Nordic PhoenixNordic Phoenix

Bookkeeping and accounting.

Ongoing bookkeeping is the foundation everything else rests on. Get it right and the annual accounts, the VAT and the tax return almost take care of themselves. Get it wrong and you find out when correcting it is expensive.

Background

Why it usually goes wrong

Most business owners do not get their bookkeeping wrong through ignorance, but because it is done too rarely. Receipts pile up in a bag, invoices sit in the inbox, and when the quarter ends three months have to be caught up in one evening. That produces guesswork instead of documentation, and guesswork does not hold up in an audit.

Swedish bookkeeping law requires business events to be recorded on an ongoing basis, with source documents that can be traced from transaction to annual accounts. Cash payments must be recorded no later than the following day, other events as soon as possible. Done in arrears, the company also loses what makes bookkeeping valuable: the ability to see how things are going while there is still time to act.

We take the whole task off you. You photograph or forward the documents, we record them as they arrive, and we tell you when something is missing rather than leaving a gap.

This suits you if

Companies that want to stop falling behind

If you have a backlog we take that first, then set up a routine that holds.

Owners who want to see how it is going

Ongoing bookkeeping means the result is current when you need it, not in March the following year.

Companies changing accountants

We collect the records from your current firm and take over from any month end.

What is included, point by point

01

Ongoing bookkeeping

Every business event recorded on time, to the right account, with documentation that holds.

We record incoming and outgoing invoices, receipts, bank transactions, salaries and tax payments continuously through the year. Each entry gets a voucher number in an unbroken sequence and is linked to its source document, so the chain from bank statement to income statement can be followed backwards. That chain is what Skatteverket and any auditor actually examine.

Accounts are coded against the BAS chart of accounts and adapted to your operations. A construction company and a consultancy should not have the same account structure, because they need to follow different things. We set up the chart of accounts so that it says something about your business, rather than applying a standard template as is.

Accounting records are archived digitally for seven years after the end of the financial year, as the law requires. The documents are searchable, which means a question about a two year old invoice takes minutes to answer instead of an afternoon with a binder.

02

Accounting

The figures compiled into something you can make decisions on.

Bookkeeping is recording. Accounting is making the records intelligible. We produce income statements and balance sheets each period and go through what they mean: where the margin sits, which costs are growing faster than revenue, and how it compares with the same period last year.

Accruals are what separate a report you can rely on from one that swings for no reason. An annual insurance premium paid in January does not belong as a cost in January alone, and a customer prepayment is not revenue until the work is done. We accrue continuously so that each month shows its own result.

Reports are sent in the format you prefer, and we would rather call once too often when something looks off than let you discover it yourself in the annual accounts.

03

Bank reconciliation

The bookkeeping reconciled against the bank statement, every period.

A bank reconciliation means the balance in the books is compared entry by entry against what the bank actually shows. Any difference must be explainable, for example a payment in transit that the bank has not yet recorded. If a difference cannot be explained there is an error somewhere, and that error grows if it is left alone.

The reconciliation is also what catches things that otherwise slip through: a double paid invoice, a subscription still being charged despite cancellation, a card payment with no receipt. We contact you about every entry we cannot match to a document.

Where possible we connect the bank feed directly to the accounting system, so transactions arrive automatically and the reconciliation becomes a check rather than a data entry task.

04

Tax account reconciliation

The tax account reconciled against the books, so the balance means something.

The tax account at Skatteverket collects VAT, employer contributions, withheld tax, preliminary tax and any F-skatt payments in one place. That makes it hard to read: a deficit can have five different causes, and a surplus does not necessarily mean the company has money to spare.

We reconcile the tax account against the books each period, so that every transaction on the account has a counterpart in the bookkeeping and the other way round. That lets you trust the balance, and means a deficit is spotted before interest starts running.

We also monitor that payments arrive on time. Money that reaches the tax account late incurs interest even when the amount is correct, and that is an entirely avoidable cost.

05

Invoice handling

Supplier and customer invoices through a flow that does not lose anything.

Incoming invoices are received digitally, interpreted and recorded to the right account and the right period. You get a payment list showing what is due and when, instead of tracking due dates across three different inboxes yourself. Invoices with discrepancies are raised with you before they are paid.

On the outgoing side we help with invoice documentation, VAT rates and the details an invoice must contain under Swedish VAT law: invoice number in an unbroken series, date, the parties' details and VAT registration numbers, what has been sold, the taxable amount and the VAT. An invoice missing any of these can cause the buyer problems with deducting VAT, and will come back.

If you sell to the public sector, e-invoicing under the Peppol standard is also required. We make sure the format is right so the invoice goes through instead of being rejected.

06

Accounts receivable & payable

Full control of what is outstanding, in both directions.

The accounts receivable ledger shows which invoices are outstanding and for how long. It is the single most important report for liquidity in a small company, and the one most often missing. We keep it current and report what is overdue, so you can chase in good time instead of discovering an unpaid invoice six months later when it has become hard to collect.

The accounts payable ledger shows the same thing from the other direction: what the company owes and when it falls due. Together they give a picture of cash flow a few weeks ahead, which is the difference between planning and hoping.

We can also handle the reminder routine. Many business owners hesitate to chase payment from customers they want to keep, and then it often does not happen at all. When the reminder comes from the accounting firm it becomes routine rather than a confrontation.

What you get

  • IncludedOngoing bookkeeping of all business events
  • IncludedBank and tax account reconciliation every period
  • IncludedIncome statement and balance sheet with a walkthrough
  • IncludedAccounts receivable and payable kept current
  • IncludedDigital archive for seven years, searchable
  • IncludedA named contact who replies the same day

Common questions

Questions about bookkeeping

How often must the bookkeeping be done?

Swedish law says on an ongoing basis. Cash payments must be recorded no later than the following day, other business events as soon as possible. In practice we record monthly, and more often for companies with high transaction volumes.

We are several months behind. Will you still take us on?

Yes, and it is more common than you think. We catch up the history first and then set up a routine so it does not happen again. The catch up work is priced separately and you get the figure before we start.

Do we have to change accounting software?

No. We work in cloud based systems and adapt to what you already use if it works. If it does not we will say so plainly and suggest a change, but the decision is yours.

How do I send you the documents?

A photo on your phone, a forwarded email or directly in the bookkeeping app. You choose what suits you. We tell you when something is missing rather than recording a guess.

Can I throw away the receipt once it is photographed?

Since summer 2024 the paper original may be destroyed once the information has been transferred to digital form in a durable way, provided nothing is lost. We make sure the transfer meets that requirement.

What does ongoing bookkeeping cost?

We work with a fixed monthly price. It is driven by the volume of documents and whether payroll is included, and you get a fixed figure before we start, not a running invoice.

We work digitally across Sweden

Distance affects neither price nor response time. Read about how we work with business owners in your area.

Want to know what it would cost?

A free consultation with no strings attached. We look at your company and give you a fixed figure, before you decide.