Acting on behalf of a company or an organisation

A person with a Finnish personal identity code can act on behalf of a company or an association.

You can act on behalf of a company or an organisation, for example, if,

• a role in the company has been entered into the Trade Register, Business Information System or Finnish Register of Associations for you gives you the right to represent the company and if the role in question has been specified as one that can use the e-services in question
• you have been granted a mandate in Suomi-fi e-Authorizations to act in the matters in question on behalf of a company, enterprise or other organisation
• granted a role in an e-service in the Katso services and the e-service in question uses the Katso role validation in Suomi-fi e-Authorizations. 

Roles entered into the Trade Register that can entitle someone to act on behalf of the company can be:

• Trader
• Building Manager
• Full-time Building Manager
• Liquidator
• Accountant
• Managing Director
• Substitute Managing Director
• Deputy Managing Director
• General Partner
• Member of the Board of Directors
• Chair of the Board of Directors

Roles entered into the Finnish Register of Associations that can entitle someone to act on behalf of the association can be:

• Chairperson
• Member of the executive committee
• Other signatory of a company with a right to represent the association alone entered in the Register of Associations 

There are cases when you do not have the right to act on behalf of a company or an organisation or the matter cannot be reliably checked in the general register. Due to privacy laws, you will not be given the specific reason why you have been blocked from acting on behalf of someone else in the e-service or the matters in question. You will only receive a notification to say whether acting on behalf of someone else is possible or not. 

You cannot act on behalf of a company or an organisation, if

• the company's or organisation's rules of representation do not allow for sole agency.
• no role has been entered for you into the Trade Register, Business Information System or Finnish Register of Associations, that would entitle you to represent the company, which you are acting on behalf of, alone.
• you are listed in the Trade Register as someone with a right to represent the company but with no personal identity code. Since 1 January 1994 personal identity codes have been notified to and entered in the Trade Register.
• the e-service in question does not specify your role as one which has been given the right to act.
• your status data or the status data for the company in the Trade Register is something other than normal, meaning that you are i.e. prohibited from running a business or the company is bankrupt, is undergoing corporate reorganisation or has gone into liquidation.
• you have not been granted a proper or adequate mandate in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations or in the Katso service, if the e-service uses Katso role validation in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.

A person with a Finnish personal identity code can grant mandates on behalf of a company or an association.

The following parties can grant mandates on behalf of a company:

• a private entrepreneur
• a company’s managing director or the deputy managing director
• a signatory of a company who has been entered into the Finnish Trade Register and has the right to represent the company alone
• all board members of a company who have been entered into the Finnish Trade Register when they grant the mandate together
• in accordance with the rule of representation entered into the Finnish Trade Register, the board chairperson and one board member together or two board members together
• persons to whom a company has granted the right to grant mandates or the representative’s right to grant mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations 

The following parties can grant mandates on behalf of an association:

• the chairperson, a member of the executive committee or other signatory of an association who has the right to represent the association alone, as entered into the Finnish Register of Associations
• persons to whom an association has granted the right to grant mandates or the representative’s right to grant mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations

The following parties cannot grant mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations:

• a person without a Finnish personal identity code
• a person representing a Finnish company or organisation if the details of the persons entitled to represent the company or organisation in question have not been entered into the Finnish Trade Register, the Business Information System (BIS) or the Finnish Register of Associations
• a person whose right to represent the association alone has not been entered into a register

A procuration is a personal right to represent a company. A procuration holder may not transfer procuration to another person. For this reason, a procuration holder can only grant mandates if they have been given a mandate to grant a mandate in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.

At the moment, a company or an organisation cannot grant mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations if the details of the persons entitled to represent the company or the organisation in question have not been entered into the Finnish Trade Register, the Business Information System (BIS) or the Finnish Register of Associations. Such companies and organisations include

• general partnerships (ay) and limited partnerships (ky) if the details of their managing director, deputy managing director or persons entitled to represent the company alone have not been entered into the Finnish Trade Register
• associations if the details of the persons entitled to represent the association alone have not been entered into the Finnish Register of Associations 
• organisations such as municipalities, parishes, education institutions, foundations, partnerships, estates of deceased persons, and public authorities if the details of their representatives have not been entered into a register
• foreign companies if the details of their representatives have not been entered in the Finnish Trade Register

In a phased process, these companies and organisations will also be given the right to grant mandates during 2020. 

A person, another company or association may grant a company or organisation a mandate for transactions in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. Only persons who have been granted the mandate to represent in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations can act on behalf of another party using the mandates granted to the company or association.

A person who has the right to grant mandates on behalf of a company or association may also grant an employee a representative's right to grant a mandate in which case this person can grant other employees mandates to represent and request mandates for transactions from companies, associations or persons.

A person granted a mandate to represent will identify themselves in the e-service using their own personal identification tokens. After this, they can select the company, the organisation or person who has granted them a mandate for transactions.

If you encounter any problems with acting on behalf of the assignor, first check that the company or organisation has been granted mandates for transaction for the correct mandate themes. If the mandate has been granted correctly, make sure that all persons who need to be able to act on behalf of the assignor have been granted a mandate to represent in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations (including persons entitled to represent alone entered in the Trade Register, BIS or the Register of Associations).