The QR-bill has long been routine for Swiss businesses. For software that generates invoices, it is a detail with many pitfalls. Anyone invoicing Swiss clients, whether as fiduciary, family office or SaaS provider, needs it right.
Structure
A QR-bill consists of the invoice itself and the payment part with receipt, usually in A6 format at the bottom. The payment part contains the Swiss QR Code with the Swiss cross in the centre and the details in readable form: account, payee, reference, additional information, amount and payer. When paying, e-banking reads the code and takes over the details.
References
There are three variants. With a QR-IBAN and QR reference, a 27-digit reference that allows automatic matching of incoming payments — the successor of the orange payment slip. With a regular IBAN and a creditor reference under ISO 11649, usable internationally. Or with an IBAN and no reference, when automatic matching is not needed. A QR reference only works with a QR-IBAN and vice versa; this combination is a common source of errors.
Structured addresses
The Swiss Payment Standards now require structured addresses with separate fields for street, house number, postcode and town; combined address lines have not been supported since November 2025. Software storing addresses as free text must therefore split them cleanly. Failing to do so produces invoices that banks reject.
What invoicing software must get right
Generate the code to specification, including error correction and size. Calculate QR reference check digits correctly. Show VAT per invoice. Allow different invoice recipients, for example the company rather than the person. Match incoming payments automatically via the reference. And offer a dunning run for open invoices. Where the amount is calculated from asset data, approval under the four-eyes principle belongs before sending.
QR-bill and eBill
Alongside the QR-bill on paper or as PDF there is eBill, delivering the invoice straight into the recipient’s e-banking. Both rest on the same payment information. For smaller providers, the QR-bill as PDF is the simplest route; eBill pays off with many private clients. For matching against bank movements, clean reconciliation ensures each payment is assigned to exactly one invoice.