29.9.2022 valid documentation

Basic data of the statistics

Data description

The structural business and financial statement statistics describe enterprises operating in Finland. The statistics comprise industry-specific data on the number of enterprises, personnel and financial statements. The data are published in accordance with sectoral classification, legal form, type of ownership and size category. The data on enterprises' financial statements describe the formation of profit, profitability and balance sheet structure in different industries. The examined variables are profit and loss account and balance sheet data, and parameters calculated from them. Financial statement statistics for credit institutions, investment service companies, life insurance and non-life insurance companies can be found from separate database tables. Separate tables on non-profit institutions can be found in connection with the statistics.
 

Statistical population

Enterprises engaged in business activities in Finland constitute the population of the  structural business and financial statement statistics. The key classification variables of the statistics, such as industry, sector, legal form, type of ownership, and the size category of wage and salary earners, are obtained from the Register of Enterprises and Establishments of Statistics Finland. Enterprises are selected for the statistics on the basis of criteria for the operating period, personnel, turnover and balance sheet. Persons carrying on a business using single-entry bookkeeping are also included in the statistics. Market-based enterprises and foreign branches are also included. The  structural business and financial statement statistics are based on the business tax data of the Finnish Tax Administration and the inquiries carried out among enterprises by Statistics Finland. The business tax data contain financial statements data on all enterprises and persons carrying on a business under the Business Tax Act. The structural inquiries among enterprises produce information on the number of wage and salary earners and industries. The financial statements inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland produce detailed information on enterprises’ turnover, expenditure and investments.
 

Statistical unit

The structural business and financial statement statistics are published for enterprises and legal units. According to Statistics Finland’s definition, an enterprise is a unit with decision-making autonomy, which produces goods and/or services for sale in the market. An enterprise may comprise one or more legal units. If an enterprise comprises more than one legal unit, transactions between the units have been eliminated.
Legal units include:
  • persons carrying on a business, trade or profession in their own name, or in the name of a registered firm
  • legal persons (such as limited liability company, limited partnership, general partnership, cooperative, savings bank and economic association) 
  • market-based enterprises.
A legal unit is an administrative reporting unit and a reporting unit for its own data collection.

Unit of measure

EUR 1,000, per cent and the number of personnel are used as the units of measure in the statistics’ database tables.

 

Base period

The  structural business and financial statement statistics are not index-based. The data are specific for each year.
 

Reference period

A calendar year is used as the reference period for the  structural business and financial statement statistics. As the data relate to the accounting period that ended in the statistical year, the accounting period does not always follow the calendar year. Extended and shortened accounting periods are converted to correspond to 12 months.

Reference area

The  structural business and financial statement statistics are published on the level of the entire country. The financial statements data also cover activities outside Finland that are included in the enterprise’s financial statements produced in Finland. Thus, the turnover described in the statistics may also include goods sent abroad for processing and sales of goods and services from abroad to abroad.
 

Sector coverage

The structural business and financial statement statistics cover all industries, legal forms, types of ownership and business sector categories. Enterprises that have operated for more than six months in the statistical year and have employed more than 0.5 persons, or have a balance sheet total of more than EUR 170,000 or have more than EUR 50 000 of net investments or a turnover exceeding an annually determined statistical limit (EUR 12,273 in 2021) are included in the statistics. The data contained in the basic table of the statistics are published by main industry and for all sub-industries. Data at different classification levels are published at main industry and 2-digit levels. Enterprises engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishery (industry A) in which income from agriculture has exceeded the statistical turnover limit in the statistical year are included in the statistics. Only personal data on agriculture are comprehensively included in the statistics. For industry 02, only the units in which income from forestry has exceeded the statistical limit are included in the statistics. Only the number of enterprises and personnel data are published for financial and insurance activities (TOL K). There are two small enterprises engaged in the manufacture of tobacco products (TOL 12000), and the turnover of both enterprises exceeds the statistical limit. The data on these enterprises are not published for the industry they represent, and neither enterprise is included in the combined figures for all industries. Publishing these data would lead to the protection of data on industries that are significantly more important. Financial statements of enterprises are published for industries B to S Financial statement statistics for credit institutions, investment service companies, life insurance and non-life insurance companies can be found from separate database tables. These tables include only companies that are supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority. Thus the tables do not cover for example foreign filiates operating in Finland. With a few exceptions, the financial statement data for industries B to S excl. K are published by main category and at the 2-digit level of the Standard Industrial Classification.
 

Time coverage

The annual data contained in the Business Register and the financial statements data of the structural business statistics were combined into the  structural business and financial statement statistics in 2013. Annual data contained in the statistics can be found on the website of the statistics and in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database for the period from 2013 to 2018. The data are not revised. Financial statements data can be found in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database for the period from 1999 to 2012. Data for years prior to 1998 are available in paper publications for the period from 1974 to 1998. Annual data entered in the Business Register are contained in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database for the period from 1993 to 2012. Data for the years before 1993 are available as paper publications.
 

