QR-bill and invoicing software in 2026 — what a Swiss invoice must contain

Invoicing in Switzerland runs on two separate rules: what an invoice must contain, and how it gets paid. The VAT Act sets the content; the QR-bill is the standard way to settle the payment. Neither is an e-invoicing platform. Whether Switzerland has a general B2B e-invoicing obligation is something we found no source either confirming or ruling out, so this article doesn't state it either way.

Because of that, choosing invoicing software comes down to two questions: how many invoices you issue a month, and whether you want the tool to also handle bookkeeping or just invoicing. Data security matters too — you're trusting the provider with all your clients' invoicing data — so the article ends with a checklist rather than a vendor recommendation.

What a Swiss invoice must contain

Under Art. 26 of the VAT Act, "the supplier must on request issue the recipient of the supply with an invoice" — for VAT purposes, the duty is triggered by the recipient asking. The invoice must clearly identify the supplier, the recipient and the nature of the supply, and as a rule contain:

• the supplier's name and location, a note that it is registered for VAT, and its VAT number (the UID business number followed by "MWST", "TVA" or "IVA");
• the recipient's name and location;
• the date or period of the supply, if it differs from the invoice date;
• the nature, object and extent of the supply;
• the consideration (amount charged);
• the applicable VAT rate and the tax amount — or the rate alone, if the price is shown tax-inclusive.

Art. 57 of the [VAT Ordinance](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2009/828/fr) sets a lighter rule for receipts: a till receipt up to CHF 400 doesn't need to name the recipient. Bookkeeping and record-keeping sit under the Code of Obligations: sole proprietorships and partnerships with sales revenue under CHF 500,000 in the last financial year need only keep "accounts on income and expenditure and on their asset position" (Art. 957(2)), and accounting records and vouchers are kept for ten years from the end of the financial year, on paper or electronically as long as they "can be made readable again at any time" (Art. 958f).

The QR-bill: Switzerland's standard for the payment part

The QR-bill, run by SIX, has been "in circulation since June 2020" and "definitively replaced Swiss payment slips on 1 October 2022." New QR-bill requirements took effect on 22 November 2025, and the introduction of the structured address (address type "S") remains scheduled for November 2026. In practice, the QR-bill is the standard that lets the payment part of a Swiss invoice be read by a scanner or banking app rather than typed in by hand — invoicing software aimed at the Swiss market should generate one.

As for a general B2B e-invoicing mandate of the kind some EU member states run, we found no Swiss source either establishing or ruling one out, so this article states neither. What's confirmed is the mechanism: an invoice issued on request under Art. 26, with the QR-bill handling payment.

Free and paid invoicing tools

We haven't reviewed free invoicing tools for the Swiss market, so we don't name one here.

On the paid side, bexio (read 2.10.2026; the pricing page is in French) states that "Tous les prix s'entendent hors TVA" — all prices exclude VAT. With annual billing: Basic CHF 35.00 a month (1 user), Advanced CHF 42.00 (2 users), Optima CHF 69.00, Ultimate CHF 119.00; with monthly billing: Basic CHF 45.00, Advanced CHF 52.00 — the page states a saving of "CHF 120.00" for choosing the annual plan. Features listed include creating invoices and AI booking of QR invoices and receipts. bexio has no free plan, only a free trial.

We haven't verified the CHF price lists of other Swiss invoicing tools, so bexio is the only one priced here. What a paid plan generally buys you is automatic import of incoming invoices, bank and shop integrations, and built-in bookkeeping — check each of these against whatever tool you're considering.

Data checklist for invoicing software

Whatever tool you choose, it holds your clients' invoicing data, and that makes its security part of the decision, not an afterthought. Before you commit:

• Check whether the account can be protected with two-factor authentication. If a password alone unlocks every invoice and every client's details, that's a single point of failure.
• Check whether the provider will sign a processor agreement. Under Art. 9 of the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), processing may be assigned to a processor by contract as long as the processor only processes data the way you, as controller, are permitted to, and no duty of confidentiality prohibits it; "the controller must satisfy itself in particular that the processor is able to guarantee data security". Unlike Art. 28(3) GDPR, the FADP doesn't set a fixed list of mandatory contract clauses — so check what the provider actually commits to, rather than assuming a GDPR-style list applies.
• Check whether you can export your invoices and client list at any time. If your own records are locked in, you're no longer just using the tool — you depend on it.

How to secure business accounts more broadly, including the admin account itself, is in protecting company data. Questions worth asking any cloud provider holding business data are gathered in cloud data security.

How to choose invoicing software: a checklist

Pick invoicing software by answering these questions in order, not by brand:

1. How many invoices do you issue a month? At a handful, check whether a free-tier limit (where one exists) is enough; at regular, repeat sales, it likely won't be.
2. Who handles your bookkeeping? If a fiduciary does, invoicing software that exports cleanly is enough. If you do it yourself, compare plans that bundle bookkeeping, like bexio's Advanced tier, not ones that only invoice.
3. Does the tool generate a QR-bill correctly? This is the part your bank and your client's bank will actually read — test it before relying on the tool for real invoices.
4. What should the data checklist above look like for this specific provider? Two-factor authentication, a processor agreement under FADP Art. 9, and an export you can run yourself.
5. How many people need to issue invoices? bexio's own plans scale by user count (1 for Basic, 2 for Advanced) — check that against how many people in your business actually invoice.

Invoicing software is usually the first paid or free tool a new business adopts, but rarely the only one. Once enquiries pick up and you need to remember who asked what, it's time for CRM for a small business. If you want incoming invoices to land automatically in your accounting system or a spreadsheet, see business process automation. The order of the rest of a new business's technology purchases — domain, mail, office suite — is in technology for a new business.