Swiss payment flows
The QR-bill in practice, from issuing to bank matching
Issue, read, match. What the vendors' documentation really establishes about the QR-bill.
The QR-bill always reads from two sides. Whoever issues it chooses a reference variant and a template. Whoever receives it has to scan it, book it, then find the receipt again in a bank file. This page compares what eleven products document on these two sides as of 23 August 2026, from issuing to reconciliation, and flags the places where the documentation stops before the real need.
Three reference variants, two vocabularies to name them
A QR-bill carries a machine-readable payment part, and that part does not have a single form. smallinvoice documents three variants, without reference, with QR reference and with the structured international SCOR reference, generated automatically in the document's language. KLARA documents the same three cases under other names, without QR, with Creditor reference, and QR-IBAN combined with a QRR reference. The vocabulary changes from vendor to vendor; the question put to the company stays identical: which reference will the invoice carry.
The QR-IBAN is not a secondary setting. KLARA puts it in the very name of the variant, and its documentation makes it mandatory for eBill sending. At Crésus, eBill issuing assumes an active QR-IBAN, an entry in the commercial register, an issuing contract and registration fees of CHF 20. The number printed on the invoice therefore conditions what will be possible next, and these two vendors write it explicitly in their documentation, read on 23 August 2026.
The rest hangs on the template. Banana Comptabilité Plus documents a CH10 layout for the Swiss QR-bill as well as a payment QR code. SelectLine documents automated generation from commercial documents, with customisation through the form editor. bexio documents native generation together with automatic payment matching. Three close formulations, three very different depths of configuration as soon as an SME wants its own template and its own layout.
Issuing is documented everywhere, at entry prices from CHF 15 to CHF 69
Of the eleven products studied, ten explicitly document issuing a QR-bill. The eleventh, Odoo, is a special case, since its Swiss localisation documentation read on 23 August 2026 still describes the BVR and the ISR and the 2018 change to 7.7 per cent, without mentioning the QR-bill, while the vendor elsewhere documents the Swiss payment format pain.001.001.03.ch.02. Issuing is therefore not the point that separates Swiss software.
What separates them is the entry ticket and what that ticket contains. smallinvoice opens its API from the STARTER plan at CHF 15 per month, while SelectLine reserves its own for the Premium edition at CHF 119 per user per month, the base edition staying at CHF 69. WinBIZ lists CHF 64 before tax per access on annual invoicing and CHF 74 on monthly, with an initial period of twelve months and three months' written notice.
Vendors' pricing pages, read on 23.08.2026. Amounts before tax.
Reading a supplier's invoice requires tooling that issuing does not
Five documentations describe reading a received invoice. WinBIZ announces the QR-bill for issuing as for reception. Crésus documents issuing and the processing of received invoices. SelectLine documents reading supplier QR-bills and taking them into open items. Infoniqa documents the QR invoice for issuing and its reading by QR scanner, with a scan of supplier invoices on the ONE 50 side. Abacus documents a native QR-bill for issuing as for reading.
Elsewhere, the page read stops at issuing. bexio's QR-bill page describes generation and automatic payment matching, without describing the reading of a received invoice. At smallinvoice, the API specification has no creditors or expenses endpoint, so an automated supplier flow is built outside the interface. Run my Accounts treats the question differently: the provider takes the documents in charge and invoices them per unit, with post-scanning at Fr. 2.- per document.
A printed QR becomes a receipt only when the camt comes back
The sensitive point is not generating the QR, it is the bank's return. Crésus documents pain.001 for orders, pain.002 for statuses, camt.053 and camt.054 for movements and QR receipts. WinBIZ documents fetching and processing camt.053 and camt.054 files, with automatic matching against sales, purchase and payroll documents. Infoniqa documents pain.001.001.09 with fallback to pain.001.001.03 and a synchronisation of the SIX bank file.
The access routes to these files differ more than the formats themselves. Crésus Banking goes through EBICS and a PostFinance API channel. bexio goes through SIX's bLink to take over accounts and transactions. Banana imports camt.053 and camt.054, the Camt ISO 20022 Switzerland extension and MT940; its PAIN.001 orders remain marked beta. At KLARA, Raiffeisen and Basler Kantonalbank require an e-banking login at each fetch, PostFinance goes through a signed paper form, and movements prior to activation do not come back.
Documentations Banana, Crésus, WinBIZ, Infoniqa and KLARA, accessed on 23.08.2026
eBill leaves from the same software and yet takes another network
Three vendors appear themselves as eBill network partners: Epsitec SA for Crésus, ePost Service AG for KLARA and Abacus Research AG. Sending then leaves directly from the software. Crésus charges 20 centimes per dispatch before tax and documents issuing only; its help page states that Crésus Facturation cannot receive eBill invoices. KLARA requires a QR-IBAN for sending. The register of network partners kept by SIX allows checking this status before any commitment.
The others go through a carrier. SelectLine documents transmission via PostFinance, specifying that the client does not need a PostFinance account. WinBIZ goes through PostFinance's e-invoicing platform, for sending as for receiving. Infoniqa requires a contract with PostFinance or PayNet and the E-Services licence option; its documentation states that there is no other provider for now. bexio points to a third-party Marketplace application, eBill by iomarket AG, paid on top.
Elsewhere again, the connection reads differently. Banana lists automated sending via eBill among the functions not available for now in its Offers and Invoices application. smallinvoice presents eBill as a function of the Pingen integration. At Odoo, the existing building blocks are OCA community modules the vendor does not maintain. Run my Accounts documents no eBill sending on the day of reading and does not appear among the network partners published by SIX.
What the documentation no longer says has to be checked at the source
A ticked box in a comparison table does not replace the help page. Odoo gives the example: its real behaviour is further along than its Swiss localisation documentation, which forces checking version by version before committing. Infoniqa publishes 985 help articles in German against 452 in French and 28 in Italian, and its commercial site exists only in German, the French address redirecting to the German home page.
The data exit deserves the same examination as the entry. WinBIZ writes that access to WinBIZ Cloud data ceases at the end of the contract and recommends printing or archiving the accounts as PDF before leaving, the export to XLS, CSV or XML being done closing document by closing document. An archive of issued QR-bills and a recoverable database are not the same thing.
What we do when a QR receipt does not find its invoice
We sell no licences. Our work begins where the vendor's documentation stops: on the choice of the reference variant, on connecting the software to the bank's camt file, on taking over creditors when the interface does not expose them. We read your vendor's help pages, we set up a trial run with your own documents, and we document what was tested as well as what was not.
When a match fails, the cause is to be found in the reference typed by hand, in the camt.054 advice that does not arrive, or in the supplier sending a PDF without a payment part. We treat these cases one by one, with the software you already use and the bank you work with, without starting from a blank sheet.
Where these answers come from
Every fact on this page can be checked at the source. The links open directly the website of the vendor or body concerned.
- KLARA, setting up the bank connection and the QR-billThree QR-bill variants, without QR, Creditor reference, QR-IBAN with QRR, and QR-IBAN mandatory for eBill sending
- smallinvoice, integrationsNative connectors, including Pingen for eBill and mail, PostFinance E-Finance for reconciliation, exports to Banana, Infoniqa ONE 50 and Topal
- Crésus Facturation, eBill help pageeBill sending via the SIX network, 20 centimes per dispatch, CHF 20 registration fees, active QR-IBAN required, and no eBill reception
- Crésus Facturation, product specificationsSupported platforms, single-user write lock, multi-client capability, multilingual and multi-currency options
- SelectLine, ERP pageAutomated generation of the QR-bill from commercial documents and customisation through the form editor
- bexio, QR-Rechnung pageNative generation of the QR-bill with automatic payment matching, with no mention of eBill or Peppol on this page
- WinBIZ, product pageIncluded modules, QR-bill for issuing and reception, camt file processing and data hosting in Switzerland
- Infoniqa, E-Services group of the help centreeBill subject to a PostFinance or PayNet contract and the E-Services licence option, with no other documented provider
- Odoo, Swiss fiscal localisationDocumented content of the Swiss localisation, payment format pain.001.001.03.ch.02, mentions of ISR and 2018 rates
- Banana Comptabilité Plus, Offers and Invoices applicationAutomated invoice sending via eBill appears among the functions not available for now
- Register of eBill network partners, SIXOfficial list of eBill network partners, allowing to check whether a vendor sends directly or via a carrier
- Official directory of Peppol Certified Service ProvidersList of certified Peppol providers, to be consulted separately from the QR-bill question
SURVEY OF 23.08.2026
Frequently asked questions
Is the QR-bill mandatory for my SME?
