Swiss QR bill: the complete guide for businesses (2026)

What is a Swiss QR bill?

The QR-bill (QR-Rechnung in German, QR-facture in French) is the standard for written invoicing in Switzerland and Liechtenstein: an invoice with a payment part and a receipt, whose payment data sits in a QR code marked with a Swiss cross. Its rules are set by the Implementation Guidelines of SIX Interbank Clearing Ltd.

The payer scans the code with their banking app or software: the payment order fills itself in without retyping. The invoice is sent on paper or as a PDF.

From IS and ISR payment slips to the QR-bill

The QR-bill permanently replaced the red (IS) and orange (ISR) payment slips on 1 October 2022. 30 September 2022 was the last day on which they were processed. The SIX guidelines, first published on 1 April 2017, have gone through several versions.

Anatomy of the payment slip: dimensions, fonts and sections

The slip measures 210 × 105 mm: a 62 × 105 mm receipt on the left, a 148 × 105 mm payment part (A6 landscape) on the right. It goes at the bottom of the invoice or as an enclosure, with a blank reverse side.

The headings are prescribed. In English: “Account / Payable to”, “Reference”, “Additional information”, “Payable by”, “Currency”, “Amount”, and “Acceptance point” on the receipt. The slip must not carry any advertising.

Paper or PDF: perforation or lines with scissors

On paper, one perforation separates the slip from the invoice, another separates the payment part from the receipt. A slip that is not separated correctly can be rejected, delayed or incur charges.

As a PDF, the perforations are replaced by lines bearing the scissors symbol or the instruction “Separate before paying in”. A PDF is suitable for payment in e-banking or mobile banking, not at the counter; if printed, it must respect the same dimensions. Online (customer portal), the payment part may be displayed on its own, provided the complete QR-bill remains available for anyone who wants to pay at the counter.

To produce a slip with the correct dimensions, try our Swiss QR bill generator.

QR-IBAN or IBAN: which one should you use?

Use a QR-IBAN for a QR reference; use your account’s ordinary IBAN for a Creditor Reference (RF) or no reference. The QR-IBAN has the structure of an IBAN (ISO 13616 standard), but it is a separate identifier, provided by your bank, reserved for incoming payments with a QR reference.

It can be recognised by its institution identifier, the QR-IID, always between 30000 and 31999. In a Swiss IBAN, this identifier corresponds to the five digits that follow “CH” and the two check digits. The QR code only accepts Swiss or Liechtenstein IBANs (CH or LI), 21 characters without spaces.

Before registering a new supplier, check their IBAN, bank and BIC with our IBAN checker.

QR reference, RF reference or no reference: the three valid combinations

A QR-bill accepts only three combinations of account and reference, indicated in the QR code by QRR, SCOR or NON.

The QR reference in practice

The QR reference always has 27 digits: 26 digits chosen by the issuer, followed by a check digit calculated using modulo 10 recursive. It cannot consist of zeros only. It is printed as one block of two digits followed by blocks of five; example from the SIX guidelines: 21 00000 00003 13947 14300 09017, where the final 7 is the check digit.

To calculate or check a QR or RF reference, use our QR reference tool.

QR-bill without a reference

A QR-bill without a reference is valid: ordinary IBAN, type NON, with a free-text message if needed. But the reference is what allows the incoming payment to be matched to the invoice automatically; without it, the matching relies on the amount and the free text.

Structured address (2025) and version 2.4 (2026): what has changed

Since 22 November 2025, the QR code only accepts the structured address (type S). The combined address (type K), in two free-text lines, is rejected. Each part has its own field:

• name or company name: 70 characters at most, mandatory;
• street or PO box: 70 characters, optional;
• building number: 16 characters, optional;
• postcode: 16 characters, without a country prefix, mandatory;
• town: 35 characters, mandatory;
• country: two-letter code (ISO 3166-1 standard), mandatory.

The creditor’s name and address must match the account holder; “c/o” details go in the invoice header. To check a QR-bill you have issued or received, run it through our QR-bill validator.

Version 2.4: what changes on 14 November 2026

Version 2.4 of the guidelines, published on 24 February 2026, applies from 14 November 2026, with the SIC release of 13 November. Version 2.3 remains valid until November 2027.

• In Swiss francs: no technical change.
• In euros: the QR-IBAN and the QR reference are no longer accepted. IBAN + Creditor Reference and IBAN without reference remain. If you invoice in euros with a QR-IBAN, adapt your invoice templates before that date.
• Reason: the discontinuation of euroSIC. QR-bills in euros will be processed as SEPA credit transfers after November 2027 at the latest.
• Romansh: new correspondence language (headings accepted since 1 January 2026).

Billing information //S1/ and the link with eBill

The optional “Billing information” line passes structured data about the invoice to the recipient. It starts with //S1/, followed by numbered tags in ascending order, each used only once. Official example: //S1/10/1234/11/201021/30/102673386/32/7.7/40/0.

QR-bill and eBill

According to the SIX guidelines, the QR-bill can serve as the basis for an eBill, which the payer views and approves in their e-banking. The “Alternative procedures” line of the code (two at most, 100 characters each) allows a network partner to convert the QR-bill to another procedure. See our guide to e-invoicing in Switzerland.

Common mistakes on a QR-bill

A non-compliant QR-bill can prevent the payer or their bank from executing the payment, or distort the booking of the incoming payment. Points to watch:

• Wrong combination: QR reference with an ordinary IBAN, or RF reference with a QR-IBAN.
• Combined address (type K), rejected since 22 November 2025.
• Made-up QR reference: the 27th digit is calculated, and a reference made of zeros is prohibited.
• QR code enlarged from a pixelated image: it is scaled to 46 × 46 mm from a vector graphic.
• Badly formatted amount: two decimal places, decimal point, between 0.01 and 999 999 999.99.
• Slip without perforation on paper, or PDF without cutting lines.
• QR-IBAN on an invoice in euros from 14 November 2026.

Invoices received: what the QR-bill lets you automate

A QR-bill you receive contains, in software-readable form, the supplier’s IBAN, name and address, the amount, the currency, the reference and, if the //S1/ line is filled in, the invoice number, the date, the UID number, the VAT and the payment terms. Enough to:

• pre-fill the supplier invoice and the payment order without retyping;
• compare the IBAN in the code with the one already on record for this supplier, and stop the payment if it has changed;
• spot a duplicate from the invoice number and the reference;
• calculate the due date and the early payment discount from the /40/ terms;
• prepare the entry with VAT broken down by rate (/32/).

Several Swiss software packages already read this code (bexio from the Advanced plan, Crésus with Crésus Pay, for example). But the QR code says nothing about the invoice line items or the expense account, and a foreign invoice or a PDF without a QR code requires the document itself to be read.

That is the job of Dossivio Capture: receiving invoices by email, portal or scan, matching them to the right client file, extracting the data, checking for duplicates and IBAN changes, and preparing the entry for your accounting software. An authorised person approves before any payment.