Online Accounting for Estonian OÜs

For a client using our full outsourced accounting service, you do not need to use Merit Aktiva at all — we handle all data entry and filing within it. Your interaction is limited to the read-only client portal, where you can view your P&L, balance sheet, and issued invoices. The portal requires no accounting knowledge — it is simply a dashboard showing your financial position. If you want to learn Merit Aktiva more actively (for example, to issue your own invoices directly in the system), Merit Aktiva provides Estonian-language tutorials and we are available to walk you through the invoice module in a 15-minute screen-share call. Most clients become comfortable with basic navigation within 1–2 sessions.

Yes — the Raamatupidamise seadus fully permits electronic accounting records stored in cloud systems, provided the data is: legible and accessible throughout the 7-year retention period; protected from unauthorised modification (audit trail maintained); and backed up to prevent data loss. Merit Aktiva meets all three requirements: it maintains an immutable audit log of all changes, is hosted in EU data centres compliant with GDPR and Estonian data protection law (Isikuandmete kaitse seadus), and provides automatic backups. From an EMTA perspective, your filed declarations are also stored in the EMTA e-Tax portal independently of your accounting software — so even if your software provider ceased operations, your EMTA records remain accessible.

For routine monthly accounting, no e-ID is needed from you — your accountant handles all EMTA filings via their own authorisation. The situations requiring your digital signature are: signing the annual report before Business Register submission, signing board resolutions for dividend distributions, and signing the initial service agreement with us. If you do not have an Estonian e-ID, you have three alternatives: (1) Mobile ID or Smart-ID — if you have a registered Estonian phone number; (2) Electronic signature with your home country’s digital ID — Estonia’s e-Äriregister accepts some foreign digital IDs; (3) Notarised power of attorney — for documents requiring a signature, you can grant a notarised power of attorney to someone with an Estonian e-ID. The notarised POA route is the universal fallback and works for all document types.

Yes — we accept any machine-readable format. PDFs are the most common and simplest: forward the email or upload to the shared folder. XML e-invoices from EU suppliers can be imported directly into Merit Aktiva. Word documents we convert manually. The key requirement is that the document contains all mandatory fields for an accounting source document: supplier name, date, amount, description, and VAT number if the supplier is VAT-registered. A foreign supplier who is not VAT-registered sends invoices without VAT — that is correct and acceptable. For EU B2B suppliers where reverse charge applies (the supplier charges 0% VAT and you self-assess), ensure the invoice includes the supplier’s VAT number and a note that reverse charge applies.

We always file by the deadline regardless of late documents — this is our core commitment. In practice: if documents arrive after our internal cut-off (typically 5th of the month for the prior month), we file the TSD and KMD based on the information we have, and correct in the following month if new information arrives. For payroll specifically, we need payroll data by the 3rd — if we do not have it, we file based on the prior month’s payroll and issue a correction amendment the following month. We contact you proactively if documents are missing or late, before the deadline — not after. EMTA accepts corrected declarations with no penalty as long as any additional tax due is paid with interest. Missing documents are never an excuse for a late filing — the filing happens on time and corrections follow.