E-invoicing scope extends to B2B transactions in Finland from April 2020

19.3.2020

Central government authorities and the government’s central procurement units have been in scope of Finnish Act on electronic billing for procurement units and traders starting from 1 April 2019. Starting from 1 April 2020 private companies have a statutory right to request their suppliers to provide electronic invoice in a format compliant with European and Finnish (Finvoice 3.0 and TEAPPSXML 3.0) standards. In light of the coronavirus outbreak, State Treasury until further notice accepts older versions of e-invoices that are not compliant with EU standards.

This change is another step in shifting to fully automated financial administration both in public and private sector, for which e-invoice is one of core prerequisites. In 2017, the Finnish government had already the goal to receive 95% of invoices in electronic format. According to Association of Finnish Accounting Firms, providers of accounting software in Finland are well-prepared for upcoming change. E-invoicing users can benefit from quicker and cheaper information processing, reduced system development costs and smoother preparation of financial reporting. To fully enjoy advantages of e-invoicing, business and IT stakeholders should:

Continuously monitor quality of data generated by e-invoice processing
Review compliance of e-invoices generated by ERP systems with Finnish legislation, especially during expanding business in Finland and/or ERP migrations
Train ERP users to correctly process e-invoices and identify non-compliant invoices.

We are ready to assist you with assessing tax compliance of new configurations, reviewing guidelines and training users, as well as implementing process automation and self-service analytics in processing e-invoices.

Please contact us in case of questions!