QR-bill, eBill and reconciliation: what changes in 2026.

At a glance

• Since 22 November 2025 the QR-bill only accepts structured addresses: street, number, postcode and town in separate fields.
• From 14 November 2026 all payment orders must have structured addresses, with at least the town and country in separate fields. Orders that don’t follow the rule will no longer be processed.
• eBill has passed four million users. LSV+ and BDD close on 30 September 2028.
• The data already arrives in a form that software can read. The slow step is whoever retypes it by hand.

Take the end of the quarter at a four-person fiduciary firm. On the desk are invoices from thirty clients, some as PDFs, some photographed on a phone. Every QR-bill already carries the IBAN, the addresses and, usually, the amount and reference in its code. Someone is retyping them by hand, one by one.

In 2026 the rules for Swiss payments change again, and the date to note is 14 November. The retyping, however, stays exactly the same until someone decides to get rid of it.

The QR-bill since November 2025: structured addresses only

The QR-bill replaced the old payment slips for good on 1 October 20221. Since 22 November 2025 its rules have applied in version 2.3, and the biggest change concerns the address.

In the QR code, the address is no longer written on two free lines: street, house number, postcode and town each go in their own field, for your address and your customer’s alike. More accented and special characters are also allowed2.

If you’ve given customers QR-bills for recurring payments (rent, a lease, an annual fee), the ones with the old address format need replacing: they were only valid for a short transition period. And if you read invoices with a scanner or software, it must be able to read the new characters too2.

14 November 2026: the real deadline is for payments

For the QR-bill, version 2.4 comes into force on 14 November. Invoices in Swiss francs need no technical changes. For invoices in euros, from November 2027 only the IBAN with the international RF reference or the IBAN with a free-text message will remain1: no more QR-IBAN with the QR reference.

The change that affects every business concerns the payments you make. From 14 November 2026, every payment order must have structured addresses, with at least the town and country in separate fields. Payments that don’t comply with the new rules can no longer be processed3.

From the same date only one version of ISO 20022 remains, the standard that software and banks use to exchange payments and statements: the 2019 version3. If your accounting software sends payments to the bank as a file, or reads electronic bank statements, it must use that version.

Banks must update standing orders and templates in e-banking by 13 November 2026. If your landlord sends you a new QR-bill with the same amount and a structured address, the standing order needs updating. LSV+ and BDD direct debits, on the other hand, stay as they are until they are discontinued3.

The key dates for Swiss payments, 2022 to 2028

When	What changes	Who it affects
1 October 2022	The QR-bill replaces payment slips	Everyone
22 November 2025	Structured addresses only in the QR-bill	Anyone who issues or reads invoices
13 November 2026	Banks update standing orders and templates	Anyone paying via e-banking
14 November 2026	Structured addresses in all payments, ISO 20022 (2019 version) only	All businesses
End of 2026	All banks receive instant payments	Everyone
November 2027	Euro invoices only with IBAN plus RF reference or free-text message	Anyone invoicing in euros
30 September 2028	LSV+ and BDD close	Anyone collecting by direct debit

eBill: over four million users, and goodbye to LSV+

eBill is the invoice that lands directly in the customer’s e-banking, where they check it and pay with one click. At the end of June 2026 it passed four million users, more than half of all adults in Switzerland. In 2025 it handled around 93 million transactions, and 110 financial institutions offer it4.

According to SIX, more and more of the businesses sending invoices are SMEs going digital4. If you invoice private customers (a medical practice, a garage, a music school), ask your bank, or whoever supplies your invoicing software, whether your invoices can also go out via eBill.

If you collect payments by direct debit, like a gym or an association with annual membership fees, there’s another date to note. Since summer 2025 there has been eBill Direct Debit, which replaces LSV+ and BDD. The old schemes close on 30 September 20284: better to ask your bank now how the switch works.

The payment arrives in ten seconds, the bookkeeping doesn’t

Since 20 August 2024, more than a hundred institutions, covering over 95% of customer payments in Switzerland, have been able to receive instant payments. The remaining banks follow from the end of 20265.

10 seconds

The money moves fast. In many businesses the bookkeeping doesn’t: the bank statement gets opened as a PDF at the end of the month, and someone ticks off the transactions one by one.

The payment arrives in ten seconds. The bookkeeping, at the end of the month.

