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QR invoices ready for the off

As of 30 June 2020, all invoice recipients in Switzerland must be able to process QR invoices. From this key date onwards, the payment orders usually used previously will be replaced by QR invoices. Are you ready for this change? If you use tangro software, you will still be in a position to make payments after 1 July: tangro is a long-standing expert in automated invoice processing and naturally also supports QR invoices.

What is a QR invoice?

A QR invoice is an invoice with an integral payment section and receipt, which can either be sent through the post as a paper document or e-mailed as a PDF.

invoice processing for swiss code invoices with tangro.

The payment section and receipt are either integrated into the bottom part of the invoice document or attached to the invoice as separate items. In essence, QR invoices are the method of payment commonly used in Switzerland, known as payment orders (ES or ESR). However, the main difference between QR invoices and these previous forms is that the new variant contains a digital QR code, the so-called Swiss QR Code, in addition to the payment information appearing as text that can be read as normal.

Processing Swiss QR invoices with tangro.

This Swiss QR Code contains information in an electronic form, which is essential for making the payment and processing the invoice in accounts payable. Amongst other things, this includes information about the payment recipient, payment information such as the IBAN, the structured reference number and a free text field for further information. This data can be read by a machine and can therefore be processed without any manual intervention. The invoice can therefore be processed by a system and payment initiated much faster.

What are the benefits of QR invoices?

By introducing QR invoices, Switzerland hopes to bridge the gap to fully digital payment transactions without modal fragmentation. And to be compatible with international standards, like ISO 20022, for uniform and totally automated payment transactions.

By combining analogue and digital invoice content, the QR invoice still allows payment to be made in the standard, analogue method because the data can still be read in the normal fashion. But more importantly, it promotes the fully electronic payment process. The QR code contains all the data of relevance to payment in a form which can be read by machines and can therefore be directly and electronically read in and processed in the accounting department, allowing vendor reconciliation to be automated.

What does it mean for you?

As the payment recipient, as of 30 June 2020, in order to ensure your ability to pay you must be able to process QR invoices. At the same time, the QR invoice allows vendor processes to become more automated because all the payment data is made available in an electronic format.

How tangro can assist you?

tangro helps you prepare fully for this change. tangro also processes QR invoices automatically and therefore ensures smooth invoice processing even after 30 June 2020. At the same time, tangro provides a smooth transition because the system supports the old ESR reference number as well as the QR reference number. The previously used payment orders are therefore still recognised and processed.

tangro processes QR invoices received by e-mail as PDFs as well as QR invoices in a paper format. The software automatically takes data, such as the QR IBAN, from the Swiss QR code and puts these values into the corresponding fields in the tangro mask. Any recognised content can also be transferred into the tangro text field.

The automated transfer of data from the QR invoice means that information is present without any errors. There is no need for payment data to be entered manually. The data needed for reconciliation is available to the accounts payable department. The document can be simply posted in SAP at the click of the mouse if everything is OK, or forwarded in the approval workflow. If necessary, fully automatic posting in the background is also possible if desired. No editing work whatsoever is needed any more. The entire process from receipt of the invoice to the payment run runs seamlessly.