The Bursars' associations of six Australian states – Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania – were represented at a meeting in August 1977 in New South Wales to set up the Australian Council of Bursars Association (ACBA).

At the ACBA's first Annual General Meeting in Melbourne in May 1978, discussions included agreed aims and objectives of the new association, capital funding anomalies between states and a paper entitled "The Responsibilities of a School Bursar and suggested Code of Ethics".

A year later the ACBA launched its first newsletter and in 1985 it ran a professional development course for members at the NSW College of Advanced Education which had opened that year.

In 1993 ACBA's name was changed to the Association of School Bursars and Administrators and ASBA became a company limited by guarantee in 1999 before changing its name to the Association of School Business Administrators Limited in 2007.