Frequency of dissemination

The structural business and financial statement statistics are published twice a year on the website of Statistics Finland. The preliminary data are published in September of the year following the statistical year, and the final data in December.
 

Concepts

Accumulation of appropriations total

Accumulation of appropriations is the sum of the depreciation difference and voluntary provisions. Depreciation difference is the cumulative difference between total depreciations in bookkeeping and depreciations according to the plan. There cannot be a negative depreciation difference in the balance sheet. Voluntary provisions are replacement provisions, operating provisions, price reduction provisions, residential building provisions and other such provisions made by the party obliged to keep books.

Appropriations total

The item appropriations total shows changes in depreciation difference and changes in voluntary provisions. Depreciation differences mainly arise when the depreciation amounts deducted in bookkeeping and taxation are of different size. Voluntary provisions are replacement provisions, operating provisions, price reduction provisions, residential building provisions and other such provisions made by the party obliged to keep books. Group contributions are in a separate section before the total result in the statistics.

Assets covering technical provision

Assets covering technical provision is the result for the financial period in the insurance technical calculation of the insurance company. The main items in the calculation of assets covering technical provision are earned premium, claims incurred and operating expenses. In Finland, the income and expenses of investment activities for life insurance and pension insurance companies are included in the insurance technical calculation, not for non-life insurance companies.

Assets total

Assets total in the balance sheet is the total sum of fixed and current assets.

Business ID (Identity code)

Business ID, or business and organisation code, is an identifying code given by authorities to all legal units.

The Business ID consists of seven numbers, a hyphen and a control number.

Change in the provision for outstanding claims

The change in the provision for outstanding claims is the difference of the provision for outstanding claims at the beginning and end of the financial period. The change in the provision for outstanding claims is visible in the profit and loss account and claims incurred directed to the financial period can be determined as the sum of it and claims paid.

Change in the provision for unearned premiums

Calculated as the difference of the provision for unearned premiums at the beginning and end of the financial period. The change in the provision for unearned premiums is visible in the profit and loss account and earned premium directed to the financial period can be determined as the sum of premium income and provision for unearned premiums.

Claims incurred

Claims incurred consist of claims paid and changes in the provision for outstanding claims, from which reinsurers' shares are deducted. The part of claims to be paid is allocated to claims incurred that are directed to the financial period. Claims incurred are thus recorded on accrual basis.

Claims paid

Claims paid are recorded as expenses for the period when the benefits are paid before the reinsurers' share. The recording of claims paid is thus made on accrual basis. In addition to benefits, claims paid also include claims handling expenses.

Co-operative society

A community engaged in economic activity to benefit its members, whose number of members and capital are varying. The members participate in the activity by exploiting the services of the community. The founders of a co-operative society must number at least one. A co-operative society is entered into the Trade Register. A co-operative bank is a co-operative society engaged in banking activity.

Corporation subject to taxation

Corporations subject to taxation include: 1) corporations subject to taxation, 2) bodies jointly and severally liable for tax withholding, such as unregistered companies, foundations or association, 3) jointly owned forests, 4) farms, 5) trade associations and 6) other units subject to taxation.

Current assets total

Current assets total comprises the four main categories of the balance sheet: current assets, receivables, current asset securities and cash and bank balance. The useful life of current assets is short. They are not intended to generate income over several financial periods.

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses total

Depreciations for the financial year in accordance with the depreciation plan are presented in the profit and loss account. Depreciations according to plan are based on the acquisition cost of fixed assets and their economic life. Impairment losses are based on the probable permanent reduction in the transfer price.

Derivative instruments

Premiums paid for derivative instruments, including positive fair values of derivative instruments included among assets.

Direct insurance

Insurance business received by the insurance company directly from the policy holder. In direct insurance the policy holder is a customer that is not another insurance company

Earned premium

Earned premium consists of the sum of premium income and change in premium income, from which the reinsurers’ shares are deducted. Earned premium is income allocated from premium income directed to the financial period. Earned premium is thus recorded on accrual basis.

Ebit

EBIT (= earnings before interest and taxes), or operating profit/loss describes how much of the income from operations proper remains before financial items and taxes.

Financial income: Financial income comprises income from shares and participations and other investments in fixed assets, as well as other interest and financial income.

Ebitda

EBITDA (= Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) describes the enterprise's operating result before depreciation and financial items. EBITDA is not presented as an intermediate result of the official profit and loss account.

Enterprise

An enterprise is a unit with decision-making autonomy, which produces goods and/or services to be sold on the market.

Enterprise corresponds to legal unit, if the legal unit is not part of an enterprise group. Otherwise, the enterprise is an enterprise group or part of one.

The definition of enterprise is based on the EU regulation concerning statistical units (EEC) 696/93.

Enterprise

An enterprise is a unit with decision-making autonomy, which produces goods and/or services to be sold on the market.

An enterprise may comprise one or more legal units (Business ID). If an enterprise comprises more than one legal unit, transactions between the units have been eliminated.

