FAQ

When invoicing with Pooli, you are a light entrepreneur, which means you are a wage earner under certain conditions. In accordance with the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ policy, light entrepreneurs are within the scope of the self-employed person’s pension insurance, i.e. YEL insurance.

If you only work for a single client, only work part-time or under a wider general rental agreement, you are comparable to a person who is a wage earner.

When it comes to unemployment security, the TE Office and unemployment funds evaluate each person’s right to unemployment security on a case-by-case basis, and it should be resolved directly from the TE Office in good time.

When you work through Pooli invoicing service, a fixed-term employment relationship will be formed for the duration of each commission. If you wish, you will receive proof of employment for the work you have performed after the commission has been carried out.

Short answer: When a payment is made to your bank account. 

Pooli charges a service fee of 5% + additional service fee 2,8% only upon payment from the tax-free price. 

Yes, you can. You can do as many different kinds of jobs as you want through Pooli, so you are not bound to a single profession.

Pooli is best suited for situations where labour, know-how or services are being sold. Pooli is suitable for activity that does not require large investments or does not involve the retail or wholesale of goods.

There are a lot of jobs for which setting up a business is too time-consuming. 

If you set up your own business, you will legally become an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you will have to commit to the obligations of an entrepreneur. You have to organise your accounting and invoicing yourself. In addition, you will have to pay, for example, tax prepayments and value added taxes yourself monthly.

Taking care of the obligations of an entrepreneur takes up a lot of time and generates different kinds of costs. You are not entitled to unemployment benefits as an entrepreneur.

When you work through Pooli, it is easy for you to invoice your work, and you will have more time to market yourself and your services as well as acquire new customers. You will also have more time to perform the work itself.

Yes. An invoicing service is an easy and a risk-free way to try out working as an entrepreneur or to test out a new business idea.

You can apply for a startup grant if you are setting up a business after working in the Pooli.fi service. Entrepreneurial work and the experience gained from it, as well as profitable activity as a light entrepreneur, can be seen as an advantage in the processing of your startup grant. Check this with your own TE-toimisto (TE Office).

Pooli’s service fee can be deducted in your tax return, which is done annually between April and May. The service fee must be reported in the tax return in the section for expenses for the production of income. You will need a report of the expenses for the production of income as an attachment, which you can download from Pooli. Download your report by logging in to Pooli, and then click My details and download the report from the section Tax deductions.

You do not have to make a separate agreement with Pooli. When joining the Pooli.fi invoicing service, read the invoicing service’s terms of agreement and use and act accordingly. The invoicing relationship with Pooli is always automatically valid during each invoicing period with your customer. 

It is advisable to make an agreement with the customer about the commission. The agreement can be oral or written. Download a written agreement template from the “Additional material” section after logging in.

Registering with our invoicing service does not obligate you to anything. When invoicing through the Pooli.fi invoicing service, you have to comply with Pooli’s terms of agreement and use. 

There are no fixed initial or termination fees in Pooli, you only pay a service fee upon invoicing. The service fee is typically 5% of the invoice price without value added tax. Additional information about the fees can be found in Pooli’s terms of agreement and use.

Customers or clients can be either private persons or companies. When agreeing on the work, remember to let the customer know that you are invoicing through Pooli. The customer will get a clear picture of how your invoicing will happen. 

Invoicing information: 

Laskutuspalvelu Pooli Oy
Business ID: 3107248-8

When marketing your services, you can use your own marketing name, but let your customer know upon invoicing that the invoicing is done through Pooli.fi invoicing service.

Yes, you can. A person under 18 years of age needs written permission from their guardian if they want to become a light entrepreneur at Pooli.

In addition to the work you have performed, you can invoice for travel, supplies and materials as long as they have been agreed on in advance. For example, when it comes to renovation work, you can invoice for the materials or equipment with a single invoice. Agree on the matter with your client or customer in advance.

