We want to help our clients achieve their goals and overcome their challenges. We aim to create long-lasting client relationships, and our oldest clients have been with us from the very the start.
Below, you can read about our clients’ experiences of working with us.
Since 1935, Salomaa has been operating as a family-owned business offering expert services in marketing and communications. BDO is responsible for the company audits. In addition to auditing services, BDO provides extensive support to Salomaa, for example, through its financial administration expertise, from taxes to company law.
Salomaa is particularly known for its ability to develop its clients’ marketing. This is ensured by Salomaa’s experts – who number more than 400 – in various areas of marketing and communications.
“We provide our clients with expert services in marketing and communications. We are the biggest Finnish family-owned group in the industry. Our revenues in our previous financial statements were EUR 185 million,” says Heidi Govenius, Group Financial Controller at Salomaa Group.
BDO is responsible for the entire group’s audits. The co-operation began around six years ago when Salomaa selected a new principal auditor.
“The first time BDO made an impression on me was when they started as the principal auditor. We had just recently had so many personnel changes that we wanted an expert partner. We had several internal one-time projects that we needed to see through. BDO were there to help us, providing added value and support. It felt as if they truly wanted us to succeed,” says Govenius.
“Currently, we are primarily purchasing auditing services from BDO. In addition, they always lend us their expert help when we need it, whether in relation to taxes, company law or anything else that may come up. In these kinds of situations, we turn to BDO,” says Govenius.
At Salomaa, it is particularly appreciated how BDO brings up different areas to develop or pay attention to in the group in connection with their auditing process. This helps in the development of operations and also in the identification of development areas that could otherwise slip under the radar.
“These development areas may be related to the administration, for instance. It brings added value to our company when we can trust an outside party to evaluate our operations from the development perspective and also highlight possible options. We have great faith in BDO’s expert services,” says Govenius.
Major changes in the public sector and the prevailing global situation set new challenges for the economy of municipalities and cities as well. The work of the financial department of the City of Hämeenlinna is supported by great co-operation and communications between the organisation’s units as well as external partners, such as auditors.
Jussi Oksa, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Hämeenlinna, praises the work community and atmosphere of the city.
“You can always find support when you need it. You simply need to ask, and the staff of the City of Hämeenlinna always offer help, just like BDO. The answers come quickly and the interaction is direct and straightforward,” says Oksa.
He knows that, while the auditing partner must always be meticulous about independence, audit firms can also offer consulting and expertise for various questions. In terms of the co-operation with BDO, Oksa especially appreciates the organisation’s helpful and effortless approach to services, which makes them easy to use and accessible, no matter the location.
The procurement functions of the City of Hämeenlinna, like those of other municipalities of public administration organisations, are carried out in accordance with the Act on Public Contracts. In his role as CFO, Oksa has witnessed several tendering processes but is not personally involved in the request for tenders for the city’s auditing partner.
“The audit committee of the City of Hämeenlinna works independently. This ensures that the position of the parties under audit is not put at risk,” explains Oksa.
While there have been many tendering processes and the members of the audit committee have changed over the years, BDO has been consistently chosen as the partner for the City of Hämeenlinna for more than 17 years.
“From the client’s perspective, having a partner that knows our organisation and ways of working brings its own value. Most of the co-operation is obviously carried out through our contact person Minna Ainasvuori, but we work with other BDO staff as well.”
Oksa also has experience with BDO’s services related to the work of the group’s board of directors. The client experience has always been straightforward, helpful and professional, regardless of the type of service.
“This stems from people, but I think BDO as a company has also really understood how to do things right. The culture and way of working seems to be passed down from one worker to the next, which reflects BDO’s corporate atmosphere and working culture,” says Oksa.
Oksa also mentions that other people in his team have also praised the interaction with BDO.
The war in Ukraine, industrial action, the update to the strategy of the City of Hämeenlinna and the reforms of the well-being services countries make everyday work quite hectic. There may also be changes in the future co-operation models between operators.
