App Store bookkeeping in 2 minutes with Magic Heidi

You publish an iOS app on the Apple App Store and you need bookkeeping that actually fits your reality as a Swiss indie developer: monthly Apple payouts in several currencies, simplified bookkeeping, VAT threshold from CHF 100'000, receipts organised, tax export at year-end. You're in the right place.

Here's how this looks in practice. Apple is the Merchant of Record on the App Store. That means: Apple sells to your end customer, and you sell to Apple. Apple deducts its commission (15% or 30%), handles VAT/sales tax itself in nearly every country, withholds refunds and Family Sharing refunds, and then pays the net amount per region and currency into your bank account. That net payout is the amount that actually lands with you.

For simplified bookkeeping, you don't have to rebuild every single download or in-app purchase by hand. You can record the Apple payout per region as income (a payment received) and attach the Apple Financial Report as the supporting document. The key thing: the report has to show clearly what's inside the payout — gross sales, refunds, Apple commission, and the net amount paid out. That keeps your books simple but still verifiable.

Recording an Apple payout in Magic Heidi is straightforward. You drag the Financial Report (PDF or CSV) into Magic Heidi, and we read the amount and date straight from the document.

Picture Andri, a fictional indie iOS developer in Zurich with a productivity app and around CHF 60'000 annual turnover. He runs a sole proprietorship and isn't VAT-registered. His bookkeeping in Magic Heidi: drag the Financial Report in per Apple payout, Magic Heidi creates the entry, the receipt stays attached, done. Spread across the year, that's roughly 50 minutes of pure bookkeeping work for the app. At year-end, he exports income, expenses, and receipts for his fiduciary — and along the way he's saved CHF 400 to 900 on auto-sync and subscription-analytics tool costs.

The essentials in brief

• Simplified bookkeeping under Swiss Code of Obligations (CO) Art. 957 applies to Swiss sole proprietorships and partnerships with less than CHF 500'000 turnover in the last financial year.
• You don't need double-entry bookkeeping, and you don't have to book every individual app download or in-app purchase one by one.
• In practice, per Apple payout (often several per month, one per region and currency) you can record the net amount as a payment received — as long as the Apple Financial Report stays attached as the supporting document and reconciliation.
• Apple commission, refunds, and Family Sharing refunds shouldn't just vanish: they have to remain traceable through the Financial Report, especially as you approach the CHF 100'000 threshold.
• The yearly Apple Developer Program fee (CHF 99) is booked separately as a business expense, with the Apple invoice as the receipt.
• Once you're VAT-registered, on a GmbH/AG structure, using the effective VAT method, or approaching CHF 500'000, more detailed bookkeeping with a fiduciary check is worth it.

What simplified bookkeeping means for App Store developers

Swiss law lets sole proprietorships and partnerships with less than CHF 500'000 turnover in the last financial year use what's called simplified bookkeeping. You don't run classic double-entry bookkeeping the way a GmbH or AG does. Instead, you record income, expenses, and your asset position.

But simple doesn't mean anything goes. You still need traceable records, receipts, and at year-end an overview of your assets and liabilities, income and expenses, and private withdrawals and contributions. In plain English: you don't have to work with general ledger accounts, but your numbers have to be explainable and backed by documents.

In practice, for the App Store this means: if Apple pays you CHF 2'140 in April for the Swiss/EU region plus USD 580 for the US region, you can record each of these amounts as a payment received. You don't have to rebuild the 1'200 individual purchases and 80 in-app subscriptions from that month inside Magic Heidi. But the Apple Financial Report does belong with the entry, because it shows how the amount came together: gross sales, refunds, Apple commission, and net payout per region.

For sole proprietorships below the relevant thresholds and not VAT-registered, this is usually the most pragmatic way: one entry per payout, a clean Financial Report as the receipt, bank reconciliation done. The Apple commission inside the payout doesn't get booked again separately as an expense, because it's already reflected in the net payout. The yearly Apple Developer Program fee, Mac hardware, TestFlight-related tools, or advertising costs, however, do belong in your books as their own business expenses.

The distinction matters when it comes to VAT. As Merchant of Record, Apple handles VAT/sales tax with the end customer in almost every country (Switzerland included). For most Swiss solo developers under CHF 100'000, that means: no VAT liability on App Store earnings. Even so, you should be able to cleanly trace gross turnover, refunds, commission, and net payout from the Apple Financial Reports. This becomes relevant as soon as you have B2B side income outside the App Store, or you approach CHF 100'000.

