E-invoicing in Switzerland: eBill, QR-Rechnung, e-invoicing to the Bund and Peppol status. No B2B mandate, but growing digitalisation.
Switzerland is not a member of the EU or the EEA, but is geographically situated in the heart of Europe and is an important trading partner for many European businesses. The country has no legal B2B obligation for e-invoicing and does not fall under the European ViDA directive. Nevertheless, the digitalisation of payment transactions is well advanced, with eBill and the QR-bill as central pillars. Peppol is supported but plays a limited role in the Swiss ecosystem.
eBill is the Swiss system for digital invoicing, managed by SIX Group. It works differently from Peppol: invoices are delivered directly to the recipient's e-banking environment, where they can be paid with a single click.
The system has 3.8 million registered users and is connected to 95% of Swiss financial institutions. There are zero registered fraud cases, which is related to the direct integration into the banking system. eBill is primarily aimed at consumer-to-business (C2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) invoicing. For B2B e-invoicing in the European sense (structured UBL invoices via a network like Peppol), eBill is not the standard route.
On 1 October 2022, the QR-bill (QR-Rechnung) definitively replaced the traditional Swiss orange and red payment slips. Every QR-bill contains a Swiss QR Code with all payment information: amount, IBAN, reference number and structured address data. Payment can be made via mobile banking, e-banking or by post.
The QR-bill is not an e-invoice in the European definition. It is a payment instrument: a (digital or paper) invoice with a standardised payment section. The invoice data itself is not structured in UBL or a comparable format.
Since 22 November 2025, new specifications apply (Implementation Guidelines version 2.3). The main change: only structured addresses (name, street, house number, postal code, city and country in separate fields) are accepted.
The Swiss federal government (Bundesverwaltung) accepts electronic invoices from suppliers. This runs via two routes:
Structured e-invoice via a Service Provider. The invoice data is sent from the ERP system via PostFinance or Swisscom (the two primary providers), or via interconnected providers such as ABACUS, io-market, PENTAG and StepCom. The Service Provider handles the legally required digital signature.
PDF by email. Suppliers can also send a PDF invoice by email to the relevant department. Since mid-2023, PDF delivery via Service Providers is no longer possible; only direct email is accepted for PDFs.
The eDirectory.ch register contains Swiss organisations that can receive and send e-invoices. This is comparable to the Peppol SMP register, but is a Swiss system that is separate from the Peppol infrastructure.
Switzerland has no own Peppol Authority. Swiss organisations that want to use Peppol fall under the OpenPeppol Coordinating Authority (the overarching body for countries without their own authority).
A Peppol identifier does exist for Switzerland: CH:UIDB (EAS 0183), based on the Swiss Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer (UID). This makes it technically possible to address Swiss businesses on the Peppol network.
In practice, Peppol adoption in Switzerland is limited. The country has its own e-invoicing ecosystem (eBill, PostFinance, Swisscom) that functions well for domestic invoices. Peppol is particularly relevant for Swiss businesses invoicing EU partners, where Peppol is increasingly the standard route.
Switzerland has no plans for a legal B2B e-invoicing obligation. Digitalisation proceeds market-driven, stimulated by the efficiency advantages of eBill and the QR-bill. This is comparable to the situation in the US (DBNA), where adoption is also voluntary.
Because Switzerland is not an EU member, it does not fall under the ViDA directive. The ViDA obligation for cross-border e-invoicing by July 2030 does not apply to invoices to or from Swiss businesses. This differs from EEA countries such as Norway and Iceland, which as EEA members generally follow European e-invoicing standards on a voluntary basis.
Do you invoice Swiss customers? Then it is good to know that the QR-bill is the common payment format. For structured e-invoices via Peppol, you can address Swiss recipients with their UID number (CH:UIDB). The eConnect PSB automatically routes invoices to recipients reachable via Peppol.
Do you receive invoices from Swiss suppliers? These will likely arrive as PDF (with QR code) or via eBill. The PSB can automatically process PDF invoices via OCR and data extraction, so you can process them in your own system.
Want to know how eConnect helps you with invoicing to Switzerland? View the possibilities.
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