Slovenian Business Register

In accordance with the Commercial Register of Slovenia Act AJPES manages the Slovenian Business Register (SBR) as the central database on all business entities based on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia and involved in a profit or non-profit business activity. The Court Register is part of the SBR as of 1 February 2008. According to the Slovenian law, registration of data of companies and other entities the registration of which is required under the Slovenian law is decided by registering courts alone, as according to the Companies Act and the Court Register Act entry in the registry has significant effects in terms of publicity and corporate matters. The Court Register, as part of the SBR, consists of two parts: the main book and the documentary archive. The main book is used by registering courts to enter data about the individual register entities. Registering courts also maintain an electronic archive of documents which constitute the basis for entry in the Court Register, and a collection of documents submitted to the Court Register for publication purposes. The AJPES web portal allows users to review procedures for registration with the Court Register (ePublications in the course of registration with the Court Register). An entry in the Court Register and consequently in the SBR is published on the AJPES website at the moment of registration, which is extremely important as publicity effects enter into force at the time of the publication of the entry in the Court Register Publication of entries in the Court Register on the AJPES website has replaced the previous system of public announcement in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

Applications and documents for registration of companies and other entities with the Court Register as part of the SBR are filed electronically via either Slovenia Business Point SPOT points or via the e-VEM portal. At the time of registration with the SBR, a business entity may also file an application for entry in the Tax Register, register for social security and insurance of employees, etc. SPOT point services are provided at 12 AJPES branches across Slovenia.

A company or another subject of entry in the Court Register and a sole proprietor can choose between receiving the decision on registration in paper or electronic format (to a secure email account). 

The SBR also contains other business entities whose operation requires registration in the register of professions or activities kept by another public authority or institution. For example, associations primarily register with the Register of Associations kept by the Ministry of the Interior, notaries register with the Chamber of Notaries of Slovenia, attorneys register with the Bar Association of Slovenia, independent journalists register in the records of the Register of Independent Journalists held by the Ministry of Culture, private researchers register with the Register of PrivateResearchers held by the Public Agency of Research Activities of the Republic of Slovenia, etc. AJPES feeds data into the SBR on business entities from 22 primary registers and records, maintained by 12 government authorities or other institutions (see figure).

AJPES assigns each business entity kept in the SBR a unique registration number, main activity code according to the Standard Classification of Activities, and an institutional sector according to the Standard Classification of Institutional Sectors. AJPES also assigns some other data to certain entities registered in the SBR for statistical purposes, such as type of ownership, origin of founding capital, size of companies and sole proprietors, etc.

AJPES provides public access to information from the Slovenian Business Register in different ways: by accessing the data through the AJPES web portal and issuing regular and historical extracts from the Court Register via the web portal (ePRS) and by providing selections of data according to specific user-defined criteria.

Pursuant to Article 122 of the Financial Operations, Insolvency Proceedings and Compulsory Dissolution Act, AJPES as of 1 October 2008 also provides data and other information about insolvency proceedings (bankruptcy, compulsory composition, liquidation) of natural persons and legal entities taking place before bankruptcy courts (ePublications in insolvency proceedings).

Changes were introduced in 2008 concerning registration of companies through SPOT points and merging of the Court Register with the SBR, the central information database managed by AJPES. These changes have helped our country reach a high ranking in the world in terms of the speed of starting up new companies, for example a sole proprietor can be registered in a single day, and a company can be established in approximately four days. In combination with continuous monitoring of insolvency proceedings, the aforementioned achievements significantly increase transparency of the business environment and thereby improve reliability of legal transactions.

Register of Non-Possessory Liens and Seized Movable Property

Pursuant to the Decree on the Register of Non-Possessory Liens and Seized Movable Property AJPES maintains the Register of Non-Possessory Liens and Seized Movable Property (RZPP). This register contains data on pledged or seized motor vehicles, inventories, equipment and certain animals which can be assigned unique identifiers. A particularity of a non-possessory lien is that the pledged movable property is not delivered into direct possession of the creditor but rather remains in the pledger's possession. The advantage of such an arrangement is that the pledger can continue to use the pledged property to perform its business activity, increasing his ability to repay the debt.

The registration is done by AJPES based on a request filed by a notary public, executor, court debt collection bailiff or another public authority empowered by law to lodge registration requests. The registration is constitutive in nature, meaning that the liens comes into being after registration is complete. AJPES is not authorized to examine the justification of individual entries in the registry, as this task falls upon those authorized persons empowered to lodge registration requests. These persons are also responsible for any damage which might arise as a consequence of unjustified registration, and AJPES is responsible for providing constant maintenance and public access to RZPP data.

