QR-Bill Mandatory Fields: What's Missing Makes It Invalid

When you issue a QR-bill in Switzerland, you're dealing with two layers of required information: the general invoicing requirements under the Swiss Code of Obligations and the technical specifications of the Swiss Payment Standard (SPS). These two layers overlap only partially. If a technical QR field is missing, the invoice will be rejected by banking software. If a commercial law requirement is missing, the recipient can challenge payment terms. This article shows exactly where gaps emerge — and how to avoid them.

What makes a QR-bill technically valid

A QR-bill always consists of two inseparable parts: the human-readable invoice document and the standardized payment portion with the Swiss QR Code. The payment section contains exactly 26 defined fields in a structured dataset. Not all are mandatory, but filling required fields incorrectly or omitting them produces an invalid QR code.

The most important differences from the old orange payment slip:

• QR-IBAN instead of regular IBAN: For QR-bills with a reference, you absolutely need a QR-IBAN starting with 30. A regular IBAN (e.g., CH56 0483...) works only for QR-bills without a reference (SCOR or NON).
• Reference type must match the account: QR reference (27 digits) only with QR-IBAN; SCOR reference (Creditor Reference per ISO 11649) with regular IBAN; no mixing.
• Amount can be left open: For open amounts (e.g., donation requests), the amount field stays empty — but the currency field must still be correctly set (CHF or EUR, nothing else).

Mandatory fields at a glance

Recipient data (creditor side)

Field	Mandatory?	Common error
QR-IBAN or IBAN	Yes	Wrong IBAN type for reference type
Payee name	Yes	Trade register name missing, abbreviation used instead
Address (street, postal code, city, country)	Yes	PO box instead of street address, country code omitted

The "country" field is surprisingly often forgotten — even for purely domestic invoices. The standard requires the two-letter ISO country code (CH, DE, AT, etc.). An empty field invalidates the QR code.

Payment information

• Amount: Optional, but if filled in, must have exactly two decimal places, no text additions like "incl. VAT".
• Currency: Mandatory, only CHF or EUR allowed.
• Payment reference: Mandatory if a QR-IBAN is used. The type (QRR, SCOR, NON) must be declared in the code.

Debtor data (optional, but recommended)

The payer's name and address are technically optional. Nevertheless, you should always include them — software solutions like e-banking and the recipient's accounting programs automatically read this data and avoid manual data entry.

Additional information

In the "Unstructured message" field (max. 140 characters), you can enter the invoice number or payment purpose. This field is optional, but practically indispensable: without a reference, the debtor must know which invoice they're paying — which leads to misallocation errors in manual processing.

What Swiss commercial law additionally requires

Beyond the technical QR specifications, an invoice as a commercial document must contain certain information to be legally enforceable and qualify as a bookkeeping record. These include:

• Invoice date and service date (can be a period, e.g., "August 2026")
• Unique invoice number (for your accounting and the recipient's)
• Detailed service description — "consulting" alone isn't enough if the other party raises objections
• Payment terms (e.g., "payable within 30 days")

If you're VAT-liable, additional mandatory fields apply: your VAT number (UID, format CHE-123.456.789 VAT), the applicable tax rate (e.g., 8.1% for the standard rate, 2.6% for accommodation, 3.8% for the special rate), and the VAT amount shown separately. For more on rates and exemptions, see the overview on Swiss VAT basics 2026 — rates, duties and special rules.

A comprehensive overview of all commercial law required fields is available in the Swiss invoice template — all required fields in one place.

The five most common errors in practice

1. Regular IBAN combined with QR reference This is the most frequent technical error. If you haven't yet requested a QR-IBAN account from your bank, you must temporarily forgo the reference and work with SCOR or NON instead.

2. Foreign address without country code If you invoice customers in Germany or Austria, you need their country code in the debtor field. Without it, validation fails.

3. Decimal separator wrong The SPS standard requires a period as the decimal separator in the QR dataset (1250.00, not 1250,00). Anyone creating the QR code manually or with a homemade solution often makes mistakes here.

4. Service date missing The service date is not a QR field, but part of the invoice document. It's often conflated with the invoice date — which is incorrect for project-based invoices.

5. VAT number in wrong format "CHE123456789" without separators or "CHE-123456.789" with wrong separators aren't recognized by some accounting software. Correct format is: CHE-123.456.789 VAT.

Creating a QR-bill: Where errors don't happen

If you don't want to assemble the fields manually, work with a solution that automatically validates the QR code to SPS standards. With SnapBill, all mandatory fields are checked when creating the invoice, and an error message appears before an invalid invoice is generated — saving you a trip back to the customer.

For freelancers who invoice infrequently and need to work through the technical setup, take a look at the Freelance invoicing in Switzerland — practical guide, which explains the steps from order confirmation to filing.

Summary

• QR-bills require QR-IBAN for references; regular IBAN only without or with SCOR reference.
• Country code in recipient and debtor fields: mandatory, even for domestic cases.
• Currency: only CHF or EUR, no blank field allowed.
• Invoice date, service date, and invoice number are not in the QR code, but are legally required.
• VAT-liable parties must show UID, tax rate, and VAT amount separately on the invoice.
• Validation before sending prevents rejection and rework.