Strainovic IT QR-bill in your online shop: what changes in November 2026
Many Swiss shops attach a QR-bill to orders paid by invoice, generated by a plugin in WooCommerce, Shopware or Shopify. New rules for the QR code have applied since November 2025, and since October 2026 the first banks reject QR-bills in the old format. On 14 November 2026 more banks follow, together with a new version of the rules. This guide shows what has changed, which dates matter and how a shop checks in five points whether its QR-bills can still be paid.
What has applied since November 2025: structured addresses only
The technical rules of the QR-bill are set out in the "Swiss Implementation Guidelines for the QR-bill" published by SIX. Since 22 November 2025, version 2.3 has applied; according to the SIX factsheet, invoicing had to be switched over by 21 November 2025 at the latest. The changes that affect shops, according to the change documentation:
- Address type K is removed. Until now a plugin could write the address as "combined address fields" in two free-text lines, for example "Bahnhofstrasse 12" and "8000 Zürich". Only address type S is still allowed: the structured address, with separate elements for street, building number, postcode, town and country. This applies to the shop's address and to the customer's.
- Postcode, town and country are mandatory. The building number may "until further notice" stay in the "street" element and is not rejected for that. A checkout line "Bahnhofstrasse 12" is therefore enough, as long as postcode and town are passed separately.
- Extended character set. More accented letters and special characters are allowed.
- QR reference clarified. It always has 26 digits plus a check digit and must not consist of zeros only.
- c/o and P.O. box do not belong in the payment part. They are irrelevant to the payer and go in the invoice header.
The QR code itself shows whether an invoice uses the new format. An app that displays the text of a QR code shows its content line by line: the fifth line is the biller's address type and must be "S". If it says "K", the plugin still produces the old format.
What banks reject from 1 October and from 14 November 2026
After November 2025, QR-bills in the old format remained payable only during a transition period. How long depends on each bank, and what counts is the bank of the customer paying the bill. The banks' announcements give different dates:
| From | What applies | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2026 | UBS: QR-bills with an unstructured address can no longer be paid, neither at banks nor at post office counters (accepted until 30 September 2026) | UBS |
| 1 October 2026 | Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise rejects unstructured addresses after 30 September 2026; Graubündner Kantonalbank guarantees processing until the end of September 2026 | BCN, GKB |
| 14 November 2026 | Structured address mandatory for all payments, domestic and cross-border | SIX Swiss Payments, PostFinance |
| 14 November 2026 | The cantonal banks of Vaud, Geneva and Jura reject payments with an unstructured address; Zürcher Kantonalbank and Thurgauer Kantonalbank accept them until 13 November 2026 | BCV, BCGE, BCJ, ZKB, TKB |
For a shop whose plugin still writes address type K, this means: some of its customers already cannot pay the QR-bill today, and after 13 November 2026 there will be more. Swift and the European Payments Council have suspended their own November 2026 deadline; for Switzerland, according to SIX, 14 November 2026 remains the date.
QR-IBAN with QR reference for CHF only from 14 November 2026
On 14 November 2026, version 2.4 of the Implementation Guidelines takes effect. For invoicing in Swiss francs nothing changes technically. For invoicing in euros it does:
- CHF: as before, QR-IBAN with QR reference, IBAN with SCOR reference, or IBAN without reference.
- EUR: only IBAN with SCOR reference or IBAN without reference. From then on, QR-IBAN and QR reference are reserved for CHF.
A QR-IBAN can be recognised by the institution identification (QR-IID) between 30000 and 31999 it contains. The SCOR reference (Creditor Reference under ISO 11649) starts with "RF", followed by two check digits, and has 5 to 25 characters. According to SIX, version 2.3 remains valid until November 2027.
A shop that also sells in euros and sends QR-bills with a QR-IBAN for that has to change this combination.
Checklist for shop owners
- Plugin version. Check in the back end which version of the QR plugin is installed and compare it with the table below. Automatic updates do not replace this check: a plugin that has not had a new version for years cannot know the 2025 rules.
- Test invoice at the bank. Place an order paid by invoice and scan the QR code of the generated invoice in your own e-banking, without paying. Also read the fifth line of the code with a QR app: "S" is correct. In its QR portal, UBS offers a check of the address type among its tools for billers.
- Address fields at checkout. Postcode, town and country must be required fields at checkout.
The "address line 2" field (in WooCommerce
billing_address_2) often contains "c/o" or "3rd floor"; it does not belong in the QR code as the building number. If the customer's address is missing, the "Payable by" section may stay empty; an incomplete address, however, is not allowed. - Currency. If the shop also sells in euros, check that the euro invoice is created with a regular IBAN and a SCOR reference or without a reference, not with a QR-IBAN.
- Reference. A QR reference has exactly 27 digits (26 plus check digit) and only goes with a QR-IBAN. A SCOR reference starts with "RF" and goes with a regular IBAN. The bank rejects a mix of the two.
Status of common plugins and apps
Status as of 8 October 2026, checked in the source code of the current versions and in the vendors' changelogs. What counts is always your own test invoice.
| Platform | Solution | Latest version | Structured address (type S) |
|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Swiss QR Invoice by Jim Soft, wordpress.org | 1.2.40 of 24.08.2026 | since 1.2.35 of 31.10.2025; shop's building number separate since 1.2.36, country selectable since 1.2.38 |
| WooCommerce | sqrip, wordpress.org, QR generated by the sqrip service | 1.10.5 of 23.08.2026 | confirmed in the changelog from 1.10 (July 2026) |
| WooCommerce | mame QR-Bill for WooCommerce, from the vendor | 4.9.0 of 03.07.2026 | actively maintained; since 4.5.0 of 26.11.2025 payer address taken from the separate WooCommerce fields |
| Shopware 6 | gjuce QR-Rechnung auf Dokumenten und in Checkout | update of 07.10.2026 | payer address as type S according to the changelog since 1.2.4 of 29.09.2026 |
| Shopify | Swiss Invoice: QR-Bills, fcon QR Biller, iQR Invoices | in the App Store | source code cannot be checked; ask the vendor and scan a test invoice |
| WooCommerce | Swiss QR Bill, wordpress.org | 1.2.4 of 31.05.2022 | no: writes the shop's address as combined address fields (type K) |
About Swiss QR Bill: the plugin has not had a new version since May 2022 and therefore still produces the format from before November 2025. Since 1 October 2026, customers of UBS, BCN and GKB can no longer pay invoices from shops that use it. Shops using it should switch to one of the maintained solutions before 14 November 2026 and resend open invoices.
Invoices from accounting software: bexio, KLARA, AbaNinja
Not every shop generates the QR-bill itself. If orders are passed to the accounting software and the invoice is created there, for example in bexio, KLARA or AbaNinja, the plugins above do not matter: the accounting software then generates the payment part, and in a current version it follows the rules. What remains to check there is the same as at checkout: that customer addresses arrive complete and in separate fields. Scanning a test invoice in e-banking is worthwhile here too.
Review of your shop setup
If you are not sure whether your shop's QR-bills will still be paid after 14 November 2026, you can describe your setup to me: shop system, plugin and version, currencies and a sample invoice. I review it and reply by email with what needs to change: info@strainovic-it.ch.
If you want to round the total to 5 centimes in WooCommerce, there is the plugin 5-centime rounding. If you sell to companies on invoice, the UID check validates the Swiss UID number at checkout against the federal UID register.