Overview of Holvi Zen – Accounting for sole traders

Holvi Zen offers sole traders everything they need to run a small business. Find financial peace of mind with a business account, debit card, invoicing and accounting for a fixed monthly price. 

No more switching between apps. Holvi Zen lets you manage all your business finances in one place – and stay tax ready without the hassle.

 

Table of contents Who is Zen suitable for? Who is Zen not suitable for? What's included in Holvi Zen? Holvi features Accounting and tax services Possible add-on services What's not included in Holvi Zen How to open a Holvi Zen account How to use Holvi Zen On a daily basis On a monthly basis On a yearly basis Vehicle usage and mileage allowance How to close a Holvi Zen account Additional information

 

Who is Zen suitable for?

Holvi Zen is designed only for sole traders. The service includes single-entry or cash-basis bookkeeping, which is the preferred way for micro-enterprises to handle their books in Finland.

In Finland, most sole traders operate as a micro-enterprise. Essentially, this means having nine employees or fewer and an annual turnover of less than €2 million.

Holvi Zen is suitable for you if:

• You operate as a sole trader
• Your turnover is less than €2 million
• Your company has no employees
• You collect all company revenue in Holvi – for example, via invoicing, Holvi online store or a payment terminal connected to your Holvi account
• You pay all company expenses with Holvi – either with your Holvi card or via bank transfer from your business account
• Your company’s financial year is the calendar year
• Your company is listed on the prepayment register
• Your company has no overseas sales to individuals – intra-community sales (sales to another company within the EU) are accepted
• Single-entry or cash-basis accounting is sufficient for your business¹

 

Who is Zen not suitable for?

Holvi Zen is not suitable for you if:

• You operate as anything other than a sole trader – Holvi Zen is currently available only to sole traders, more company types coming soon
• You company sells to individual overseas – B2C selling outside of Finland is not compatible with Holvi Zen
• Your company currently has employees
• You use more than 2 non-Holvi payment services, in addition to Holvi – for example, PayPal
• Your company uses a non-Holvi online store, provided by a third party
• Your company must follow double-entry bookkeeping
  
  

What’s included in Holvi Zen?

Holvi Zen includes all Holvi features and services that simplify sole trader finances – plus accounting and tax services. 

Zen is designed for sole traders without employees. For this reason, our payroll and expense claims features are not included. The reason is simple: tese features do not add value to Holvi Zen customers, and only serve to complicate things for our accountants. 

As a sole trader, your company’s income is the same as your own personal income. In other words, you do not – strictly speaking – pay yourself a salary. Instead, you make so-called ‘private withdrawals’ from your business account.

 

Holvi features

• Business account – Think of this as your business’s financial home
• Mobile app – Manage your business finances anywhere, anytime
• Business Debit Mastercard® – Pay expenses conveniently with your card
• Scan and save receipts – Store receipts safely online, add VAT and bookkeeping notes
• Invoicing and e-invoicing – Create, send and track invoices effortlessly from Holvi
• Reconcile payments – Incoming payments match automatically to your sent invoices
• Online store – Sell your products and services online with Holvi, no coding needed
• Customer support – Via live chat and email, plus extra accounting support via email

 

Accounting and tax services

• Single-entry bookkeeping and monthly income statement
• Monthly VAT return and invoice payment scheduling
• Guidance on tax prepayments
• Calculation of mileage allowances and tax reduction (limited to 1 car)
• Application for VAT relief scheme (if applicable)
• General ledger (upon request)

 

Possible add-on services

Looking for more peace of mind? Holvi Zen offers the following services for an additional fee:

• Retrospective accounting
• Preparation of financial statements
• Preparation of the balance sheet
• Documentation relating to start-up grant applications

 

What’s not included in Holvi Zen?

Holvi Zen does not include the following, nor are they offered as add-ons:

• Holvi expense claims feature
• Assessment and application of withholding tax
• Settlement of withholding taxes 
• Legal advice
• Tax planning
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Debt counselling
• Debt collection
• Payment control (tracking incorrect payments, notification of payments due)
• Accounting and bookkeeping services for limited companies
• Payroll admin and other employee-related services
• Accounting for companies with a financial year other than the calendar year
• Special system of value added tax (MOSS)
• Applying for VAT refunds in other EU countries

 

How to open a Holvi Zen account

When opening a Holvi account, you can choose our Holvi Zen plan in-app. It’s possible to join at any time of the month. Next up, we’ll schedule a call with you to make sure Holvi Zen is a good fit for your business.

To onboard you fully to Holvi Zen, we’ll ask for supplemental information to help move your existing accounting records over to Holvi.² At the end of the day, you’ll run all your business finances through Holvi – and our accounting partners will handle the troublesome paperwork. 

Our Holvi Zen experts will help make this onboarding process as easy as possible, and our support team is always on hand to answer questions.

 

How to use Holvi Zen

As a Holvi Zen customer, our accounting partners will handle your accounting and VAT payments based on transactions in and out of your Holvi account. That’s why it’s essential that all your company’s transactions take place through Holvi.

