LIGHT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
WHAT IS LIGHT ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
Users of the FlexWork invoicing service operate as light entrepreneurs. As a light entrepreneur you decide on the content of your work, its pricing and working times. Invoicing your customer is easy with FlexWork's invoicing service.
Through the service, you can invoice private persons as well as companies, without setting up a company or the associated bureaucracy and risks.
You can use the service for invoicing a single job or for continuous invoicing, as there are no separate monthly payments.
YOU DON’T NEED A BUSINESS-ID
NO ACCOUNTING OBLIGATION
NO SETUP COSTS
NO RUNNING COSTS
YOU DON'T COMMIT TO ANYTHING
NO NEED TO FILE VAT RETURN
FOR WHO LIGHT ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS FOR?
Light entrepreneurship is suitable for professionals in all fields or for those who want to become one.
As a light entrepreneur, you can work in all sectors, with a few exceptions. For example, you can be in IT, construction, or design, what is your thing?
For students and working people
You can work in different fields at the same time or alongside your day jobs/studies.
For those who dream of entrepreneurship
Light entrepreneurship is a risk-free way to test the functionality of your business idea in peace before officially starting your business. Light entrepreneurship is not an obstacle to startup grant, vice versa.
For those who dream of freedom
You may have once dreamed of entrepreneurship or have founded a company, but you prefer to use your time for something other than taking care of the mandatory duties of an entrepreneur.
LIGHT ENTREPRENEUR,
WE TAKE CARE OF YOU
We take care of you and the paperwork for you for a service fee, so you can focus on doing your work.
PROCESSING EXPENSES
We handle daily and food allowances, expense receipts and mileage allowances for you.
SALARY PAYMENT
We calculate your salary and pay it to your bank account right away after receiving the payment.
INSURANCES
You are insured with accident and liability insurance for the duration of the assignments.
STATUTORY FEES
We take care of authority fees, VAT and health insurance fees for you.
STATUTORY NOTICES
We take care of notifications to the Incomes Register and the Tax Administration for you.
INVOICE BASE AND SENDING
Create invoices for your customer using an easy invoice template, we will send them to your customer in the format you wish.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Our customer service will help you in problem situations. You are not alone with us.
DEBT COLLECTION
We take care of payment reminders and debt collection for you without any extra costs.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
In the invoicing service, you can apply for open assignments and gigs, which will help you increase the amount of your invoicing.
CONTRACT BASES & REPORTS
You can download assignment agreements and reports to support your operations directly from the service.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
IN GENERAL
- A light entrepreneur is a self-employed person with the status of an entrepreneur who uses an invoicing service for his work. Light entrepreneurship is a new and trendy option for starting your own business. Light entrepreneurs are private persons who operate without their own business-ID. Light entrepreneurs operate independently by getting their own clients, determine the price of their work and decide when they work.
- As a light entrepreneur, you don't need your own company or Business-ID.You can work without the bureaucratic steps associated with entrepreneurship. You avoid paperwork, accounting and expensive invoicing programs. Best of all, you don't have to start a company to sell your own skills and activities, but you get to do work you like and get an income from it through the invoicing service (FlexWork). Light entrepreneurship is a great way to test your wings in the world of entrepreneurship, as you get to test the profitability of your business idea and practice marketing and pricing your own service.
- By registering on the FlexWork light entrepreneur platform. Determine the price of your own work. Contact and agree the work assignment with the customer. Complete the assignment, after which you make an invoice on FlexWork's invoicing platform. FlexWork takes care of all the paperwork and pays the salary to the light entrepreneur.
1. Agree on the assignment with your client
2. Do the work
3. Create an invoice in FlexWork's invoicing service
4. Get your salary
- Light entrepreneurship is suitable for almost any industry. However light entrepreneurship is not suitable for industries that require large purchases, such as equipment. It should also be noted that as a light entrepreneur, you can’t invoice the following work:
- Waterproofing work in wet areas without the related field training and the required certificate..
