QR bills for your business: what to look out for when creating them

How is a QR-bill structured?

The QR-bill is the only payment slip standard still accepted in Switzerland, as the old orange and red payment slips were phased out on 30 September 2022. There is no statutory obligation to use the QR-bill as such: the elimination of alternatives makes it the de facto standard. The standard is issued by SIX Interbank Clearing Ltd on behalf of the Swiss financial centre; the technical specifications are set out in the Swiss Payment Standards (SPS) and the Implementation Guidelines QR-bill.

A QR-bill consists of three clearly defined parts:

• Swiss QR Code: The machine-readable data container, strictly 46 x 46 mm in print, with a Swiss cross measuring 7 x 7 mm in the centre. It encodes all payment data in a format based on ISO 20022.

• Payment part (visual section): The payment information readable by customers, printed directly next to the Swiss QR Code.

• Receipt: The detachable receipt on the left-hand side.

The dimensions are standardised: the payment part is 148 mm wide and 105 mm high, and the receipt to the left of it is 62 x 105 mm. Together, they form a section measuring 210 x 105 mm, printed either as the lower part of an A4 page or as a separate page at the end of the invoice. The standardised layout ensures that scanning solutions from banks and customers can reliably read the Swiss QR Code.

Every detail in the code, from the IBAN to the address, is placed in a designated data field. If a mandatory field is missing or incorrectly formatted, the code cannot be processed, and the payment must be entered manually. That is precisely why it pays to thoroughly understand the structure before sending your first invoice.

What mandatory fields does a QR-bill contain?

Because the Swiss QR Code encodes all payment data in a structured format, the mandatory fields are clearly defined. Which fields you need to fill in depends on the reference type you use. The Swiss Payment Standards define the following basic fields:

Important since 21 November 2025: Addresses in the Swiss QR Code must be entered in a structured format—meaning street, house number, postal code, and town/city in separate fields. The former combined address type, where all address lines were included in a free-text field, is no longer permitted. QR-bills with combined addresses can no longer be scanned reliably by scanning solutions. Anyone still using a template from before November 2025 should review it.

Whether a business must additionally display VAT information on the invoice depends on its VAT liability. This begins at an annual worldwide turnover of CHF 100,000 (Art. 10 MWSTG). As a rule, VAT-liable businesses must include the following on the invoice (Art. 26 MWSTG): name, location, and VAT number of the service provider, name and location of the customer, date or period of the service, type and scope of the service, consideration, as well as the tax rate and tax amount. Below this threshold, no VAT details should be included on the invoice.

The following also applies to the invoice header: anyone registered in the Commercial Register must use their company name on invoices in full and exactly as registered (Art. 954a CO). A sequential invoice number is not explicitly required by Swiss law, but it follows from the obligation to maintain proper, verifiable accounting records (Art. 957a CO) and is standard practice.

Payment part without reference or with QR reference: Which type should you choose?

Which IBAN variant is entered into the mandatory fields is determined by your choice of reference type. This difference determines how easily you can automatically reconcile incoming payments later. SIX defines three variants: QR-bill with QR reference, with Creditor Reference (SCOR), and without reference. For most SMEs, this boils down to two options:

QR-bill without reference (with message)

• Account basis: Standard IBAN

• Suitable for: Low invoice volume, invoices in EUR

• Advantage: Free-text field instead of structured reference number; immediately usable with existing IBAN

• Setup effort: Low

QR-bill with QR reference

• Account basis: QR-IBAN (specific IBAN variant for this type)

• Suitable for: Higher invoice volume, automated payment reconciliation

• Advantage: Structured 27-digit reference number enables automatic reconciliation

• Setup effort: Medium; QR-IBAN is issued by your principal bank or PostFinance

A middle ground is the Creditor Reference according to ISO 11649: a structured reference with a standard IBAN that can also be reconciled automatically and is recognised internationally. Accounting software often uses it when no QR-IBAN is available.

If you issue only a few invoices per month, choose the variant without a reference. If you issue many invoices and want to automate payment reconciliation, the QR reference is the better choice. For invoices in EUR, a rule applies since February 2026: only a standard IBAN with Creditor Reference or with a message is permitted, not a QR-IBAN. In all cases, the beneficiary account must be in Switzerland or Liechtenstein; the paying party may be located abroad.

The QR-IBAN is not an independent bank account that you open separately. It is a technical variant of your existing banking relationship that your bank or PostFinance will set up upon request. For founders who do not yet have a bank account in Switzerland, it is worth asking directly for a QR-IBAN during the account opening meeting if you expect a higher invoice volume.

How do you create a QR-bill step by step?

Once you know the reference type and mandatory fields, you can create a QR-bill in five steps:

1. Have your IBAN or QR-IBAN ready: Obtain the account number from your business bank or, if required, the QR-IBAN from your principal bank or PostFinance.

2. Select the reference type: Choose between a QR-bill without reference (IBAN) and one with QR reference (QR-IBAN) according to the criteria mentioned above.

