I have a digital service that I will sell to companies and I don't know if this idea will work in the long run, so I want to start small with ENK. I need to be able to create invoices for the service I sell and do the taxes. My question is, I assume I can generate invoices myself, so don't really need a service for that (I am just assuming here as I don't have much experience with these things) and for doing the taxes, that can also be quite a manual labor I feel like.

So, my question is what's the advantage of using Fiken or Conta (which gives 1 year free service, not sure if this is actually legit or scam) over just going to Altinn and registering my ENK?

Would appreciate any input on the matter.

by northcool

4 comments

  2. You also need to send your end of year accounting report electronically, so it’s best you do everything in an accounting program and these reports will be generated automatically.

  3. Just registering on Altinn will not provide you with an approved invoicing system. Excel and word are not legal to use for invoicing and bookkeeping, you will need a system like Conta or Fiken in any case.

    Conta is not a scam, but is not a good system with regards to proper bookkeeping.

    I recommend Fiken in your case, even though accountants don’t like their simpler language the bookkeeping is pretty all right and the auto-generated reports work well as long as you enter your data correctly.

    Both systems will create invoices that are correct according to Norwegian law, provided you actually enter your data correctly.

    I recommend reading up on rules and guidelines when it comes to invoicing and bookkeeping in Norway before you start, especially with regards to VAT, the differences between kontant- and kredittsalg, and akonto fakturering.

  4. I’ve had an ENK the past 3 years and I’ve been doing all the tax work etc myself.

    It’s not allowed to make invoices yourself, the rule is that you shouldn’t use any software where you can make manual changes to the invoice number. It should be a software where it generates a new invoice number automatically for each new one.

    I’ve been using conta. It’s cheap, satisfactory and does the job. It can also store all your bills and expenses that you’ll eventually be using for tax deductions.

    You can get the basic package or you can pay more for more advanced features. I have the basic package since I do not have the need for anything fancy.

    In addition to Conta, I do maintain my own personal Google sheet with information about my income and expenses, just as a back up. This has been very useful whenever there has been a need to submit documents to NAV for example to get sykepenger/svangerskapspenger.

    In my first year of having the ENK, I took the free digital course offered by skatteetaten on how to do the taxes on your own. A lot of reading on Skatteetaten and Altinn also helps in making yourself familiar with all the rules and regulations.

    After the first year, you’ll be getting automated advance tax payments requests from skatteetaten (based on how much tax you’ve paid the previous year / how much income you’re expecting circa for the upcoming tax year)

    There is also a general rule that you’ll need to behold all of your accounting documents, bills etc for a five year period. For eks, if you start this year, you need to hold those documents atleast until 2030. That’s where these accounting softwares also help a lot, rather than manual book keeping.

    Unless you’re gonna be doing something that deals with huge amounts of money and a lot of tax deduction work, you do not need an accountant. Conta/Fiken is more than enough.

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