Account statements are an essential source of information for your accounting and business

Account statements are accounting documents that contain transaction details and a breakdown of your monthly service fees. Account statements are available in different formats from which you can select the most relevant to you depending on the purpose of your company’s bank accounts. Electronic account statements are available in two different formats, TITO and XML. TITO is an electronic account statement format created by Finance Finland and used by Finnish banks, whereas XML is an international standard for electronic account statements. 

“The right format depends on your system – in other words, whether you prefer to download electronic account statements from your online banking platform or financial management software. At Nordea, we provide electronic account statements to our customers in their preferred format,” says Tuomo Kurunsaari, Cash Management Coach at Nordea. 

As soon as your electronic account statements have been generated, you can download them from Nordea Business or from your financial management software. You can choose whether you want your electronic account statements to be generated monthly, weekly, daily or every two weeks depending on how many transactions you have in your account in a month. 

“If you don’t have a lot of transactions in your account, a monthly account statement is a good choice. But if you have a lot of transactions, it’s more practical to increase the frequency of your account statements because accountants often prefer to see transactions in real time,” Tuomo says. 

Your electronic account statements will be stored in Nordea Business or in your financial management software for 18 months. However, we recommend that you also download them to your computer or a USB stick because the Finnish Accounting Act states that you have a legal obligation to retain your accounting records for five years. Sometimes you may need to review old account transactions and re-order old account statements. When you order account statements from us, you will receive them by post in approximately 14 days.

You can deliver account statements to your accountant in many ways. It’s up to you if you want to automate the process or not. Most businesses today choose to provide their statements digitally. The options you have include our Web Services connection (WS), a USB stick, encrypted email or your financial management software, among others. 

The WS connection is intended for the transmission of payment files between your company and Nordea. It allows you to send account statements to your accountant automatically at agreed intervals. The WS connection is a hassle-free choice since you don’t need to remember to deliver account statements to your accountant yourself – everything is automated for you. If you are interested in setting up a new Web Services connection, contact us for more information.

“Storing your account statements on your computer or on a USB stick means that you have easy access to your account statement history in case you need to revisit it later. Even if you have an accountant, you still need to stay on top of your account statements and check your monthly transactions to make sure that they are related to your business. If you notice that something’s not quite right with one of your account statements, it’s easier to investigate this sooner rather than later,” Tuomo points out.

Managing your accounts requires time and expertise. If you have a small business or you or someone else in your company has the skills, you can also do your company accounts yourself.

“It often makes sense to leave accounting to a trained and qualified professional so that you can put your full focus on what matters – running your business,” Tuomo concludes.