Workplace Danish for finance: the invoice, the mail, the call, the interview. B1 at work, not fluency.
The free danskuddannelse through your kommune is the Danish course, and it takes a year or more. This is the finance layer it will never teach: the words on a Danish invoice, the four mails you write every week, the supplier call, the interview.
Learning materials · 6 modules →Twenty finance words. Press ▶ to hear each one in a Danish voice, read it once with its gender, then let the Drill tab ask you with the card shut. The Speak tab has every phrase from the modules, a listening test and a say-it test.
Invoice
En faktura, fakturaen, fakturaer. 'Vi har modtaget jeres faktura nr. 4471.' Leverandørfaktura is the one you receive; kundefaktura the one you issue. Nobody at work says 'regning' about a business invoice — that word is for the restaurant.
Credit note
En kreditnota, kreditnotaen. 'Kan I sende en kreditnota på forskellen?' Same thing as in English: an invoice in reverse. When a supplier overcharges, you ask for one; you do not pay less and hope.
Supplier
En leverandør, leverandøren. In the books the same company is a kreditor. 'Leverandøren har sendt en rykker.' Leverandørstamdata = the supplier master record.
The payables side · the receivables side
Kreditorbogholder is the AP clerk, debitorbogholder the AR clerk, and 'bogholder' on its own is a bookkeeper. This is the job title on your search list, so say it cleanly: KRE-di-tor-bog-hol-der.
Due date
'Fakturaen forfalder den 30. april.' At forfalde = to fall due; forfalden = overdue. 'Forfaldne poster' is the overdue list every AP team looks at on Monday.
Payment terms
'Vores betalingsbetingelser er netto 30 dage.' Løbende måned + 30 dage means 30 days from the end of the invoice month, which is longer. Kontant ved modtagelse means pay on receipt.
Supporting document, voucher
Et bilag, bilaget, bilag, bilagene. 'Hvor er bilaget til den postering?' Every posting has one. Bilagsnummer is the voucher number the system gives it.
To post, to enter in the books
'Jeg har bogført fakturaen i går.' Bogføring is bookkeeping as an activity; bogholderiet is the department. At kontere is to code to an account, which happens before you post.
Reconciliation
En afstemning; at afstemme. 'Bankafstemningen stemmer ikke.' Det stemmer means 'it agrees' and in everyday Danish also 'that's right'. Afstemningsdifference is the break you have to explain.
Purchase order
En indkøbsordre, or just ordrenummer, or PO. 'Der er ingen indkøbsordre på den her faktura.' Rekvisition is the internal request before the order; rekvirenten is the person who asked.
Goods receipt
'Varemodtagelsen er ikke registreret endnu.' At modtage = to receive, so varemodtagelse is literally goods-receiving. It is the second leg of the three-way match, in Danish 'tre-vejs-match' or simply 'match mod ordre og modtagelse'.
VAT
25% in Denmark, and it is on almost everything. 'Er beløbet med eller uden moms?' Ekskl. moms and inkl. moms are on every invoice. Købsmoms is the VAT you reclaim, salgsmoms the VAT you charge. CVR-nummer is the company registration number that must be on the invoice.
Accrual, period allocation
At periodisere. 'Fakturaen skal periodiseres til marts.' The idea is the one you know: the cost belongs to the month the goods arrived. Afgrænsning is the same thing in older accounting language.
Month-end close
Also månedsluk, or just 'luk'. 'Vi lukker måneden på tredje arbejdsdag.' Årsafslutning is the year-end close; årsrapport the annual report. Lukkekalender is the close calendar.
Payment reminder, dunning letter
En rykker, rykkeren. 'Vi har fået en rykker fra leverandøren.' At rykke for betaling = to chase for payment. Rykkergebyr is the reminder fee, and the first reminder is usually just 'en venlig påmindelse'.
Approval
At godkende; godkender = the approver. 'Fakturaen venter på godkendelse hos indkøberen.' Godkendelsesflow is the approval workflow in the system. 'Den er godkendt' means it has been approved.
Account · chart of accounts
'Hvilken konto skal den på?' Kontonummer is the account number in the chart; the same word is used for a bank account, so context decides. Kontering is the coding, konteringsfejl the miscoding.