The data is already there

The invoice’s QR code contains the IBAN, the addresses and the reference. The bank sends the same reference back in its electronic bank statements, the camt files you can download from e-banking instead of the PDF. With the QR reference, matching a payment to its invoice is a comparison, not a search.

Supplier invoices are messier: different PDFs, photos, foreign invoices without a QR code. But the data to look for is always what VAT law requires: who is invoicing and under which VAT number, to whom, when, for what, the amount, the rate and the tax7. That kind of reading repeats itself: hand it to software, and leave a person the doubtful cases, such as a payment covering three invoices, a reversal or an unclear VAT rate. Better to find them in a single list every morning than to stumble on them when you close the books.

VAT and record keeping: the rules that stay

The formats change, the obligations don’t. VAT rates are 8.1% (standard), 2.6% (reduced) and 3.8% (accommodation), in force since 1 January 20248. On 29 November 2026 Switzerland votes on funding the AHV old-age pension with a VAT increase of 0.4 percentage points from 20289. If it passes, invoice templates with 8.1% typed in by hand will have to be corrected one by one: better to have the rate as a setting in your software.

Since 2025, businesses with turnover of up to CHF 5,005,000 can apply for annual VAT reporting, by the end of February on the portal of the Federal Tax Administration (FTA)10. One VAT return a year is only a relief if your books stay in order all year round: the instalments to the FTA still have to be paid.

Accounting records must be kept for ten years from the end of the financial year11, and they don’t have to be on paper:

“The accounting records and the accounting vouchers may be retained on paper, electronically or in a comparable manner, provided that correspondence with the underlying business transactions and circumstances is guaranteed thereby and provided they can be made readable again at any time.”

In practice: the original, PDF or photo, must stay linked to its entry and accessible for ten years. If you hand your invoices over to software, get it in writing where the originals end up.

A question we’re often asked: are electronic invoices mandatory? In Switzerland no law requires two private companies to exchange electronic invoices: the obligation applies to suppliers to the federal government, since 2016, for contracts over CHF 5,00012. This article is not tax advice: for your own situation, ask your fiduciary.

Where to start, and who approves

The November deadlines are something to sort out with your software provider and your bank. The retyping goes away by a different route, and that starts with measuring it.

1. Count. For one month, note how many invoices come in and how many minutes each one takes, reconciliation included.
2. Download the right file. The statement in camt.053 format instead of the PDF, plus the camt.054 advices if you collect a lot of QR-bills.
3. Decide who approves. One named person, up to a set amount. At the start, it’s best if they approve everything.
4. Only hand over what repeats. Bank charges, subscriptions, your regular supplier below a threshold. New suppliers, large amounts and unclear VAT stay with a person.

That’s how Digitam Invoice works: it reads Swiss and foreign invoices in any currency, matches them against bank statements (camt, Excel or CSV) and suggests the account and VAT with a confidence percentage. At first you approve everything, then you decide what it books on its own. It connects to the accounting software you already use, from Abacus to bexio, and for fiduciary firms each client mandate has its own rules.

If you want to see this work done by an automation, on everyday invoices, book the Digitam Invoice demo.

Sources

1. QR-bill. SIX Group, QR-bill page with implementation guidelines 2.3 and 2.4.
2. New Requirements QR-bill: Need for Action for SMEs (with Standard Software). SIX Group, factsheet, 19 August 2025.
3. Adjustment of Addresses in Payment Orders and Migration to ISO 20022 Message Versions: Need for Action for SMEs (with Standard Software). SIX Group, factsheet, 19 August 2025.
4. eBill surpasses four million users and further expands direct debit functions. SIX Group, press release, August 2026.
5. Instant payments. SIX Group, page on instant payments in Switzerland.
6. Account reports. UBS Switzerland, camt.053 and camt.054 formats.
7. Federal Act on Value Added Tax (VAT Act), Art. 26. Fedlex, SR 641.20.
8. Swiss VAT rates. Federal Tax Administration (FTA).
9. 13th AHV pension: implementing the initiative (in Italian). Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO), page updated on 25 September 2026.
10. Annual reporting. Federal Tax Administration (FTA).
11. Code of Obligations, Art. 958f. Fedlex, SR 220.
12. Federal Council to require electronic invoices from its suppliers from 2016 (in German). Federal Council, press release, 8 October 2014.

Written by Alexandru Ciobanu. Sources checked on 29 September 2026. If you spot a figure that doesn’t add up, email us at info@digitam.ch.