ERP Audit Consultant, Sweden

Signs a Swedish ERP needs a health check

An underperforming ERP rarely fails loudly. It degrades through small habits that each look sensible at the time. In Swedish companies the signals I look for at the start of an audit are fairly concrete:

• The accounting firm asks for an SIE file every month and then posts a list of corrections before it starts work.
• Incoming customer payments with OCR references still need someone to allocate them by hand.
• Supplier invoices are attested by forwarding emails rather than inside the system.
• Peppol invoices to public buyers bounce back and are resent as PDF attachments.
• Managers export transactions to Excel because the standard reports do not show margin the way the board wants it.
• License invoices keep rising while several named users have not logged in for months.

None of these proves the platform is wrong. Most trace back to setup choices, missing training or an integration nobody owns. The purpose of the audit is to separate those causes and show which fixes matter most.

One boundary is worth stating plainly. This is an ERP system audit in the sense of a health check. It is not the statutory audit your revisor performs, it gives no opinion on your accounts and it is not tax advice. Where a finding touches VAT, bookkeeping obligations or the annual accounts, I describe what I saw and pass the question to your accounting firm or advisor.

Testing the SIE file and VAT basis with your accounting firm

In many Swedish companies the most honest measure of ERP quality is how much work the accounting firm does on its output. If the firm reworks the SIE export every period, that cost recurs quietly for years and the ledger in the ERP stops being the reference point.

I take a closed period and compare three things: the trial balance in the ERP, the SIE file it produces and the figures your accountant actually reports. Differences usually fall into a few groups:

• Accounts in the ERP mapped to the wrong account in the Swedish chart your accountant uses.
• Dimensions such as cost center or project missing from the export, so the firm cannot analyze what it receives.
• VAT codes that put domestic, EU and reverse charge purchases in the same bucket, forcing a manual split before the VAT return is prepared.
• Year-end and accrual entries made only in the accountant's system and never brought back.

For each difference I note where it starts in the ERP setup and who would need to change it. I do not decide how a transaction should be treated for VAT; the list goes to your accountant or tax advisor, who confirms the correct treatment before your partner touches the configuration. My ERP business analyst page for Sweden covers how these requirements are written when a system is being specified from scratch.

OCR references, bank files and the supplier invoice inbox

Payment handling is where a Swedish ERP either saves finance real time or creates a daily chore. The audit follows money in both directions using real documents from a recent period.

On the customer side I check whether invoices carry a valid OCR reference, whether the bank's payment file is imported automatically or downloaded by hand, and how many receipts land in an unallocated list each week. A payment that matches on amount but not on reference often points to a setup gap rather than customer error, for example credit notes that generate their own reference or partial payments with no matching rule.

On the supplier side I trace an invoice from arrival to payment. Does it come in through Peppol, a scanning service or an email inbox? Who codes it, who attests it and how is the payment proposal built and sent to the bank? Duplicate supplier records with different bankgiro or account details are a common finding and a genuine fraud risk, so they are flagged high in the report.

I also look at the outbound Peppol route for public and large private buyers: whether buyer references are captured on the order, what happens when an invoice is rejected and who is told. Many of these issues can be fixed through ERP optimization work on configuration and rules, without any change of platform.

Attestation rights, user access and segregation of duties

Swedish finance teams usually have a clear delegation of authority on paper: who may attest a supplier invoice, up to what level, and who may release a payment. Over time the system drifts away from that paper. People change roles but keep their permissions, a temporary administrator account becomes permanent, and approval steps are switched off to clear a backlog before a holiday period.

I review users and roles against the delegation your management actually decided, looking for combinations that should not sit with one person:

• Creating or editing a supplier and also changing its bank details.
• Attesting an invoice and releasing the payment file for the same supplier.
• Posting manual journals and closing periods without a second review.
• Shared logins used by warehouse or reception staff.
• Dormant accounts belonging to consultants or former employees.

Where the organization is small and full separation is unrealistic, I suggest compensating controls, such as a periodic report of bank detail changes reviewed by someone outside purchasing. Personal data in the system, especially payroll and customer records, is checked for sensible access limits, and any question of GDPR interpretation is left with whoever owns data protection in your company. Findings in this area are written factually so they can go straight to the board or the auditor if needed.

Interfaces, licenses and the findings report

The last part of the review covers what surrounds the ERP. Swedish companies often run a separate payroll service that sends a posting file into the ledger, a webshop or e-commerce platform, a CRM and sometimes a warehouse tool. Each connection is checked for an owner, error alerts and a record of what happens when it fails. A payroll file that is reposted by hand every month, or orders that silently stop syncing over a weekend, are typical examples.

Licenses get the same practical treatment. I compare license types with what each user does in a normal week, list accounts that could move to a lighter license and flag paid add-ons that nobody uses. The commercial decision stays with you and your vendor.

The report itself is written for management. Each finding states what happens, why it matters, the likely root cause and a recommended fix, ranked by impact and urgency. Quick wins, configuration fixes and larger decisions are kept apart, and tax or bookkeeping points are listed separately for your accounting firm. I present the results in a remote readout and can stay involved while your partner works through the list.

If the audit shows a deeper problem, such as a rollout that never really finished, my ERP rescue work in Sweden picks up from there. Other ways I support Swedish companies are on the Sweden overview and the ERP consultant page for Sweden.