On the 30th of June, the QR invoice will replace the familiar red and orange payment slips. The new invoice standard contains a barcode with all the relevant payment information which will allow recipients to automate their accounts payable (AP) processes. Whether you are a company with a bookkeeping department or the provider of an ERP or bookkeeping software, it’s important to make sure your that your financial hardware and software can process the new payment slips.
Swiss QR-invoice Example
Which fields are contained in the QR barcode of the Swiss invoice?
- Creditor information
- Ultimate Creditor
- Payment amounts
- Ultimate Debtor (payable by)
- Payment reference
What you need to know as the debtor
Additional information, such as unstructured messages
A full breakdown on all 32 fields can be found by in the Swiss QR Implementation Guidelines Bill.
- From the 30th of June onwards your financial software and hardware need to be able to support QR code scanning.
- The QR invoice contains a computer-readable barcode with all relevant information to initiate the payment to the supplier.
- Manual entry of payment reference and creditor information is no longer necessary.
- You can fully automate your AP processes.
Why should you use OCR to process Swiss QR invoices?
Even though there are already QR scanning solutions on the market, the majority of them do not let you automatically transfer data to your financial software. Klippa’s plug and play API solution is one of the few who do. Klippa connects with any existing software and due to the real-time data extraction, you’ll receive all payment information on the invoice in your financial software, within seconds.
Another perk of using our OCR solution for payment processing? Our engine supports automated data extraction for Swiss QR invoice, as well as international invoice formats. This is especially useful if you receive services or products from international suppliers, as these are not subject to the QR bill requirements.
With an automated invoice processing solution, you no longer need to capture payment information manually, which saves you – a lot of – time and money. Both things that are better spent on your core business.
How OCR extracts data from the Swiss QR code and regular invoices
OCR, which stands for optical character recognition, is technology that recognizes the content of any invoice (or other documents for that matter) and sends you back the information that you need in the preferred format.
The core of the OCR solution is the conversion of unstructured documents to computer-readable text and the interpretation of the text to relevant information such as the name of the merchant, invoice number, invoice amounts, VAT rates and sums and date of purchase. The information can then be sent back to your software in any file format (for example XML, JSON and CSV). With the addition of the QR code extraction, you’ll also receive the additional 32 fields that are displayed in the barcode. Click here for an in-depth article on OCR technology.
Which fields of a regular invoice and Swiss QR invoice are extracted?
The main fields in regular invoices that are extracted are
- Merchant information
- Invoice or order number
- Payment amounts (total sums, VATs, currency)
- Payment information (creditor, IBAN)
- Date of purchase
- Due date
- Line items
- VAT number
- Chamber of Commerce number
- Any customized field on request
The fields that are extracted from the QR invoice are the 32 fields mentioned above.
Automated processing of QR invoices
After talking to our Swiss clients, we realized there is a need for a uniform OCR solution that supports both Swiss QR invoices as well as international invoice formats. Having a comprehensive data extraction solution means that you can automatically process payments within a matter of seconds, with a minimal error-rate. Automating your accounts payable therefore translates into leaner financial processes, which save you manual work and overhead costs.
Do you want to find out how we can support you or how the Klippa solution can be integrated into your financial processes? We encourage you to schedule a free online demo with one of our product specialists. Alternatively, you can also shoot us an email with your questions or just give us a call under +31 50 211 1631.