Turnover estimate of large enterprises: documentation of statistics

The turnover estimate of large enterprises describes the development of turnover in the most important enterprises in each industry at a lag of approximately one month from the end of the statistical reference month. The data used for calculating the preliminary data comprise around 2,000 enterprises in manufacturing, construction, trade and other service industries included in the sales inquiry. Turnover does not include value added tax and as a rule, corresponds to turnover data according to the Accounting Act. For the construction enterprises included in the statistics, turnover comprises domestic sales.

The population of the statistics comprises around 2,000 most significant enterprises in their respective industries included in Statistics Finland's sales inquiry. The population does not include enterprises whose turnover is mainly comprised of activities serving a group if internal sales within the group are not market-based. Certain multi-industry enterprises have been divided into kind-of-activity units to improve purity by industry. In addition to enterprises according to the concept of large enterprises in to the EU's size classification, that is, those employing more than 250 persons, the sample comprises a large number of smaller enterprises. The sales inquiry covers around 70 per cent of the turnover of all enterprises (structural business and financial statement statistics for 2018). The data collection is updated monthly.

The statistical unit in the turnover estimate of large enterprises is a kind-of-activity unit.

The data on the turnover estimate of large enterprises are published as index point figures. Change percentages are also calculated based on the indices.

The base year of the time series is 2015 (2015=100).

The reference period of the turnover estimate of large enterprises is one month. The statistics are published at a lag of around one month from the end of the statistical reference month. 

The turnover estimate of large enterprises is published on the level of the whole country. However, the statistics also include activities performed outside the borders of Finland. The biggest enterprises are asked monthly in the sales inquiry about sales of goods and services from abroad to abroad. The data may include merchanting if it is reported in the financial statement of an enterprise operating in Finland. The data of the sales inquiry do not fully cover the definition of global production in the national accounts.

The turnover estimate of large enterprises covers all categories of the Standard Industrial classification TOL2008 (Statistics Finland, Helsinki 2008) except for agriculture, forestry and fishing, financial and insurance activities, private education and health care services and industries that do not have business activities.

Monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual data on the turnover estimate of large enterprises are available on the web pages starting from 2010.

The data of the statistics are published monthly on Statistics Finland's website.

The latest data become revised due to accumulation of data and changes in the data reported by enterprises as well as changes in the target population of the sales inquiry. Due to supplementation of the data, the data of the statistics are recalculated in connection with each release. The data become revised most between the first and second releases. Data revisions between different releases and on average in the long term are presented in their own tables on the home page of the statistics.

As a rule, the concept of turnover in the sales inquiry complies with the Accounting Act. Apart from long-term projects, sales are allocated on accrual basis, i.e. according to invoicing. The data may also contain errors arising from optical reading or data suppliers' mistakes.

The statistics describe the economic situation of the enterprises included in the data collection. The enterprise group may change somewhat between publications if the data collection is directed to new enterprises. Changes in the data collection are taken into account in the calculation as follows: When updating the sample, the effect of a new respondent can be considered retrospectively if it has had turnover before being included in the sales inquiry. The Tax Administration’s data on self-assessed taxes are then used as the data source. Correspondingly, enterprises whose collection of data is discontinued are excluded from the entire calculation period. The effect of the changes in the data collection on the results has been estimated to be small.

 

The statistics are published monthly at a lag of around 30 days from the end of the reference period. The data describe the turnover recorded during the reference month.

There is no delay in releasing the data. The data are published on the days indicated in the release calendar.

The data of the statistics are recalculated in connection with every publication for around one year. The data of the publication are temporally comparable, although the latest data may become revised as new data become available.

Because the statistics describe only the largest enterprises, comparability with other statistics is limited. The concepts of the statistics correspond to the concepts used in turnover indices.

The latest index figures of the statistics may become slightly revised as new data accumulate and enterprises report changes to their data. Due to supplementations the data will become updated in releases for over twelve months. The data become revised most between the first and second releases. Data revisions in industries between different releases are presented in their own tables on the home page of the statistics.

In the turnover estimate of large enterprises, the share of enterprises in trade and manufacturing has, measured by turnover, been higher than the share of these industries in the whole economy. According to the data of the structural business and financial statement statistics for 2018, the share of turnover of trade enterprises in the turnover of all industries is 28.9 per cent, while the share of enterprises in the industry in the turnover estimate of large enterprises is 32.2 per cent. The respective figures for manufacturing are 38.1 and 43.1 per cent. This means that the development of the turnover of trade and manufacturing enterprises directs the turnover development of large enterprises more than that of all enterprises.

Industry-specific percentages according to the turnover data and the turnover estimate of large enterprises in the structural business and financial statement statistics for 2018

Industries	Structural business and financial statement statistics	Turnover estimate of large enterprises
Manufacturing	38.1%	43.1%
Construction	8.9%	5.9%
Trade	28.9%	32.2%
Services	24.1%	18.8%

The non-response rate for the turnover estimate of large enterprises was 11 per cent in 2019. The non-response rate was calculated from the data collected when the data were first published.

Missing data for the latest months are imputed in the calculation. These may cause error if the imputations differ much from the actual observation later on.

The data of the statistics cover the whole of Finland. Because the statistics describe only the largest enterprises, comparability with other statistics is limited.

The data of the statistics are recalculated in connection with every publication for around one year. The data of the publication are temporally comparable, although the latest data may become revised as new data become available.

