Invoicing the Finnish Public Sector: Where the Invoice Goes

A Finnish central government agency receives invoices only as e-invoices that follow the European standard EN 16931, and the State Treasury lists the ways to send one. If you have an e-invoicing system, you can send through a provider that has an agreement with Posti Messaging Oy, the state's operator, or over the Peppol network. If you have no such system, you can create the invoice free of charge in the Handi or Basware supplier portal. The agency's current address is in the national e-invoice address register.

This page covers where a supplier sends the invoice and what it must carry. It leaves out procurement rules for winning the contract. GoRoute carries one of the three channels: delivery over Peppol to a buyer that has a Peppol address. We do not send through Posti Messaging, we do not run a supplier portal, and we do not register Finnish addresses.

What does the law require of Finnish public buyers?

Section 3 of the Act on Electronic Invoicing (241/2019) says a contracting entity must receive and process electronic invoices that arise from contracts under the procurement laws. Section 5 gave central government that duty from 1 April 2019. Other contracting entities followed on 1 April 2020.

Section 5 of the Public Procurement Act (1397/2016) lists who a contracting entity is: the authorities of the State, of municipalities and of joint municipal authorities, the Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox churches and their parishes, State enterprises, and public-law bodies, plus any buyer that receives more than half the value of a purchase as support from one of those. We read both Acts on Finlex on 10 November 2026. Wellbeing services counties are not named in that section as we read it, so we do not state what the Acts require of them. Use their own supplier instructions.

How do you invoice central government?

Central government has the most explicit instructions. The State Treasury, which publishes them, says the state "will only receive invoices in accordance with the European standard" from 1 April 2021, that 98% of invoices sent to the state are electronic, and that it does not receive invoices attached to an email.

The channels, as the State Treasury's English page lists them:

1. A provider with a Posti Messaging agreement. If your service provider has an agreement with Posti Messaging Oy, you can send to Finnish government agencies that way.
2. The Peppol network. The same page says it is also possible to send invoices to government agencies over Peppol.
3. The supplier portals. If you cannot use either channel, you can create an e-invoice free of charge in the Handi supplier portal or the Basware portal.

For the first channel the State Treasury gives the address structure. The address is the agency's own OVT code, and the intermediary ID is FI28768767, Posti Messaging Oy. It tells suppliers to take each agency's up-to-date address from the register. For how to read one, see how to find a Finnish company's e-invoice address.

What does Palkeet do?

Palkeet, the Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR, handles the government's finance administration. Its own pages say it processes about 1.3 million purchase invoices a year. For suppliers it keeps the supplier register and runs the Handi service and supports suppliers' use of it. It is also responsible for the automation that processes state invoices. If an invoice does not match an order or contract automatically, Palkeet investigates, and if an invoice has missing or wrong information it contacts the supplier directly.

The Handi portal is free to suppliers, and the State Treasury says both domestic and foreign suppliers should use it first if they have no system for producing e-invoices. You do not sign up on your own. You contact the agency's contact person or buyer, the agency reports you to Palkeet, and Palkeet invites you to register. Palkeet publishes a support address for Handi suppliers: handitoimittajapalvelu(at)palkeet.fi. Suppliers to the Defence Forces use only the Basware portal.

What must a state invoice carry?

The State Treasury lists the minimum content. An invoice must meet the Tax Administration's VAT invoice requirements, which we cover in Finnish VAT invoice requirements. On top of that, if the agency has told you the value, it requires:

• the procurement agreement identifier, in the contract number field where one exists;
• an order number starting V1, in the order number field;
• or a contract number starting VSK1, in the buyer reference field;
• or a posting reference starting TK1, in the posting reference field (the buyer reference field only as an exception, and in the Basware portal);
• a work-site code starting TA-FI-ST or TA-FI, for invoices in the Tax Administration's construction reporting;
• the contact names the agency has given.

The State Treasury adds rules that catch suppliers out. The reference must be in the invoice's data, not only on its printed image, because automatic matching reads the data. An invoice may carry only one order or contract number. An invoice with several orders cannot be sent as an EN 16931 invoice, so each order is invoiced separately. If an invoice fails the standard's validation it is rejected, and the sender corrects it and checks that the due date matches the agreed payment term on resending.

In an EN 16931 invoice, the matching elements are, on our reading, BT-13 for the purchase order reference, BT-12 for the contract reference and BT-10 for the buyer reference. The State Treasury publishes a workbook that maps Finvoice 3 to Peppol BIS 3, linked from its invoicing page; check the field against it or with the agency.

One more requirement matters to a foreign supplier. The State Treasury says invoices to the state must carry the seller's business ID (Y-tunnus) in addition to its VAT identifier. A foreign supplier has no Finnish business ID, and we found no instruction for that case. Ask the agency's contact person before the first invoice.

How does an invoice to a municipality or other public body differ?

The legal duty to receive e-invoices is the same under section 3 of the Act, but the practical instructions come from each buyer. The State Treasury says as much for the state: for matters concerning an individual invoice, you receive instructions from the organisation you invoice. We have not read any individual municipality's supplier instructions for this page, so we describe none. The steps are the same: find the buyer in the national register, read its address, operator ID and Peppol identifier if any, and ask the buyer for its reference requirements.

Public bodies must place their Peppol details in the national Peppol list run by the State Treasury, according to TIEKE, and those are copied into the national register. A public buyer that shows a Peppol identifier there can receive a Peppol invoice from any certified access point. One that shows only an operator address cannot be reached over Peppol.

What to do next

Look up the agency in the register and note which address types it shows. Ask its contact person for the order or contract number it expects. Then choose the channel: Peppol if the agency has a Peppol identifier and you have a Peppol connection, otherwise your own operator, or the Handi portal if you have no system.

For the overall picture of who can demand an e-invoice, see invoicing a Finnish customer from abroad. The Finland page covers the Finnish rules in full, and Peppol delivery shows how the network works. You can test a Peppol delivery in the free developer sandbox, read the documentation, or watch the tutorials. To have a public buyer looked up with you, book a call.

GoRoute is a certified Peppol Access Point (POP000991).

Primary sources: State Treasury, Invoicing the state and its Finnish page Lähetä lasku valtiolle, read 10 November 2026; Palkeet, our services and Handi for suppliers; Act on Electronic Invoicing (241/2019) and Public Procurement Act (1397/2016), Finlex; TIEKE, E-invoicing in Finland for foreign companies.