E-POST

Denmark is full of rules. One of the latest has a deadline of tomorrow, 1 November. By that date every business and society (technically, every entity that has a so-called CVR number) must have set up an electronic postbox, so that officialdom can communicate with it without having to send any paper.

In principle that is a sensible idea. Instead of sending out a million letters, the tax authorities can (eg) remind taxpayers of a payment deadline by sending them all an electronic message at the press of a button. However, good ideas are often not quite so sensible in practice. The big problem with the electronic postbox is not its operation, but setting it up.

Each postbox needs an administrator, responsible for maintaining it and letting others use it. Since my company involves just me, that is not such a burden. The difficulty is the security surrounding that administrator's codes and passwords. This involves a fiendishly complicated set of to and fro's between my computer (checked by the authorities from a distance that it satisfies the necessary technical requirements) and the new e-post website, followed by the sending of key files, access codes, installation codes, and other similar stuff. At one point, I gave up trying to get the system to work and rang the helpline. After starting at number 32 in the queue, I finally got to a recorded voice who kindly sent me in the direction of the website where I had been for the past two hours.

After a full morning, I did finally manage to establish an e-postbox. I can't say that I wait with baited breath to find out what eventually will pop into it, I am much keener to avoid the fines that would have occurred if I had not followed the rules. Which - thankfully - I have done.

Walter Blotscher