How to file a sus­tain­abil­ity re­port as part of dig­i­tal fi­nan­cial state­ments with the Finnish Trade Reg­is­ter

​This page is currently being updated due to a change in legislation. ​

These instructions apply to large listed companies and other large undertakings that file a sustainability report as a part of their financial statements. See which companies file a sustainability report and from which date.​

The Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) does not give instructions on the content of the sustainability report, but there are requirements for the format of the sustainability report.

On this page:

Requirements for the sustainability report

The follow requirements apply to all the sustainability reports that are filed with the Finnish Trade Register:

  • The sustainability report must be drafted in either Finnish or Swedish.
  • The sustainability report must be assured: an assurance report for the sustainability report must be attached to the financial statements. An authorised sustainability auditor or sustainability audit firm can assure the sustainability report. 
  • All financial statement documentsmust be filed in a machine-readable web format (XHTML). The PDF file format is not accepted. You can convert Word or PDF files to web format using freeware available online. For example, search for “PDF to XHTML” to find them.
  • Approved financial statements andall the related documents must be filed directly with the Finnish Trade Register. Companies subject to sustainability reporting can no longer submit the financial statements together with the tax return.


So far, XBRL markings are not required in sustainability reports and their assurance reports because the European Commission has not yet made a decision on the use of the taxonomy required for XBRL markings in the sustainability reporting. Read more on the taxonomy on EFRAG’s website.Avautuu uuteen välilehteen​

Read our instructions Digital financial statements of limited liability companies for more information.

​Taxonomy used in the digital financial statements of companies subject to sustainability reporting

If a company subject to sustainability reporting does not use the ESEF taxonomy in its financial statements, it should submit its financial statements without the taxonomy in XHTML format for financial periods starting in 2024 and 2025.

The PRH has issued a decision concerning companies subject to sustainability reporting and how these companies should digitally mark up their financial statements. Digital markup applies to financial periods starting on or after 1 January 2026. According to the decision, digital financial statements must be filed using the national SBR taxonomy or IFRS taxonomy, depending on whether the financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the FAS or IFRS. If a company subject to sustainability reporting must mark up its consolidated financial statements in compliance with the ESEF taxonomy, the decision does not affect that.

 Read more about the adoption of the taxonomy.​

Listed companies reporting according to the ESEF requirements

File the financial statements and all the related documents in the format required for ESEF reporting. The PDF file format is not accepted.

Please note that filing financial statements with the Finnish Trade Register does not replace other reporting obligations as referred to in the ESEF requirements.

Adding details to the ESEF financial statement material

The date when the financial statements were adopted and the decision the use of the company’s profits must be separately added to the ESEF financial statement material. The information can be added by attaching a free-form document containing these details to the material. Separate documents attached to the financial statement notification, such as the details mentioned above or an audit report, must be attached in XHTML format to the ZIP file in the ESEF financial statement material. Attach the files to the main file of the ZIP package and not, for instance, to the Reports file. If you add PDF files, you cannot file the ZIP package via the online filing service at ytj.fi. Name the files so that they do not contain the letters å, ä, or ö.

​    LEI.zip        
            acme-x42-submission-2022/
                    META-INF/
​                            reportPackage.json
                            taxonomyPackage.xml
                            catalog.xml
                    xbrl.example.com/v1/
                            taxonomy.xsd
                            taxonomy-linkbase.xml
                    reports/
                            report-1.html 
                    companyprofit.xhtml
                    generalmeetingdecision.xhtml

Language of the ESEF material

Under Finnish law, financial statements to be registered must be in Finnish or Swedish. The financial statements can also include a translation into English.

Name of the ESEF material

The PRH recommends following the instructions in the ESMA’s ESEF Reporting Manual on how to name ESEF material. The name consists of three components:

  1. LEI code of the reporting company orits name (max. 20 characters)
  2. End date of the financial period inthe YYYY-MM-DD format
  3. Language of the report (fi or sv)


Both the main folder and the Reports folder or the report must be named as instructed above.

Other companies subject to sustainability reporting


See the legislation for more information

Provisions on the technical format of financial statements and other documents entered in the Finnish Trade Register are laid down in chapter 7, sections 22–24 and 24 a of the Finnish Accounting Act.

Provisions on the presentation of the financial statement material either in Finnish or Swedish are laid down in chapter 3, section 5 of the Finnish Accounting Act. See also the Finnish Accounting Board’s statement 2084/3.12.2024 (available in FinnishAvautuu uuteen välilehteen and in SwedishAvautuu uuteen välilehteen).

Read more in the reference database of Finnish legislation Finlex:
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