Business statistics produced by Statistics Finland can be divided into structural statistics and business trend statistics. The differences in the statistics are caused by their length of the description period, publication delay and the extent of the data content so that the description period and release delay of business trend statistics are shorter and their data content more limited than in the structural statistics. Structural business statistics include structural business and financial statement statistics that describe the structure and activities of enterprises on the annual level. Business trend statistics include monthly trend indicators. Annual statistics are cross-sectional data on business activities in the year in question. By contrast, business trend data have been made temporally comparable as concerns enterprise reorganisations and industry transfers so that the indicators describe changes in each industry.

Preliminary and final statistics are yearly published on structural business and financial statement statistics on the annual level. Preliminary data are completed in September of the year following the statistical reference year and final data in December.

Because the statistics describe only the largest enterprises, comparability with other statistics is limited. The concepts of the statistics correspond to the concepts used in turnover indices.

 

The monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual data on the turnover estimate of large enterprises are compiled in the same way so they are fully congruent.

The data of the turnover estimate of large enterprises are internally uniform.

The source data for the statistics are data collected monthly from Statistics Finland's sales inquiry on the sales of around 2,000 most important enterprises in their respective industries. In addition to enterprises according to the concept of large enterprises in the EU's size classification, that is, those employing more than 250 persons, the sample comprises a large number of smaller enterprises with a significant turnover. The data collection is updated monthly due to enterprise reorganisations. A larger sample updating is carried out yearly.

Data for Statistics Finland's own data collection are gathered with a web questionnaire. In addition, Statistics Finland has agreed with the Tax Administration that the Tax Administration delivers the data on self-assessed taxes to Statistics Finland monthly on an agreed date.

The web questionnaire of the inquiry for the sales inquiry has been tested in connection with its introduction and when changes have been made to it. In addition, the non-response rate of the inquiry is monitored monthly.

The data on the turnover estimate of large enterprises are collected monthly.

The calculation of the turnover estimate of large enterprises is based on change estimation. The data cannot be calculated directly by summing up, because the sample does not cover the whole enterprise group. Comparable observations for the examined month and for the corresponding month of the previous year are compared in the method by observing enterprise reorganisations and changes in reporting practices related to bookkeeping. The indices are recalculated monthly for around one year.

The data of the turnover estimate of large enterprises are validated in several stages during the statistical process.

The database based on Statistics Finland's sales inquiry is updated continuously. Systematic error types have been detected in certain variables, which are corrected even before the calculation. Due to data updates, such as accumulation of data or changes in enterprises' monthly data, the calculated indices may change slightly from one calculation period to another. In the calculation stage of the indices, observations that prove to be erroneous are corrected or removed. The data are checked in each calculation round at the enterprise level against information about the most significant business reorganisations and changes in turnover, and enterprise openings and closures.

The revisions are examined in connection with the review process at the micro and macro levels. The special characteristics of different industries are also taken into account when the data are validated.

Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method used to process time series. The method is used to remove variation occurring fairly regularly within a year from the data. The Tramo/Seats method and JDemetra+ software are used in the statistics. In addition, seasonal adjustment is based on the ESS Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment.

Seasonal variation is often caused by an occurrence not attributable to enterprises, such as variation in weather conditions and seasons, and people's modes of action. More detailed information about seasonal variation in time series and the method used for seasonal adjustment can be found in the report on Seasonal adjustment with the Tramo/Seats method.

Statistics Finland

Economic Statistics

The compilation of statistics is guided by the general act of the national statistical service, the Statistics Act (280/2004, amend. 361/2013). Only the necessary data that are not available from administrative data sources are collected from data suppliers. Index series are published so that no individual enterprise's data or development can be deduced from them.

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is absolutely guaranteed in accordance with the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (532/1999) and the Act on the Openness of Government activities (621/1999), as well as the requirements of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the Wilful breaching of data protection is punishable.

Only the data necessary that are not available from another source are collected from data suppliers. The data of the statistics are published so that no individual enterprise's data or development can be deduced from them.

Statistics Finland's release calendar lists in advance all the statistical data and publications to be released over the year. Statistical releases can be found under statistics-specific releases. Statistical data are released on the Internet at 8 am, unless otherwise indicated. The calendar is updated on weekdays. Statistics Finland's release calendar for the coming year is published every year in December.

The data of the statistics are published on Statistics Finland's website. The publication dates are compiled into the release calendar.

The extensive data basis of turnover indices also allows production of turnover data for regional, enterprise group or different industry combinations as a charged information service. Further information about the service can be found on the website of the tailored trend indicator service.

The statistical release is published monthly on the home page of the statistics.

Unit-level data of the statistics are used only for producing the statistics and others than producers of statistics do not have access to unit-level data.

More detailed information about the revision outlines is available on Statistics Finland's website.

The data can be used for short-term monitoring of development in business activities and the market. The statistics describe reliably the development in the turnover of the largest enterprises. Because the economic development of smaller enterprises may differ from large enterprises, the economic situation of the whole enterprise sector cannot be assessed solely based on these statistics.

The quality of the turnover estimate of large enterprises is evaluated in several different stages of the statistical process. Revisions to the unit-level data of the statistics are examined monthly and coherence analyses are made compared with other statistics on economic trends.

 

The data are released to all users of the statistics simultaneously on the home page of the statistics. No one has access to the data of the release before the official date of publication.