General ledger
'Det er bogført direkte i hovedbogen.' In Danish ERP talk the GL module is simply 'Finans'. Kreditor- and debitorbogholderiet are the subledgers that roll up into it.
Master data
'Leverandørens stamdata er forkerte — kontonummeret passer ikke.' Stamkort is the master record. A change to bank details in stamdata is the one you verify by phone, in any language.
Amount · balance
Et beløb, beløbet. 'Beløbet passer ikke med ordren.' Saldo is a balance, udestående is outstanding, betaling a payment, overførsel a transfer. And the number itself is written Danish-style: 12.500,00 kr. is twelve thousand five hundred.
Six questions. Answer all six to unlock Level 0 in the Drill and Practice tabs.
'Fakturaen forfalder den 30. april.' What does the supplier mean?
A colleague asks: 'Hvor er bilaget?' What are they looking for?
During a bank reconciliation someone says 'det stemmer ikke'. What is being said?
Which Danish job title is the accounts payable clerk?
A supplier quotes 10.000 kr. ekskl. moms. What will the invoice total be?
'Vi har fået en rykker.' What arrived?
| On the invoice | Means | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Fakturanr. · Fakturadato | Invoice number · invoice date | The number you quote in every mail about it. |
| Forfaldsdato | Due date | Often written 30.04.2026 or 30/4-2026. |
| Betalingsbetingelser | Payment terms | Netto 30 dage · løbende måned + 30 dage · kontant ved modtagelse. |
| Ordrenr. · Rekvisitionsnr. | PO number · requisition number | Missing = the invoice has nothing to match against. |
| CVR-nr. | Company registration number | Must be present for the VAT to be reclaimable. |
| Beløb ekskl. moms · Moms 25% · Beløb inkl. moms | Net · VAT · gross | Post the net to cost, the VAT to købsmoms, pay the gross. |
| Reg.nr. · Kontonr. | Bank registration number · account number | Four digits plus up to ten. A change here is verified by phone. |
| FI-kode · +71 linjen | Payment slip reference | The long number string starting +71 is the reference, not the amount. |
Danish swaps the separators: 12.500,00 kr. is twelve thousand five hundred kroner, and 1.250,50 is one thousand two hundred and fifty kroner and fifty øre. The thousands dot and the decimal comma are the single most common reading error, and it is an expensive one.
Dates run day, month, year: 30.04.2026, 30/4, or written out den 30. april — the full stop after a number makes it an ordinal, so 'den 30.' reads 'den tredivte'. Currency sits after the number: 500 kr., or DKK 500 in a group company.
Short, direct, first names at every level. Hej Mette, is the normal opening to a colleague, a supplier and the CFO alike; Kære is for formal or official letters. Everyone is du. The body says what it is about in the first line, asks the one thing it needs, and stops.
Openers you will see daily: Tak for din mail. · Jeg skriver til dig, fordi… · Vedhæftet finder du… (attached you will find) · Kan du…? · Vil du…? (will you, often a request) · Vi mangler… (we are missing).
Closers: Med venlig hilsen — shortened to Mvh or Venlig hilsen — and Bedste hilsner. Then the name. 'Dear Sir or Madam' does not exist; Til rette vedkommende is used only when you truly have no name.
You do not need every word. You need the date, the amount and the action. The words that carry them:
A mail with 'stadig' and 'senest' in it is a chase. A mail with 'beklager' is an apology. A mail with 'vedhæftet' and nothing else is the invoice itself. That sorting takes five seconds once you know the words.
Answer all of them to unlock this module in the Drill and Practice tabs.
'Beløbet bedes overført senest den 15. maj.' What is being asked?
An invoice shows 'Beløb: 8.450,50 kr.' How much is that?
A mail ends with 'Mvh'. What does that tell you?
'Vedhæftet finder du fakturaen.' Where is the invoice?