Information from the registry can be obtained by anyone interested in the potential encumbrance of real property contained in the registry, at all AJPES branch offices or via the AJPES web portal (RZPP). AJPES also issues registration certificates and official extracts from the registry. The service of maintaining the RZPP increases the security of legal transactions for creditors in transactions involving real estate.

Pursuant to Article 71 of the Payment Transactions Act AJPES is authorized for collection, processing and dissemination of data from annual reports filed by business entities in conformity with the laws, and for providing public access to annual reports and other corporate data of companies, sole proprietors and other business entities, in accordance with the Companies Act and other legislation. According to regulations, business entities are required to file their annual report data to AJPES for national statistics purposes, and their annual reports for publication purposes. Most business entities submit their annual reports to AJPES for three purposes: national statistics, public availability and tax purpose. There are over 170,000 business entities required to submit such data to AJPES. Data from annual reports for publication and national statistics purposes are not submitted by sole proprietors taxed on the basis of calculated profits by applying averaged expenses and business entities which are not founded as legal entities and do not have the status of a sole proprietor (notaries, lawyers, independent healthcare workers, independent cultural workers, athletes, journalists, some other business entities and civil associations).

Companies, cooperatives and sole proprietors send AJPES data from their annual reports for national statistics purposes in accordance with Article 59 of the Companies Act (ZGD-1). Companies and sole proprietors send AJPES their annual reports for publication purposes pursuant to Article 58 of the ZGD-1, which introduces the First Publicity Directive of the European Union to Slovenian law. Cooperatives file their annual reports in accordance with Article 41a of the Cooperatives Act. Companies, cooperatives and sole proprietors are able to opt for simplification - when filing data from annual reports for national statistics purposes they also file an appropriate declaration stating that certain data provided for national statistics purposes may be used for publicity purposes as well. Companies and cooperatives with compulsory audits may not opt for such simplification, nor can cooperatives required to file consolidated annual reports. Annual reports for publication are also filed by banks, insurance companies and investment funds, although these do not file reports for national statistics purposes.

The budget, budgetary users and other entities governed by public law, which are users of the standard chart of accounts, are required to file their annual reports to AJPES pursuant to the Accounting Act in order to ensure publicity of data and fulfil their national statistics obligation.

Associations - pursuant to the Societies Act, the Disabled Persons Organizations Act and National Statistics Act - are required to send AJPES their annual reports in order to ensure publicity of data and fulfil their national statistics obligations. Associations not required to audit their annual reports may lodge their annual reports for both purposes simultaneously, with the appropriate declaration. Associations required to audit their annual reports must provide an audited annual report for publicity purposes.

Non-profit organizations - legal entities governed by private law (institutions, political parties, labour unions etc.) - pursuant to the Accounting Act and the National Statistics Act - are required to file annual reports for publicity and national statistics purposes, where they can send one annual report for both purposes provided the appropriate declaration is also sent.

For each particular type of business entities, AJPES designs software solutions for capturing data from annual and other reports with integrated logical and mathematical checks and controls. AJPES also provides instructions for submission of such reports. Any irregularities found in the submitted data from annual reports are eliminated in collaboration with business entities. Submitted data are then processed and 6 separate databases are created according to individual types of business entities, namely for companies, cooperatives, sole proprietors, legal entities governed by public law (institutes, budgets and other legal entities of public law), non-profit organizations - legal entities governed by private law and associations. Data from annual reports of business entities are also used to create aggregate databases sorted by activity, municipality, region, size and other criteria.

AJPES collects the information from annual reports submitted by business entities for national statistics purposes and sends them to state authorities and organizations empowered by law to acquire and use these data for records, analysis, research and tax purposes. AJPES uses aggregated data from annual reports submitted for national statistics purposes to prepare publications about the financial standing and income of individual types of business entities and publishes them on its website.

AJPES is required to provide the annual reports submitted by business entities for the purpose of ensuring public availability to any person requesting such information. They are sent in either electronic format or on paper. For companies, cooperatives, sole proprietors and associations, AJPES publishes annual reports on its website, providing users with a comprehensive, easy, fast and free way of accessing this information.

For the purposes of preparing the balance of accounts by the Bank of Slovenia, AJPES also collates and processes additional information appended to financial statements, which companies and medium-sized and large sole proprietors submit with their annual report data.

