Acting on behalf of a company or an organisation

On behalf of a company or organisation without a separately granted mandate can act person who has a role entered in the Trade Register, the Business Information System or the Register of Associations that entitles them to represent and the role has been specified in the service as a role entitled to represent.

Roles entered in the Trade Register that entitle one to act on behalf of a company may include:

• 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 in the Register of Associations that entitle one to act on behalf of an association may include:

• Chairperson
• Member of the executive committee
• Another signatory, whose the right to represent the association alone has been entered in the register

A mandate granted in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations or with the help of the Mandate service provided by officials, any person, company or organisation granted the right to act in the matters in question can act on behalf of a company or organisation. Note that acting on behalf of a foreign company or organisation is only possible if the e-service has allowed this.

A person who has been specified a role in the Katso service for an e-service that uses the Suomi.fi e-Authorisations Katso role check can use the e-service.

The assignee or the assignee’s representative use personal Finnish identification tokens to identify themselves in the service. A foreigner can also use the Finnish Authenticator application to identify themselves, if the service in question has introduced its use.

On behalf of a company, parties who can grant mandates  include

• a private entrepreneur on behalf of their own company
• a managing director or deputy managing director of a company 
• a signatory of a company with the right to represent the company alone entered in the Trade Register
• all the board members of the company, who have been entered in the Trade Register, 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
• a person to whom the company has given the right to grant mandates or a representative's right to grant a mandate. 

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.

On behalf of an association, parties who can grant mandates include

• the association’s chairperson, a member of the board or other signatory for whom the right to represent the association alone has been recorded in the Registers of Associations
• a person to whom the association has given the right to grant mandates or a representative's right to grant authorisation. 

If authorisation on behalf of the association is not possible in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, even though the person has been entered in the PRH registers of associations to represent the association alone:

1. Use the PRH feedback form to submit a request to the registers of associations to check the association’s details.
2. Select “Associations” in the form. 
3. Write in the text box that you are unable to complete Suomi.fi e-Authorizations with your association's business ID, the name of the person who cannot grant mandates and the reply email address.
4. PRH will inform you when the person entitled to represent the association is able to grant mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.

On behalf of other organisations, a person who has been given the right to grant mandates or the representative’s right to grant a mandate can grant mandates.

In addition, the person who grants a mandate on behalf of the company or organisation must be one of the following:

• A person at least 18 years old, who have a Finnish personal identity code and who is able to identify themselves in the service with Finnish identification tokens.
• A person who has a valid and confirmed foreigner’s identifier (UID), who can sign into the service using the Finnish Authenticator application and to whom the company, association or other organisation in question has given the right to grant mandates. Instructions for the registration of a foreigner’s user identifier and beginning use of the application can be found on the Finnish Authenticator Identification Service page.

If the company that is the assignor cannot authorise in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, with the help of the Mandate service provided by officials they can apply for the registration or invalidation of a mandate or to accept a mandate request. First check the Who can grant mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations? section for whether the company or organisation can grant the necessary mandates by themselves.

An application can be used to authorise only by 

• an organisation that does not have representatives recorded in a register (e.g. municipalities, government agencies, educational institutions, foundations, parishes, partnerships, forestry and agricultural operators and estates of deceased persons which have a business ID)
• an association for which no persons entitled to represent the association alone have been entered in a register
• a foreign company that has not been registered in Finland or those whose representatives’ Finnish personal identity code has not been recorded in the Trade Register
• a Finnish company for which no Finnish persons entitled to represent the company or board members have been entered in the Trade Register (for example limited liability companies)
• a private entrepreneur who does not have personal means of identification for electronic services or who cannot or does not know how to use electronic services
• a company or organisation that has terminated its activities or in liquidation, bankruptcy or reorganization.

With the help of the Mandate service provided by officials can be granted

• a right to grant a mandate, in which case the person granted the mandate can manage the mandates that the company or organisation grants to others in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.
• a representative’s right to grant a mandate, in which case the person granted the mandate can manage the mandates granted to the company or organisation in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations
• a mandate for transactions, if the use of Suomi.fi e-Authorizations is not possible due, for example, to a lack of skill or the representatives not having means of identification for electronic services.

Find out how to submit an application and submit the application on the Authorisation with an application page.

For those transferring to Suomi.fi e-authorizations from the Katso service, more information is available at the 

• Digitization and Population Data Agency’s web page From Katso to Suomi.fi e-Authorizations 
• Katso identification’s home page.

See the bottom of this page for the video instructions in Finnish on how to submit a mandate application in the mandate service provided by officials.

If a Finnish organisation does not have a business ID, granting a mandate will not be possible in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations or with the help of the Mandate service provided by officials.

There are cases when a person does not have the right to act on behalf of a company or organisation or the matter cannot be reliably checked from register data. For reasons related to data protection, only information on whether transactions are possible or not is given. 

Service using Suomi.fi e-Authorizations may prevent acting on behalf of a company or organisation if

• The company's or association’s rules of representation do not allow for sole agency.
• No role has been entered for the person in the Trade Register, the Business Information System (BIS), or the Register of Associations that would give them the right to represent the company or association, they are acting on behalf of, alone
• The person is listed in the Trade Register as someone with the right to represent the company but with no personal identity code. Personal identity codes have been notified to and entered in the Trade Register since 1 January 1994.
• In the e-service in question does not specify the person’s role as one that gives them the right to use services.
• The person’s status data in the Trade Register is something other than normal, meaning that they are i.e. prohibited from running a business or the company is bankrupt, is undergoing corporate reorganisation or has gone into liquidation.
• The person has not been granted a proper or adequate mandate in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, the Mandate service provided by officials or in the Katso service if the e-service uses Katso role check in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.

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

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

A person granted a mandate to represent will identify themselves in the e-service using their identification token. After this, they can select the company, the organisation or person who has granted them a mandate to use services on their behalf.

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 organisations).