E-invoicing compliance and regulatory updates - Finland

Electronic Invoicing in Finland 

Is e-invoicing mandatory in Finland ?

Finland has long been one of the pioneers in electronic invoicing—especially in Business-to-Government (B2G) invoicing. According to the State Treasury, 97% of invoices received by the state administration are in an electronic format.

Based on the Finnish Government E-invoicing Act (241/2019), companies have had the right since April 2020 to request an invoice from another company in an electronic format. The law does not prevent anyone from receiving invoices in various formats, but it gives the buyer the right to reject e-invoices that do not contain information in accordance with Directive 2014/55/EU. The E-Invoicing Act does not affect companies with a turnover of less than € 10,000 or solely B2C companies.

Due to the recent coronavirus pandemic, older versions of Finvoice and TEAPPS XML are still accepted until further notice, even if they do not comply with the European standard.

The Finnish national e-invoice formats Finvoice and TEAPPS have been updated to version 3.0 to meet both the EU standard and the Finnish Tax Administration requirements for compliant VAT invoicing.

On January 2023, the Finish Government announced its support to the ViDA proposal.

Want to learn more about e-Invoicing compliance?

Download our Global e-invoicing and Tax Compliance fact sheet here for more information.

Archiving

According to the Finnish Accounting Act (1336/1997), documentation and correspondence related to business transactions must be kept for at least six years after the end of the financial year. Thus, a 6 (+1) year retention period applies to sales and purchase invoices.

The Accounting Act emphasises preserving accounting material with care, but it does not take a position on technical details. Therefore, you can store this documentation electronically. However, if the material is stored on the cloud or a similar service, the accounting officer must ensure that the material is immediately accessible from Finland. Backups are recommended.

Want to know more about Basware’s archiving services?

Download our Basware Vault fact sheet here to learn more about our flexible and scalable solution.

Basware Services

Basware supports all methods to receive invoices, including paper, portal, PDF, and true e-invoicing. We operate local scan centers to scan and capture data from paper invoices using optical character recognition (OCR). To support electronic invoicing for suppliers that are not suitable for e-Invoicing connections, Basware has established native PDF services that are not based on OCR.

All invoice distribution methods are available, including delivery using the Peppol network. We can deliver invoices as true invoices via email with an attached PDF, on our portal, or printed locally.

Our platform supports you in Finnish. This includes capturing Finnish data from invoices and providing both supplier and buyer portals in Finnish.

Want to find out how we can help in your specific case?

Speak to a member of our team to learn more.

Contact us

Interoperability

At Basware, we are passionate about delivering the benefits of open interoperability to our customers. So, we have partnered with more than 220 e-invoicing networks around the world to ensure the Basware Network remains the largest open commerce network of buyers and suppliers.

In Finland have developed connections to:

• Posti Messaging Oy
• Ropo Capital Oy
• Visma Solutions (Maventa) Oy
• OpenText Oy
• PostNord Strålfors Oy
• Telia Finland Oyj
• TietoEvry Plc
• Apix Messaging Oy
• CGI Suomi Oy
• Pagero Oy
• Åland Post Ab
• OpusCapita Solutions Oy
• Netbox Finland Oy
• Kofax AB
• Nets Denmark
• Routty NV
• Crediflow AB
• Comarch SA

These connections allow us to deliver invoices over the Basware Network to customers across the globe. Basware is part of the European E-invoicing Service Providers Association.

Our advice

Organisations can leverage high levels of true electronic invoices with adequate enablement campaigns.

We advise both invoice receivers and invoice senders to reach out to their customer or supplier base and discuss the possibility to deliver invoices electronically. This will drive cost reduction, increased automation, and improved collaboration.

The Basware Network provides access to a large existing buyer/supplier-base in Finland. Our experts are here to support you in your e-invoicing transformation.

Want to understand how we can help in your case?

Get in touch with our experts.

Contact us