Financial statement documents to be filed with the Finnish Trade Register

The law requires companies to file their financial statements. File the financial statements with the Finnish Trade Register even if your company has stopped business activities.

File the financial statements with the Finnish Trade Register when they have been approved. Make sure that the financial statements are dated and signed.

Please note that the financial period in the financial statements must be the same as the financial period registered for the company in the Finnish Trade Register.

You must file the following details and documents:

  1. The date when the financial statements were adopted or approved
  2. Decision of the general meeting relating to the company profits or decision of the co-operative meeting relating to the co-operative surplus. Please note that you do not have to submit any minutes together with your financial statements. Use our online service at ytj.fi or our notification form in Finnish or in Swedish to file the date when the financial statements were adopted or approved as well as the decision of the general meeting relating to the company profits.
  3. Profit and loss account with comparative figures for the preceding financial period, if the financial period in question is not the first financial period
  4. Balance sheet with comparative figures for the preceding financial period, if the financial period in question is not the first financial period
  5. Notes to the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the cash flow statement (more information below)
  6. Sign and date the financial statements. The company's competent board of directors, and the managing director, if any, sign the financial statements.

You may also need these documents:

  1. Audit report and auditor’s note if the company is obliged to carry out an audit
  2. Annual report (management report) if the company is obliged to draw it up
  3. Cash flow statement with comparative figures for the preceding financial period, if the company is obliged to draw it up
  4. Consolidated financial statements (if included in the company’s financial statements) and, in some cases, an auditor’s report on the consolidated financial statements and, in some cases, a consolidated cash flow statement.

What does it cost?

Filing is free of charge if you use the online service at ytj.fi to file the financial statements within eight months of the end of the financial period. The online service is available in Finnish and Swedish. If you file the financial statements on paper, the handling fee is 100 euros. The PRH will send you an invoice for the handling fee. Do not pay the handling fee in advance.

If you file the financial statement documents of a limited liability company or a co-operative with the register late, in other words more than eight months after the end of the financial period, the PRH will invoice you 100 euros for the delay.

How to file

File your notification online using our service at ytj.fi. The online service is available in Finnish and in Swedish. To use the service, you need a Finnish personal identity code and either personal internet banking codes, a mobile certificate, or an electronic identity card (HST card).

The service will help you fill in the notification. Fill in the required details and attach the financial statement documents needed.

Please note that the details and documents you submit, as well as the notification document created by the service, will be publicly available for anyone. Do not include any details that contain personal identity codes, home addresses, or other confidential details (such as health details or business secrets).

Limited liability companies can also file their financial statements with the Trade Register in digital IXBRL format. See our instructions in Finnish and in Swedish:

If you file your notification on paper, the processing time will be longer than when filing online. Go to our instructions for paper forms.

More information about the financial statement documents

Notes

The notes give specific details about the profit and loss account and the balance sheet, and therefor complement the requirement that the financial statements must give a true and fair view. The notes must include information such as the average number of employees who have worked in the company during the financial period.

The detailed requirements for the notes can be found in the Finnish Accounting Decree or in the Finnish Government Decree on the information presented in the financial statements of a small undertaking and micro-undertaking.

Audit report and auditor’s note

An auditor must be appointed for an organisation where at least two of the following conditions were met during the financial period that has ended and during the financial period immediately preceding it:

Even if the conditions above are not met, companies are obliged to carry out an audit if their articles of association or rules or by-laws require that an auditor is appointed.

An auditor must also be appointed for an organisation whose principal activities consist of the owning and holding of securities and which exercises significant influence over the operating and financial policies of another entity that is obliged to keep accounting records.

An auditor’s note means a note that the auditor makes in the financial statements and that refers to the audit report.

Annual report (management report)

An annual report must be drawn up if the company is a public limited company or a public-interest entity, or it does not meet the criteria of small undertakings as referred to in the Finnish Accounting Act. An entity that is obliged to keep accounting records does not meet the criteria of a small undertaking if at least two of the following thresholds are exceeded during the financial period that has ended and during the financial period immediately preceding it:

The annual report must contain the details described in chapter 3, section 1 a of the Finnish Accounting Act. In addition, the provisions of chapter 8, sections 5–8 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act must be taken into account when drawing up an annual report.

Cash flow statement

Only large undertakings or public-interest entities must draw up a cash flow statement. A large undertaking refers to a reporting entity exceeding at least two of the following thresholds during the financial period that has ended and during the financial period immediately preceding it:

See the legislation for more information

Read more in the following acts, decrees and regulations available on Finlex, the reference database of Finnish legislation: