How to grant mandates

Mandates show Customs who can handle customs transactions on behalf of a company (e.g. submit customs declarations in the Customs Clearance Service). Once granted, mandates remain valid until the end of their period of validity or until they are cancelled. In almost all cases, the mandates are granted in the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service.

Mandates must be granted in these situations

1. When company X handles its own customs transactions, but the customs transactions are handled by a person other than the managing director indicated in the Trade Register or a person authorised to sign for the company.

The managing director or a person authorised to sign for the company must, in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, grant a mandate for transactions to persons handling customs transactions in the organisation. Check the instructions for Suomi.fi e-Authorizations here.

Note that the managing director is the only one in the company who can use the CBAM Transitional Registry without a mandate.

2. When company X authorises company Y acting as a representative, such as a forwarding agency or an accounting firm, to handle the customs transactions on its behalf.

The authorisation method depends on the service the mandate concerns. Note that you can’t authorise a representative to use the Message exchange testing service (IAT) at all.

1.  Authorise a company acting as a representative to use the following e-services in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations

  • Intrastat Declaration Service
  • Customs Decisions System (CDS)
  • BTI service
  • eAEO service
  • INF service for special procedures
  • REX System
  • Attachment Upload
  • EORI Number Registration Service
  • Authorisations and Decisions Service
  • My Details service

However, Customs does not recommend authorising a representative to use the Authorisations and Decisions Service, the Customs Decisions System, the eAEO service or the service INF Special Procedures, as the representative can view all the details of the principal in the organisation that granted the mandate.

2. Authorise a company acting as a representative to use these e-services, either Suomi.fi e-Authorizations or e.g. through a forwarding agreement

  • Customs Clearance Service (entry, import, warehousing, storage and transit declarations and declarations concerning Åland)
  • Export Declaration Service
  • Arrival and Exit Declaration Service (AREX)
  • ICS2 Declaration Service for Safety and Security Data (STI-STP)
  • Proof of Union Status (PoUS) system

Please note:

  • With the mandate “Customs clearance” granted to another company in the Suomi.fi service, persons of the company acting as a representative can only view the declarations submitted by their own company in Customs’ e-services. 
  • With the mandate “Customs clearance” granted to another company in the Suomi.fi service, persons of the company acting as a representative can view all the assignor’s declarations in the Proof of Union Status (PoUS) system, on the “My Proofs” list. However, the representative can only view the data content of declarations submitted by their own company and print out proofs.
  • If you authorise a representative to use the Proof of Union Status (PoUS) system by other means than Suomi.fi authorisation, the representative will enter themselves as the declarant, and the name of your company will not show at all in the notification.
  • If the person has been mandated in the Suomi.fi service with the mandate “Customs clearance”, they may also, after the mandate is no longer valid, see and process in the Customs Clearance Service the declarations of the principal that they have submitted as a representative while the mandate was valid.

3. When company X acting as a representative handles the customs transactions, but the customs transactions are handled by a person other than the managing director indicated in the Trade Register or a person authorised to sign for the company.

The managing director or a person authorised to sign for the company must, in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, grant a mandate to represent to persons handling customs transactions in the organisation. Check the instructions for Suomi.fi e-Authorizations here.

Note that the managing director is the only one in the company who can use the CBAM Transitional Registry without a mandate.

Customer support

Suomi.fi identification and authorisation:

Customs transactions:

Updated: