QR-bill in Switzerland
No more payment without QR-Code in the future
Olten, May 2nd 2019: From 30 June 2020, paper invoices in Switzerland will carry a QR code on the number part. This contains all relevant payment information and can be easily processed digitally.
There are currently red or orange inpayment slips that are to be used for physical payment orders at the bank or deposits at the post office counter. These no longer apply with the introduction of the payment part with QR code. After a transition phase that has not yet been defined in more detail, it will only be possible to pay with the payment part in future.
The electronic processes are to be promoted by the introduction of the number part with QR code. Following the introduction of the IBAN, this is the next step towards the digitalisation of payment transactions for paper-based invoice documents. Billers provide the necessary payment information in a machine-readable format. A QR code can be applied with any existing printer and does not require any special hardware. For the invoicing party’s software side, there will be tools that support the generation of QR bills.
The use of a QR code can thus further close the gap between the analogue paper world and purely digital e-bill. However, the volume of data that can be mapped is very limited. For example, the QR code contains information on the payee, payer, amount, currency and the IBAN. A complete list can be found in the document “Swiss Implementation Guidelines QR-bill” . The QR bill is therefore a sensible solution for simple invoicing processes.
The solution already introduced a year ago together with swissDIGIN ZUGFeRD 2.0 / Factur-X is much more comprehensive. Thus, information about the goods or services invoiced can be represented as structured data.
Further information on the QR bill can be found at https://www.paymentstandards.ch