Sisähintana

Sisähintana is a Finnish term used in corporate accounting and management accounting to describe the price that a company or corporate group assigns to goods, services, or other transfers when the transactions occur between internal units rather than with external customers. It is primarily a tool for internal cost allocation, budgeting, and performance measurement.

The main purpose of sisähintana is to allocate costs and revenues between different parts of the same organization in a way that supports management decisions and financial reporting. It does not represent a market price offered to external customers. The internal price can be based on various approaches, such as cost-based (for example, cost plus a margin), standard costs, or negotiated internal rates. Because it affects unit profitability and resource allocation, the choice of method is typically documented and reviewed within the organization.

In practice, sisähintana is connected to transfer pricing concepts. While the internal price is used for internal accounting, many groups also maintain transfer pricing documentation to satisfy tax and regulatory requirements, particularly for cross-border intra-group transactions. For tax purposes, prices used in intercompany dealings may be scrutinized to ensure they conform to the arm’s length principle and to prevent profit shifting. VAT and other tax treatments depend on the jurisdiction and the nature of the transactions between separate legal entities.

Examples include an internal charge from a shared services center to a business unit for IT or HR services, or a central warehouse selling components to a subsidiary at an established internal price for cost allocation and planning.

See also: transfer pricing, management accounting, cost accounting.