Pursuant to Art. 71a of the Payment Transactions Act, AJPES assumed the role of a minor offence authority. In accordance with the Minor Offences Act, AJPES is authorized to pass decisions on minor offences arising from failure to submit annual reports, as well as other reports and data which business entities are required by law to submit to AJPES.

Data for statistical surveys

The monthly statistical research on gross salaries paid is based on the data obtained via special forms submitted to AJPES by business entities upon payment of salaries. AJPES processes data on salaries paid to employees covered under collective agreements apart from the data on salaries paid to employees to whom collective agreements do not apply.

In accordance with the statistical research program and an agreement with the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), AJPES collects data on monthly payments of holiday allowances by business entities.

AJPES also collects quarterly data from business entities for use in financial accounts statistics, as required by the Bank of Slovenia. Financial accounts present the stocks and flows of institutional sectors in individual financial instruments as claims and as liabilities.

AJPES together with Bank of Slovenia and SURS collects quarterly data from business entities mostly for the calculation of the quarterly gross domestic product and to analyse the consistency between non- financial sector accounts and the preparation of comprehensive quarterly institutional sector accounts in Slovenia.

In accordance with the statistical research programs AJPES also collects data on business services, salary structure, intermediate consumption structure etc. and sends them to SURS.

Data for administrative sources

In addition to the aforementioned statistical research, business entities from the public sector submit data to AJPES under the provisions of the Public Sector Salary System Act (ZSPJS) using an information system for sending and analysing data on salaries in the public sector (ISPAP). Since August 2008 public sector salaries are calculated and paid out according to the provisions of ZSPJS. AJPES publishes these data on its website according to regulations.

Accommodation providers or hosts eligible for entry to Accommodation facilities register report to AJPES: daily – data on guests and overnight stays from the guest book, monthly – the statistical data. AJPES collects the data and provides them to the Police for the purpose of keeping records of guests, to the Statistical Office (SURS) for state statistics, and municipalities for monitoring of the calculation and payment of tourist tax. A new reporting system was established in December 2017.

Payment transaction data

Monthly statistical research also involves research on business entities with overdue outstanding obligations. The basis for such research is data collected by AJPES from banks and other parties involved in payment transactions. From among the business entities with overdue outstanding obligations, AJPES only chooses those who failed to settle their overdue outstanding obligations within 5 consecutive days in an individual month.

AJPES carries out monthly statistical research on business entities' revenues and expenses. The basis for this research is the data obtained from banks and other financial institutions for payment transactions.

Credit rating reports

In the context of its credit rating activities, AJPES collates credit rating reports on the credit standing of individual business entities. The credit rating scores of Slovenian companies are determined according to the S.BON AJPES  model, which complies with Basel II rules and categorizes Slovenian companies into 10 credit rating scores according to their credit risk. Credit rating scores are appropriate for use in corporate banks for calculation of capital requirements for credit risks, and can help other business entities to assess individual companies' or business partners' ability to settle their obligations. These reports are based on a large database of official data, which ensures quality, reliability and objectivity. Users can opt for shorter, standardized reports, or extensive, more detailed business analyses for individual business entities. They are available in Slovene, English, German, Italian, Hungarian and Croatian.

eS.BON Online Credit Rating 

AJPES offers the fastest and easiest access to eS.BON credit rating reports via its website. eS.BON online credit rating report provides information on the credit rating of any company based in Slovenia. The SB credit rating report contains a SB credit rating score assessed by using the S.BON AJPES model. The credit rating indicates a company's ability to settle its obligations over a 12-month period after the date of preparing financial statements. The eS.BON online credit rating report also includes information on a company's short-term payment discipline and other important information about the company and its operations.

Fi=Po AJPES database

FI-PO Ajpes is used as an analytical tool and allows an overview of data from annual reports for different business entities: companies, cooperatives, sole proprietors: The database also allows inspection of data kept by corporate banks and savings banks. FI-PO Ajpes contains data on over 110,000 business entities - from 1994 for companies and cooperatives and from 2001 for sole proprietors. In addition to this, the database also offers numerous options for comparing data both on the individual and aggregate level, on the level of individual activities, regions or municipalities.

Multilateral set-off of liabilities and receivables

AJPES also performs multilateral set-off of liabilities and receivables between business entities, usually once per month. Both legal entities and sole proprietors may enter into a multilateral set-off procedure. This service provided by AJPES provides a fast, simple, efficient and inexpensive way to settle obligations or recover receivables. Participants set-off around 680 million EUR in obligations in 2012.