eInvoicing in Sweden

Legislation

In Sweden, two laws mandate the use of eInvoicing for central government authorities:

1. Ordinance for accounting (Förordning (2000:606) om myndigheters bokföring §21f);
2. Ordinance for electronic information exchange (Förordning (2003:770) om statliga myndigheters elektroniska informationsutbyte § 3). It has been amended multiple times, with the latest amendment in 2018).

Detailed regulations has been issued in accordance with these ordinances. This also includes mandated use of eProcurement in the ordering processes. Central government agencies are connected to PEPPOL since November 2018.

The Swedish government prepared legislation to implement the eInvoicing Directive and to make the use of eInvoicing mandatory for local and regional governments as well. When implementing the Directive, the government took further steps to require suppliers to only send e-invoices to the public sector in Sweden by April 1 2019. The law applies to contracts signed after this date to allow for a smoother transition for the suppliers. In addition, the proposal introduces supporting actions for suppliers as well as for municipalities that do not use the eInvoicing[1]. Supporting actions include information campaigns, trainings etc. In June 2017 the proposal on legislation (in Swedish) was presented and after a review it has also been passed by the Council on Legislation which is the last step prior to a vote in the Parliament. The new legislation was approved by the Parliament in June 2018.

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

The central authorities use an eInvoicing platform to receive and process eInvoices, which is operated by solution providers under framework agreements managed by The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency. Sweden encourages the use of PEPPOL for electronic procurement, enabling connected public entities and economic operators to communicate with each other. Legacy eProcurement solutions based on EDIFACT (GS1 EANCOM) are still supported by central, regional and local government.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

Solution providers, on behalf of public sector organisations, operate the access point to receive eInvoices from economic operators. For the central government, the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency manages framework agreements for the provision of a common infrastructure for central government organisations. Currently, Visma and CGI are the solution providers operating these framework agreements. These framework agreements can be used by all central government agencies and also approximately 120 local and regional authorities, which have expressed their consent to use them.

Several platforms are in use by local and regional governments. Sweden follows the four corner model whereby economic operators and central authorities connect to solution providers responsible for the transmission, reception and processing of eInvoices. In Sweden, the solutions used are based on the recommendations by Single Face To Industry (SFTI) regarding standards for both messages and other infrastructure. SFTI recommends PEPPOL for use by the Swedish public sector and its suppliers.

Status on the implementation of the European Standard on eInvoicing (EN)

Efforts are being made to increase the use of PEPPOL and Sweden plays an active role in OpenPEPPOL where support for the European Standard on eInvoicing is being prepared. The ambition is to use the PEPPOL specifications as is, without national blends.

Additional information

An important player involved in eInvoicing in Sweden is the Single Face To Industry (SFTI), a joint initiative in the Swedish public sector to promote and facilitate eProcurement. SFTI is led by the Swedish Association for Local Authorities & Regions (SKL), DIGG (the Agency for Digital Government) and the National Procurement Agency. The SFTI is composed of public administrations, economic operators and IT providers. Its aim is to recommend standards for eProcurement in the public sector and to support its use. It offers a service desk free of charge, publishes guidance on its website and organises a wide range of courses and seminars in the eProcurement domain. It is active in international standardisation in CEN, OASIS and similar organisations.

DIGG is commissioned by the government to facilitate the use of e-procurement (post award) in Swedish central government agencies. DIGG is a sponsor of the work in SFTI. It also has the role of a PEPPOL Authority; as such it is responsible for the registration of companies that wish to become an Access Point (AP) or a Service Metadata Publisher (SMP).

[1] These municipalities represent less than 15% of approximately 300 entities according to a study undertaken by the ESV in 2015

Last updated:  Apr 16, 2019 17:35