 

Incoming and outgoing payments

How to collect income with Holvi:

• Invoicing – Invoice clients using Holvi’s invoicing feature (e-invoicing included)
• Sell online – Set up a Holvi online store in minutes and sell direct to clients
• Payment terminal – Connect a payment terminal direct to your Holvi account
• Inbound transfers – Receive bank transfers into your Holvi business account

How to pay expenses with Holvi:

• Holvi Business Debit Mastercard® – Pay by card, wherever work life takes you
• Outbound transfers – Transfer funds out of your Holvi account
  
  

Monthly cutoff date The last delivery date for accounting data is always the 5th day of the following month.

 

Using Zen on a daily basis

• Collect income with Holvi
• Pay expenses with Holvi
• Add receipts, VAT and bookkeeping notes transactions

Holvi automatically generates receipts for invoices sent using Holvi’s invoicing feature. 

When you make a purchase using your Holvi Business Debit Mastercard®, you’ll be prompted to snap a photo of your receipt in-app then add VAT and optional bookkeeping details. You can also upload receipts to Holvi on your computer later on. This connects receipts to transactions – so everything is crystal clear for our accountants.

If you pay company invoices (invoices sent to you) using Holvi, you can attach the invoice to your payment – for example, as a PDF or JPG file. The easiest way to handle inbound invoices is to request that your client sends you e-invoices. This ensures that receipts are automatically saved to the transaction. Holvi reserves the right to charge separately for additional work caused by missing receipts or other information.

 

Using Zen on a monthly basis

• Add documents and bookkeeping details to all account transactions for the month
• Add any external payment terminal sales reports to the latest monthly statement
• Check that your annual revenue estimate is up to date in OmaVero

You will need to report your estimated annual revenue to OmaVero independently. This estimate forms the basis of your withholding tax rate, so it’s important that it remains accurate at all times throughout the calendar year. 

Our accounting partners retrieve prepayment information directly from OmaVero. As a Holvi Zen customer, you do not need to report your estimated annual revenue to Holvi separately.

 

Using Zen on a yearly basis

Vehicle usage and mileage allowance

Holvi Zen includes mileage allowances and deduction of car costs for one car.³ If your company has more than one car, you can purchase additional services related to extra cars directly from our accounting partners.

If you are using your car for business, it’s essential that you keep a logbook. Holvi does not provide a separate logbook, but you can find more information on the best way to record car-related details for tax purposes here. The logbook must include the following.

 

For business trips:

• Journey start and end time
• Journey start and end place (location and route) 
• Odometer reading at start and end of journey
• Journey length (odometer difference in kilometres)
• Purpose of the journey
• Driver

For private trips:

• Odometer reading at start and end of journey
• Journey length (odometer difference in kilometres)

Towards the end of the year, you’ll receive an electronic form in which to compile a summary of kilometres and daily allowances. Based on the completed form, Holvi applies for compensation from the tax authorities on your behalf.

 

Closing a Holvi Zen account

The notice period for Holvi Zen is one calendar month. If you end your contract in the middle of the month, the service will accrue the full monthly cost for both the current month and the following month.

 

Example – Closing an account You ask to close your Holvi Zen account on 14 April. Your Holvi Zen plan will officially close at the end of May.

 

When closing your Holvi Zen account, you’ll be provided with accounting materials, including income statement, general ledger and all supporting documents related to the accounting.⁴

 

Additional information

1. Single-entry bookkeeping is suitable if, in the company’s current and previous financial years, no more than one of the following conditions applies:

• The balance sheet total exceeds €100,000
• Turnover exceeds €200,000
• Employed an average of 3 people. However, it’s not possible to use Holvi Zen if your company current has employees

2. Companies must be listed on the prepayment register. Holvi Zen customers will need to provide proof of registration or evidence of application.

In addition, our accountants require authorisation to log in to OmaVero at suomi.fi. This allows accountants to file a VAT return and provide instructions for tax prepayments. We will ask for access rights via email when onboarding new customers to Holvi Zen.

Customers must also ensure that their company is listed on the VAT register – in other words, the company must be VAT-liable. However, if annual turnover is below the VAT limit of €15,000 per year (from 2021), VAT obligation is not mandatory, but we still recommend it. If, at the end of the year, the turnover falls below the VAT-liability limit, Holvi Zen customers will recoup VAT paid as a lower limit relief. Our accountants can apply for lower limit relief on behalf of Holvi Zen customers at no extra cost.

3. If business trips account for more than 50% of the total vehicle usage, Holvi Zen customers can pay for fuel and maintenance costs with their Holvi card or directly from their Holvi account. In this case, customers can add receipts to transactions normally in-app. Expenses are included in the accounting and deducted as expenses in relation to the total use of the car. For example, if a car is used for business purposes 60% of the time costs can be deducted by 60% in your accounts.

If business trips account for less than 50% of the total vehicle usage, costs will not be recorded. Instead, Zen customers can apply for mileage allowances at the end of the financial year. 

VAT will not be deducted if the car is driven by any personal drive.

4. If Holvi Zen customers have unpaid service fees or outstanding payments for add-on services related to Zen, accounting materials will not be prepared or handed over until full payment is received. Open fees may delay delivery of accounting materials by up to 30 days.