- Electrical work, without electrician training. Even if the light entrepreneur has training suitable for the field, the invoiced customer company must have an electrical contracting license..
- Jobs that require a special permit, such as guarding, health care jobs or real estate brokerage.
- Food sales
- Personal meeting, lecture or presentation fees cannot be invoiced as a light entrepreneur.
- Transport and machine contracting work when the total mass of the vehicle exceeds 3500 kg. However, invoicing as a light entrepreneur is possible if you own or rent the vehicle and its total mass is less than 3500 kg. Note! When the total mass of the vehicle is 2000-3500kg, you are then required to make a separate declaration on goods transport.
- One big advantage of light entrepreneurship is precisely that you can work in as many fields at the same time as you want. Only you define your own limits and work as much as you want.
- Yes you can. We handle all invoicing-related actions and notifications for you. You create an invoice for the customers and we take care of the money transfer, after which you get your salary. There is no maximum number of clients and you can work for as many clients as you want and can handle.
- From a tax and accounting point of view, a light entrepreneur is seen as a wage earner. In terms of unemployment security a light entrepreneur is considered an entrepreneur.
- As a light entrepreneur, you operate in the middle ground between entrepreneur and wage earner, benefiting from the best aspects of both titles. As a light entrtepreneur you market your own work and agree on its content and prices directly with your clients. You avoid the responsibilities and difficulties of an entrepreneur. All the time and costs generally used to start a business are removed from light entrepreneurs. We handle all notifications related to your invoicing for you, and you can spend your time focusing on work and doing what you like.
- As a light entrepreneur you have the opportunity to earn more with your own expertise, utilizing your own work experience. Since there are no running costs from light entrepreneurship, you can choose when you work, for example, in addition to paid work, without worrying about financial costs. You can invoice for seasonal, occasional or hobby-based additional work easily and conveniently.
- Light entrepreneurship is exactly for you, who feel that your skills and professionalism have not been appreciated and that your work has not yet favored you as desired. As a light entrepreneur you market your own skills, where you get to carry out work in your own field or try working in new fields and thereby find employment as a full-time.
- The benefits of light entrepreneurship are precisely that you work when it suits you and determine your workload, so light entrepreneurship is a perfect option to earn additional income even during parental leave.
- For students, light entrepreneurship works as a great way to earn a little extra income. As a light entrepreneur, you can gather work experience in the form of gigs in your field, try your hand at working life before graduation, or work alongside your studies according to your own schedule.
- There is no age limit for light entrepreneurs. If in retirement you feel that you want to return to the taste of working, through our service you can make use of years of work experience and continue to bring your expertise to customers. You can work as long as you have enough enthusiasm.
INSURANCES
- Light entrepreneurs must be taken care of as well as all employees. Therefore, the FlexWork invoicing service insures light entrepreneurs with accident and liability insurance. So if damage occurs during a work gig, you are covered by comprehensive insurance. Accident and liability insurance is automatically valid for your work when invoicing through FlexWork and it belongs to all those invoicing through the service without a separate charge in addition to our 3% (and 2.5% surcharge) service fee.
- Light entrepreneurs are always insured with liability insurance during assignments. If human injuries occur during the work, such as material damage during assignments, for which the light entrepreneur is responsible, the liability insurance compensates such damages in accordance with the insurance conditions up to a maximum of 1,000,000 euros per damage, so that the light entrepreneur remains to be paid the deductible according to the insurance conditions and the VAT portion of the compensation. The recipient of the liability insurance is always an external operator, such as the client.
- We hope that these cases will not occur, but sometimes accidents and injuries happen during work as well. All of our light entrepreneurs are insured against accidents like this. Accident insurance also covers accidents that happened on the way to work, as well as expenses caused by occupational diseases caused by work. Accident insurance pays compensation in the event of an accident up to 20,000 euros/accident in accordance with the valid insurance terms, coverages and amounts, when the accident has occurred with an order invoiced through the Flexwork invoicing service.