3. Fill in mandatory fields: Enter your address in a structured format, along with the amount, currency, and depending on the type, the reference number or message text. Also record the paying party's address, as this facilitates reconciliation.

4. Generate the Swiss QR Code: Use an online tool, your bank's e-banking platform, or accounting software with integrated generation.

5. Incorporate the payment part according to standards: Insert the payment part and receipt at the end of the invoice (210 x 105 mm), with perforation for print or a separation line with scissors symbol for PDF, and export the document as a PDF.

SIX provides the technical specifications for the Swiss QR Code, which all generation tools must comply with. The following overview provides guidance when choosing your setup:

If you use e-banking or an online tool, you generate the payment part as a separate PDF and manually attach it to the invoice. This works reliably, but requires the same process for every single invoice: entering data, downloading the PDF, and merging the documents. Anyone performing this step once a week or more will quickly discover the limits of the manual approach.

What must appear on your invoice outside the payment part?

The payment part alone does not make a complete invoice. What must be included in the invoice header depends on whether your business is liable for VAT.

Recommended for all businesses (and required for proper accounting under the Code of Obligations):

• Full company name and address (if registered in the Commercial Register, exactly as registered, Art. 954a CO)

• Name and address of the customer

• Invoice date and date or period of performance

• Sequential invoice number

• Description and scope of the service/goods, amount

Additional details for VAT-registered businesses (from CHF 100,000 annual turnover, Art. 26 MWSTG):

• VAT number (UID with the suffix MWST/TVA/IVA, e.g. CHE-123.456.789 MWST)

• Applicable tax rate

• Tax amount stated separately or note reading “incl. 8.1% VAT”

Below the VAT threshold, it is recommended to include the note “Not subject to VAT” on the invoice, although this is not strictly mandatory. A payment deadline is likewise not required by law; 30 days has become the standard and simplifies dunning procedures.

State the payment terms clearly in the invoice body: not just the deadline, but also the account to which payment should be made. This may seem obvious, but it is often forgotten on first invoices when the focus is entirely on the payment part. Anyone just starting out with bookkeeping will find a concise summary of the key requirements in the accounting basics for SMEs.

Common mistakes when creating a QR-bill

When creating a QR-bill, the same mistakes occur regularly. They lead to delayed payments or require manual entry.

• Incorrect account number type: Entering a standard IBAN instead of a QR-IBAN when using a QR reference (or vice versa) results in an invalid code. IBAN and QR-IBAN are not interchangeable.

• Zero amount instead of blank field: For an open amount, the amount field must remain blank. An amount of 0.00 is only permitted for notices bearing the remark «DO NOT USE FOR PAYMENT».

• Unstructured address: Since 21 November 2025, only structured addresses are permitted (street, house number, postal code, and town/city in separate fields). Older templates with combined addresses will no longer scan reliably.

• Payment part not incorporated according to standards: An incorrect size for the Swiss QR Code, missing perforation or separation line, or a misaligned layout violates SIX requirements and can prevent machine processing.

• Omitted VAT details: Founders who cross the turnover threshold of CHF 100,000 often forget the VAT number and tax amount on their first invoicing run. The FTA (ESTV) can challenge missing details, and it makes input tax deduction unnecessarily complicated for your customers.

• Gaps in invoice numbering: Anyone creating invoices manually without consistent numbering risks gaps, which will prompt queries during an audit or VAT inspection.

Accounting software such as nextesy automatically checks these fields upon creation, preventing the most common data entry errors.

How to create QR-bills automatically with software

If you issue more than a handful of invoices per month, you can avoid these errors more reliably with accounting software for Swiss SMEs that automatically generates the Swiss QR Code based on the stored IBAN or QR-IBAN. With an integrated solution, you save time not only on invoicing, but also on payment reconciliation.

Concrete benefits of software compared to manual online tools:

• Automatic Swiss QR Code generation: The Swiss QR Code is generated automatically for each invoice using stored master data, without manual input.

• Automatic invoice numbering: The software assigns sequential invoice numbers automatically.

• Automated payment reconciliation: Incoming payments are automatically matched to open invoices, eliminating duplicate entry in bookkeeping.

• No prior knowledge required: Founders can get started immediately; the software guides you through the mandatory fields and validates them for completeness.

nextesy offers all of this from CHF 29 per month in its SME plan. Combining QR-bill generation, automatic payment reconciliation, and bookkeeping in a single tool means: no media breaks, no manual transcription of payment data. Anyone switching from an existing tool can take advantage of the migration for CHF 1 per month as a transition.

For founders with no accounting experience, getting started is particularly straightforward: you enter your IBAN or QR-IBAN and your master data once, and nextesy automatically generates the Swiss QR Code in standard format for every new invoice. PostFinance Ltd and most Swiss cantonal banks provide payment records in a format that nextesy can process directly, ensuring reconciliation runs without manual intervention.

Start your 14-day free trial and see for yourself how quickly a fully compliant QR-bill can be created: try nextesy for free. Anyone looking to manage the entire sales workflow from quotation to paid invoice will find our order management with integrated invoicing ideal.