Separate the share of work and materials already on the invoice – in cases like these, for example, the summary of tax credit for household expenses is easy to do. If you are selling supplies or materials, you must send us the original receipts. If you make a profit on the realisation of materials, we will treat it like any other taxable income invoiced from a client in the calculation of salaries.

Tax-free reimbursements of expenses can be paid from the invoice amount. Fill in a travel invoice with Pooli’s invoicing form and invoice the reimbursements from the customer on their own invoice line. Regarding the amount of tax-free reimbursements, you must make sure that your gross earnings are not under the minimum wage defined in your industry’s collective agreement (TES).

For the time being, cash or card payments are not available in Pooli. 

All invoices created on weekdays before 2 p.m. are sent during the same day, and invoices created after 2 p.m. are sent on the next business day. If the invoice is created in the evening, at night, on the weekend or during holidays, the invoice will be sent to the customer on the next business day.

We will help you with reminders for free. Please note that Pooli will not pay your salary before the client has paid your invoice.

If the client has not paid the invoice on time, ask about the situation directly from the client or customer first.

If the invoice is not paid, even after you have contacted them, ask us to send a reminder. Reminders will not cause any additional fees for you.

We can only send a reminder after your client is aware of the work that you have done, approved the work and has not made a complaint about the invoice.

If the reminder is not effective, we will start the debt collection process. Please agree on debt collection separately with our customer service because it might cause you costs.

As forgetfulness is normal, it is advisable to divide large invoice amounts between multiple invoices.

When creating the invoice, you will indicate a term of payment or the time period during which your invoice must be paid. This should be agreed on with the customer or the client separately. We will pay you your salary as soon as your client’s payment has been registered in our account. We pay all salaries at 2 p.m.

We offer the possibility for you to receive your salary immediately upon invoicing. In this case, the salary will appear in your account as soon as you have sent the invoice.

We charge an invoicing fee of 8% from InstantPay. With InstantPay, you will receive the money in your account immediately, even before your customer has paid us. We always evaluate the possibility to pay the InstantPay on a case-by-case basis according to the terms below.

When considering InstantPay, please note the following:

• InstantPay can be paid from invoices that are directed to companies, the state, municipalities or other communities
• your client cannot have payment default entries
• your client must have a reliable payment history with our invoicing service based on multiple invoices
• the invoice must be final and undisputed
• only travel and expense receipts that are delivered at the time of payment are taken into account in InstantPay. Receipts that are delivered later cannot be taken into account
• InstantPay can be paid from invoice amounts of less than EUR 5,000
• we reserve the right to pay InstantPay

Ask about the possibility of InstantPay from our customer service.

Did you know that service fees are tax-deductible? This is what the Tax Administration says: Fees collected by an invoicing service for the services they provide from the performer of the work are work-related expenses that can be deducted in your taxation as expenses for the production of income. You can read more at vero.fi/en/. Other tax-deductible payments are, for example: kilometre allowance, health insurance contribution, per diem allowances and meal expenses. If you need information about your own tax-deductible payments, you can contact our customer service.

If you want to utilise the tax-free travel expenses in the invoicing service, you must fill in the travel invoice found on the invoicing form for each working day. In addition to this, you must invoice the reimbursements of travel expenses on a separate invoice line.

A part of your invoice amount will be paid as tax-free compensations after your travel invoice has been filled in correctly and the expenses have been invoiced on a separate invoice line. You can fill in the travel invoice, for example, kilometres, meal expenses, per diem allowances and partial per diem allowances.

Send us receipts for the tools, work equipment or work clothes you have purchased. We will pay you an amount corresponding to the receipts directly to your account from your invoice amount. The receipts must be directly related to the performed work and the equipment on the receipts must be invoiced from your client.

Select “Yes” on the invoicing form in the section “I will send receipts related to this invoice”.

If you plan to send receipts for individual pieces of work equipment, the price of which is over EUR 500, please contact our customer service.

We cannot deduct from your invoice amount as tax-free reimbursements devices or equipment that the tax authority can possibly consider to be in your private use. These devices include, for example, phones, computers and cameras.