- FlexWork's goal is to make the work of light entrepreneurs smooth and effortless, that's why insurance is offered to light entrepreneurs without separate costs. You are therefore automatically insured when operating as a light entrepreneur through FlexWork.
- If an accident occurs, please contact Fennia.
The Fennia nurse can be reached at 010 503 5000 every day from 7 am to 11 pm.
- Say that you work as a light entrepreneur through FlexWork. If necessary, state the insurance number. You can find this by logging in from the insurance certificates on the "reports" page or ask our customer service in the chat.
- In serious accidents, always contact the emergency number first.
- Many invoicing services do not consider professionals from different fields in their insurance, so when choosing an invoicing service, you should note that the offered insurances also cover your own industry.
FlexWork has considered different sectors in insurance so that as many people as possible would benefit from insurance. You are therefore covered by comprehensive insurance if you operate in the following fields:
• as a service or sales employee
• as an office or customer service employee
• in the creative field
• in the field of design
• in the construction industry
• as a transport worker
• in the cleaning or care sector
• as a supervisor/teacher
• as a social media influencer
• as a photographer or videographer
• as a moving or warehouse worker
• as an athlete
You can find the insurance certificates by logging in on the reports page.
- You need YEL-insurance if your earnings are more than 9 010,28e (2024) during the current year, you are 18-70 years old and you do not receive a pension according to the occupational pension laws and you send invoices repeatedly through FlexWork.
- YEL and TyEL payments and the difference between them have often aroused surprise! As a light entrepreneur you have to take care of your pension payments yourself. The pension is paid in YEL (entrepreneur's pension) because as a light entrepreneur you are covered by the entrepreneur's pension insurance. If you work as an employee your employer has taken care of the pension payments for you, which are always itemized on the pay slip as TyEL, (the employee's pension payment). The clearest difference between these insurances is that TyEL is deducted from the employee's gross salary in salaried jobs. As a light entrepreneur your YEL payment is calculated from the YEL income you choose from the salary you receive as a light entrepreneur not from the invoice price. A salary is generated from your invoice from which VAT is paid, after which the health insurance is deducted if the small entrepreneur has YEL insurance.
- If you work as a light entrepreneur in addition to your paid work, the YEL insurance limit applies to you as well, in which case you may have to pay YEL insurance for sideline light entrepreneurship.
- YEL income is not the same as gross salary.YEL income is officially defined as follows: "YEL income is determined as an annual sum that is estimated to correspond to your work input during 12 months." As a general rule, however, the gross income of light entrepreneurs is at least the same amount as the work income, so the gross salary is a good starting point when evaluating the work income.
- Value added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax that is paid on almost all goods and services. Value added tax is either included or added to the invoiced work price depending on what has been agreed with the customer. The customer is always the payer of VAT.
- Almost all jobs are subject to 24% VAT, but there are exceptions.
- Construction work is usually covered by reverse VAT, in which case you can choose a separate reverse VAT for the invoice, in which case the company liable for VAT is the invoiced company.
- The scope of 10% value added tax generally includes exercise guidance and the sale of art objects.
- 0% VAT includes the assignment of copyrights, performance fees, sales of insurance services and invoicing of a company in another EU country, invoicing outside the EU, international work on ships and work on water vessels.
- If you are unsure about the VAT to be used, you should primarily contact the Tax Administration,because ultimately you are always responsible for the correctness of the information.
If your invoiced customer is a company, the VAT does not actually increase the final price of the invoiced service as companies can deduct the VAT in their own taxation.
- In the FlexWork assignment contract the price of the work is agreed in the form of the price of the work/service + VAT unless otherwise agreed separately.
- In general, when invoicing private individuals, the price includes VAT.
- If the invoiced customer is a company, VAT is usually added to the amount of the invoiced work/service.
