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QR invoices

QR invoices are set to rev­o­lu­tionise Swiss pay­ment trans­ac­tions. They con­tain all the rel­e­vant pay­ment infor­ma­tion inside the QR code, replacing those red and orange deposit slips.

The most impor­tant points to remember:

  • QR invoices replace those red and orange deposit slips.
  • The QR code on an invoice con­tains all rel­e­vant pay­ment information.
  • It is now a lot easier both for the invoicing party to draw up an invoice and for the con­sumer to pay, and sources of error are also reduced.
  • Once a QR code has been scanned in, the data recorded will have to be com­pared to the cor­rect pay­ment infor­ma­tion stated on the invoice (IBAN, recip­ient, amount, etc.).

What’s new?

Invoices no longer con­tain any red or orange deposit slips, but instead now include a sec­tion con­taining a machine-read­able QR code in the foreground.

Source: www.einfach-zahlen.ch

This matrix con­sisting of black and white squares (QR code) can be read by a QR reader, a PC camera or a smart­phone. The code con­tains all infor­ma­tion required to pay an invoice. Addi­tional infor­ma­tion can also be inte­grated into a QR code to facil­i­tate pro­cessing by account departments.

In addi­tion to this QR code, new invoices also con­tain all impor­tant (pre­vious) pay­ment infor­ma­tion in plain text.

What should you look out for to stay secure?

A QR invoice is basi­cally just as secure as the red and orange deposit slips used so far.

But you should look out for the fol­lowing: Once a QR code has been scanned in, the data recorded will have to be com­pared to the cor­rect pay­ment infor­ma­tion (IBAN, recip­ient, amount, etc.) stated on the invoice in plain text. If these details don’t agree, you must stop your pay­ment immediately!

It is impor­tant to check this, since crim­i­nals can use mass e-mail to send out invoices con­taining a QR code refer­ring to a dif­ferent account number than the one stated in plain text on such an invoice.

Pay­ment options

Using QR invoices will make it easier to pay invoices. Instead of labo­ri­ously typing in account and ref­er­ence details when e-banking, QR codes already con­tain these details.

As a pri­vate indi­vidual, there are three options to pay a QR invoice as follows:

Open e-banking, scan the QR code in using a QR reader, your PC camera or your smart­phone, and click to trigger the payment.

Source: www.einfach-zahlen.ch

If you are a com­pany and use busi­ness soft­ware to pay your invoices, you should update this to ensure you can also process QR invoices.

Switching to QR invoices is also worth their while for invoicing par­ties. They can print out invoices on blank paper them­selves. This also means there no longer is a need to order any pre-printed deposit slips anymore.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion can be found on the SIX web­site here: www.einfach-zahlen.ch/en/home/qr-bill.html

Create your own QR invoices

The inde­pen­dent www.qr-rechnung.net web­site enables pri­vate indi­vid­uals, clubs and smaller busi­nesses - who only issue invoices peri­od­i­cally and there­fore don’t want to use spe­cial soft­ware to do so - to create their own QR invoices simply and free of charge.

A QR (quick response) code con­sists of a square matrix made up of black and white squares, which con­tain infor­ma­tion (for instance a link to a web­site) in binary-coded form.


Example QR code by “eBanking – but secure!”

What else would you like to learn about security when e-banking?

Reg­ister for a course now
and learn more:

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Find out about cur­rent Internet threats and some easy pro­tec­tive mea­sures, and how to securely use e-banking.

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Online course for the under-30s

Learn how to use your smart­phone securely. Next to basics, we will show you what you should know about social media, clouds, mobile banking and mobile payments.

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Course for SMEs

Is your organ­i­sa­tion suf­fi­ciently secure? Learn which mea­sures you can take to sig­nif­i­cantly strengthen your organisation’s IT security.

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