The QR-bill consists of a

• payment letter, e. g. with information on the invoice items
• A payment part with a QR code and receipt

The QR code contains all the necessary payment information in a coded, digitally readable form. This information is also all printed in text form.

The payment letter and the payment part with a QR code and receipt may be on a page/sheet or on separate sheets/pages.

The payment part with a QR code and receipt must be placed at the bottom of the page in both instances.

You will find all design requirements and recommendations in the document “The link will open in a new window Swiss Implementation Guidelines QR-bill” and in the “The link will open in a new window Style Guide QR-bill”.

The QR code contains

• Information on the payment recipient
• Information on the debtor
• the invoice amount
• the currency (CHF or EUR)

You will find a complete list of all the information it contains here: “The link will open in a new window Swiss Implementation Guidelines QR-bill”. 

Yes, if you intend to send the QR-bill in paper format, it must be perforated.

If you intend to send the QR-bill as a PDF to the invoice recipient, it must be provided with lines and a scissor symbol for separating the payment part and receipt. This will indicate to the debtor that the payment part and receipt must be cut apart if the QR-bill is forwarded by post to a financial institution for payment, or it’s paid at a Swiss Post branch.

Please bear in mind
that QR-bills in PDF format are primarily suitable for e-banking or mobile banking payments. They are not as suitable for paper-based, over-the-counter payment transactions, or for payments by payment order.

No, we do not provide an order service for perforated A4 paper. However, you will find this sort of paper in the majority of print shops, stationery shops or the The link will open in a new window Postshop. 

There are 3 types of QR-bill:

QR-bills with a QR-IBAN and QR reference
The successor to the orange inpayment slip with an ISR reference. Much like the ISR reference, the QR reference consists of 26 numerical characters, followed by a check digit. It meets the Swiss standard and can only be used on QR-bills for domestic payments (in Switzerland and Liechtenstein).

QR-bill with an IBAN and without a reference
Successor to the red inpayment slip (IS).

QR-bill with an IBAN and Creditor Reference
The Creditor Reference (also known as “Structured Creditor Reference”, or SCOR for short) starts with the letters “RF”, followed by 5 to 25 characters. It complies with the international ISO 11649 standard, which means it can be used for international payment transactions.

Yes, messages can now be printed on all QR-bills. It was previously not possible to add any messages to the current orange inpayment slips with reference (ISR).

Please bear in mind: the message must be printed and placed to the right of the QR-code – and it is also contained within the QR code. Handwritten additions to the message are not permitted.

No, this information can also be entered by hand. In this case, colourless fields with corner marks must be added onto the payment part and the receipt.

You will find more information here: “The link will open in a new window Swiss Implementation Guidelines QR-bill”. 

According to the FINMA Anti Money Laundering Ordinance, this is only required if the QR-bill is being paid at a Swiss Post branch.

We do, however, still recommend entering the full address.

Yes, the debtor’s name (and, optionally, the address) and amount  must actually be added in writing later on if these details are not already printed on the payment part and receipt. In this case, enter the information in the fields with corner marks.

Handwritten messages are, however, not permitted.

Under “Invoice information”, optional information such as the invoice issuer’s VAT number or the VAT amount can be entered in a standardized, structured way. This information can be recorded automatically by a piece of accounting software.

The invoice information is therefore used by the invoice recipient to automate the accounts payable process if software is being used for this purpose.

The QR reference is essentially the same as the current ISR reference, the only difference being it is actually used on the QR-bill, and not on the orange inpayment slip. As such, you can adopt existing ISR reference numbers 100% your QR-bills, which will make the transition from ISR to QR-bill simpler. As before, the QR reference is used to easily assign incoming payments to the respective invoice.

The QR-IBAN is a special IBAN (International Bank Account Number) used on QR-bills with QR reference. You have received your QR-IBAN from PostFinance. If you do not know your QR-IBAN, contact your Customer Advisor.

Please note:
If you issue a QR-bill with QR reference, you must enter your QR-IBAN.