QR-Bill Mandatory Fields: Errors That Cost You Time

The QR-bill has been the Swiss standard for payment orders since July 2020 — yet accountants and SMEs regularly receive invoices that cannot be processed. Usually it's not a lack of effort, but small yet critical gaps in mandatory fields. This article shows which fields are truly required, which errors occur most frequently, and how to prevent rejections permanently.

What the SIX standard actually demands

The technical foundation of the QR-bill is the Swiss Implementation Guideline from SIX Interbank Clearing. This defines which fields must be encoded in the QR code. Anyone who ignores or misinterprets these specifications risks having the receiving bank reject the payment order or the customer's ERP system fail to read the invoice.

The comprehensive overview of all mandatory fields — including character restrictions and format specifications — can be found in the step-by-step guide to creating a Swiss QR-bill. This article deliberately focuses on the fields where things go wrong most often in practice.

The seven most common mandatory field errors

1. Wrong IBAN type: standard IBAN instead of QR-IBAN (or vice versa)

This is by far the most common mistake. Anyone working with a QR reference code (QRR) absolutely needs a QR-IBAN — a special IBAN issued by the account-holding institution, beginning with institution identifier 30–39. Using a standard IBAN but entering a QRR anyway creates an invalid QR code.

Conversely: if you don't use a structured reference but instead a free message (SCOR or NON), you must use a standard IBAN.

Quick rule:

• QR-IBAN → QRR reference (26 digits, structured)
• Standard IBAN → SCOR (ISO 11649) or no reference

2. Missing or incorrect postal code for the payment recipient

Many self-created invoices don't include a complete address for the payment recipient in the QR code. However, the standard requires:

• Name (max. 70 characters)
• Street + house number or PO box
• Postal code (4-digit in Switzerland, accordingly for foreign addresses)
• City
• Country code (CH)

If the address is passed as a "combined address" (type K), separate format rules apply. If the postal code is missing or empty, the QR code is not compliant with the standard.

3. Currency field set to EUR instead of CHF

The QR-bill supports only CHF and EUR. For outbound invoices in EUR that's correct — but many tools default to EUR because a template was once customized for a foreign customer and never reset. Check the currency manually on every document.

4. Amount missing or with incorrect decimal separator

In the QR code, the amount is expected with exactly two decimal places, period as decimal separator, no thousands separators. "1'250.00" is wrong — "1250.00" is correct. Many PDF generators write the amount correctly formatted in the visual display but pass an incorrect string internally to the QR code generator.

5. Reference number not checked with Modulo-10

The QRR reference number is 27 digits long: 26 digits plus a check digit calculated using the recursive Modulo-10 procedure. Anyone who calculates this check digit incorrectly or omits it creates a reference that looks like a QRR but will be rejected as invalid by every checking system.

6. Empty mandatory fields instead of correctly omitted optional fields

Optional fields (e.g., additional address line of the debtor) can be left empty — but they must still be present as an empty string in the data set. Anyone who omits the field entirely in the code instead of passing it as "" shifts all subsequent fields and makes the QR code unreadable.

7. Special characters outside the permitted character set

The standard allows only the Latin Character Set as defined by SIX. Umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and common punctuation are permitted — but certain characters like @, #, &, {, } are not. Company names with ampersands or email addresses in the address field lead to validation errors.

Mandatory fields at a glance

Field	Required	Typical error source
QR-IBAN / IBAN	Yes	Wrong IBAN type for reference type
Payment recipient name	Yes	Too long (>70 characters)
Payment recipient address	Yes	Missing postal code or country code
Currency	Yes	EUR instead of CHF after template change
Amount	No*	Incorrect format
Reference type	Yes	QRR/SCOR/NON incorrectly combined
Reference number	Conditional	Check digit missing or incorrect

*The amount may be left empty (e.g., on open payment slips). If specified, it must be correctly formatted.

What helps: validation before sending

Anyone who manually assembles invoices in a PDF program should always check the generated QR code with an independent validator — such as SIX's own online tool or a smartphone app from your bank. It takes 30 seconds and prevents rejections.

For anyone issuing invoices regularly, a specialized tool that performs validation automatically is the better choice. The SnapBill app generates the QR code directly from the entered invoice data and automatically checks IBAN type, reference number, and character set — without you needing to memorize the SIX standard.

VAT information: not in the QR code, but still mandatory

A widespread misunderstanding: VAT information does not belong in the QR code, but in the human-readable part of the invoice. Nevertheless, it is legally required — anyone liable for VAT must show the tax rate, tax amount, and VAT number in the invoice text. Which rates (8.1%, 2.6% special rate, 3.8% hospitality) apply to which services is explained in the article on Swiss VAT basics 2026.

At a glance

• The most common error is the wrong IBAN type: QR-IBAN for QRR, standard IBAN for SCOR/NON.
• Addresses must be complete — name, street, postal code, city, country code.
• Currency and amount are often set incorrectly due to template errors.
• The QRR check digit must be calculated correctly using Modulo-10.
• Optional empty fields must be present as an empty string in the data set.
• Special characters outside the Latin Character Set lead to rejection.
• Always validate the QR code before sending — manually or automatically.
• VAT information belongs in the invoice text, not in the QR code.