E-invoice metrics

To promote digitalisation, one of the goals of the Real-Time Economy project is to increase the number of e-invoices between organisations to 90 percent by the end of 2023. The goal of Sanna Marin’s government platform for the widespread adoption of e-invoices is also being promoted.

The purpose of the e-invoice metrics is to describe the current situation of e-invoicing and its development in Finland. The metrics monitor the realisation of the Real-Time Economy project’s goal of e-invoicing, and verify the necessary measures to achieve the goal. The metrics were implemented for the first time in 2021 and will be repeated annually during the Real-Time Economy project.

Number of e-invoices in Finland in 2021

At the start of 2022, the State Treasury conducted a survey among e-invoicing operators operating in Finland. The survey asked for operator-specific statistics for 2021 on the numbers of sales invoices of domestic customers of e-invoicing operators, itemised by invoicing method. The invoicing methods include online, e-mail, paper, EDI, portal and mobile invoices. Mobile invoices were moved as a separate entity to also describe the change in one-off invoicing promoted in the Real-Time Economy project. A more detailed itemisation also enables a closer investigation of the invoicing ecosystem. 

The statistics also take into account the invoice figures reported by banks operating in Finland. The figures reported by the banks have been corrected according to the numbers transmitted to the banks by the e-invoicing operators, which ensures that the figures of the banks were reported correctly. 

The statistics derived from the surveys provide a comprehensive account of invoice traffic passing through e-invoice operators, but the e-mail and paper invoices sent by the companies themselves are not included in the statistics. 

Use of e-invoicing in the public sector

Pursuant to the E-invoicing Act, the public sector must have the ability to receive and process e-invoices compliant to the EN16931 standard (“European Standard”). By law, the public sector must also be able to deliver sales invoices in accordance with the standard.

More about E-invoicing metrics:

Tomi Rusi, specialist, State Treasury
tomi.rusi(at)valtiokonttori

  • E-invoicing statistics 2021

    The total number of invoices relayed through e-invoice operators has increased by approximately 6% from the previous year, now totalling some 412 million invoices.  

    A total of 271 million structured invoices were reported, an increase of 15% from the previous year. 48% of online invoices were consumer invoices, i.e., a total of 131 million invoices. The proportion of business invoices is 52%, or 161 million invoices. 

    A total of 120 million invoices were reported as e-mail and paper invoices. The change from the previous year is approximately -10%. In particular, the number of e-mail invoices has significantly decreased, now 29% lower than in the previous year. The share of paper invoices has decreased by approximately 3%. A total of 27 million e-mail invoices and a total of 93 million paper invoices were relayed.  

    Invoices transmitted in Finland by method of transmission (million pcs.)
    The diagram shows the same information written in the text.

  • Inter-organisation invoicing 2021

    The total volume between organisations is computational. E-invoice operators cannot itemise e-mail and paper invoices as business and consumer invoices, and therefore the proportions of these have been calculated using the operator-specific ratio of e-invoices between businesses and consumers. The same formula is used in the statistics throughout the project to maintain comparability. 

    The formula yields a total of 199 million invoices relayed between organisations in 2021, of which 161 million were structured invoices. In order to reach the goal of the project during 2022 and 2023, it is necessary to be able to digitalise some 25 million invoices. 

    Verkkolaskujen osuus organisaatioiden välisessä laskutuksessa vuonna 2021
    Verkkolaskujen osuus organisaatioiden välisessä laskutuksessa vuonna 2021. Ympyräkaaviossa kerrotaan, että vuonna 2021 organisaatioiden välisistä laskuista on sähköistetty 80 % ja sähköistämättä 20 %.

  • Proportion of e-invoices in public sector purchase invoices in 2021

    State purchase invoices

    State agencies received a total of 828,000 purchase invoices in 2021, of which 96% were e-invoices. About 50% of e-invoices complied with the European Standard (EN16931).

    The increase in the proportion of invoices conforming to the European Standard is significant, because Schematron validation has rendered almost all invoices error-free. In September 2022, the percentage of errors in ES invoices is 0, while the percentage of errors in non-ES invoices is approximately 60%. Typically, the errors are errors related to the VAT code.

    Municipalities’ purchase invoices

    The digitalisation of municipal purchase invoices has been fast and efficient. Based on the e-invoice survey, the proportion of paper invoices delivered to municipalities has decreased by 25%, and the share of e-invoices as a whole has increased by 6%.

    Verkkolaskujen osuus ostolaskuissa julkisella sektorilla 2021
    Pylväsdiagrammi kertoo verkkolaskujen käyttämisen osuudet 2021 kunnissa, kuntayhtymissä ja valtiolla. Kunnissa 86 prosenttia Kuntayhtymissä 87 prosenttia Valtiolla 96 prosenttia

  • Proportion of e-invoices in public sector sales invoices in 2021

    The combined number of sales invoices from the state and from the municipalities and municipal associations that responded to the survey was approximately 25.1 million. Of these, the state’s share is 9.4 million invoices, and municipalities and municipal federations account for 15.7 million invoices. E-invoices and invoices delivered to various portal solutions totalled 8.4 million, with the share of e-invoices being 7.7 million. E-invoices account for 33% of sales invoices in the public sector.

    Verkkolaskujen osuus julkisen sektorin myyntilaskuissa 2021

  • Glossary

    • e-invoice intermediary = a member who has joined the network of e-invoice operators in accordance with the applicable agreement, through which member invoice data is forwarded from one e-invoice operator to another e-invoice operator. An e-invoice intermediary can be either a bank or an online invoicing operator. Data traffic between e-invoice intermediaries can also include paper, e-mail, online or e-invoices.
    • e-invoice = a standard-form, structured invoice format communicated, for example, in a network of e-invoice intermediaries. Used in intra-company traffic.
    • e-invoice = a standard-format, structured invoice format that is transmitted in a network formed by e-invoicing operators, always received by the consumers’ own banks, i.e., refers to consumer invoicing.
    • e-invoice address = the address of the organisation to which e-invoices can be relayed.
    • e-invoice address registry = national register of the e-invoice addresses of Finnish organisations. The e-invoice address registry is maintained by e-invoicing operators.
    • PEPPOL = (Pan-European Public Procurement Online) is a framework through the network of which different actors can send electronic business documents to each other.
    • PEPPOL SMP = a PEPPOL directory service intended for users.

, Updated 28.8.2023 at 13:11