Which payment term is net 30 counted from the end of the month?
| Situation | The mail |
|---|---|
| Missing PO | Hej Lars, Tak for fakturaen. Vi mangler et ordrenummer på faktura 4471. Kan du sende det, så vi kan bogføre den? Mvh Djoko |
| Chasing a credit note | Hej Mette, Vi har stadig ikke modtaget kreditnotaen på 1.250 kr. fra faktura 4471. Kan du sende den i denne uge? På forhånd tak. Venlig hilsen Djoko |
| Confirming payment | Hej Lars, Fakturaen er betalt i dag og bør være på jeres konto i morgen. Mvh Djoko |
| Apologising for a late payment | Hej Lars, Beklager, at betalingen kom for sent — fakturaen lå fast i vores godkendelse. Den er betalt i dag. Venlig hilsen Djoko |
Notice what is not there: no 'I hope this finds you well', no explanation longer than one clause, no second request. Danes read padding as evasion.
In a main clause the finite verb is the second element, whatever comes first. Jeg sender fakturaen i morgen. If you start with the time, the verb still comes second and the subject moves after it: I morgen sender jeg fakturaen. Not 'I morgen jeg sender' — that is the error every English speaker makes for a year.
In a subordinate clause — after fordi, at, hvis, når, som — the rule flips for adverbs like ikke and altid: they go before the verb. Vi betaler ikke fakturaen (main clause: ikke after the verb) but …fordi vi ikke har modtaget varerne (subordinate: ikke before the verb). Get these two right and your mails read as Danish rather than as translated English.
A Danish request is a question with the verb first: 'Kan du…?', 'Vil du…?'. Adding gerne, lige ('Kan du lige sende…' — could you just send) or På forhånd tak is all the softening it needs. The imperative with 'venligst' — 'Send venligst…' — is grammatical but reads like a dunning letter; keep it for the second reminder.
Danes write 'du' to the CEO. Using 'De' marks you as a form letter from 1985. Using a title ('hr. direktør') marks you as a foreigner trying too hard. First name, hej, done.
Answer all of them to unlock this module in the Drill and Practice tabs.
Which sentence has the right word order?
You want Lars to send the PO number. Which is the natural work mail?
'Vi betaler ikke fakturaen, fordi vi ____ modtaget varerne.' Which goes in the gap?
Which opening is right for a mail to a CFO you have met twice?
What does 'På forhånd tak' mean?
| Number | Danish | Why it is hard |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | halvtreds | The tens from 50 up are old counts of twenty: halvtreds is 'half-third times twenty' (2½ × 20). Nobody thinks that any more; just learn the five words as sounds. |
| 60 | tres | |
| 70 | halvfjerds | |
| 80 | firs | |
| 90 | halvfems | |
| 21 | enogtyve | Units first: one-and-twenty. 4.471 is 'fire tusind fire hundrede og enoghalvfjerds'. |
| 1.250 | tolv hundrede og halvtreds | Or 'et tusind to hundrede og halvtreds'. Both are normal. |
| den 15. maj | den femtende maj | Dates are ordinals: første, anden, tredje, fjerde, femte… tyvende, enogtyvende, tredivte. |
The working habit: say the number back. 'Så det er fire tusind syv hundrede og halvfems?' For reference numbers Danes read digits one at a time — 'fire-fire-syv-et' — which is easier for both sides, so do that.
Meeting words: dagsorden (agenda) · referat (minutes — not a referral) · punkt (item) · frist (deadline) · opgave (task) · aftale (agreement, appointment).
Må jeg lige tage det på engelsk? Det er vigtigt, at jeg får detaljerne rigtigt. Almost every Dane will switch instantly and think nothing of it. The point is that you asked in Danish and gave a reason that is about accuracy, not about you. Then switch back for the small talk — Tak, det hjalp — so the meeting stays Danish around you.
What not to do: stay quiet and nod. In a Danish meeting silence reads as agreement, and you will find yourself owning a task you did not hear.
Answer all of them to unlock this module in the Drill and Practice tabs.
A supplier says the invoice is 'fire tusind syv hundrede og halvfems'. Which number is that?
'Halvtreds' is
You did not catch a number on the phone. What do you say?
In a meeting a colleague asks 'Skal jeg tage den?' What are they offering?
