How the ACC levy check works
The order is the method
The disqualifying questions come first, before any dollar figure appears. This is deliberate: when people see the money first, they shade their answers, and a shaded answer produces a claim ACC will reject. An honest "this will not succeed" costs nothing and is common.
Then the arithmetic checks — the income cap, part-time and part-year rules, and what is inside the earnings figure. These need no judgement; they are right or wrong on the numbers alone.
Only then the classification itself. The checker applies ACC's published rule — where more than one description fits, the highest-rated one applies; ties break on the largest share of earnings — to what you say the business actually does. Each levy year is compared at that year's own published rate, never at today's rate.
What the estimate band means
Where a finding has a calculable value, the result shows a range rather than a number, and the range is deliberately asymmetric. ACC calculates any actual credit from its own records, which we cannot see. An estimate the credit beats is a pleasant surprise; one it falls short of is a complaint. The band is set accordingly.
Some findings deliberately carry no estimate at all — multiple classifications and part-year corrections are calculated by ACC from records only it holds. We flag them; we do not guess.
What you pay for, and what you never do
Everything up to and including the finding is free, including the three-month review clock and a "nothing found" result. The paid product is the determination — the target classification unit and BIC code — and the paperwork naming them: for employers, a completed ACC4618 with a covering letter; for self-employed, a MyACC walkthrough with wording to paste.
The covering letter contains no dollar figure, on purpose. Sending ACC a number turns a classification correction into an argument about arithmetic. The letter asks ACC to reassess from the change date and calculate from its own records; your copy of the report holds the figure to check their answer against.
We never contact ACC, never act as your agent, and never ask for a login. You send everything yourself, from your own email, under your own name.
What this tool cannot see
Your actual ACC file, your Experience Rating adjustments (if you are in that programme, the published rate is not your rate, and the checker stops rather than mislead), and anything you do not tell it. It is a rules engine, not an audit.