Significant Changes to SAF-T Reporting

The existing SAF-T reporting standard has been updated

On 21st March 2024, Skatteetaten has introduced an update to the existing SAF-T reporting standard in Norway

The updated version of the existing SAF-T reporting standard brings significant changes to the format and is not backwards compatible. All companies that must be compliant with the standard should evaluate whether their current solutions allow for these adjustments and carefully monitor any changes by their ERP and accounting system providers.

Calvin Tran

Senior Manager, Lighthouse

KPMG i Norge

Norwegian version

Who is affected by these changes?

Any company that must comply with the SAF-T standard, i.e., those that have a Norwegian accounting and bookkeeping obligation, will have to adhere to this requirement.

When will the changes come into force?

SAF-T Financial version 1.30 will be mandatory for any reporting periods after 01.01.2025, until then it is voluntary.

What are the key changes?

The new format significantly changes the way in which information is displayed in the file as it relates to opening and closing balances for customers, suppliers, and accounts. Further structural changes are made to the display of tax information online items, as well as changes to the maximum field length for various information, such as addresses.

Furthermore, in the new format the usage of the Standard Chart of Accounts is no longer possible, and all account mappings need to be done to the business statement/næringsspesifikasjonen.

What actions should be taken?

For any company currently using the Standard Chart of Accounts mapping, this mapping should be updated to reflect the business statement mapping instead. This can also be done before the new regulation comes into effect as it is currently optional in the existing version.

For companies that are utilizing a native SAF-T solution integrated into their ERP or accounting systems (i.e., SAP, Oracle, Visma), they should monitor the updates issued by their system providers and implement those as soon as possible.

For companies which are utilizing an external solution to be SAF-T compliant they should investigate whether those solutions are able to capture the relevant changes. For those companies utilizing the KPMG SAF-T as a Service or Manual SAF-T conversion approaches, no immediate action is necessary.

Furthermore, upon update of the relevant system, we recommend to analyse the resulting files to ensure continued compliance in 2025. We recommend doing so even if a previous assessment has concluded compliance due to the significance of the aforementioned changes.