How to code a supplier invoice (kontera faktura)

Kontera comes from konto, the Swedish word for account. When you kontera an invoice, you choose the accounts and amounts for each line so that the invoice can be booked. The choice itself is called kontering, and so is the finished set of lines with account, debit and credit.

You take the accounts from the company's chart of accounts (kontoplan). Most Swedish companies use the BAS chart of accounts, where the first digit gives the account class: 1 is assets, 2 is liabilities and equity, 3 is revenue, and 4 to 8 are costs. Kontering and bokföring (bookkeeping) are not the same thing. Kontering is the step where you choose accounts. Bookkeeping is the whole job of recording transactions on an ongoing basis, with vouchers (verifikationer) and supporting documents.

Debit and credit are the two sides of every entry, and they must be equal. That is why a correct kontering always balances: the amount debited equals the amount credited.

Take an invented invoice for IT services: SEK 10,000 plus SEK 2,500 in VAT, so SEK 12,500 to pay. A supplier invoice is booked twice. First when you register the invoice, which is when the cost and the debt arise. Then when you pay it, which clears the debt.

Registration. The cost is debited to 6540 IT-tjänster (IT services). The VAT is debited to an input VAT account (ingående moms), here 2641 Debiterad ingående moms. The debt is credited to 2440 Leverantörsskulder. The entry below uses the invoice method (faktureringsmetoden). Under the cash method (kontantmetoden), the invoice is only booked when it is paid.

The debt and the VAT are coded the same way on almost every invoice. What varies is the cost account. The table shows eight accounts that come up often. The account numbers and names follow the BAS chart of accounts as used in Fortnox's bookkeeping tips (October 2026, in Swedish). Your company may have added its own accounts, so always check against your own chart of accounts.

The difference between 5410 and 5460 is how long the item is used. According to Fortnox, 5460 is for things used up within a year, and 5410 for things that last up to three years (fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish). An invoice with several different items is coded per line, so one invoice can end up on several cost accounts.

Under the reverse charge, the invoice shows no VAT. You report the VAT yourself, which means you post both output VAT (utgående moms) and input VAT (ingående moms). It applies to, among other things, certain construction services and services from suppliers abroad.

For reverse-charge construction VAT, Fortnox shows 2614 Utgående moms, omvänd skattskyldighet, 25 % and 2644 Ingående moms, omvänd momsskyldighet, 25 % (fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish). For services from abroad, Fortnox shows 2614 together with 2645 Beräknad ingående moms (fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish). Output and input VAT are equal, so the VAT does not change how much you pay Skatteverket when you have full right of deduction. The invoice itself is coded with the cost and the debt to the supplier. The account numbers for reverse-charge VAT differ between charts of accounts, so check them against the chart of accounts your company uses.

If the purchase is equipment with a longer life, it should be capitalized on an account in group 12, for example 1220 Inventarier och verktyg, and depreciated over time. If the value is low, it can be expensed straight away. The limit is half a price base amount (prisbasbelopp), excluding VAT (fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish). The price base amount for 2026 is SEK 59,200 according to Skatteverket (October 2026, in Swedish), so half of it is SEK 29,600. An item with a useful life of more than three years and a higher value than that should be capitalized. Which year's amount applies to your financial year, and how the limit is counted for several items that belong together, you should check with your accountant.

Representation is coded on separate accounts for the deductible and the non-deductible part, so that the VAT and the deduction come out right. How much is deductible depends on who the meal or activity was for, and the account numbers have changed between BAS versions. Fortnox uses, for example, 7632 Personalrepresentation, ej avdragsgill (staff entertainment, non-deductible) (fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish). Check the numbers in your own chart of accounts, and split the invoice over two lines when it contains both parts.

An invoice that covers a whole year, for example a license or an insurance policy, should be spread over the months it covers. This is called periodisering (accrual). The part that belongs to the next period is booked as a prepaid expense, usually on 1790 Övriga förutbetalda kostnader och upplupna intäkter (other prepaid expenses and accrued income). In Fortnox you add the accrual directly on the supplier invoice with the Periodisering tool (support.fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish).

A credit note is coded like the original invoice, but in the opposite direction. 2440 Leverantörsskulder is debited, and the cost and the input VAT are credited. In Fortnox you open the original invoice and choose Skapa kreditfaktura (create credit invoice), or register a new invoice with a minus sign in the total amount (support.fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish).

In Fortnox, the program places the debt and the VAT on the default accounts when you choose a supplier. The cost account comes from the supplier's predefined counter account (motkonto), which you set under Bokföringsuppgifter (accounting details) on the supplier. If the supplier has no default coding, you fill in the account yourself on the invoice. You can also pull in the lines from the supplier's latest booked invoice with Kontering från förra fakturan (coding from the previous invoice), or attach a coding template (konteringsmall) if the invoice should be split over several accounts (support.fortnox.se, October 2026, in Swedish).

That works well for suppliers who always sell the same thing and less well when the invoices are mixed. Then someone has to check every line. Read more about the whole flow in our walkthrough of supplier invoices in Fortnox (in Swedish).

Nordsynk Supplier Invoices suggests a coding for each line. The suggestion is based first on how the same supplier's latest invoices were booked in Fortnox: account, VAT, cost center and project. If there is no history, the supplier's default account in Fortnox is used. If that is missing too, an AI makes a suggestion that is limited to the company's active accounts. Each line shows the reason for the account.