The definition of enterprise is based on the EU regulation concerning statistical units (EEC) 696/93.

Enterprise Group Register

The largest enterprise groups operating in Finland are entered into the Enterprise Group Register. Data on an enterprise groups' turnover, balance sheet total and number of employees are entered annually into the Enterprise Group Register. In addition, information is recorded about the structure of the enterprise group: its group head, subsidiary companies, joint venture companies, associate companies and their Business IDs, group head's shares of ownership and votes in group companies, start and finish dates of group relationships and type of group membership. Municipal enterprise groups are also entered into the Register. Since 2003, the Enterprise Group Register has also contained sub-groups.

Enterprise group

An enterprise group is an economic entity formed by two or more enterprises, in which the group head has either alone or together with other enterprises belonging to the same group the right of control in one or several other enterprises (subsidiary companies).

Cf. group of enterprises.

Equalisation provision

Nowadays only concerns non-life insurance companies. The equalisation provisions equalises the effect of random variations of claims paid on assets covering technical provision. The average of a longer term claims ratio is used in calculating the equalisation provision.

Equity total

The item contains all equity items total. For communities, equity comprises share, co-operative and other similar capital, funds, retained earnings and accumulated losses as well as profit and loss for the financial period. Other company forms and funds present their equity items as applicable, taking into account the equity forms prescribed by their respective special legislation.

External services

External services comprise compensation paid on work performances directly linked to production or sales. External services can be, for example, services performed by subcontractors, planning and consultation offices or maintenance firms, and costs for renting of labour that are directly linked with production.

Extraordinary expenses

Extraordinary expenses are generated outside the enterprise's operations proper and one-off in nature and substantial in terms of size. Sales gains and losses from fixed assets are normally included in other operating income and expenses. However, the sales gain or loss generated in connection with the total exit from an industry was seen as an extraordinary item before 2016. Group contributions according to the Act on Group Contributions were also presented in extraordinary items before 2016. After this, group contributions are in a separate section before the total result in the statistics.

The items of extraordinary income and expenses were discontinued in the amendment of the Accounting Act in 2016, but part of enterprises still report some figures in these items. For this reason, the items have not been removed from the statistics.

Extraordinary income

Extraordinary income is generated outside the enterprise's operations proper and is one-off in nature and substantial in terms of size. Sales gains and losses from fixed assets are normally included in other operating income and expenses. However, the sales gain or loss generated in connection with the total exit from an industry was seen as an extraordinary item before 2016. Group contributions according to the Act on Group Contributions were also presented in extraordinary items before 2016. After this, group contributions have been presented in the statistics separately before the total result.

The items of extraordinary income and expenses were discontinued in the amendment of the Accounting Act in 2016, but part of enterprises still report some figures in these items. For this reason, the items have not been removed from the statistics.

Financial assets total

Financial assets total is the sum of short-term and long-term receivables from items recorded as current assets in the balance sheet, current asset securities and cash and bank balance. Financial assets are defined in the Accounting Act, but they do not form an item in the balance sheet format.

Financial expenses

Financial expenses comprise impairment losses for investments in fixed assets and current asset securities, as well as other interest and financial expenses.

Fixed assets total

Fixed assets total in the balance sheet comprises three main groups: intangible assets, tangible assets and investments. Fixed assets refer to items that are intended to generate income continuously over several financial periods.

Foundation

A foundation refers to assets set aside for a certain purpose and administered by the board of the foundation. A foundation can be established with a charter of foundation, last will and testament or a deed of donation. A licence to establish a foundation must be applied for from the Board of Patents and Registration, which also ratifies the rules of the foundation. A foundation is entered into the register of foundations maintained by the Board of Patents and Registration.

Funds also belong to this category of legal form.

Gains from sales of fixed assets and mergers

In financial statement statistics, losses from sales of fixed assets and gains from mergers included in other operating income are presented as a separate item in the group extraordinary items after net result.

General partnership

A general partnership must have at least two founders who may be either natural or legal persons. Each partner in a general partnership is responsible for the partnership's liabilities to their full extent as if they were their own debt. A general partnership is entered into the Trade Register.

Group contributions paid

This item includes group contributions paid according to the Act on Group Contributions. Group contributions are included in extraordinary items before 2016 and in appropriations after this.

Group contributions received

This item includes group contributions received according to the Act on Group Contributions. Group contributions are included in extraordinary items before 2016 and in appropriations after this.

Imputed salary adjustment

Salary adjustment is an imputed item that does not affect the enterprise's solvency or cash flow, the item is returned before the result for the financial period. Depending on the company form, the owner's salary is handled differently in taxation. The salary of a private practitioner of trade is never included in the profit and loss account and in partnerships, the owner's salary can only in exceptional cases be treated as expenses. This non-uniform practice makes it difficult to compare small enterprises in particular with one another. The salary adjustment is made for micro enterprises, i.e. enterprises employing fewer than 10 persons. The basic data used is the enterprise's entrepreneur work input and enterprise-specific average pay of the hired employees. The entrepreneur work input is defined by the Register of Enterprises and Establishments based on payments made under the Self-employed Persons' Pensions Act, i.e. imputed salary adjustment = entrepreneur work input * average pay.

