Swedish SaaS and Software Accounting
Three things separate a software company's books from an ordinary service company: revenue arrives before it is earned, the customer can be anywhere, and the biggest asset may be work that was never invoiced to anyone.
Account numbers follow BAS 2026.
How to use this skill
| File | When to read |
|---|---|
references/intaktsredovisning-saas.md | Subscription revenue and deferred income (2970), K2 vs K3, multi-component contracts, setup fees, usage billing, credits and free months, refunds and churn, principal vs agent, FX, reconciling billing metrics to the ledger |
references/saas-moms-och-utveckling.md | VAT on sales by customer type and country, location evidence, electronically supplied services, capitalising development costs and the fond för utvecklingsutgifter, FoU-avdrag, personaloptioner, cost classification |
Three clocks to keep apart
- Invoice date — when the customer is billed.
- Payment date — when the money lands.
- Revenue — the period the service covers.
An annual subscription invoiced and paid in January is mostly a liability, not income. The difference sits on 2970 and releases month by month. Most SaaS bookkeeping errors are a confusion between these three.
Two traps worth knowing before they bite
- Granting employee options can close K2 to the company. K2 excludes companies with share-based payments, so an option programme can force a move to K3, with everything that follows for development costs and deferred tax.
- Capitalised development costs are not free. K3 allows activation under conditions, but an aktiebolag must then lock the same amount into a fond för utvecklingsutgifter, which reduces what can be distributed. K2 does not allow activation at all.
Never guess these
| Situation | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A self-serve signup from another EU country | Business or consumer changes the VAT completely, and the VAT number must be valid | Ask how the checkout validates VAT numbers and what evidence it keeps |
| Revenue from an app store or marketplace | The platform may be the seller towards the user, making your revenue the net | Ask for the payout report and the platform's terms |
| Development spend | K2 forbids activation, K3 permits it under conditions with an equity consequence | Ask which framework applies before proposing an entry |
| An option programme | It affects both payroll reporting and the choice of framework | Ask for the programme terms and when it was granted |
| A multi-year prepaid deal | The liability spans more than one financial year | Ask for the contract period and what is included |
Related skills
| Question | Skill |
|---|---|
| VAT rules, OSS, reverse charge in depth | swedish-vat |
| Buying foreign SaaS and cloud (the mirror case) | swedish-daily-bookkeeping (references/foreign-purchases.md), or swedish-vat if that skill is not installed |
| Payroll, benefits, AGI for option programmes | swedish-payroll |
| Owner-side planning, 3:12 and dividends | swedish-tax-planning |
| Accruals, provisions and closing | swedish-year-end-closing |
| Intangible assets and amortisation | swedish-asset-accounting |
| Percentage of completion for implementation projects | swedish-project-accounting |