'Referat' is
The honest line, in Danish, learned by heart:
Mit dansk er på vej. Jeg forstår det meste på skrift, og jeg kan klare en almindelig arbejdsmail. I møder foretrækker jeg at skifte til engelsk, når detaljerne er vigtige. Jeg går til danskundervisning hver uge.
Four sentences: where you are, what you can do, what you prefer, what you are doing about it. Never 'flydende' — that is checkable in the next sentence, and a Dane will check. 'På vej' (on the way) is what a Danish interviewer wants to hear, because it is true and it implies direction.
Jeg hedder Djoko. Jeg har arbejdet ti år med kreditorbogholderi og purchase-to-pay i SAP, Ariba og Dynamics 365. Det, jeg er bedst til, er at finde processen bag fejlen — for eksempel [one real thing you fixed, in your own words]. Jeg bor i Slangerup og søger en stilling i økonomi på Sjælland. Mit dansk er på vej, og jeg går til undervisning hver uge.
The bracket is yours to fill, from your own evidence file — not from this course. The rest is the frame: name, years, systems, one strength with one example, where you are, where you are going. Said slowly, that is fifty seconds.
| They say | They mean | Your shape |
|---|---|---|
| Fortæl lidt om dig selv. | Can you talk for a minute without reading? | The presentation above. |
| Hvorfor søger du stillingen? | Did you read the ad? | One specific thing from the ad, linked to your ten years. |
| Hvad er dine styrker? Og svagheder? | Are you honest? | One strength with an example; one real weakness with what you do about it. |
| Hvordan er dit dansk? | Will you hide it? | The four honest sentences. |
| Hvornår kan du starte? | Are you available? | 'Jeg kan starte [date / med det samme].' |
| Hvad er dine lønforventninger? | Do you know your market? | Ask the range first: 'Hvilken lønramme har I for stillingen?' |
| Har du nogen spørgsmål til os? | Are you curious about the work? | Two questions about the work, one about language in the daily. |
Other ad words: stilling (position) · ansøgning (application) · ansøgningsfrist (deadline) · tiltrædelse (start date) · løn (salary) · overenskomst (collective agreement) · pension · feriepenge (holiday pay) · 37 timer (full time) · flekstid (flexitime) · prøvetid (probation, normally three months) · opsigelse (notice).
Answer all of them to unlock this module in the Drill and Practice tabs.
An ad says 'dansk på forhandlingsniveau'. For you that means
'Tiltrædelse: snarest muligt' means
'Hvordan er dit dansk?' The honest, strong answer begins
'Prøvetid' is
'Kendskab til SAP' versus 'erfaring med SAP' — which is the weaker requirement?
Every noun is en or et, and 'the' is not a word in front but an ending on the back: en faktura → fakturaen, et bilag → bilaget. Plural adds -er or -e (or nothing), and 'the' in plural is -ne: fakturaer → fakturaerne, bilag → bilagene.
About three in four nouns are 'en'. Learn the gender with the word, never separately: en faktura, en rykker, en konto, en afstemning, en leverandør — et bilag, et beløb, et ordrenummer, et møde. Getting the gender wrong is the most audible foreign error and the cheapest to fix.
Jeg har sendt fakturaen. — present perfect: it is sent, the result is what matters, no time given. Jeg sendte den i går. — simple past: a specific time, so the simple past. The rule you can carry: if there is a time word (i går, sidste uge, den 30.), use the simple past.
Future is the present with a time word, or skal: Jeg sender den i morgen · Fakturaen skal betales fredag. 'Vil' is more 'want to' than 'will' — 'jeg vil sende den' sounds like you are insisting.
| Modal | Means | At work |
|---|---|---|
| skal | must, has to, is going to | Fakturaen skal godkendes først. — it has to be approved first. |
| kan | can, is able to | Kan du sende bilaget? — the request form. |
| vil | wants to, will (insisting) | Vil du tjekke ordren? — will you check the order (a polite ask). |
| må | may; with ikke: must not | Vi må ikke betale uden ordre. — we must not pay without a PO. |
| bør | should, ought to | Beløbet bør være på kontoen i morgen. — should be in the account tomorrow. |
Finance Danish is full of passives, and Danish makes them with an -s on the verb: Fakturaen godkendes af indkøberen (is approved by the buyer) · Beløbet betales den 30. (is paid on the 30th) · Bilaget bogføres i marts (is posted in March) · Posten afstemmes hver måned (is reconciled every month).