Income before extraordinary items

Income before extraordinary items is derived by adding depreciations, amortisations and impairment losses according to the plan deducted before EBIT to the net result. Income before extraordinary items should be sufficient for amortisation for loans, self-financing shares of investments, increases in working capital and profit distribution.

Income tax

Taxes arising from the profit/loss of the financial year.

Increase/decrease in inventory of finished products

Change in inventory of finished products and work in progress (increase +,decrease -). Change in inventories of finished goods and work in progress comprises the common change in inventories of work in progress and finished products or goods in current assets. Change in advance payments included in current assets is not included in the change in inventory of the profit and loss account. The item also includes production for own use.

Interest expenses

Credit institutions and investment service companies:

The interest expenses item includes, e.g. interests, penalty interests, and loan arrangement and other commissions that are determined based on the passing of time and the amount of capital; the share of issue losses from issued loans belonging to the financial year and the share of commissions paid on received loans belonging to the financial year excluding any compensation on direct administrative costs related to the granting of the loan.

Other enterprises:

Interest payable refers to items determined by the loan amount, interest rate and loan period arising from the use of debt capital.

Interest income

Credit institutions and investment service companies:

The interest income items includes, for example,
- Interests and interest subsidies, penalty interests, and loan arrangement and other commissions that are determined based on the passing of time and the amount of capital
-The proportion of the difference between the nominal value and acquisition price of receivables acquired below or under the nominal value belonging to the financial year
- Difference between the repurchase price and purchase price of securities and other commodities bought with repurchase agreements during the validity of the agreement.
- Interest-like income related to derivative contracts.

Fees comparable to interest, such as the marginal interest rate, are allocated as interest income during the term of the loan.

Other enterprises:
Interest income consists of interest receivable on deposits and loans receivable and other receivables. Interest income includes the interest separately charged to the buyer in hire-purchase, but the hire-purchase surcharge is included in turnover.

Inventories

Current assets refer to commodities intended for assignment or consumption as such or after further processing. Current assets are divided into materials and supplies, work in progress, finished goods, other current assets and advance payments.

Materials and supplies refer to the commodities which have been acquired for the purpose of manufacturing current assets by a party obliged to keep books and engaged in manufacturing or service provision. These commodities include the raw materials and materials and auxiliary substances used in the production of goods or services.

Work in progress refers to commodities intended for sale or for use in service production, whose manufacturing process is not finished at the time of the closing of the accounts (semi-finished goods).

Finished goods refer to self manufactured commodities that can be assigned, sold or used in service production. Goods refer to commodities from external suppliers that are intended for sale or for use in service production as they are.

Other current assets refer to commodities bought or manufactured for the purpose of selling them as such or after further processing which are not included in the above mentioned current assets items. Other current assets may include, among others, lots or other property intended for sale which have been transferred from fixed assets to current assets.

Advance payments refer to purchase prices or parts thereof paid to the supplier of current assets commodities before receiving the commodities.

Legal form

Legal form identifies the legal status of a legal person. The classification of legal forms is based on the company forms of the Trade Register and on the requirements of taxation legislation. The legal forms of enterprises and corporations are recorded in the Business Information System.

Statistics Finland's classification of legal forms is based on this system and on the Tax Administration's coding of legal forms. Some of the Tax Administration's categories have been combined in Statistics Finland's classification.

Legal unit

A legal unit is a corporation, or an organisation registered for conducting business. A legal unit is identified with a Business ID.

Legal units are, for example, limited companies, private practitioners of trade, co-operative societies, state-owned companies and foundations.

Liabilities

Liabilities is capital that external parties invest in the enterprise. A liability always involves a repayment obligation. The repayment period for current liabilities is at most one year and that of non-current liabilities is over one year. The main source of liabilities for an enterprise is banks. Different forms of lending include short and long-term credits, overdrafts on current accounts, and intermediated credits.

Liabilities total

Liabilities total is the sum of the four main categories of the balance sheet: equity, accumulation of appropriations, statutory reserves and debt capital.

Limited partnership

A limited partnership has both a liable and a silent partner. There may be one or more of each. Silent partners are only responsible for the partnership's liabilities up to the amount of capital they have invested into the partnership. Liable partners are liable for all debts of the partnership with their entire assets. The sizes of the investments of silent partners and the method for calculating their shares of profits must be recorded in the articles of incorporation of the partnership. A limited partnership is entered into the Trade Register. The name of a limited partnership must disclose its form either as an abbreviation or as an unabbreviated word.

Losses from sales of fixed assets and mergers

In financial statement statistics, losses from sales of fixed assets and mergers included in other operating income are presented as a separate item in the group extraordinary items after the net result.

