The Swiss QR-Rechnung: what actually has to be on it
The QR bill replaced the old payment slips for good. What the QR code has to contain, the difference between a QR-IBAN and an IBAN, and the two mistakes that get invoices rejected.
Switzerland retired the old orange and red payment slips and replaced them with the QR-Rechnung — an invoice with a payment part carrying a Swiss Cross QR code. If you invoice Swiss customers, this is the format they expect, and getting the details wrong is the sort of thing that comes back as "our system would not read it".
What the QR code contains
The code encodes a structured payment instruction, not a link. The parts that matter:
- Creditor IBAN — yours. Either an ordinary Swiss IBAN or a QR-IBAN (see below).
- Creditor name and address — the payee, structured.
- Amount and currency — CHF or EUR. The amount may be left empty for an open amount.
- Debtor name and address — your customer, where you know it.
- Reference — one of three types, and this is where it goes wrong.
- Unstructured message / billing information — free text, and the structured
Swico billing information some ERP systems read.
The reference: the part that causes the trouble
There are three reference types and they are not interchangeable.
QR reference (QRR). A 27-digit reference with a check digit, the successor to the old ESR reference. It requires a QR-IBAN — a special IBAN your bank issues for this purpose, distinguishable by its institution identifier. Using a QR reference with an ordinary IBAN is invalid.
Creditor reference (SCOR). The ISO 11649 structured creditor reference, used with an ordinary IBAN. This is the usual choice for international work.
No reference (NON). Valid, with an ordinary IBAN, where you do not need automatic reconciliation.
The two mistakes that account for most rejections are: a QR reference on a normal IBAN, and a QR-IBAN with no reference at all. Both are invalid combinations, and both are easy to produce by hand.
The layout rules
The payment part is not a design opportunity. It sits at the bottom of the page, it is a fixed size (105 × 210 mm for the payment part and receipt together), it must be separable along a perforation or marked line, and the Swiss Cross sits in the middle of the code at a fixed size.
The practical consequence: the QR bill should be produced by software that knows the specification, and the specification — the Swiss Implementation Guidelines QR-bill — is published by SIX and is the authority, not any article about it.
And the payment file going the other way
Paying Swiss suppliers is the mirror image: ISO 20022 pain.001 is the credit transfer message Swiss banks accept for outgoing payments. If you are still typing account numbers into e-banking one at a time, that is the format to ask your bank about.
VAT, while you are here
Swiss VAT (MWST) rates changed on 1 January 2024 to 8.1% standard, 2.6% reduced and 3.8% special rate for accommodation. The rates are published by the Eidgenössische Steuerverwaltung.
Those rates are public facts with the source above. How they apply to your business is
a question for a local Treuhänder, and we have not had Switzerland's detailed rules
reviewed by a paid local expert.
BizBoard produces QR-Rechnungen and ISO 20022 payment files for Swiss businesses, with the language, currency and VAT set from the country you choose. See what the Swiss country pack covers.