Finland - 2019 eInvoicing Country Sheet

Legislation

The 2010 Finnish Government Programme mandates the adoption of electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) by public authorities.

Between 2014 and 2015, the State Treasury developed a process area named "From procurement to payment" that covers the planning and preparation of public procurement processes, calls for tenders, contracts management, monitoring and processing payments.

The State Treasury is responsible for implementing public procurement in central government following the guidelines from the "From procurement to payment" processes.

This public procurement process area is one of the key development areas in the Government Financial Administration Strategy for 2014-2020. 

The law 241/2019 has two national extension to the 2014/55 directive

• 3§ Extend nationally to invoices based on contracts above national thresholds but below EU thresholds
• 4§ The contracting entity and the trader shall have the right to receive, on request, an invoice from another contracting entity or trader by electronic invoice. 4§ would enter into force on 1.4.2020 as well.

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

Economic operators can submit eInvoices to contracting authorities through their own ERP software. The contracting authorities use Opus Capita as their eInvoice operator or It is also possible to send the invoices to government agencies using the Peppol network. 

It is also possible to submit eInvoices via following platforms free of charge:

1. Handi Supplier Portal

2. The Basware Supplier Portal 
3. The Post Network Service

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

Central, regional and local authorities receive eInvoices through the economic operators' own ERP software or via the following platforms provided by the State Treasury:

To submit eInvoices via the Basware Supplier Portal, economic operators need to register as a supplier and must be approved by contracting authorities as a "supplier candidate". This portal allows the registration of both Finnish and foreign companies as suppliers. It also enables the storage of eInvoices in the database for three months after their creation;

2. The Post Network Service allows the creation and sending of eInvoices by Finnish companies. Once registered to the platform, economic operators can create and send eInvoices. The system verifies the correct provision of information by economic operators and guarantees the successful submission of an electronic invoice to the contracting authority.

The eInvoices submitted to the government must follow the established content requirements; eInvoices sent as email attachments are not accepted. The eInvoices sent to the government are centrally processed at the Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR.

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

With effect from April 2019 onwards, public administrations will accept only those electronic invoices whose data content corresponds with the semantic data model of the EN. Invoices whose data content complies with the semantic data model may be sent to central government from August 2018 onwards. 

The sender of an electronic invoice shall use versions Finvoice 3.0 or TEAPPSXML 3.0 of the national descriptions or the syntax specified in the EU standard (EN 16931-1:2017) in accordance with the guidelines contained in the ISO/IEC 19845 (UBL 2.1) and UN/CEFACT XML Cross Industry Invoice D16B standard.

The obligatory fields in the national format must be completed in accordance with the descriptions, for example invoice number and invoice date, so that the invoices provide the information required in a VAT invoice. 

The EU standard’s codes are to be used in invoices unless the seller and buyer agree otherwise. Codes in accordance with EU standards must always be used in national invoices. Further information and guidelines can be found on the State Treasury’s web pages. 

Consolidated invoices are not permitted. The broader contents of the invoice (i.e. the information content of summary invoices) will be agreed separately between the buyer and seller. The contracted software companies have been unable so far to proceed with the development work needed for eInvoicing, as there are many requirements that will need to be implemented.

Our goal for the Finnish e-invoice legislation: e-invoices and eReceipts enables automation of financial administration and remove unnecessary work.

Use of Core Invoicing Usage Specifications (CIUS) at national level

A CIUS is being drafted to reflect the government’s desired VAT requirements. The government is planning to have only one document for consultation by companies, presenting all the expected requirements.

Additional information

By 2017, the Finish government aims to receive 95% of invoices in electronic format.

The Finish Information Society Development Center (TIEKE), a non-profit organisation, maintains an eInvoicing Registry with contact information and eInvoicing address of companies that have implemented eInvoicing. TIEKE also coordinates the Finnish eInvoicing Forum, established in 2001, that brings together experts, developers, service providers and users to promote the adoption of eInvoicing based on common standards and procedures. This Forum is divided into three working groups: the technical working group, the users working group and the software-working group.

In 2015, the Finance Finland produced a Study report of the climate impact of accounting automation in the context of a commitment to foster sustainable development through the use of efficient digital financial management systems. This study concluded that accounting automation can be expected to reduce the climate impact of a company by 80 to 90%. The main challenge for Finland remains the need to get rid of its domestic formats and to automate eInvoicing processes.

Last updated:  Jan 02, 2020 08:02