Mutual interest bodies

Mutual interest bodies, such as fishery collectives and road maintenance associations.

Natural person

A natural person engages in entrepreneurial activity under his/her own name or under a registered trading name.
This group includes own-account workers, sole proprietors, most agricultural and forestry entrepreneurs, as well as practitioners of trade.

Net result

Net result is obtained when financial income in the profit and loss account is added to EBIT and financial expenses and taxes are subtracted.

Non-profit institution

In the structural business and financial statement statistics, non-profit institutions refer to the institutions of the category S.15 Non-profit institutions serving households in the Classification

Number of employees

Employees comprise wage and salary earners and self-employed persons. Employees are converted to annual full-time employees so that, for example, an employee working half-time represents one half of a person and two employees working half-time for one year represent one annual full-time employee.

Labour input for self-employed persons is calculated as the input the owner of an enterprise or his/her family member makes into the enterprise without actual remuneration.

For enterprises not included in the surveys of the Register of Enterprises and Establishments numbers of employees are estimated from data on wages and salaries.

Operating income total

= Turnover + other operating income (excl. gains from sales and mergers of fixed assets)

Other assets

Receivables from payment transactions, receivables on various settlement accounts, margin receivables related to derivative instruments and other receivables not reported under any other item in the balance sheet.

Other operating expenses (excl. sales losses from fixed assets and merger losses)

Other operating expenses are all the items belonging to the enterprise's operations proper that are not separately listed in the profit and loss account, e.g. rents, lease payments, marketing and advertising expenses, administrative service expenses, telecommunication and banking service charges and losses from sales of fixed assets. Paid sales commissions, copyright fees, freight charges and incurred credit losses are also reported under this item. Losses from sales of fixed assets and mergers are not included in other operating expenses in the statistics but are presented under extraordinary items.

Other operating income (excl. gains from sales of fixed assets and mergers)

Other operating income comprises income from the enterprise's operations proper that is close to turnover in nature. Such income includes rental income, received provisions, administrative, data processing and other compensation collected from other enterprises if the enterprise's actual industry is not rental operations or production of other above-mentioned services. Grants and subsidies received for the enterprise's operations proper are also recorded as other operating income. Gains from sales of fixed assets and mergers are not included in other operating income in the statistics but are presented under extraordinary items.

Personnel expenses

Wages, salaries and rewards, pension expenses and other employer contributions = Personnel expenses

Personnel expenses comprise wages and salaries subject to withholding of tax and comparable expenses, as well as expenses determined direct based on wage or salary, such as social security contributions, statutory and voluntary personal insurance contributions and pension expenses.

Other voluntary personnel expenses come under other operating expenses.

Premium income

Premium income is recorded for the financial period when the insurance period started. It is reported before the reinsurers' share. Premium income is received from started insurance policies and assets at the end of the financial period. Credit losses of assets, insurance premium taxes, reductions and other public payments are deducted from premium income.

Profit and loss account

In the structural business and financial statement statistics, the profit and loss account is presented for industries B to S excl. K so that it shows the key items to profit and loss formation: EBITDA, operating profit, net result and total result. Gains and losses from the sales and mergers of fixed assets are presented as extraordinary items. Group contributions are also presented before the total result. Imputed salary adjustment presented before EBITDA is corrected before the result for the financial period, which is in accordance with the profit and loss account.

The profit and loss account and balance sheet of investment firms and credit institutions are presented in accordance with financial statements for financial activities.

The profit and loss account and balance sheet of non-life and life insurance companies are presented in accordance with the financial statements of insurance companies.

Provision for outstanding claims

Includes all provisions paid after the financial period which are formed from the insured events occurred in the financial period or before it.

Provision for unearned premiums

The provision for unearned premiums describes the part of the premium income in the financial period or earlier financial periods whose risk is directed to future financial periods.

Reinsurance

Reinsurance is an agreement between the direct insurance company and the insurance company acting as a reinsurer, by which the direct-writing company can transfer part of its insurance liability to be borne by another insurance company.

Assumed reinsurance refers to insurance business received by an insurance company from another insurance company. Ceded reinsurance, which is visible in the profit and loss account as reinsurers’ shares, refers to the share of insurance business transferred to another insurance company.

Result for the financial period

The result for the financial period takes into consideration all the enterprise's income and expenses for the financial period, as well as future expenses and losses recorded in advance as obligatory reserves.

Statutory reserves total

Statutory reserves total is the total sum of the items pension reserves, tax reserves and other statutory reserves. Statutory reserves are expenses that the enterprise is committed to pay and that are likely future losses.

Subordinated loan

A subordinated loan is presented according to its nature either in the category of long-term and/or short-term debt capital.

