UBS and the QR-bill: creating one with a UBS account, the structured address and what to do if a payment is refused

The quotes below come from the English UBS page “Structured addresses in payment orders”, read on 10 November 2026. A QR-bill goes through two banks, the issuer's and the payer's: when the payer is a UBS customer, it is UBS that decides until when it accepts the old format.

The date of 14 November 2026 (version 2.4 of the SIX QR-bill guidelines and the Swiss Payment Standards 2026) is not on the UBS page: it comes from SIX. The dates of other banks are on our page QR-bill dates bank by bank; Raiffeisen gave no date on its QR-bill page when we read it on 11 November 2026: Raiffeisen and the QR-bill.

1. Check which type the QR-bill is. The free QR-bill checker reads the QR code (camera, photo or PDF) and shows S or K, without sending anything.

2. If it is K, the refusal comes from the old format, not from your account: the issuer has to send you a new QR-bill in the structured format (type S), for the same amount. Since 22 November 2025, version 2.3 of the SIX guidelines has only allowed type S in a new QR-bill.

3. If it is S and the payment is still refused, the cause probably lies elsewhere (also check line 21: if the payer's address is filled in, it must read S). Under the SIX rules, a bank does not process a payment part whose IBAN and reference do not match (a QR-IBAN goes only with a 27-digit QR reference; see the QR-IBAN guide), nor one whose creditor address has no postcode or town.

4. On its page “Structured addresses in payment orders”, UBS publishes no way around the refusal of an old QR code: do not insist with the same invoice. If in doubt, contact UBS.

UBS writes that QR-bills created with its QR portal already contain structured addresses, and that you can check the address type in the portal, under “Tools for billers”. If you still generate type K QR-bills with other software, UBS advises switching. The typical case is a Word or Excel template or old accounting software (these examples are ours, not UBS's): do the line-5 test on a recent invoice.

For long-term QR-bills (leasing instalments, rent), which may be paid by standing order, UBS writes that “it may be necessary to reissue such long-term QR-bills and send them to the debtors in good time”.

The checklist for a Word or Excel template (new payment part, address in separate fields, new test) is on the page of dates bank by bank.

UBS provides a QR portal (qrbill.ubs.com). It writes that billers can create QR-bills there “free of charge and without having to log in”, and that the portal is meant for billers with a UBS or Credit Suisse account and no billing software, such as SMEs, associations, self-employed people and those who send invoices only occasionally. It creates a complete invoice (with logo and letterhead) or payment slips to fill in by hand later, converts account numbers to QR-IBAN and checks received QR-bills before you pay them. According to UBS, QR-bills from the portal already contain structured addresses (English page read on 10 November 2026).

The UBS QR portal and Fele-facture are two separate tools. Fele-facture's free generator also makes a QR payment slip without an account, with an IBAN from UBS or any other Swiss bank. If you invoice often, with quotes, VAT, numbering and reminders, invoicing software saves you retyping everything: the Fele-facture app creates the invoice with its QR-bill by voice or from a photo of a work report, from the Independent plan (CHF 15 a month).

Scan the QR code of the invoice with an app that shows the text of the code (not a bank's app). The text starts with “SPC”, “0200”, “1”, then the IBAN. Line 5 is a single letter: S, structured address, the invoice is compliant; K, combined address, the old format, the payment part has to be redone. If the payer's address is in the QR code, line 21 gives its address type and must also read S; if it is empty, the payment part carries no payer address, which is allowed.

Fele-facture's checker does this test for you, in the browser, without sending or storing anything.

This section is for businesses that send payment files to UBS from accounting software, not for paying a paper QR-bill. Options I to III come from the UBS page and apply to pain.001 and pain.008 files; for the technical details, UBS refers to its own implementation guidelines and to your IT department or software partner.

Fele-facture QR-bills carry address type S in line 5: the library that builds the QR code (swissqrbill) writes no other type. They are therefore in the structured format (type S) that UBS describes. The QR payment part is included from the Independent plan (CHF 15/month) or during the 14-day trial; the Free plan produces invoices without a QR payment part.

With a UBS QR-IBAN, enter your six-digit identifier in Settings › My business, in the field for the reference prefix set by your bank (optional), which appears as soon as a QR-IBAN is entered: each QR reference then starts with this identifier, followed by the invoice number and the check digit.

Fele-facture has no interface with UBS: the app creates the QR-bill, and your customers pay it with their own bank. The free QR payment slip generator, without an account, uses the same library and also produces type S.