Our services for foreign
companies 

Foreign companies working in Finland are required to adhere to Finnish legislative requirements. We make it easy to take care of your obligations before posting workers.

 

Content
VastuuGroup_JAETTUDATA_transparent_Small

The Reliable Partner service (subject to an annual charge) provides the data of your company required by the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability Act in an electronic format, compiles a Reliable Partner report of the data and keeps the report up to date. You can access your Reliable Partner reports via the Company search (Report) free of charge after registering your Company Account.

Employee Management is a service for adding and managing your company’s employee data. You need employee data to order Valtti Cards, for instance. Register to a worksite is a service for registering your company to a worksite by using the Site Key provided by your client. Valtti Cards for your employees can be ordered via the Card Service. The Valtti Card is used for access control at the worksite and for identification of the employees working on the site. The Valtti Card enables electronic reading of an employee’s data, so that the data can also be used in other systems at the worksite. 

Our services are based on the Contractor's Liability Act (Laki tilaajan selvitysvelvollisuudesta ja vastuusta ulkopuolista työvoimaa käytettäessä 22.12.2006/1233) and the Tax Procedure Act (Laki verotusmenettelystä 18.12.1995/1558) and the Occupational Safety Act (Työturvallisuuslaki 23.8.2002/738). Here you can read more about the act that our Reliable Partner reporting is based on: Contractor's Liability Act | Vastuu Group 

We are not an authority, but we provide services designed in co-operation with the authorities. Our services are targeted at the construction industry, but the Reliable Partner report is also useful in other industries for checking the information of a company. 

Company account  

By registering a free-of-charge company account for your company, you can start using our services. You can register your company account here.

You use the company account to maintain your company’s contact and invoicing information as well as user information. From the front page of the company account, you can access our other services, such as Employee Management to add employees or the Reliable Partner service to get your company’s report. 

Registering a company account does not mean that your company is included in the Reliable Partner service.  A specific authorisation is always needed for joining the Reliable Partner service. Instructions for filling in the Power of Attorney Agreement can be found on the same page, under Reliable Partner.  

Company search (Report)

You can retrieve Reliable Partner reports free of charge from our Report service once you have registered your Company Account. Company reports can be searched for by using the company name or registration number. However, the registration number is recommended as it serves as the company’s unique identifier. Remember to choose the relevant country in the drop-down menu of the search view to ensure that you can find your report.  

If you are looking for foreign reports through the Finnish search function by using a Finnish business ID, the service will transfer you to open the company’s report from the information of the foreign head company. 

Realiable partner

How to join the service 

You join the service by filling in an Power of Attorney Agreement. Country-specific agreements can be found here: Reliable Partner PoA | Vastuu Group  

For each country, there is a specific  Power of Attorney Agreement to be filled in and signed.  Please note that the agreement templates are country-specific. Make sure that you use the template of the correct country. Currently, the service is available for companies from Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Poland and Estonia. 

If your company also has a Finnish business ID, the law requires the client to also check the information of a foreign entity or branch working in Finland, in addition to the information of the home country. 

 

Email the Power of Attorney Agreement to: customerservice@vastuugroup.fi . (You may also send the agreement by post, but we recommend email for faster processing.) 

VastuuGroup_ALUSTA_transparent_Small-1

Pricing

Please note that if the company has a foreign entity or branch in Finland, the price is the annual price of both the Finnish and foreign Reliable Partner service. The law requires the client to check the information of a foreign entity and branch both in Finland and in the home country, which is why the report is a combination report. The price list of the Reliable Partner service can be found here: Pricelist | Vastuu Group 

VastuuGroup_LUOTTAMUS_transparent_Small-1

Invoicing

We send invoices only by email to our foreign customers. If you would like to change your company’s invoicing email address, please go to your Company Account to make the change. We email invoices from two different addresses. Therefore, your invoice may come from no-reply@procountor.com or lithuania6@leinonen.eu via our subsidiary Scan-Baltic Certified Construction UAB.  

VastuuGroup_VASTUULLISUUS2_transparent_700px

How frequently is the data on the report updated? How old is the data?

