Finland (2017 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. 

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

Economic operators can submit eInvoices to contracting authorities through their own accounting software or via the two following platforms:

1. The Basware Supplier Portal is a free-of-charge service for sending eInvoices to the Finnish contracting authorities; it was developed by the service provider Basware;
2. The Post Network Service was developed by service provider Posti Group and designed especially for small businesses.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

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

1. The Basware Supplier Portal allows real-time connection between contracting authorities and economic operators. It can be used in combination with other procurement and invoice processing systems such as:

• • Basware Purchase Management, to manage additional electronic procurement processes;
  • Basware Invoice Processing, for contracting authorities to process electronic invoices or other solutions developed by different service providers;
  • Basware RFx Management, to enable the management of calls for tenders.

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.

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%. 

VALIDATED BY THE EMSFEI MEMBER

Last updated:  Nov 29, 2017 17:08