Introduction to sales

Last updated: 2022-10-18

All sales that you have in your company must be handled correctly, from issuing invoices, receipts and payments to bookkeeping and reporting to the Tax Agency.

There are many different factors that affect your sales, such as:

Which country is your customer from (Sweden, within the EU or outside the EU)
If you sell goods or services
If the customers are private individuals or companies
Which VAT is to be applied
How payment is made
How sales take place (distance sales, store/cash register system, etc.)

Your responsibility

Since you as a business owner are responsible for your bookkeeping and everything that is reported to the Tax Agency, it is important that you examine and understand how each part works and what is important based on your company’s conditions.

Basis

Every time you sell something to a customer, there must be a basis (document) that proves the sale. The document must contain all the important information required. This is, for example, information about the buyer and the seller, what was sold, amount and VAT. The most common is that this document is an invoice or a receipt.

Your records are what will form the basis of your accounting, and the Swedish Tax Agency can request these records if they decide to audit your company.

If you are unsure, you should read up on what applies to you. The Swedish Tax Agency has a lot of information and can also answer questions. Read more about invoicing obligations at the Swedish Tax Agency.

Summary

The most important thing to understand is that you as an entrepreneur are obliged to document and substantiate all business events. There must be a document that documents the sale and there are requirements for what this document must contain.

VAT

Most of what you sell will have some form of VAT, where in Sweden we have a number of different VAT rates that are used for different types of goods and services. There are also other factors that affect how the basis for taxation is determined, i.e. VAT.

Research what applies to the goods or services that you are selling. If you also sell to private individuals or companies abroad, you must investigate what applies to them.

Under the Swedish Tax Agency’s department for Selling goods and services, you can read more about different VAT rates, what applies if you sell to private individuals or companies and what applies if you sell abroad.

Payment

In order for us to manage your accounting, we must have visibility into all payments that come from your customers. In some cases, this means we need to receive reports showing all payments.

To bank accounts - If payment is made directly to your bank accounts, Voitto will have full insight into this, provided that the accounts are set up correctly. Examples of payment methods are transfers between accounts, bank/plusgiro and Swish.
Cash - Payment via cash can only be handled if you have a certified cash register system that handles this.
Paypal - Managed like a bank account, however Voitto will need a report each month showing the fees Paypal charges.
Gift cards - Voitto must receive information about you using this and how you use them. You must keep a record of all gift cards issued and when they are used or expire.
Other payment methods - For payment solutions for cards, Klarna and the like, we must receive reports on payments made from customers and payments made to your bank account.

Refunds

It is also important to consider how refunds to customers are made so that Voitto can book them correctly. If an invoice has been issued, it must be credited.

Voitto does not always have to receive all of your documents that you create, in some cases it is enough for us to receive reports summarizing your sales for a certain period. By sale is meant all the information required to book that something has been sold, which for example includes VAT, whether it is a product or a service and the country of sale, but it can also be additional information that is necessary depending on the type of sale.

Possible ways to send sales to Voitto

There are a number of different ways Voitto can take part in your company’s sales. You can submit your sales to Voitto in the ways listed below. We go through how and what is required when we set up your company.

Sometimes it can be the case that you have to use combinations of these ways because all the information required for the bookkeeping cannot otherwise be obtained.

Dooer invoicing

If you use Dooer invoicing to invoice your customers, we immediately receive all the material needed for the accounting without you having to do anything.

Uploading individual invoices

If you use an external system to create invoices or if you receive self-invoices, you can upload each invoice separately for accounting. This is convenient as long as you do not have excessively large volumes of invoices.

Integrations

If you use a system with which we have an integration, you can easily connect the system to us and in this way the data is automatically downloaded for accounting purposes. However, different integrations work in different ways and the information we can get is different depending on what kind of system it is and how it is used.

Here one must distinguish whether the system handles sales, payments or both.

Sales — Means that the system creates a basis for each business event where all parts are shown to be able to determine how it should be booked, such as buyer’s country, VAT, whether it is a good or service and whether it is a company or private person.
Payment — Means that the system handles payments. Often this is done by the system handling your customers’ payments which are then paid out to you as a payout for a certain period.

Reports

For example, if you have a checkout system, e-commerce or payment system with payouts, you must upload reports for these, normally per month.

As with integrations, you must distinguish whether the reports concern sales, payments or both.

Sales — Means that a report is created that summarizes all the sales documents available. It must state everything that is important to be able to determine how it should be recorded, such as the buyer’s country, VAT, whether it is a good or service and whether it is a company or a private person.
Payment — Means that the system handles payments. Often this is done by the system handling your customers’ payments which are then paid out to you as a payment for a certain period.

In addition to reports on sales and payments, it may also be relevant to report on fees and accounts receivable (which invoices are unpaid).

Reporting of sales

Reporting of sales means that sales must also be reported periodically to the Swedish Tax Agency or another authority. The most common types of reporting are:

VAT declaration — To be periodically sent to the Swedish Tax Agency, where part applies to what you have sold.
Periodic compilation — Applies only if you have sold goods or services to companies within the EU.
Union Order (OSS) — Applies only if you have sold goods or services to private individuals within the EU for more than $10,000/year.