLNs in action

GLNs for COVID-19 contact tracing

Organisation Parts have already been used to support the Ministry of Health COVID-19 Tracer system.
All New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) entities can register their physical locations at covid19.govt.nz or
businessconect.govt.nz

For more COVID-19 response information, contact: The Ministry of Health.

New Zealand Business Number is a GLN

Each kiwi business is identified with a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), which is a GLN. The GLN was chosen as the unique identifier by the Government as it's an ISO standard, and part of a credible international system used in international trade, supply chain logistics, and eCommerce.

For more on the NZBN, contact: The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment

UK's use of GLNs in healthcare

GLNs are used in many industry sectors throughout the world. The National Health Service (NHS) in England, uses GLNs extensively throughout its hospitals and care facilities. This drives process efficiency, reduces business costs and improves patient safety outcomes.

For more information, on how the NHS in England uses the Global Location Numbers.