QR-bill: what it must include – and what has changed

Since October 2022, the QR-bill has been the only payment slip in Switzerland. Stricter rules for addresses have applied since November 2025, and the next version of the guidelines arrives in November 2026. Here is what affects you.

By Gabriel Bosnjak · Updated 11 October 2026 · 5 min read

In short

A QR-bill has a payment part (148 × 105 mm) on the right and a receipt (62 × 105 mm) on the left. On paper, a perforation between the two is mandatory.
The QR reference only works with a QR-IBAN. With a regular IBAN, you use the Creditor Reference (RF…) or no reference at all.
Since November 2025, only structured addresses have been permitted in the QR code: street, building number, postcode and town each in a separate field.
The transition period for invoices using the old address format ended on 30 September 2026. Banks can reject such invoices.
Version 2.4 of the guidelines applies from 14 November 2026. For invoices in Swiss francs, nothing changes technically.

How a QR-bill is structured

The QR-bill sits at the bottom of an A4 page and consists of two parts: the receipt on the left and the payment part with the Swiss QR Code on the right. The code contains all the payment details in digital form, and the same details are printed next to it in readable form. The banking app scans the code; at the post office counter, the receipt is stamped.

Payment part: 148 × 105 mm, i.e. A6 landscape.
Receipt: 62 × 105 mm. Together they measure 210 × 105 mm – exactly the width of an A4 page.
Paper: white, 80 to 100 g/m², with a perforation between the invoice and the payment part. The back of the payment part stays blank, and there is no room for advertising on either the payment part or the receipt.
Font: Arial, Frutiger, Helvetica or Liberation Sans, in black. The headings, such as “Account / Payable to”, are prescribed and must not be renamed.

If you send the invoice as a PDF, there is no perforation. If your customers print the PDF, however, the payment part must come out at its original size – so do not choose “fit to page” when printing. Banks can reject printed payment parts with the wrong dimensions.

What the payment part must contain

The details go under fixed, prescribed headings:

Heading	What goes in it	Mandatory
Account / Payable to	IBAN or QR-IBAN, with your name and address as the invoice issuer underneath	yes
Reference	QR reference or Creditor Reference – depending on the account, see below	depending on the variant
Additional information	Message and bill information, together no more than 140 characters	no
Payable by	Name and address of your customer – or an empty field to be filled in by hand	no
Currency	CHF or EUR	yes
Amount	0.01 to 999 999 999.99 – or blank, in which case the payer enters it themselves	no

The receipt on the left repeats the account, reference, “Payable by”, currency and amount – without the additional information – and has an “Acceptance point” field for the stamp at the post office counter.

QR-IBAN or IBAN: the three variants

Which reference you may use depends on the account. There are exactly three combinations:

QR-IBAN with QR reference. The QR-IBAN looks like an IBAN, but in place of the bank identifier it carries a number between 30000 and 31999. It is only valid together with the QR reference: 27 digits, the last of which is a check digit. You get the QR-IBAN from your bank, and it is only for incoming payments.
IBAN with Creditor Reference. The international reference under ISO 11649 starts with “RF” and two check digits and has 5 to 25 characters. It can also be matched automatically – without a QR-IBAN.
IBAN without reference. The “Reference” field stays empty, and the invoice number then goes in the message. This is the simplest option, but you match every payment by hand.

The most common mistake: a QR reference with a regular IBAN – or a QR-IBAN without a QR reference. Both are invalid under the SIX guidelines.

Since November 2025: structured addresses only

Until 2025, the address in the QR code could be written in two free-form lines (address type “K”, combined). With version 2.3 of the guidelines, valid since 21 November 2025, only the structured address (type “S”) is permitted in the Swiss QR Code: name, street, building number, postcode, town and country each go in a separate field.

Name, postcode, town and country are mandatory. The banks nevertheless recommend including street and building number.
This applies to you as the invoice issuer (“Payable to”) and to your customers (“Payable by”).
Additions such as “c/o” or a PO box do not belong in the payment part but on the invoice above it.
More special characters are now permitted – umlauts and accents as they appear in population registers.

Invoices using the old address format had a transition period until 30 September 2026. Since then, banks can reject such QR-bills. If you still have old templates, update them, reissue any open invoices and ask customers who pay you by standing order to set it up again with the new details.

What is coming in November 2026

On 14 November 2026, version 2.4 of the Implementation Guidelines comes into force; version 2.3 remains valid until November 2027. According to SIX, this means no technical changes for invoices in Swiss francs.

For invoices in euros, the following applies from November 2027: only IBAN with Creditor Reference or IBAN without reference. The combination of QR-IBAN and QR reference will then no longer be available for euros.

Common mistakes – and how to avoid them

Wrong combination of account and reference (see above).
Old address format from a template created before November 2025.
Scaled-down payment part, because the PDF was fitted to the page when printing.
Advertising or text on the payment part, the receipt or the back.
Custom headings instead of the prescribed ones.
Message too long: the message and bill information share 140 characters between them.

How Buchify does it

Buchify generates the payment part and receipt according to the SIX Implementation Guidelines – always with a structured address, and with your choice of QR-IBAN and QR reference, IBAN and Creditor Reference, or IBAN without reference. Buchify does not even allow a QR-IBAN without a QR reference. The QR reference contains the invoice number: when you import your bank statement, Buchify finds the paid invoice by itself.

View the demo Invoices in Buchify

Sources

All sources accessed on 11 October 2026. General information, not tax or legal advice. The law and the requirements of the authorities and banks are what count – for your specific case, your fiduciary can help.

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