Technical provisions

Formed as the sum of the provision for unearned premiums and the provision for outstanding claims. In insurance companies’ profit and loss account, technical provisions describe the transfer items of claims paid and earned premium to be transferred to the balance sheet, which are the insurance company’s debt to policy holders. Technical provisions are thus comparable to accrued liabilities in the financial statement of other fields

Total result

The total result is derived when extraordinary income as well as gains from sales and mergers are added to the net result and extraordinary expenses and losses from sales and mergers are subtracted from it.

Turnover

Turnover is in accordance with enterprises’ official financial statements. If an enterprise’s financial period deviates from 12 months but its operations have continued for the whole year, turnover and other financial statements data are changed to correspond to 12 months.

Turnover includes income from the sale of products and services, less granted discounts, VAT and other taxes based directly on sales volume. (Accounting Act 4:1)

The turnover of enterprises engaged in financial and insurance activities (TOL K) was calculated depending on the industry with the following formulas, in case it was not directly available from the enterprise's financial statements:

The turnover of industry 6411 Central banking was calculated as the sum of operating expenses and net expenses from fees and payments.

The turnover of industries 6419 Other monetary intermediation and 649 Other financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding was calculated with the formula Interest receivable and similar income - Interest payable and similar charges + Commissions receivable + Income from shares and other variable-yield securities + Net profit or net loss on financial operations.

The turnover of industry 651 Insurance is defined as gross premiums earned.

The turnover of industry 653 Pension funding is defined as total pension contributions.

The turnover of industry 66 Activities auxiliary to financial services and insurance activities was calculated with the formula Interest receivable and similar income - Interest payable and similar charges + Commissions receivable + Income from shares and other variable-yield securities + Net profit or net loss on financial operations.

Type of ownership

The enterprises and corporations included in the Register of Enterprises and Establishments are divided into the following categories by type of ownership:

Private domestic
State
Municipality
Region of Åland
Foreign-owned
Other type of ownership.

Unit-linked insurances

In unit-linked insurances the insurance premiums of the policy holder are directed to one or several investment targets. The value of the insurance develops according to the value changes of the investment targets chosen by the policy holder.

Value added

Value added is the combined value added generated by different production factors in the actual production activities of the enterprise or establishment. Value added is the difference between income from production activities and the costs arising from the activities. According to the definition, costs arising from the personnel of the enterprise/establishment are not included in the costs.

Formula to calculate value added:
Turnover
+ change in inventory of finished products
+ production for own use
+ other operating income
- purchases of materials and supplies
+ change in merchandise inventories
- external services
- other operating expenses
= VALUE ADDED

In addition, deliveries for use in the enterprise's other establishments and purchases from the enterprise's other establishments are added to the value added of establishments.

The value added of enterprises engaged in financial and insurance activities (TOL K) was calculated depending on the industry with the following formulas, in case the enterprise used the financial statement formulas of financial and insurance activities:

The value added of industry 6411 Central banking is calculated as the sum of operating expenses and net expenses from fees and payments from which administrative costs and banknote acquisition costs have been subtracted.

The turnover of industries 6419 Other monetary intermediation and 649 Other financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding was calculated with the formula Interest receivable and similar income - Interest payable and similar charges + Commissions receivable + Income from shares and other variable-yield securities + Net profit or net loss on financial operations - Other administrative costs - Commissions payable - Other operating expenses.

The value added of industry 65 Insurance was calculated as the sum of income from insurance activities (incl. change in provision for unearned premiums) and income from investment activities less expenses from investment activities, insurance costs and operating expenses.

The turnover of industry 66 Activities auxiliary to financial services and insurance activities was calculated with the formula Interest receivable and similar income - Interest payable and similar charges + Commissions receivable + Income from shares and other variable-yield securities + Net profit or net loss on financial operations - Other administrative costs - Commissions payable - Other operating expenses.

Voluntary association

A voluntary association is an association founded by at least three private persons intending to join it as members or by an agreement of a corporation or foundation, and entered into the register of associations maintained by the National Board of Patents and Registration, the purpose of which is non-profit making (in other words the purpose may not be acquisition of profit or other financial benefit for the members). A voluntary association may engage in a trade or other gainful activity if an order concerning this is included in the association's by-laws or if such activity relates direct to the realisation of the association's purpose, or if the activity can be regarded as financially insignificant. E.g. sports association, political party, trade union, scout association.

Wages and salaries sum

The wages and salaries sum is calculated for the entire accounting period, and in addition to wages and salaries, it includes fringe benefits as set out in the Prepayment and Withholding Tax Act. Wages and salaries also include the salaries paid by entrepreneurs to themselves. Options are not included in wages and salaries.

Total wages and salaries and indirect employee costs entered in the profit and loss account are presented in the financial statements. More detailed information about personnel expenses in financial statement data can be found here: https://stat.fi/meta/kas/henkkul_en.html.

Accuracy, reliability and timeliness

Overall accuracy

The main source of error is non-response.
 

Timeliness

Data are collected and checked 11 months after the end of the statistical year. Preliminary data on the  structural business and financial statement statistics are published nine months after the end of the statistical year. Final data are published 12 months after the end of the statistical year.
 