Extracts from the trade register are updated on the reports approximately every two months. The statutory information on the report is always less than three months old, as this is required by law. We keep your company information up to date on your behalf and always publish your latest report on our Report service. 

 

How can I update data on reports?

You cannot update data on reports yourself. If your company information changes, please contact our customer service at customerservice@vastuugroup.fi. We cannot automatically obtain the following data: 

  • Liability insurance data. We need an official certificate from your insurance company in Finnish, Swedish or English. We do not accept translations made by translation agencies; to avoid interpreting errors, we need a certificate translated by the insurance company.
    The certificate must include the following information: 
    1. the names of the insurance company and the company insured
    2. the date of issuing the certificate
    3. the insurance policy number
    4. the term of insurance
    5. the activities insured (or, if the activities insured are not specified, ‘Insured activities are not specified in the certificate’)
    6. the geographical area covered by the insurance
    7. the amount insured. Liability insurance information is voluntary on the report 
  • Does the company have posted workers? We must always be notified if the company no longer has posted workers or if the company posts workers from the home country; we will check that the information on the report is correct. We do not handle A1 certificates, so there is no need to send them to us. Remember to give the A1 certificates and any other work permits to your client to be checked and saved as an attachment to the Reliable Partner report.  
  • Collective agreement. Please notify us about any changes in your collective agreement.  
  • A confirmation link for occupational health care data is emailed to customers about every two months, if we do not automatically receive the data from your service provider. The link is sent to those customers who have hired workers in Finland or workers posted from abroad. 
  •  If your company’s accident or employee pension insurance company changes, please send us a certificate of this. The certificate must be less than 10 days old. Your insurance company issues the certificate to you. Insurance companies must be Finnish; that is, for instance, the information of a foreign accident insurance policy is not included in the Reliable Partner report. 

What information should I report and what does it mean?

  • Collective agreements In Finland, terms of employment are regulated by labour laws. The company’s industry often determines the generally binding collective agreement to be applied to workers. In Finland, it is not obligatory for workers to belong to a trade union. However, the Finnish collective agreement and its content must be applied to all workers working in Finland. You may ask the occupational safety and health authority or the labour market organisations for assistance in determining the correct collective agreement. More information about collective agreements can also be found on the website maintained by the Finnish Digital Agency: Collective agreements - Suomi.fi 
  • Employment pension insurance in Finland (TyEL). Employment pension insurance is required when a Finnish branch hires workers and is the party that pays them. Please contact a Finnish pension insurance company to take out a pension insurance policy.
    PLEASE NOTE! It is of no use keeping the insurance in effect, if your company does not have hired workers. 

    Please note that if a posted worker does not have the A1 certificate, employment pension insurance (TyEL) and statutory accident insurance are mandatory in Finland.  
  • Statutory accident insurance In Finland, occupational accident insurance policies can be issued by those accident insurance companies entitled to issue them under law. Finnish insurance companies issue statutory accident insurance policies pursuant to the Occupational Accidents, Injuries and Diseases Act, provided that the Finnish branch employs hired workers or employs posted workers who do not have the A1 certificate. Please contact an insurance company (and ask for insurance) to obtain accident insurance cover for your workers. Additional information and a list of companies issuing statutory occupational accident insurance policies can be found at Workers’ compensation insurance - Finnish Workers' Compensation Center 
  • Occupational healthcare services from a Finnish service provider. In Finland, the employer must provide its staff with occupational healthcare services if a branch has hired workers, or a foreign company has posted workers in Finland. Here you can find information provided by the authorities on occupational healthcare: Occupational healthcare - Tyosuojelu.fi - Occupational Safety and Health Administration  

How to read the report?

The first page of the report includes the company’s basic information, i.e., the company’s name and company number. In addition, the front page shows the main interpretation symbol concerning the company. The main interpretation, i.e., the symbol used for the interpretation of the report, indicates whether the company has fulfilled the obligations required by law. The main interpretation of the Reliable Partner report depends on the information reported by the company and the information we receive from our different sources. 

PLEASE NOTE! The contractor must check the content of the entire report. Checking just the interpretation symbol on the front page does not count as checking the information required by law. 

