All persons and entities engaged in business, as well as self-employed professionals, are obliged to keep books. The management of an enterprise is responsible for arranging its accounting. The obligation to keep books starts when founding the enterprise.

The period of an enterprise’s existence is divided into accounting periods, and financial statements are prepared for each accounting period. The accounting period may be the calendar year or another twelve-month period appropriate for the operations of the enterprise. In exceptional cases, the length of an accounting period may differ from 12 months, but may never be more than 18 months.

The financial statements document the result of the operations, based on which taxes are paid and profits are distributed to the owners, or losses are noted. On the other hand, the financial statements document the financial position of the enterprise: property, assets and debts.

With certain exceptions, financial statements are public documents. Enterprises are obliged to submit their financial statements to the Trade Register administered by the National Board of Patents and Registration.

According to the Auditing Act, companies and foundations with a legal obligation to keep accounts as stipulated in the Accounting Act must elect an auditor and carry out an audit of the accounts. The audit is part of the enterprise’s supervision system and is obligatory for limited liability companies, general and limited partnerships, associations, cooperatives and foundations.