Payment gateways
Swish, card, Klarna and invoice: what each payment method requires and costs, for registered businesses and for UF companies.
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What you get from this
You need to get paid, and the question is how. This guide shows which payment methods exist, what each service requires from you, what it costs and what you do step by step. When you are done, customers can pay you, you can issue receipts and you know which fees eat into the profit before they show up in the account.
A registered company with an organization number can sign agreements with all the payment services in the guide. A UF company has fewer options, and you will find them in the UF tabs.
We describe agreements and VAT as we read the rules. The exact rules are with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket), and the terms with your bank and the payment provider; read them before you sign.
What is required to sign the contracts
For UF companies
A UF company has no organization number and no other number; the company has its name and nothing more. It cannot sign contracts as a company and cannot be registered for VAT. Payment services that require an organization number therefore cannot be used at all.
Agreements with banks and payment services must also be signed by someone who is of legal age. In practice this becomes a parent, or the school together with the bank. And the money? It is yours. The UF company is not a separate legal entity, so it is you, the part owners, who own the business and what it earns. All payments should therefore go into an account you have control over, never into someone's private wallet.
For sole trader
You register the business with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and apply there for F-tax and, if needed, VAT registration. The organization number is your personal identity number, so you can sign agreements with banks and payment services right away. The bank requires the registration with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket); registration with the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket) is voluntary and not a requirement for a business account.
Legally everything is yours, but bookkeeping requires that the business's money is kept separate from your private money. A separate account for the business makes this easy.
For trading partnerships and limited partnerships
The company gets its organization number when the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket) has registered it, and you apply for F-tax and VAT from the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket). The agreements are signed by the person who is authorized to represent the company. When you open an account, the bank must check the identity of the company and its representatives, find out who owns or controls more than 25 percent, and ask what the account will be used for. This is a legal requirement for the bank, not distrust.
The money belongs to the company, and each partner is taxed for their share of the profit regardless of whether the money is withdrawn or stays in the company. Everything goes into the company account. Nobody Swishes money to themselves.
For limited companies
The company gets its organization number when the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket) has registered it. Before that, the share capital, at least 25,000 kronor, must be deposited into a special account, and the bank certifies the deposit; the certificate is needed for the registration. F-tax and VAT are reported to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket). It is the signatory who signs the agreements with the bank and payment services.
The money belongs to the company, not the owners. It comes out as salary or dividends, and the company generally may not lend money to its owners.
Time and difficulty
An account and Swish Företag often take a week from the first bank meeting to the first payment, with an hour or so of work. An agreement for card payments takes a few more days. The difficulty is low. The hardest part is not the technology but getting everyone who sells to use the same number, the same account and the same routine.
Payment methods compared
| Payment method | What is required | Cost | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swish Företag | An agreement with the bank and a business account | About 500 to 600 kronor per year plus 1.50 to 2 kronor per payment, varies between banks | Sales in person, events and to private individuals |
| Cash | Change, a till and a routine for counting and storing | No fees, but a security risk and extra work | Small purchases where the customer does not use Swish |
| Bank transfer | A business account, preferably with a bank giro | Free or almost free | Larger orders and companies that want an invoice |
| Klarna | A merchant agreement with a registered company | Fixed fees plus a few percent per purchase | Web shops where the customer wants to pay later |
| Stripe | An account in the company's name, linked to the business account | About 1.5 percent plus a fixed fee per card payment | Card payment in a web shop |
| PayPal | A business account with PayPal | About 3 percent plus a fixed fee per payment | Customers outside Sweden and simple link payments |
| Mollie | An agreement with Mollie for a registered company, no separate agreement with the bank or Klarna | No monthly fee. Swedish cards 1.20 percent plus 2.80 kronor, Swish 0.90 percent plus 3 kronor and Klarna 2.99 percent plus 5.15 kronor per payment | Web shops that want Klarna, Swish, card and bank transfer in the same checkout |
The prices are approximate and change, but the order holds: Swish and bank transfer are cheapest, while card and Klarna cost one or a few percent per purchase. Mollie's prices are the ones in their price list in September 2026.
Mollie: several payment methods in one agreement
Mollie gathers Klarna, Swish, bank transfer and card in one and the same agreement. You sign the agreement with Mollie and avoid negotiating with the bank and Klarna separately, and there is no fixed monthly fee for online payments. For a small company it is often the cheapest way to get all four payment methods in the checkout at once. Swish via Mollie usually requires a Swedish bank account and an organization number, just like Swish Företag at the bank. Mollie has ready-made extensions for WooCommerce, among others.
For UF companies
Swish, cash and bank transfer work. You get Swish Företag through a bank with special terms for UF companies, often with no fee during the UF year, or through a parent's or the school's account. Stripe and PayPal require an adult account holder, so in that case the account is in a parent's name. Klarna and Mollie do not work, because they sign agreements with companies that have an organization number.