 

 

Interpretations of the Reliable Partner report

  • a green square box, i.e., OK. The company has performed its duties in this case and the information is in order. The text reads: ‘Your contractor’s obligations under the Contractor’s Liability Act are met according to our information sources.’ 
  • A blue box with ‘i’ = ‘Attention, no obligation’ (informative). This status means that text indicated with a blue mark informs the reader of matters such that the company is not included in a particular register, or the company has posted workers. The status informs but does not indicate whether the company should be in the register. The Finnish Tax Administration always provides information on whether the company should be included in Finnish registers. The A1 certificates marking reminds the reader to check the work permits and the A1 certificates and indicates that the company has posted workers.  The interpretation does not prevent ordering work. 
  • Yellow and red triangle = Investigate. ‘According to the information sources, the contractor’s liability data needs to be clarified’, and the company should immediately correct this data.   
  • A question mark on a grey background = some of the company’s information is either missing or an information source has not yet submitted the information. The company can correct this by sending us the missing information.  
  • A red STOP mark: According to information sources, the contractor’s liability data of the company are not in order! The STOP symbol on the company’s report indicates that a person specified in the company’s trade register extract has a ban on business operations or, according to the Finnish Business Information System, the company has been liquidated or announced bankrupt or the company is no longer operational.  
  • More information about the interpretations can be found in our Help Center.

Combined reports include both Finnish and foreign company information. Some reports include only the information of the home country if the company does not have a business ID registered in Finland. 

The information of the Finnish company, i.e., the foreign entity or branch, is found at the top of the report. It is followed by the information of the foreign company. When you are reading the report, the flag symbol indicates the country that the information on the page concerns. The foreign company’s trade register extract is on the last page.  

check-icon-green

Points to note when reading the report:

The Finnish Tax Administration and foreign entities and branches together go through the criteria to determine whether the company has to register in the trade register or other registers in Finland. If the company is not registered in the trade register, remember to check the company’s corresponding information.  

A company must register in the employer register in Finland, if the company has more than one permanent employee or more than five temporary employees. 

Posted workers are always indicated with the ‘attention’ mark on the report to ensure that the contractor remembers to check the A1 certificates.  

Pursuant to the Contractor’s Liability Act, liability insurance information is not mandatory. 

idea-icon-green

What is the use of being a Reliable Partner?

The Reliable Partner report is a detailed company profile for companies, and you can use it for purposes such as tendering processes. All the data have been checked and they are up to date, and the reports of foreign companies are fully comparable with other Reliable Partner reports. 

 The report increases the transparency of companies’ activities and saves trouble, as the report covers the information required by the Contractor’s Liability Act. In addition, you can add voluntary additional information to the report, such as liability insurance information. 

start-icon-green

Adding the Reliable Partner logo:

You can show your partners that your company is a Reliable Partner. Here are instructions for downloading the logo: The Reliable Partner logo – Help Center Vastuu Group 

Coming to work in Finland?

Contact information of the authorities:

The Finnish Tax Administration

  • Registration of companies in Finland; finding out whether your company need a business ID.
  • Taxation-related additional information.
  • More information and instructions about registers: Foreign business in Finland - vero.fi 

Regional State Administrative Agency

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Other points to remember:

A1 certificates. We do not check A1 certificates. The client is always responsible for checking them. You can order A1 certificates for your employees from the authorities in your home country. Information concerning A1 certificates: What is an A1 Certificate - Finnish Centre for Pensions (etk.fi) 

Various cards and qualifications are applied for via different authorities and course providers. You can ask the contractor to provide additional information before coming to Finland, such as what cards or training courses are required at the site.

Examples of cards and training courses that may be requested: 

  • Occupational Safety Card
  • Hot work permit
  • First aid 1 and 2 courses
  • ePerehdytys
  • Valtti card

Did you find all the information you need? If not, please send us a request to contact you.

What is Vastuu Group?

We promote the digitalisation of the built-up environment and help sector companies comply coming to work in Finland with their legal obligations. Our services make the daily operations of companies easier. We create a better and more sustainable life for people and the environment through reliable data. 

Read more about us here.