Annual accounts

Use this when someone asks for the annual report of a smaller Swedish aktiebolag: an årsredovisning under årsredovisningslagen (1995:1554) that follows Bokföringsnämndens K2 rules (BFNAR 2016:10). The figures come from the company's own books, a trial balance (saldobalans) or last year's report. The report sets them out; it never makes them up.

A drafting check, not accounting advice: it reads which parts are there and whether the numbers add up, never whether a valuation, a tax figure or a dividend is right. The board signs the report and answers for it (ÅRL 2 kap. 7 §; Directive 2013/34/EU Art. 33).

A smaller company is one whose shares or other securities are not traded on a regulated market and that does not pass more than one of these in each of the last two years: 50 employees on average, 40 million kronor in total assets, 80 million kronor in net sales (ÅRL 1 kap. 3 § första stycket 4, as in force on 2026-10-20; Sweden kept these figures when Delegated Directive (EU) 2023/2775 raised the Directive's limits). A larger company, or a smaller one that has chosen K3 (BFNAR 2012:1), needs more than this pack writes: say so and stop.

How to make one

1. Read what the person gave you: the trial balance, last year's report, their notes. Ask nothing they already say.
2. Write a small spec file (JSON). Start from templates/arsredovisning-konsult.spec.json (Swedish, a two-person consultancy with a profit and a dividend) or templates/annual-report-cleaning.spec.json (English, a cleaning company with a loss and a shareholder contribution). "language": "sv" or "en".
3. Put every account into the line it belongs to (the keys are listed in the script). Income is positive and costs negative, as they print. Give this year and last year as [this, last].
4. Ask only for what the report cannot be laid out without, when the notes leave it out: the board and the managing director who sign, the dividend the board proposes and the average number of employees. Never fill one in yourself. The rest can wait for the person, so build the draft without it: last year's figures, net sales, result after financial items and equity ratio for the two years before last year (report.earlier_years, for the multi-year overview), what happened during the year (report.events) and the date the board signs (signing.date). Declare each one the notes leave out in "unknown": ["prior", "report.earlier_years", "report.events", "signing.date"]. The page leaves it empty, the script's warnings name it, and your reply names it as still open. With "prior" unknown, give this year's figures only ([this, null], this year's retained earnings from the trial balance) and the last year's dates in prior. Put what you do have for last year, such as its net sales and result after financial items, in report.earlier_years.
5. Build the report:

python3 <skill folder>/scripts/annual_create.py spec.json arsredovisning.docx

The script adds up every subtotal and result, works out this year's equity from last year's and the changes ("retained": [null, last year]), and prints warnings where the figures you gave disagree. A warning is a question for the person, never something to smooth over. 6. Run the pack check and fix what it names: python3 <skill folder>/../_checks/packcheck.py annual-accounts <your output>

Nothing given is left off

annual_create.py stops before anything is laid out when the spec holds a key it has no field for, a value of another shape, or a line the income statement or balance sheet does not have, and names it (spec.fields.json beside this file lists every key; the lines are INCOME, ASSETS and LIABILITIES in the script). What the report must say that has no field goes in notes, each with a title and a text. Never leave a fact out to make the error go away: put it where the message says, or say in your reply what the page does not carry.

Run the check with --in and the working folder. It then reads the person's own files there and asks, once and never as a fail (NOTES-FLOOR): which e-mail addresses, numbers, dates and amounts the notes hold and the page does not, which of them the page carries changed. Answer the question once: put each on the page as the notes have it, or say in your reply why it does not belong there. Never change one to shorten the list.

Work in the working folder, the folder the person is working in: write the data file there, run the script from there by its full path (<skill folder> is the folder this file is in) and give the output a path there. The builder refuses an output path inside the library's own folder, where the person never looks; hand back the path in the working folder.

What the report holds, in this order

The page follows the shape of the published Swedish examples (the K2 general advice's own examples and the reports companies file): the first page names the company, its organisation number and the year, then the management report; the income statement, the balance sheet (assets on one page, equity and liabilities on the next), the notes and the signatures each start a new page; every later page carries the company, its organisation number and "2 (6)" in its header. Amounts sit right-aligned in the same columns throughout, with a space between thousands and a true minus sign in Swedish and a comma in English; only subtotals and totals are bold, under a thin rule.