How to do it
An approach that suits most businesses: Swish for sales in person, bank transfer against invoice for larger purchases, and card payment when you sell online.
Step 1: Open an account and Swish Företag
For UF companies
Book a meeting at a bank that has terms for UF companies. Bring the UF company's name, board minutes appointing who may handle the money (the template is available when logged in at ungforetagsamhet.se), ID, and, if any of you is under 18, the consent form that all guardians sign. Ask for Swish Företag and an account during the UF year.
If the bank says no, a parent or the school can link a Swish number to an existing account, with the UF company's name as the recipient name. Write a simple agreement, within the company and with the parent, that the money in the account belongs to the UF company's operations, meaning to you as part owners, and is reported separately. Never mix UF money with the household's money.
For sole trader
Book a meeting with your bank, or another one if the terms are better there. Bring identification and the notice about F-tax from the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket). Ask about a business account and Swish Företag in the same meeting, so you avoid a second visit.
For trading partnerships and limited partnerships
Book a meeting with the bank and bring the registration certificate from the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket), the partnership agreement and ID for those who will have access to the account. Expect questions about who owns the company and what the account will be used for. Ask about Swish Företag and bankgiro at the same meeting.
For limited companies
There is an order to follow here. The share capital is deposited into an account before the company is registered, and the bank confirms the deposit. Once the registration certificate is available, the authorized signatory takes it and their ID to the bank. Ask for Swish Företag and a bank giro account in the same meeting.
Step 2: Activate Swish and test
When the agreement is ready, you get a Swish number. Put it on the sign, on social media and on the receipts. Make a test payment of 1 kronor before the first sale.
Step 3: Set up bank transfer for larger purchases
Companies and associations that buy from you often pay via bankgiro or transfer against invoice. State the account number or bankgiro number on the quote and invoice, and ask for a reference, for example the invoice number, so that you can match the payment.
Step 4: Add card payment if you sell online
Open a Stripe account in the company's name and connect it to the business account. Stripe asks questions about the business; answer as it is. Include the fee of around 1.5 percent plus a fixed fee in the price. PayPal works the same way but is more expensive, so save it for foreign customers. If you want to offer installment payments or invoice via the web shop, Klarna is the next step. If you want Klarna, Swish and card in the same checkout without signing agreements with each one, Mollie is the easiest route: one account, one plugin in the web shop and one fee per payment.
For UF companies
If you need to accept card payments in a web shop, a parent opens a Stripe account as the account holder and connects it to the account where the UF company's money is held. Answer Stripe's questions about the business honestly.
VAT and fees
If the company is registered for VAT, VAT must be added to the price and reported to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket); the payment services do not do that for you. Prices to private individuals are always shown including VAT. A company based in Sweden that sells for no more than 120,000 kronor per calendar year, and has not exceeded the limit in either of the two previous years, is automatically exempt from VAT. The exemption requires no application, and the company then does not need to register for VAT. In that case it does not add any VAT to its prices. If sales exceed 120,000 kronor during the year, VAT must be charged from and including the sale that passed the limit, and the company must then register for VAT with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket). How often VAT is reported depends on the size: with a taxable base of no more than 1 million SEK per year, once a year is enough, up to 40 million SEK once a quarter, and above that every month.
The payment services deduct their fee before the money reaches the account. Record the payout gross, with the fee as a separate cost; otherwise both the VAT and the result will be wrong.
For UF companies
A UF company cannot be registered for VAT, so you do not add VAT to your prices. But there is a downside: neither you nor your customers can deduct any VAT. A business customer who expects the deduction therefore has to pay the full amount, and it is good to say so before the deal is made.
How you know it worked
- A test payment of 1 krona shows up on the account within a minute, with the correct recipient name.
- There is a written decision, agreement or registration certificate showing who is allowed to handle the money.
- You can issue a correct receipt: the company name, date, what was sold, price and payment method. If you are registered for VAT, the invoice must also show the VAT registration number, VAT rate and VAT amount.
- Every payment can be linked to a sale in the bookkeeping, with no guessing.
If something goes wrong
- The customer paid to the wrong number. Ask the customer to contact their bank about a recall. If the money cannot be recovered, the company has to cover the loss, and the lesson is to always read the number out loud before the customer sends.
- Customers Swish to a private individual instead. Stop that right away. It muddles whose money it is, makes the bookkeeping wrong and can lead to tax questions for that person. Set up the right number everywhere.
- Fees that eat the profit. Card fees of 3 percent sound small but take 300 kronor from an order of 10,000. Factor the fee into the price and choose Swish or bank transfer for larger orders.
- The account gets mixed up with private money. Whether it is the owner's account or, in a UF company, a parent's: a separate account, a written decision and separate bookkeeping from day one.
What you do next
Now the money starts coming in, and then you need to keep track of it. The guide Bookkeeping shows how every payment is recorded correctly from the start. If you run a UF company, Closing in June is the guide for when the year ends.