Visma ePasseli API Integration: Finnish VAT Rates, Finvoice E-Invoicing, Y-tunnus and OAuth Explained
- Dr. Themo Voswinckel ⎪Co-Founder
- Feb 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 25
Visma ePasseli, formerly known as Passeli, is the leading cloud accounting platform for SMEs in Finland. Developed and maintained by Visma, it covers core bookkeeping processes such as invoicing, VAT (ALV) handling, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting, with strong alignment to Finnish accounting standards and local compliance requirements.
Visma ePasseli runs on the same API as Visma eAccounting in Norway and the Netherlands, and Spiris (Bokföring & Fakturering) in Sweden. If you have already read our Visma eAccounting API integration article, the technical foundation applies here too. For the broader naming context across all Visma products, see our naming guide for eAccounting, eEkonomi, Spiris and ePasseli.
What this article focuses on is what is different or specifically relevant when your customers are Finnish companies using ePasseli: Finnish ALV VAT rates and their recent changes, the Finvoice e-invoicing standard, the Y-tunnus as the key Finnish company identifier, and Finnish-specific compliance context that affects how you build your integration. For each topic, we explain how Maesn abstracts the complexity.
Key Takeaways
Visma ePasseli is the Finnish market product
Finnish VAT rates changes regularly. The standard rate increased from 24% to 25.5% in September 2024. Several supplies moved from 10% to 14% in January 2025. A further change to 13.5% is planned for January 2026.
Finvoice is Finland's national e-invoicing standard, widely used for B2B invoice exchange. Companies with annual turnover over €10,000 can legally request Finvoice-format invoices from their suppliers. B2G e-invoicing is mandatory.
The Y-tunnus is Finland's primary company identifier. It is a 8-character business ID required on all invoices and used as the canonical identifier across Finnish tax and business systems.
Account and VatCode mapping is tenant-specific and fiscal-year-scoped — the same as in eAccounting. Finnish tenants configure their own chart of accounts (tilikartta) and VAT codes, which must be resolved per tenant before any write operation.
Maesn handles all of the above. One unified API — Finnish VAT mapping, account configuration, and market-specific compliance context are abstracted so your code stays market-agnostic..
Visma ePasseli Is the Finnish Version of Visma eAccounting and Visma Spiris
ePasseli was originally a standalone Finnish accounting product called Passeli, which Visma acquired and integrated into its cloud accounting portfolio. Today, Visma ePasseli runs on the same underlying API platform as Visma eAccounting in Norway and the Netherlands, and Spiris / Bokföring & Fakturering in Sweden.
For developers, this means: You do not need a separate integration — one integration via Maesn covers all four markets beside all the other systems.
What differs is the Finnish-specific content: VAT rates and ALV codes, the chart of accounts structure, the Finvoice e-invoicing convention, and the Y-tunnus as the primary company identifier. These are the areas this article focuses on.
Maesn supports Visma ePasseli API Integration as part of its unified Visma eAccounting integration
You do not need to detect or handle market-specific differences between Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, or Swedish tenants. Maesn routes correctly and applies the right configuration context per tenant.
Finnish ALV VAT Has Three Active Rates — and Has Changed Significantly Since 2024
Finnish VAT — called ALV (Arvonlisävero) — is an EU-compliant VAT system. Finland's VAT structure has undergone substantial changes since 2024, which directly affects any integration that creates invoices or handles tax data for Finnish customers.
The current rates as of February 2025 are:
Rate | Applies To |
25.5% | Standard rate — most goods and services (increased from 24% on 1 September 2024) |
14% | Food, restaurants, animal feed, books, public transport, accommodation, cultural events (several supplies moved from 10% to 14% on 1 January 2025) |
10% | Newspapers, magazines, medicines |
0% | Exports, intra-EU supplies, certain exempt categories |
Maesn supports changing VAT rates
Via Maesn, you fetch and assign VatCodes directly from your customers' ePasseli account. Through a mapping configured during your customers' integration setup, these VatCodes are then used in all subsequent API operations.
The Finnish Chart of Accounts (Tilikartta) Is Tenant-Configured and Fiscal-Year-Scoped
Finnish companies using ePasseli maintain their own tilikartta — chart of accounts — which defines the account structure used for all bookkeeping entries. Unlike some markets where a mandatory national standard applies, Finnish companies have flexibility in how they configure their chart of accounts, though most SMEs follow common patterns based on standard Finnish accounting practice.
ALV codes in ePasseli are also configured per tenant. Each ALV-koodi defines which VAT rate applies and how the related VAT is posted to the correct accounts in the chart of accounts. The mapping between ALV-koodit and account numbers is configured by the customer in ePasseli.
How Maesn simplifies this: Via Maesn, you fetch and assign accounts directly from your customers' chart of accounts. Through a mapping configured during integration setup, these accounts are then used in all subsequent API operations — no tilikartta knowledge required in your codebase.
Finvoice Is Finland's National E-Invoicing Standard — and Increasingly Expected in B2B
Finvoice is an XML-based e-invoicing standard developed and maintained by Finanssiala (the Finance Finland trade association). It is Finland's dominant e-invoicing format for domestic B2B invoice exchange, transmitted through the Finnish bank network and e-invoicing operators.
For software teams integrating with Finnish SMEs, Finvoice is directly relevant for two reasons:
B2G e-invoicing is mandatory. Since April 2019, all invoices to Finnish central government bodies must be delivered electronically in a format compliant with the European Standard EN 16931 — Finvoice 3.0 and TEAPPSXML 3.0 are the accepted national formats, alongside Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.
B2B e-invoicing is legally requestable. Under Finland's e-Invoicing Act (241/2019), any company with annual turnover exceeding €10,000 has the legal right to request structured e-invoices from their suppliers. This means your Finnish customers' business clients may already be demanding Finvoice-format invoices. If your product creates invoices for Finnish SMEs that sell to other businesses or to the public sector, Finvoice support is not a nice-to-have — it is increasingly a market expectation.
The main formats in use are:
Finvoice 3.0 — XML format developed by Finnish banks, widely used across domestic B2B
TEAPPSXML 3.0 — alternative format common in larger enterprises and public administration
Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 — gaining traction for cross-border transactions via the Peppol network
How Maesn supports this: If your integration use case involves Finvoice or e-invoicing requirements for Finnish customers, reach out to the Maesn team to discuss how this fits into your specific integration design.
The Y-tunnus Is Finland's Primary Company Identifier
Every Finnish legal entity — companies, partnerships, sole traders — has a Y-tunnus (Business ID), a unique 8-character identifier. The format is 1234567-8, where the last digit is a check digit.
In the context of ePasseli integrations, the Y-tunnus is:
Required on all invoices — Finnish VAT legislation mandates the Y-tunnus on invoices for VAT-registered customers
The basis for the Finnish VAT number — Finnish VAT numbers are formatted as FI followed by the Y-tunnus without the hyphen (e.g., Y-tunnus 1234567-8 → VAT number FI12345678)
How Maesn simplifies this: Maesn's common data model includes Business IDs (incl. Y-tunnus for Finland) as a structured field on customer objects for Finnish tenants, enabling reliable matching and deduplication in your integration logic.
Why Teams Use Maesn for Visma ePasseli Integration
Building a direct integration with Visma ePasseli means handling tenant-specific VatCode and chart of accounts configuration, fiscal-year-scoped account lookups, Finvoice e-invoicing context - on top of the standard eAccounting API challenges of OAuth scopes,, token expiry, and pagination.
Maesn abstracts this entire surface into a single unified API. You integrate once to Maesn and your product automatically works with ePasseli and every other accounting system in the Maesn portfolio, without market-specific branches in your code.
Check the Maesn documentation for Visma ePasseli / eAccounting or talk to the Maesn team to get started.