Vendors' documentation does not deal with legal obligations; it describes what each product can produce. It also shows that earlier payment means remain documented next to the QR. SelectLine still describes the VESR, the LSV and the DTA or EZAG in its Swiss payment traffic, and Banana documents importing statements in MT940 format in addition to camt files. A mixed estate therefore stays readable by the tools. The regulatory side proper is treated on our page dedicated to Swiss compliance.
Can you issue a QR-bill without paying anything?
Several free plans exist, all capped. Banana Comptabilité Plus offers a Free plan with no time limit but bounded at 70 entry lines, with unlimited Cash Manager and Time Sheet. smallinvoice offers a FREE plan usable up to CHF 70'000 of cumulative document amounts. AbaNinja starts at CHF 0 with one user and 1'000 documents per year. KLARA removed its free base offer with effect from 1 January 2023 and now offers only a 30-day trial, which runs in the production environment and switches to paying if not deactivated.
My software does not document reading supplier QR-bills, what then?
First look at the connectors the vendor already names. WinBIZ lists ReceiptScan in three levels, Basic, Standard and Premium, as well as M-Files connectors for document management. Infoniqa publishes a directory of 175 proven third-party connections, 159 of them declared ONE 50 compatible, covering document management, time tracking and property management. smallinvoice documents Pingen for mail and eBill. When nothing matches, the reading is built upstream of the accounting software, on the machine or server that receives the documents.
How to automate when the vendor opens no API?
Three very different situations occur. Crésus documents no public API for third parties and works through import and export templates, in tab-separated text files and semicolon CSV, the import templates being identical to the export ones. WinBIZ reserves its API key for approved partners under its general partnership terms. Infoniqa publishes a REST API but installs it on an IIS server at the client's, with an HTTPS certificate, a signed processing agreement and a configuration form to return to the vendor.
How many people can enter invoices at the same time?
It hangs on the product's architecture, not its price. Banana works on a single file; the vendor writes that the software behaves like Excel and that the last person to save overwrites the previous data. Crésus is single-user for writing per client file, the others accessing read-only, and this lock remains in Crésus Cloud, charged CHF 26.00 per month before tax and per simultaneous access. WinBIZ Local is charged CHF 84.- before tax per access while a subscription installs on a single workstation only.
Does the QR-bill prepare the move to Peppol?
The two subjects are independent in the documentation read. Odoo acts itself as an access point and SMP, Switzerland appearing among the countries eligible for registration. Abacus indicates that Peppol transmission goes through its partner Descartes STEPcom. Searching "Infoniqa" in the official Peppol directory returns no result, and bexio does not appear in the list of Peppol Certified Service Providers updated on 21 August 2026. An SME called to invoice a European principal checks this point separately.
Where to go next
- Swiss complianceQR-bill, eBill, Swissdec and VAT, what the law asks today
- Connecting an SME to eBillWho operates the network, and what each software documents
- Swissdec certificationWhat the register guarantees, and what it does not say
- Connecting your softwareThe interfaces of eleven Swiss suites, with their sources
Let's talk about your invoices before talking about software
Describe to us what you issue, what you receive, and the bank that returns your advices. We will tell you what your vendor's documentation covers, what it leaves aside, and what remains to be built at your end. We sell no licences.