If your activity requires large acquisitions, it is worth considering setting up your own business. You can also try to get acquisitions taken into account in your personal taxation as expenses for the production of income.

Please deliver the receipts as soon as possible after the purchase, since we only accept expense receipts for a period of two months preceding the payday.

Tax-free reimbursements can be paid according to how the criteria defined by the tax authority are met in your travel invoice. Make sure that after the reimbursements, your gross income is at least the minimum wage defined in your industry’s collective agreement (TES).

Always remember to attach the information about who and which invoice the document in question concerns. Please deliver the receipts as soon as possible after the purchase, since we only accept expense receipts for a period of two months preceding the payday.

1. Scan or photograph the receipts and send them by email to: info@pooli.fi
2. Send them by extra.pooli’s own messaging channel

YEL is a self-employed person’s pension insurance. Pooli’s light entrepreneurs must take out a self-employed person’s pension insurance under certain conditions.

YEL insurance is mandatory when the following conditions are met:

• you do not work in an employment relationship or a public service employment relationship with regard to pension insurance or, in other words, you work independently, for example, through an invoicing service
• you live in Finland
• you are aged 18–67 (for people born in or before 1957 the obligation to insure ends at the end of the month in which they turn 68 years old; people born in 1958–61 the limit is 69 years old, and 70 years old for younger people)
• the entrepreneurial activity has lasted for four (4) months and your estimated income is at least EUR 8,063.57 per year (in 2021).

If you do not meet the conditions for YEL insurance, you do not need to take it out.

In accordance with the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ decision, independent invoicers are categorised as entrepreneurs when it comes to pension insurances. This means that you are responsible for organising your own pension insurance with YEL insurance. YEL insurance must be taken out at the latest six months from the beginning of the entrepreneurial activity. YEL insurance is personal.

Contact us about taking out YEL insurance. You can take out YEL insurance directly through us by messaging our customer service.

If you authorise us to take care of your YEL matter in your message, we will give out your contact information to our insurance specialist, who will contact you and settle the insurance matters with you.

Our insurance specialist will map out your situation and find out if the conditions of YEL insurance have been met in your case. After this and if necessary, you will conclude an insurance contract together.

You can take out YEL insurance through ELO’s website at:

https://www.elo.fi/contact-us/brochures-and-forms/insurance-applications?sc_lang=en

We are happy to answer any questions you might have!

You can contact us by email: info@pooli.fi or by phone: +358 50 0200 666

Our customer service is open Mon-Fri 9–16.

When you log in for the first time, you will see the following text on the front page of your Pooli account: Tax card is missing. Send an updated tax card.

You can get your tax card from MyTax – if necessary, update your tax card in MyTax and download it as a PDF. After your trip to MyTax, return to Pooli.fi and log in. You can send your tax card in two ways:

1. by email to info@pooli.fi – state your name in the message and remember to attach the tax card! 
2. directly from Pooli: go to the “Messages” section at the top of the page. Select “Send a new message”. Add, for example, “Tax card” as the heading of the message and type something like this in the Message field: Please find my updated tax card attached. Remember to attach the tax card to the message in the section “Select files”. 

You will receive a notification to your phone and email once your tax card has been marked as received. 

Before sending out your first invoice, please fill in your personal data.

You can update your personal data in the section “My details” in the top left corner of the page. In the “Personal details” section, add your first name, last name, phone number, postal address and your bank account number in IBAN format.

Also select an invoice’s default settings, i.e. the job title and your car’s license number if you use your car for work purposes.

Finally, click “Save the changes”.

You can change your password by logging in to Pooli. Go to the “My details” section and type in a new password in the “Change password” section. Finally, click the “Change password” button.

Change your Pooli password regularly.

As a light entrepreneur, you can get tax deductions from the expenses for the production of income, such as travel expenses, work equipment, office and professional literature. Examine carefully which deductions you are entitled to.

Report tax deductions in MyTax.