Knowledge

Swiss QR bills for roofers

Roofers issue every advance, interim and final invoice with its own QR payment part and its own reference, and since 21 November 2025 only with structured addresses.

Updated October 2026

What is the Swiss QR bill?

The QR bill replaced the red and orange payment slips on 30 September 2022. It consists of the payment part with the Swiss QR Code and the receipt. The code holds your account, the amount, the reference and the addresses. Your client scans it in their banking app and types nothing. Sources: PostFinance, SIX (QR bill implementation guidelines).

Which reference goes on the invoice?

For invoices in Swiss francs within Switzerland there is the QR reference: 27 digits, the last one a check digit. It only works with the QR-IBAN of your account. With a normal IBAN you use the Creditor Reference, which starts with «RF» and also works for invoices in euro. Sources: SIX, ZKB.

What matters: every invoice gets its own reference. That is how your software later knows which payment belongs to which invoice. How matching through camt.054 works.

Advance, interim or final invoice: what is the difference?

• The advance invoice (Akontorechnung) bills part of the job up front or as work progresses, for example 30 percent when work starts. The work contract says when how much is due.
• The interim invoice (Teilrechnung) bills a finished part by measured quantities (Ausmass), for example the completed sheet-metal work.
• The final invoice (Schlussrechnung) bills the whole job by measured quantities, with change orders and time-and-material work (Regie), and deducts every advance and interim invoice already issued.

Each of these invoices gets its own QR payment part with its own reference and the amount due now. Each shows VAT, at the standard rate of 8.1 percent since 1 January 2024. Source: ESTV.

What changed for addresses in November 2025?

Since 21 November 2025 the Swiss QR Code only allows structured addresses (address type S). Street, house number, postcode, town and country each sit in their own field. The combined address (type K), with street and town as two free lines, is no longer allowed. This applies to your own address and to your client's address. Sources: SIX (version 2.3), ZKB, PostFinance.

Banks only process type K invoices during a transition period that ends in autumn 2026: at UBS on 30 September 2026, at PostFinance on 13 November 2026. After that your client's payment can be rejected. So check your client addresses: street and house number apart, postcode and town apart. Sources: UBS, PostFinance, ZKB.

What if the client pays only part?

The bank reports the payment with the reference and the amount paid. The invoice stays open for the rest. More on partial payments and camt.054.