“Auditors will play a major role in the well-being services county reforms, for example. They will need to consider matters related to transfers as well as follow-up tasks,” says Oksa.
“Group-related matters in general, such as fusions and consolidated financial statements, are some of the most challenging aspects of audits, and the auditor plays an important, even instructive role in this regard.”
The preparations of the well-being services counties are keeping Oksa and his team busy this year. It is also important to work on balancing the economy.
“I’ve never experienced such a large number of major projects and changes. This is highly exceptional in the municipal sector. If the decision-makers decided in the future to repeat this process of transferring functions away from the municipalities to the same extent as they are doing now, there would be no more municipalities,” says Oksa.
Recently, the corporatisation of city operations has increased the need for expertise.
“Hämeenlinna is the pioneer of the corporatisation of municipalities in Finland. A lot of functions have been sold in recent years. From my perspective, there have been hardly any changes in the content of auditing needs, but the issues seem to be more and more difficult each year; the need for consulting increases and political interest has become more prevalent,” says Oksa.
The auditing processes of corporations and the city are quite similar, but the workload in public administration is usually much larger. The public aspect also brings its own requirements.
The Accounting Act can also complicate matters.
“As the interpretations of the Accounting Act and other accounting regulations can be quite ambiguous, the partner’s internal communications play an important role. In this regard, BDO has always been exemplary by designating a specific expert for a specific matter and always ensuring efficient dialogue.”
Oksa adds that BDO has in-depth understanding of the municipal and public administration sector. BDO also offers various benchmarking opportunities with their solid experience and information on other municipalities and cities.
In public administration, the financial statements are often discussed by the board of directors before the audit.
“In my early days working for the city, many financial statements had to be remade because of mistakes found in the audit, which was unfortunate. We decided to take our cue from some of the other operators in revising our process and had the key parts of the audit completed before the release of the financial statements,” says Oksa.
The City of Hämeenlinna made changes to its operating model and required the Group companies to agree on audits for the spring as early as the preceding autumn and to schedule them before the release of the financial statements. This considerably improved the quality of the consolidated financial statements.
“As a new CFO, this was a momentous change and BDO’s help was irreplaceable in the process,” says Oksa.
Trainers’ House helps people progress towards meaningful goals. The company builds reputation, creates opportunities and generates methods for success.
“We help people progress. That’s our mission,” says Saku Keskitalo, CFO of Trainers’ House. Keskitalo is also in charge of the operations of the subsidiary Ignis Oy.
The core of the operations is also reflected in the internal career development of Trainers’ House’s personnel. The company’s Finance Manager Iiris Nummila started in a marketing role at Trainers’ House’s office in Spain. Then, a position of a financial expert became vacant at the headquarters to which Nummila was able to transfer. Since then, her responsibilities in various positions in financial administration have only increased, leading up to working in the management team of a subsidiary. As of now, Nummila is responsible for the day-to-day running of Trainers’ House’s financial administration and is the only person in the team who deals with financial affairs on a full-time basis – together with the people at BDO.
Trainers’ House became a client of BDO at the end of 2020 with only a one-month transfer period.
“We needed a new partner in financial administration because I made a mistake,” Keskitalo explains.
“The Finance Manager, who had been serving the company for a very long time, left and Iiris’s job description changed. At that point, we acquired a financial administration partner and made a mistake in selecting the partner. The matter went on for a painfully long time,” says Keskitalo, providing background.
When thorough financial administration is an integral part of a company’s operations – particularly in the case of a listed company – certain obligations must be taken into account.
“Trainers’ House had to find a new partner to replace the financial administration partner that had proved unsuitable.”
“We started exploring options for potential partners and, in the review, BDO proved to be the best,” Keskitalo says.
“Above all, we buy expertise. Let’s break this down. Precision: we don’t seek flawlessness, but a high level of accuracy. Special expertise: as a listed company, we need expertise in IFRS, for example. Trust plays a crucial role. We think that BDO’s team is part of our team; both sides do their part properly. We are proactive and make each other shine,” says Keskitalo, describing the co-operation.
