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