Request a mandate as a company or an organisation

When you request a mandate on behalf of a company or entity, the company or organisation will be the assignee. 

• The business ID of a company or organisation and the name of a company registered in Finland are automatically retrieved from the Trade Register, the BIS or the Register of Associations.
• The name of a company or organisation that is not registered in Finland is retrieved from the Authorisation Register. Note that only persons given a representative's right to grant a mandate can request a mandate for transactions on behalf of a foreign company.

There are four stages to requesting a mandate. 

Step 1: Choice of parties

The assignor is the party of whom you are requesting the right to act on behalf of.

• When requesting a mandate from a person, you will need their last name, first name or preferred first name and personal identity code or foreigner’s user identifier (UID). The person to whom you are submitting the mandate request must be competent and aged 18 or over.
• When you request a mandate from a company or organisation, you need the business ID or name of the company or organisation registered in Finland. 

You can also request a mandate from a company or organisation that is not registered in Finland, if at least one mandate has previously been registered for the company using the Mandate service provided by officials. To grant a mandate, you will need the VAT ID of the EU country or the national business ID of the country with which the previous mandate is registered.

Step 2: Choice of mandate themes

Familiarise yourself with mandate themes before requesting any mandates.

When requesting a mandate, select the mandate theme you wish from the list in Suomi.fi. The list will include all the available mandate themes depending on whether you are requesting a mandate from a person or from a company or organisation.

You can browse the list or search for a mandate theme by its name or part of its name. Check from the description of the mandate theme what the company you represent can do on the assignor’s behalf with each mandate. 

You can select several mandate themes at a time. You will have to select at least one mandate theme before you can go on.

If the mandate theme you have selected uses a mandate specifier, you can, if necessary and before moving on, restrict or target the mandate to apply to certain subjects only. 

For those transferring to Suomi.fi e-authorizations from the Katso service, more information on selecting the mandate themes is available at the Katso identification’s home page.

Step 3: Specifying the period of validity

A mandate must always have a start and end date. 

You can specify a mandate’s period of validity by giving the relevant dates or you can select one that lasts 1, 5, 15, 20 or 25 years. The shortest period of validity for a mandate is one day and the longest is 25 years. 

If the assignor is a person and their identifier is the foreigner’s user identifier (UID), the mandate will be valid for no more than 3 years.

Step 4: Submitting the mandate request

Check that the information in the mandate is correct.

• The assignor is a person, company or organisation on behalf of which your company or organisation can act.
• The assignee is the company or organisation on behalf of which you request a mandate.
• The mandate themes you have selected and the period of validity of the mandate are correct.

If you wish to change the details before the mandate request is submitted, you can go back over these steps.

When you submit a mandate request, the request is transferred to the recipient for validation through the Suomi.fi e-Authorisations.

• If the recipient of the mandate request uses Suomi.fi Messages, the party concerned will be notified of a new mandate request there.
• If the recipient of a mandate request does not use Suomi.fi Messages, you will have to notify the recipient of the request yourself.

You can request several mandates of the same type at the same time. You can enter the mandate details directly into Suomi.fi e-Authorizations or import them from a CSV file.

What to do when you import mandate information from a CSV file:

1. Select Request a mandate.
2. Select Transfer mandates to be requested from the CVS file.
3. Add the file.
4. Check the mandate details by proceeding phase by phase to request the mandate.
5. If necessary, supplement, edit or delete information.
6. Validate the mandate requests.

More information: Suomi.fi e-Authorizations: instructions for importing and exporting a CSV file (PDF)

You can use a mandate specifier to limit or target a mandate to apply, for example, only to a certain property, a client company or its department. Each organisation that uses Suomi.fi e-Authorizations itself determines whether a specifier will be available in their services.

Only use the specifier when you have agreed on its use with the assignor and you have received more detailed instructions on the e-service in which the mandate is to be used. The use of a specifier is not compulsory and you may grant a mandate without one.

You can see mandate requests sent on behalf of a company or organisation under sent requests, when

• you use Suomi.fi e-Authorizations on behalf of a company or community 
• you have the right to represent a company or association alone or have been given a representative's right to grant authorisation.

When you select an assignor, you will see a list of all requests sent to this assignor. By selecting a mandate request, you can see the details of the mandate.

If there is a large number of mandate requests, you can

• search for mandates requested from a specific person, company or organisation with a name or identifier
• search for mandates requested with certain mandate themes or with certain specifier
• limit the list based on the period of validity of the mandates
• you can download all requests as a CSV file and view them in table format.

The recipient will see the mandate request under received requests in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.

To ensure that the requested mandate is valid, the recipient must accept the mandate request i.e. validate the mandate. A mandate request can be validated by the assignor or any party entitled to grant a mandate on behalf of a company or an organisation. You can also reject a mandate request.

Validation means that the mandate is valid from its start date. You can change the period of validity before validation.

If the request is rejected, the mandate will never become valid and it will be invalidated from Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. The party submitting the mandate request will not receive any notification of the invalidation.

Validated mandates will be visible in the mandates granted by you and in the mandates received by the assignee. 

A mandate request can be invalidated by any member of the company’s board or a person who can represent the company or association alone in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. A mandate request can also be invalidated by a person with the representative's right to grant a mandate

The recipient will not automatically be notified of the invalidation of a mandate request.

If the recipient has already validated a mandate request, you can invalidate the mandate.

You can see the mandates received by a company or organisation in the mandates received, when

• you use Suomi.fi e-Authorizations on behalf of the company or organisation 
• you have the right to represent a company or association alone or have been given a representative's right to grant authorisation.

When you select an assignor, you will see a list of all mandates granted by this assignor. Select a single mandate to see its details.

If there is a large number of received mandates,  you can 

• search for received mandates from a specific person, company or organisation by name or identifier
• search for mandates received with certain mandate themes or with certain specifier
• limit the list based on the period of validity of the mandates
• you can download all mandates as a CSV file and view them in table format.

The mandates received in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations are valid for a specific length of time when they are granted. You can also invalidate a received mandate prior to its expiration.

A received mandate can be invalidated during its period of validity by any member of the board in a company that has been granted the mandate or a person who can represent the company that has been granted the mandate alone in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. A mandate can also be invalidated by a person given a representative’s right to grant authorisation.

How to invalidate a mandate:

1. Select one or more assignors in the received mandates. If you select one, you will see a list of all the mandates this assignor has. If you select more than one, you will see all the mandates of all selected assignors.
2. Select one or more mandates from the list for invalidation.
3. Invalidate the mandates you have selected.

You will see the invalidated mandates in the company’s or organisation’s expired mandates. The assignee will not automatically be informed that the mandate has been invalidated.