Swiss QR-bill vs QR payment slip: What do you actually need?

Note: under SIX’s transition rules, banks reject QR-bills in the old combined address format from 30 September 2026 – details in the FAQ below.

What is a Swiss QR-bill?

Here's what's happening in Switzerland right now:

A Swiss QR-bill (QR-Rechnung / QR-facture) is an invoice that carries a standardised payment section along its bottom edge. Switzerland and Liechtenstein have accepted no other payment-slip format since 30 September 2022, the day the orange (ISR) and red (IS) slips went out of use.

Every QR-bill has three parts: one whose content you decide based on the products or services delivered, and two that follow the fixed SIX format.

1. The invoice (upper part). Your line items, prices, invoice number and payment terms. If you’re VAT-registered, it must also contain the details listed in Art. 26 of the Swiss VAT Act (MWSTG): your name and address as used in business dealings plus your UID, the client’s name and address, the date or period of supply where it differs from the invoice date, a description of the goods or services, the amount, and the VAT rate and VAT amount. The layout is entirely your choice. The content of this part is governed by Swiss accounting and VAT law, not by the payment standard.
2. The payment part. A 148 × 105 mm field at the bottom right, holding the Swiss QR code and the same data in plain text. This part is fully standardised: the SIX Implementation Guidelines specify the placement, dimensions, fonts and, on paper, even the perforation line.
3. The receipt. The small detachable stub at the bottom left, kept mainly by people who pay over the post office counter.

To pay, your client points a banking app at the code, and the transfer screen comes up already completed; approving it is the only step left. Anyone who prefers paper can settle the bill at a post office counter or copy the printed details into e-banking by hand, since everything in the code also appears beside it in plain text. A QR-bill needs no special stationery: plain paper from any printer works, and so does a PDF attached to an email.

What is a QR payment slip?

A QR payment slip (also called a QR-Einzahlungsschein or, in French, bulletin de versement QR) is the Swiss QR code payment part of a QR-bill issued on its own, without the invoice. Officially, SIX names this element the “payment part with receipt” (Zahlteil mit Empfangsschein) and treats it as one building block of a QR-bill, never as a document in its own right. Put simply: a QR-Einzahlungsschein triggers a payment, but it is not an invoice in the sense of Art. 26 of the VAT Act.

Usually this section is attached to the foot of an invoice, but it can also come on a separate sheet: an A4 page that is blank apart from the strip along the bottom. As far as the money is concerned, that sheet does its job: it scans, it can be presented at the post office counter, and the amount lands in your account.

Is a QR payment slip a valid invoice in Switzerland?

No. The slip is valid for triggering a payment, but it does not meet the legal requirements for an invoice. Under Art. 26 of the Swiss VAT Act, an invoice must clearly identify the supplier, the recipient and the type of service. In concrete terms that means your name and address with your UID, the client’s name and address, the supply date or period (where it isn’t the invoice date), a description of what was delivered, the amount, and the VAT rate with the VAT amount. Hold the slip against that list and you find an IBAN, a sum and a reference number. It shows that somebody asked for money and nothing beyond that.

The gap costs both sides:

1. For your client: an expense can only be booked against a document that explains it, and where the client is VAT-registered, a compliant invoice is the standard proof behind the input VAT deduction. Strictly speaking, a missing invoice doesn’t automatically cost them the deduction, since Swiss VAT law allows other evidence; in practice, their accounts department will insist on the document anyway. Bill a company with a bare slip and the typical result is a reply asking for a proper invoice, with your payment on hold until it arrives.
2. For you: the Code of Obligations (Art. 957 ff.) requires a supporting record for every entry in your books, kept for 10 years (Art. 958f). Electronic archiving is allowed, provided the conditions of the Business Records Ordinance (GeBüV) are met: the files must be protected against alteration, organised and readable throughout the retention period – most invoicing and archiving tools handle this for you, so there is no need to print anything. Your archived copy of the full invoice reconstructs the deal: what was sold, to whom, at what price, under what number. A payment slip shows none of that at tax time or in an audit.

Here is what that looks like in practice. You design a website for a Zurich agency and charge CHF 3,450 plus 8.1% VAT, which comes to CHF 3,729.45. Send a full QR-bill and everything runs smoothly: the agency books the expense under your invoice number, gets the CHF 279.45 back as input VAT, and files your invoice away. Now imagine you sent only a payment slip. All the agency has is a CHF 3,729.45 debit on its bank statement and no idea what it belongs to. Sooner or later someone in accounts writes to you asking for a proper invoice, and until you send one, nobody approves the payment. You wanted to save yourself a step and instead you’re getting paid a week later.

One note for solopreneurs: below roughly CHF 100,000 in worldwide turnover you’re normally outside the VAT register, and Art. 27 of the VAT Act then forbids showing VAT on your invoices altogether. You’ll still need proper invoices, since your own bookkeeping needs a document for every entry and business clients will ask for one. Yours simply go out without a VAT line.

QR payment slip vs QR-bill: The key differences

The difference between a QR-bill and a QR payment slip comes down to this: the slip holds nothing but the payment data, while the QR-bill is a full invoice with that section built in. One of them can only get you paid; the other also records what the payment was for.

Let’s look at this in detail:

When is a payment slip enough?

A payment slip on its own is appropriate when you’re only collecting money, not billing for goods or services. Typical cases:

• Donations – charities routinely tuck a slip into their appeal letters; nothing was sold, so there is nothing to document.
• Club and association membership dues – a fixed amount everyone knows; members expect a slip, not an invoice.
• Private payment requests – rent to a private landlord, splitting shared costs, or getting reimbursed.
• Payment reminders – the complete invoice already went out; only the money is still missing.

In these cases the slip does the same job the old orange and red slips did: it carries the money.

In every other case, send the full QR-bill. If your client runs the payment through their bookkeeping, deducts VAT on it or keeps it on file, they need a real invoice from you, and so do your own records.

How to decide: three questions

If you’re unsure about a specific case, this quick test settles it:

1. Is the payer a business rather than a private person?
2. Will anyone deduct VAT on this payment?
3. Does either side need this payment in their records?

One yes means you send the full QR-bill. Three noes mean a payment slip is enough.

How to create a full QR-bill for free

With SoloDesk’s free QR-bill generator you get the complete document: an invoice with line items, VAT and invoice number, plus the payment section with the Swiss QR code, formatted to the SIX specifications.

The whole process takes you 2 minutes:

1. Open SoloDesk’s QR-bill generator. You don’t need to register or install anything.
2. Fill in your business name and IBAN (a standard IBAN works), your client’s details, and your line items with prices and VAT if you’re registered.
3. SoloDesk emails you the finished PDF, which you can forward to your client or print on plain paper.