Acting on behalf of a company or an organisation

Many authorities and other organisations use Suomi.fi e-Authorizations in their own services for acting on behalf of a company, association or other organisation. Each e-service (e.g., MyTax) independently determines which roles authorising representation or what kind of mandates people need for carrying out transactions in the service. For more detailed information on acting on behalf of another party, see the services' own instructions or contact their customer service.

If it is not possible to use the service based on register data, the company, association or other organisation may authorise a person, company, association or other organisation to carry out transactions on its behalf. For instructions on granting mandates, see the Grant a mandate as a company or an organisation page.

When you wish to act on behalf of a company, association or other organisation, the e-service will use Suomi.fi e-Authorizations to check your authorisations from

the general registers (Trade Register, Business Information System and Register of Associations)
the authorisation register (authorisations granted in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations).

Sometimes you do not have the right to carry out transactions, 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 to the e-service. Transactions may be prevented due to, for example, a business prohibition.

Acting on behalf of a company without a separate mandate is possible only for persons with a role entered in the Trade Register or the Business Information System that entitles them to represent and the role has been specified in the service as a role entitled to act on behalf.

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

Accountant
Building Manager
Chairman of the Board
Deputy Managing Director
Full-time Building Manager
General Partner
Liquidator
Managing Director
Member of the Board
Procuration holder
Substitute Managing Director
Trader
Another signatory, whose right to represent the company alone has been entered in the register

Please note that it may prevent acting on behalf of a company if

the status data for the person acting on behalf of the company in the Trade Register is something other than normal, meaning that they are, for example, prohibited from running a business.
the status data for the company in the Trade Register is, for example, that it is bankrupt or undergoing corporate reorganisation, or has gone into liquidation.

Please also note that

transactions are not possible if the person acting on behalf of the company 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.
if the person has a business ID for a trader, this business ID is displayed in the e-services under Acting on behalf of the company even if the business operations have been terminated. This is because the business ID of a trader is permanently linked to a person.

Acting on behalf of a registered association is possible without a separate mandate only for persons who have a role entered in the Finnish Register of Associations that entitles them to represent and the role has been specified in the service as a role entitled to act on behalf.

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 right to represent the association alone has been entered in the register

Please note that it may prevent acting on behalf of an association if the status data for the association in the Finnish Register of Associations is, for example, that it is bankrupt or undergoing corporate reorganisation, or has gone into liquidation.

Acting on behalf of other organisations or foreign companies is only possible with a mandate granted in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. This is because persons entitled to represent alone have not been entered in the Trade Register, the Business Information System or the Finnish Register of Associations.

Such other organisations include state or municipal organisations, educational institutions, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Orthodox Church, religious communities, foundations, investment funds, unemployment funds, insurance funds, personnel funds, jointly owned forests, road maintenance associations, cooperatives and estates of deceased persons with a business ID.

Acting on behalf of a company or organisation is possible for any person with a mandate, who has been granted a mandate specified as a mandate for transactions or a mandate to represent.

Note that acting on behalf of a foreign company or organisation is possible only if the e-service has allowed it.

Carrying out transactions on behalf of a company, association or other organisation

A company, association or other organisation's (assignor) own affairs may be managed by a person or an organisation (assignee) to whom they have granted a mandate of a type mandate for transactions. If a person has previously been granted the right to grant a mandate and they need to act on behalf of the assignor, they must also give themselves a mandate for transactions.

Persons granted a mandate for transactions will identify themselves in the e-service using their personal identification tokens. After that, they can choose the company, association, other organisation or the person on whose behalf they are acting.

If there are problems in using e-services, check the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations to make sure that

the person using the service has a valid mandate for transactions
the mandate has been granted for the mandate themes used in the e-service in question.

Acting on behalf of the company’s, association’s or other organisation’s customer

A company, association, other organisation or private person (assignor) may grant a mandate for transactions to another company, association or other organisation (assignee). Only persons who have been granted the mandate to represent in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations can use the mandates granted by another company, association, other organisation or private person.

Example:

First, a company gives an accounting firm a mandate for transactions in tax matters.
The accounting firm then gives an individual accountant a mandate to represent, giving them the right to manage the tax matters of the company that granted the mandate for transactions.

Persons granted a mandate to represent will identify themselves in the e-service using their personal identification tokens. After that, they can choose the company, organisation or the person on whose behalf they are acting.

A company, association or other organisation may also grant an employee a mandate, which is of a type representative’s right to grant a mandate. With this mandate, the employee can give other employees mandates, which are of a type mandate to represent, and request mandates for transactions from customers.

Example:

An accounting firm gives its chief financial officer a representative’s right to grant a mandate in mandate themes related to tax matters.
The chief financial officer gives the firm’s payroll staff a mandate to represent for the purpose of managing the customers' tax matters.

If there are problems with acting on behalf of the customer, check that:

the person using the service has a valid mandate to represent
the mandate has been granted for the mandate themes used in the e-service in question.

Note that those who have been entered in the Trade Register, the Business Information System or the Finnish Register of Associations with a right to represent alone need a mandate that is of a type mandate to represent if they need to act on behalf of a customer.