Since the beginning, BDO has been very interested in Trainers’ House and has always been thoroughly prepared for meetings. This has increased trust and laid good groundwork for the co-operation from the very first meeting.
“For example, BDO brought IFRS experts already to the first meetings.”
While Trainers’ House is a listed company and thereby has a variety of obligations, it has a small financial team.
“When we were reviewing our options, many players, even large ones, lacked stock exchange expertise. BDO stood out favourably from the competition,” Nummila acclaims.
BDO takes care of Trainers’ House’s VAT issues, tax returns, financial statements, ESEF financial statements for listed companies and accounting, sales invoices excluded. Nummila takes care of all invoicing at Trainers’ House.
“We think that Trainers’ House has been an excellent partner and that the co-operation with them has been built smartly. With them, I get the feeling that we’re in the same boat,” describes Kajsa Backas-Heikkilä, Head of Business Services & Outsourcing at BDO.
BDO’s side of the team includes accountants, IFRS experts and experts in income taxes and VAT. The co-operation includes monthly meetings, but the interaction is close.
“I was last in touch with BDO today. I consider them as much my co-workers as the people in my company,” Nummela says.
“One great thing about the organisational culture of Trainers’ House is the thank-you culture. They thank each other for their work and highlight good things. Of course, they also provide us with suggestions for development and are capable of asking us for what they need. The thank-you culture also motivates the partner,” Backas-Heikkilä ponders.
“BDO’s exceptionally good customer service is reflected in their professional competence and promptness,” Nummila says.
“If we ask BDO for help, they respond to us quickly, and if there is something we don’t quite grasp, they help us understand it. And if the accountant responsible for our affairs at BDO doesn’t know something, they will find out. We are never left alone.”
“The day-to-day work runs very smoothly. What we have in common is that we like to make detailed plans in advance,” Keskitalo adds.
According to Trainers’ House, the focus of the co-operation with BDO lies in the future. Activities are not just limited to correcting mistakes.
“From both personal and business perspectives, time management is very important. From the point of view of the CFO, co-operation is ideal when the focus is on the future instead of the past. We anticipate: these kinds of standards are about to be introduced or changed.”
According to Keskitalo, the co-operation with BDO has freed him up to focus on business management and development.
Five years ago, CFO Saku Keskitalo set two goals for Trainers’ House: financial administration that is completely paperless and that does not rely too much on one person.
“Although financial statements are still in progress, I can say our financial administration is completely paperless. With BDO, we now have a team taking care of financial affairs and we don’t need to worry about the entire workload being on one individual’s shoulders,” says Keskitalo with satisfaction.
Trainers’ House’s co-operation with BDO is still in quite early stages, but the choice of partner has already proven to be the right one. Smooth co-operation has made everyday operations at Trainers’ House calmer, and the current state of the company’s financial administration is considered very satisfactory.
“We’ve experienced in the past how awful preparing financial statements can be. Now we’ve discovered that if it can be this easy, it can actually be quite fun,” Nummila says with a laugh.
“Saku has more time now and I have found peace of mind,” Nummila adds.
Trainers’ House’s mission is to help people progress towards meaningful goals. Trainers’ House builds reputation, creates opportunities and generates methods for success – both for clients and its own employees.
Trainers’ House was established in 1990. The company has 126 full-time equivalent employees and offices in Helsinki, Turku, Oulu and Torrevieja, Spain. Trainers’ House’s turnover for 2021 totalled EUR 10.3 million and its operating profit, which describes business profitability, was EUR 1.3 million (13% of turnover). The company’s equity ratio was 70%. The company has no net debt. Read more at https://www.trainershouse.fi/en/
Xplora Mobile is a Norwegian innovation: a wrist-worn smartwatch for children. The Xplora X5 smartwatch is a child’s first mobile phone and can be used for calling and sending messages. It also features a smartphone application in which the guardian can track the child’s location. Xplora does not have games or access to internet and social media. The co-operation with BDO was initiated so that the head of business operations in Finland could focus on the essential.