- You don't have to worry about VAT because you operate as a light entrepreneur. FlexWork takes care of the necessary notifications to the Tax Administration and the Incomes Register on your behalf.
- You can find out the share of value added tax as follows: Price (incl. VAT) x tax rate / (100 + tax rate)
For example you invoice 100e including 24% VAT for cleaning. The share of value added tax is calculated as follows:
100e x 24 / (100 + 24)
= 100e x 24 / 124
= 19,35e
If you need help pricing your service, you can use our Salary Calculator..
- You can see from the invoice status whether the invoice has already been paid. You will also receive an automatic notification to your email when the salary has been paid to your bank account.
- The salary is paid to your account as soon as we have received the payment from your client. Depending on the connections between the banks, this usually takes 1-2 business days.
– Palkkasi ei ole sama summa, jonka olet laskuttanut asiakkaaltasi. Vähennämme laskuttamastasi summasta FlexWorkin palvelumaksun 3%, lisämaksun 2,5% ja käytettävän arvonlisäveron (yleensä 24%). Tämän lisäksi vähennämme ennakonpidätyksen verokorttisi mukaisesti. Jos olet YEL-vakuutusvelvollinen, vähennämme myös sairausvakuutusmaksun (1,16%).
EXPENSES
- The expenses added to the invoice line are deducted before the salary calculation, in which case no taxes are paid and you receive them in your account, excluding withholding tax. For unspecified expenses related to billable work, you can apply for an income generation deduction in your own taxation.
- You can deduct all expenses that are mandatory for the income of a light entrepreneur in your own taxation.
- The fee paid to the invoicing service company and the health insurance are automatically deducted from the light entrepreneur's taxable salary, so they can no longer be deducted in your own taxation.
Deductible expenses are e.g. YEL insurance payment and work-related travel expenses. If you work remotely you can also entitled to apply for a workroom deduction and a tax deduction for workroom furniture.
INVOICING
- Yes! As long as the work itself is done in Finland. When creating an invoice, select the country and VAT identifier of the customer to be invoiced. Remember to check that VAT is 0% in the invoice settings and select tax-free sales outside the EU or tax-free sales within the EU as the reason for 0% VAT.
- Unfortunately, cash payments are not possible as a light entrepreneur.
- You can! Your customer can be a company or a private person. If you are invoicing a private person, the payment period should be at least 14 days. You can change this in the payment settings of the invoice.
- Asiakkaasi on oikeutettu kotitalousvähennykseen, jos teet kotitalousvähennykseen oikeuttavaa työtä. Tätä on esimerkiksi remontointi, lumityöt, asennustyöt, siivous tai hoitotyö.
Lue lisää ehdoista: Vero.fi..
- If you have an active Business-ID, you can’t invoice through the light entrepreneur services, because the income is treated as a salary and the entrepreneur can’t pay themselves a salary.
- If you have a business, but you want to continue your activity through the FlexWork invoicing service as a light entrepreneur, you must fill in a business termination notice.
VALTTICARD
– Valtticard is a pictorial chip card that is required as personal identification on construction work. The Valtticard also acts as a key, which allows you to get to the construction work areas without problems.
–As our customer, you can order the Valtticard to construction work through us for 50e (incl. VAT 24% and delivery costs). For the order, we need a notification from you by e-mail to the address: asiakaspalvelu@flexework.fi. Liitäthän viestiin mukaan seuraavat tiedot:
- A clear face photo similar to a passport photo
- Your full name
- Tax number (can be found on the tax card, OmaVero service or by calling the Tax Administration) Notice that the tax number must be registered in the public tax number register. The tax number is not entered automatically, but must be requested separately.
We process the order after receiving the payment and the necessary materials for the Valtticard. After this, you will receive the Valtticard by mail within about 3-5 business days.
MORE QUESTIONS?
If you still have questions and the answer to your question was not found, please contact our customer service!
