Swedish Inventory Accounting (varulager)

Reference for valuing and booking inventory in a Swedish company. Two questions decide almost every case: what the stock is worth on the balance date, and how the movement reaches the ledger.

Account numbers follow BAS 2026, which split class 4 into handelsvaror (groups 40–42) and råvaror och förnödenheter (43–48). Books still on BAS 2025 use the old 44xx/45xx numbers, so check which year the ledger follows before proposing an account.

How to use this skill

File	When to read
references/valuation.md	Arriving at the closing stock value: LVP post-för-post, what enters anskaffningsvärdet, FIFU vs weighted average, the 97 %-regel and when it is blocked, inkurans and the evidence it needs, K1/K2/K3 differences, egentillverkade varor, the half-PBB shortcut
references/stock-bookkeeping.md	Booking it: periodisk vs löpande lagerredovisning, BAS 14xx and class 4 accounts, lagerförändring, inventering under lagen 1955:257, svinn, kassation and uttag, e-commerce stock, cut-off, reconciliation

The four decisions

1. Is there inventory at all? Goods bought for resale or production, held on the balance date. Services in progress are pågående arbeten (swedish-project-accounting), not lager. A sole trader with a simplified year-end may skip stock at or below half a prisbasbelopp (29 600 kr for 2026); that rule does not apply to an AB.
2. What is it worth? Anskaffningsvärde per post, compared against nettoförsäljningsvärde, taking the lower (LVP, ÅRL 4:9). The 97 %-regel is an alternative applied to the collective value, and it goes into the books rather than only into the declaration.
3. Which account? The stock account by type (1410 råvaror, 1440 produkter i arbete, 1450 färdiga varor, 1460 handelsvaror), with the change booked to its matching förändringskonto (4910, 4920, 4950, 4960).
4. Is the count documented? A signed inventory list is a legal requirement, and the 97 %-regel needs anskaffningsvärde per post in that list. Without it the value can be set aside.

Never guess these

Situation	Why	What to do
No inventory list	Lagen 1955:257 requires one, and the tax value can be rejected without it	Ask for the count and its date before booking a year-end value
Stock that "looks obsolete"	Inkurans needs evidence, and a flat percentage is not always accepted	Ask what the goods are, how old, and what they can still be sold for
Goods in transit at year-end	The Incoterm decides who owns them	Ask for the delivery terms
Goods at a fulfilment provider abroad	Ownership stays with the seller, and stock in another EU country can trigger a registration duty there	Flag it and refer the VAT question onward
A large unexplained lagerförändring	Often a cut-off or count error, not a real change	Reconcile against the list before booking

Related skills

Question	Skill
Pågående arbeten and contract revenue	swedish-project-accounting
Import VAT, customs and foreign suppliers	swedish-daily-bookkeeping (references/foreign-purchases.md)
Uttagsbeskattning and VAT mechanics	swedish-vat
Year-end sequence and closing entries	swedish-year-end-closing
INK2R and SRU field codes	swedish-sru-filing
Assets rather than stock (the half-PBB limit for inventarier)	swedish-asset-accounting