Punctuality

There are no delays in releasing the data contained in the  structural business and financial statement statistics. The data are published on the days given in the release calendar.
 

Comparability

Comparability - geographical

The data cover the whole of Finland. The  structural business and financial statement statistics are based on the Finnish Accounting Standards (FAS) and the international industrial classification. The data sent to Eurostat are internationally comparable.
 

Comparability - over time

The  structural business and financial statement statistics were established in 2013 by combining the annual statistics of the Business Register and the financial statements statistics of the structural business statistics. This means that a coherent time series is available from 2013 onwards. Similar data are also available from discontinued statistics. Their temporal comparability is weakened by changes concerning industries, and changes in the Accounting Act and Accounting Decree.
 

Coherence - cross domain

Coherence with other statistics is limited by conceptual and methodological issues. The turnover given in the business indicators has been calculated on the basis of the periodic tax data supplied by the Finnish Tax Administration. The definition of turnover in the periodic tax returns does not fully correspond with the turnover stated in the profit and loss account. The industry-specific added value in the national accounts at basic prices differs from the value added stated in financial statements, because the calculations of the national accounts are prepared separately for each establishment. The calculation of the value added stated in financial statements is based on enterprise-level data. The value added stated in financial statements is also valued at producer prices. The calendar year, six months, quarter or month is used as the measurement period in the monthly indicators of enterprises. The measurement period for structural business and financial statement statistics is the 12-month accounting period. The accounting period is not always the same as the calendar year.
 

Coherence - internal

The data contained in the  structural business and financial statement statistics are internally coherent.
 

Source data and data collections

Source data

The data contained in the  structural business and financial statement statistics are based on the business tax data and registers of the Finnish Tax Administration, and inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland. The source data are based on data on legal units. These source data are described in more detail below. The data are supplemented with inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland.
Finnish Tax Administration registers
Business start and end data, home municipality, preliminary industry of new enterprises, and wages and salaries are obtained from the Finnish Tax Administration registers. The register data are supplied to Statistics Finland once a month.
Business tax data of the Finnish Tax Administration
The business tax data contain profit and loss account and balance sheet data, as well as data on investments in fixed assets. The data are supplied on main tax forms 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 6C and 6U and on appendix forms 7A, 7M and 62. The forms contain data on enterprises that have been liable to pay taxes in the year in question. The business tax data are supplied to Statistics Finland on previously agreed dates. There are approximately ten data deliveries each year.
Statistics Finland’s own data collections
Each year, Statistics Finland carries out structural business inquiries to collect data on multi-establishment enterprises with at least five employees and single-establishment enterprises with at least 20 employees. For enterprises with fewer than 20 employees, inquiries are sent to units whose data have changed on the basis of administrative registers, commercial data or other surveys of Statistics Finland. New enterprises are usually included in the inquiries among new enterprises soon after they have started operations. The number of wage and salary earners, industry and addresses are obtained through separate inquiries. The number of wage and salary earners in enterprises not included in the surveys is estimated.
Each year, Statistics Finland collects data from approximately 5,000 enterprises by means of a financial statements inquiry (TILKES). All enterprises with more than 50 employees or a balance sheet of more than EUR 300 million are included in the financial statements inquiry. Enterprises employing between 10 and 50 persons are selected for the inquiry by means of random sampling. A small number of enterprises with fewer than ten employees and all market-based municipal enterprises are also included in the inquiry. The purpose of the inquiry is to collect data that are more detailed than the figures included in the enterprises’ official financial statements. The inquiry covers specific turnover and cost data, investment data and other additional data on financial statements.
 

Data collection

Data for Statistics Finland’s own data collections are gathered with a web questionnaire. In addition, under an agreement between Statistics Finland and the Finnish Tax Administration, the latter agency delivers the business tax data to Statistics Finland on the agreed dates. The financial statements web questionnaire has been tested in connection with its introduction, and when changes have been made to it. The instructions for the questionnaire have been specified based on customer feedback. The non-response of the inquiry is monitored yearly.
 

Frequency of data collection

The data for the  structural business and financial statement statistics, TILKES, and the Business Register are collected once a year.
 

Methods

Data compilation

Processing of business tax data
The quality of the Finnish Tax Administration data are verified programmatically. The data are revised automatically by means of mass editing and imputing. Values missing from the data are primarily replaced with data for earlier years and secondarily with data on enterprises in the same category in terms of turnover and number of personnel. Errors and outliers are corrected logically by means of editing or by removing outliers. Minor turnover errors (less than five per cent) are scaled. Two different imputation methods are in use. Donor imputation is used when the enterprise is included in the statistical frame but no data are available in the material provided by the Finnish Tax Administration. In such cases, the data are obtained from enterprises of similar size operating in the same industry. The second method is used when no tax data on the enterprise can be obtained for the statistical year in question but the data for the previous year are available. In such cases, the data are imputed by using changes in turnover in the periodic tax data as weighting coefficient.
Own inquiry
Sample responses are processed manually with the business tax data for each enterprise separately, using the image archive of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. Checking of the additional data on financial statements is guided by internal production application rules. Using approved data as a basis, industry-specific coefficients are calculated for turnover specifications and expenditure specifications. The coefficients are used to produce corresponding data for the entire group of enterprises. All enterprises in the random sample that have received only a small number of penalty points are approved en masse. Some of them are returned to manual checking.
 