With a modal: skal godkendes, kan betales, bør periodiseres. One ending, and you can describe an entire process without naming who does each step — which is exactly how process documents and interview answers are phrased.
| Danish | Looks like | Actually means |
|---|---|---|
| referat | referral | minutes of a meeting |
| eventuelt | eventually | possibly, if need be |
| aktuel | actual | current, topical |
| termin | term | due date, instalment date |
| rente | rent | interest |
| kontrol | control (power) | a check, an inspection |
| chef | chef | boss — any manager |
| revisor | reviser | auditor, chartered accountant |
| afdeling | — | department |
| gift | gift | married (and also poison) |
Answer all of them to unlock this module in the Drill and Practice tabs.
Pick the definite form of 'et bilag'.
'Fakturaen skal godkendes af indkøberen.' The '-es' ending makes the verb
'Eventuelt kan vi betale i to rater.' Here 'eventuelt' means
Which is right for 'I sent it yesterday'?
'Aktuel' means
Ten questions from memory, about four minutes. Miss one and it comes back tomorrow.
Mixed on purpose — consecutive questions come from different modules.
Every question you have missed, worst first. This list is the honest one.
20 terms. Browse the cards now. Complete Level 0 to practise recalling them.
Search a term or definition. Open a card for the explanation.
Four minutes of reading that makes every other hour in this academy worth more.
Each question sits in a box from 1 to 5. Answer it right and it moves up a box and goes quiet for longer. Miss it and it drops straight back to box 1 — tomorrow. That is the entire schedule; nothing to configure.
| Box | Comes back in | What it means about you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tomorrow | New, or you just missed it |
| 2 | 2 days | One clean hit — fragile |
| 3 | 4 days | Holding |
| 4 | 9 days | Solid |
| 5 | 3 weeks | Yours. It will still check on you. |
At the end of every drill you get one question to explain out loud, in your own words, with the screen dark. Talk to the wall, your phone's voice recorder, or your wife. If you stumble or reach for the phrase from the card, you recognised it — you do not own it yet. That stumble is the most useful information in this whole app, and it is exactly what happens in an interview chair when someone asks "so what is MCP, actually?"
Pair it, order it, pick every one that applies, answer a real client out loud. Miss one and it comes back tomorrow.
Three exercises each, about six minutes. A module appears once its own quiz is done.
One question, sixty seconds, out loud. Then a model answer and an honest self-grade. This is the actual test you are training for.
Study any module now. Read, work through the task, then try its quiz. Scored practice unlocks after the quiz.
What each family is tested on, and which artifact makes them relax about you.
Titles vary wildly — “Digital Lead”, “AI Specialist”, “Transformation Manager”. Match by responsibilities, never by title.
Which level makes you dangerous in each family.
The Expert phase is not a page to read — it is these, built and shown. Tick a line when it is genuinely true.
Scores you produced yourself. Cases and interviews are self-graded — they are worth exactly what your honesty is worth.
Hear every phrase in a Danish voice, take the listening test, then say it and let a Danish recognizer tell you which words it understood.
The voice is your device's own synthetic Danish voice, not a recording of a person. It says the words the way a Dane does; the rhythm is a little flat. Slow is for the number words. Repeat each phrase out loud twice before you move on.
You hear it, you type it. Numbers as digits (4790), dates as "15. maj", phrases as words. The text is not on the page until you answer. Numbers are the whole point: a supplier says a total once.
Read the phrase, press Say it, speak. A Danish speech recognizer writes down what it heard; you see which words it got and which it missed. That is a test of whether a Dane's ear would catch your words, not a grade on your accent.
Works in Safari on iPhone and Chrome on Android and desktop. The microphone asks for permission once. If the installed home-screen app refuses to listen, open academy.myclienta.com in Safari itself for this tab — Apple limits recognition inside installed web apps on some iOS versions.