A smaller company may merge the balance sheet items preceded by arabic numerals (ÅRL 3 kap. 4 §; Directive Art. 14), and the first items of the income statement into one gross profit line (ÅRL 3 kap. 11 §). The script writes the lines that carry a figure in either year and leaves out the rest.

The builder warns when the multi-year overview has fewer than four years or when net sales move by more than 30 percent between two of them (BFNAR 2016:10 punkt 5.5). A younger company has fewer years; say so. For the swing, ask the company what happened and put it in report.events.

Who may not use K2

K2 (BFNAR 2016:10) is only for a smaller company (ÅRL 1 kap. 3 § första stycket 5), and BFN's own scope rules (punkter 1.1A to 1.1C, as amended by BFNAR 2025:2) leave these out. Ask before you write a K2 report when any may apply, and write none when one does:

• a public company (publikt aktiebolag);
• a parent company of a larger group, or of a smaller group that prepares consolidated accounts;
• a natural person or an estate (dödsbo);
• a bostadsrättsförening or bostadsförening;
• a company that has, or had during the year, a branch abroad;
• a company that acquired goods or services against share-based payment during the year;
• a company that has, or had during the year, convertible debt it issued or similar compound financial instruments;
• a company that holds, or held during the year, crypto-assets (one that only now and then took or used them as payment is not left out);
• a company with a material deferred tax liability, or with one or more buildings that bring at least 75 percent of its net sales (punkt 1.1B), unless it meets at most one of: more than 3 employees, more than SEK 1.5 million in total assets, more than SEK 3 million in net sales, in each of the last two years, or it used K2 the year before and is normally outside 1.1B (punkt 1.1C).

Source: Bokföringsnämnden, BFNAR 2016:10 kapitel 1, https://www.bfn.se/wp-content/uploads/vl16-10-k2ar-kons2025.pdf

Never work these out

The tax on the year's result, a depreciation period, a valuation, the size of a periodiseringsfond and whether a dividend can be paid are the company's and its accountant's calls. Write what they give you. A proposed dividend needs the board's own statement on it (aktiebolagslagen 18 kap. 4 §, with the prudence rule in 17 kap. 3 §): ask the board for it, put it under the disposition, never write it yourself. When there is reason to believe equity is below half the registered share capital, tell the person what aktiebolagslagen 25 kap. 13 § says: the board must at once draw up a kontrollbalansräkning and have the company's auditor review it. The same applies when an enforcement under utsökningsbalken shows the company cannot pay the debt in full. Say no more than the law says; what follows is the board's and its advisers' work.

Rounding: give whole kronor and let the script add. A report in thousands (tkr) rounds each line and then adjusts one line so the sums still add; say which line, never leave a total that does not add.

What the check reads

Say what passed, not more

Tell the person which checks the report passed: which items are there and that the numbers add up. Never call it correct, compliant, lawful, approved or ready to file; the board adopts and signs it, the annual general meeting adopts the statements, and a board member or the managing director files a certified copy with Bolagsverket (ÅRL 8 kap. 3 §). Suggest they check anything the check flags with their accountant.

Sources

Each read in its official text as in force on 2026-10-20.

• Årsredovisningslag (1995:1554), Sveriges riksdag: https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/arsredovisningslag-19951554_sfs-1995-1554/
• Aktiebolagslag (2005:551), Sveriges riksdag: https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/aktiebolagslag-2005551_sfs-2005-551/
• BFNAR 2016:10, Årsredovisning i mindre företag (K2), Bokföringsnämnden, consolidated with BFNAR 2024:4 and 2025:2: https://www.bfn.se/wp-content/uploads/vl16-10-k2ar-kons2025.pdf
• Directive 2013/34/EU (the Accounting Directive): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2013/34/oj, and Delegated Directive (EU) 2023/2775, which raised its size limits: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir_del/2023/2775/oj