Go fully paperless in Finland
In Finland, it’s possible to go fully paperless. This means that businesses can store supporting documents such as receipts digitally without having to keep the original paper receipts.
According to the Finnish Accounting Act (Chapter 2, Section 7), accounting documents should be processed and stored in a way that the content can be viewed easily and, if necessary, printed clearly and readable. The content of the document cannot be changed or deleted. However, the format of the document can be changed if necessary for processing, transfer or storage. In this case, businesses need to ensure the preservation of the content and audit trail. This means businesses can digitise receipts, store them digitally and throw away the original paper.
Supporting documents such as receipts and invoices need to be retained for at least 6 years (Chapter 2, Section 10). The time is calculated from the end of the calendar year in which the accounting period ends.