“In January 2019, I was given the opportunity to come to Finland to introduce a positive alternative to smartphones for families with children. I knew the challenges of launching a product like this in “Nokialand”, but the entire concept felt good in my heart and I wanted to do something good,” says Timo Vaskio, Xplora Mobile Oy’s CEO and Country Manager in Finland.
“BDO came on board right from the start. With Xplora, I knew that I wanted to focus on the essential, i.e. world-class customer service, sales and marketing. I wanted to outsource everything else,” says Vaskio, providing background.
“BDO had a suitably extensive service offering for our needs. BDO might’ve actually been a little too robust for our early days, but it was important to find right away a good partner with which we could grow. Quality and professional competence, for example in understanding international taxation, were also highly important. I wanted to outsource the entire financial administration to the right partner,” Vaskio explains.
BDO and Xplora Mobile started discussions on co-operation in January 2019. When the co-operation began, BDO helped Xplora with the founding of the company. VAT issues had to be resolved for import within the Nordic countries and for local retail and e-commerce in Finland, and it was easily done with the BDO network. BDO set up all the necessary financial administration services for the new company. These included accounting, reporting, VAT and income taxation, financial statements and minutes of meetings. As of now, BDO acts as Xplora’s outsourced financial administration partner. The service covers payroll, accounting, reporting, financial statements and tax advisory as needed.
“Some of the tax issues of the new company had to be resolved from the start – before we could even start business operations,” Vaskio recalls.
“Fortunately, I chose a professional organisation that took care of even the most technical tax matters. We made extensive use of BDO’s services right from the start, even though we were just a start-up company back then. Now we have grown and employ six people in Finland, our revenues have increased 220% over the past few years and our need for a financial administration partner like BDO is even greater,” Vaskio says.
BDO’s service promise is positively reflected in the day-to-day work.
“For example, if we ask something, we are quickly given an answer that is immediately helpful,” Vaskio describes.
Vaskio appreciates BDO’s competence in tax matters and knowledge of tax rates in international business.
“I have a great support team at BDO; they figure everything out for me.
Vaskio is relieved to be able to trust that the information provided by BDO is legal and verified.
“I can be sure that the information I’m given is accurate,” Vaskio sums up.
Friendly interaction and positive personnel create special value for the partnership. Xplora Mobile is a positive brand, and doing good is deeply rooted in its values.
“It’s great to be able to share the positivity in our partnership with BDO,” Vaskio says.
BDO also values the effortless communication and easy interaction in its partnership with Xplora.
“Communication between us is seamless, which is directly reflected in the quality of performance and reports. People at Xplora are genuinely interested in figures and development, matters are tackled without delay and the necessary information is provided in a timely manner. The efficient and positive attitude is visible across the whole organisation, which makes interactions with them very pleasant and effortless,” says Carita Holmgren, Senior Manager, Accounting and Tax Compliance at BDO.
Vaskio thinks that doing business with people at BDO is easy because they get along well with people.
“Difficult things are told in plain language and we are not bombarded with super technical terms. With BDO, we don’t have to feel stupid. Our suggestions for development are also welcomed and received very constructively.”
Some time ago, Xplora suggested customising its invoice template to be more in line with the visual identity of its brand. At BDO, the idea was met with enthusiasm and work on it was started immediately.
“This is a tiny detail in a big picture, but it speaks volumes of our co-operation. I think we chose our partner well,” Vaskio concludes.
Xplora’s vision is to simplify and secure families’ everyday life by bringing to the market a specifically designed first mobile phone for children. With Xplora Mobile, children will not spend their childhood glued to the screen, but with their arms spread out, safely and within reach. Xplora technology is used by more than 700,000 families across the world. Learn more at https://www.xplora.fi/