Data validation

The quality of the Finnish Tax Administration data is verified programmatically. Business tax data are scored separately for each enterprise in accordance with a scoring model. In the model, penalty points are given for logical errors in income, expenditure or balance sheet subtotals, and for differences in balance sheet totals and changes in turnover. Moreover, companies with a large number of employees get more points than small enterprises. Enterprises with a large number of penalty points are corrected manually even if they were not included in the TILKES inquiry. Quality codes are determined for business tax data, and the codes apply to income, expenditure and balance sheets in each individual enterprise.
 

Principles and outlines

Contact organisation

Statistics Finland

Contact organisation unit

Economic Statistics

Legal acts and other agreements

Compilation of the statistics is guided by the Statistics Act (280/2004, as amended 361/2013), the general act of the national statistical service. Only the necessary data that cannot be obtained from administrative data sources are requested from data suppliers. The data are published so that no individual enterprise’s data or development can be deduced from them. The compilation of the statistics is also guided by the following legislation:
  1. Act and Decree (1336/1997) and the Act amending the Accounting Act (1376/2016)
  2. of the European Parliament and of the Council (EC) No 295/2008 concerning structural business statistics, which is the key regulation guiding the compilation of annual business statistics.
  3. Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on statistical units is applied to the statistics on business activities.
  4. on industrial classifications; Standard Industrial Classification 2008 is based on the European Union’s common industrial classification (NACE Rev. 2), which has been supplemented for national needs on the 5-digit level.
  5. on business registers 177/2008.

Confidentiality - policy

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is absolutely guaranteed in accordance with the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (532/1999) and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), as well as the requirements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees only have access to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Wilful breaching of data protection is punishable.

Confidentiality - data treatment

The data contained in the  structural business and financial statement statistics are published at aggregate level. Of the variables used in the statistics, the number of enterprises, number of personnel and the industry are publicly available. Other data are subject to confidentiality provisions. The threshold value rule is used in the statistics to assess the disclosure risk of data for all industries. The protected data are suppressed. In primary suppression, data on an individual industry group are protected by suppression if the group has data on one or two enterprises. In secondary encryption, the data are suppressed so that the primarily protected data cannot be derived. The same encryption rules apply to the information services and stricter encryption can be applied on a case-by-case basis. The data transmitted to Eurostat that are subject to primary and secondary encryption are indicated with codes.
 

Release policy

Statistics Finland’s release calendar lists in advance all the statistical data and publications to be released over the year. Statistical releases can be found under statistics-specific releases. The statistical data are released on the Internet at 8 am unless otherwise indicated. The calendar is updated on weekdays. Statistics Finland’s release calendar for the coming year is published in December each year. The dates of future releases can also be seen on the website of the statistics.

Data sharing

The structural business and financial statements data are published annually on the statistics’ own website and in the StatFin database. The data are also submitted to the national accounts, the information service subject to a charge and the researcher services. Industry-specific data are also transmitted to Eurostat, which publishes the data on its own website. The basic data of the  structural business and financial statement statistics are sent to Statistics and Research Åland each year.
 

Accessibility and clarity

Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published.

In addition to statistical data published in the StatFin database, a release on the key data is usually published in the web service. If the release contains data concerning several reference periods (e.g. monthly and annual data), a review bringing together these data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as mere database releases in the StatFin database. No release or review is published in connection with these database releases.

Releases and database tables are published in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may have more limited content than in Finnish.

Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service.

Data revision - policy

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

Lisäksi suhdannetilastoihin tarvittaessa tämä lisäys:

Seasonally adjusted data in statistics on economic trends become revised because of the calculation method used. Additional information on a new time series observation is exploited in model-based calculation methods and this is reflected as changes in previous releases. Revisions of the latest figures to be seasonally adjusted are elaborated on in the releases and quality reports of statistics.

A summary table of the revisions that have taken place is also published in connection with key statistics on economic trends and some annual statistics. The table shows how the data for the statistical reference periods have changed between the first and the most recent statistical release.

Quality assessment

The quality of the  structural business and financial statement statistics is examined as the data accumulate. At aggregate level, the data are compared with the previous year and the most significant changes are examined. Coherence analyses of statistics on economic cycles are also carried out.
 

Quality assurance

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice. 

User access

The statistics are published for all users of the statistics simultaneously on the statistics’ website at https://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/yrti/tie_en.html
No data are disclosed before the release date. The data are transmitted to Eurostat on agreed dates.
 

Statistical experts

Mira Kuussaari
Senior Statistician
029 551 3538