For the Swiss tax authorities, what counts in the end is that your cash flows, receipts, and asset position are fully traceable. If you received 24 Apple payouts in a year (often 2 per month: one in CHF/EUR, one in USD), that can turn into 24 income entries. What matters is that those entries match your bank account and that the Apple Financial Reports are kept.

If you're brand new to all this, our guide to accounting software in Switzerland will help you understand the basics for self-employed people before you get lost in platform details. You'll find the official legal basis for simplified bookkeeping in the Swiss Code of Obligations Art. 957.

Apple commission, refunds, and developer fees: what else you need to book

This is where most people get confused, so let's go through it step by step. You'll find the five categories as an overview directly below this section.

Picture Sina, a fictional indie developer in Basel with a paid iOS app and an in-app subscription, around CHF 110'000 annual turnover and Apple payouts in CHF, EUR, and USD. Her bookkeeping year looks like this: roughly 30 Apple payout income entries across all regions, 1 Apple Developer Program entry (CHF 99 as a business expense), about 12 cloud/tool subscriptions as expenses (TestFlight helpers, crash reporting, analytics), and around 20 other business expenses like Mac hardware, stock photos, and a few App Store Ads receipts. Roughly 70 to 90 entries per year in total. That's doable in 30 minutes a month, including uploading receipts.

VAT: what App Store developers in Switzerland need to know

As Merchant of Record in Switzerland, Apple handles consumer VAT on app purchases and in-app purchases itself. For you as a solo developer under CHF 100'000, that means in practice: no VAT liability on App Store earnings. If App Store revenue is all you have and you're in that range, you can skip this section. You just record the net payout, done.

It gets tricky if you invoice directly alongside the App Store — consulting mandates, contract development, or enterprise contracts. For the CHF 100'000 threshold in Switzerland, it's not entirely uncontested how your App Store earnings count, because from a Swiss perspective Apple sits between you and the end customer. Pragmatically: take the Apple net proceeds (what actually lands with you) as a starting point and add your directly invoiced B2B turnover on top. As soon as that sum heads toward CHF 100'000, talk to your fiduciary about the exact interpretation and about choosing a VAT method.

If you become VAT-liable, you have two methods to choose from. With the Net Tax Rate Method (Saldosteuersatz-Methode) you keep your simplified logic. The Apple earnings themselves usually remain foreign turnover for you (Apple Distribution International, Cork), but your direct Swiss B2B invoices get billed at the net tax rate. This method is ideal for simplified bookkeeping. More on this in our guide to VAT for freelancers.

With the effective method things get more complex: you book gross income with VAT shown separately and deduct input tax on your expenses. In the App Store context, this is more the domain of studios with large hardware, cloud, and agency invoices who want to claim a lot of input tax.

Practical tip: if you've just crossed the CHF 100'000 threshold, register for VAT and pick the net tax rate. That way your bookkeeping stays simple, you meet your Swiss obligation, and your admin doesn't double. If in doubt, you call your cantonal tax office or the Federal Tax Administration (ESTV). Compared to other countries, Swiss authorities are surprisingly cooperative and helpful.

A quick note on reverse-charge VAT (Bezugssteuer): Apple invoices you for the Developer Program fee and any advertising services through Apple Distribution International Ltd, Cork, Ireland — so from inside the EU. Under the net tax rate, reverse-charge VAT generally isn't an issue. If you're VAT-registered on the effective method, check with your fiduciary how these incoming services should be handled specifically.

When the simple method hits its limits

We're here to save you time and money, but also to be honest: the 2-minute method doesn't fit every app. The four situations where more detailed bookkeeping makes sense are in the overview further down. In each of these cases, we'd recommend talking to a Swiss fiduciary and evaluating a more specialised solution. Magic Heidi is deliberately built for solo self-employed people under CHF 500'000 — not for scaling app studios. By the way, the number of downloads, purchases, or in-app purchases per month isn't a limit: whether you process 50 or 50'000 purchases, in Magic Heidi it's still one income entry per payout, because Apple manages all buyer, refund, and Family Sharing details inside App Store Connect.

If you're just starting out and wondering whether a sole proprietorship in Switzerland makes sense for you, start there. Your legal form directly influences what kind of bookkeeping you need.

To finish, picture Joël, a fictional game developer in Geneva. He started in 2023 with CHF 40'000 in Apple net proceeds and the 2-minute method, grew over two years to CHF 280'000 thanks to a successful in-app subscription, is now VAT-registered on the net tax rate because of additional contract development work, and still does his bookkeeping in Magic Heidi in about 30 minutes a month. If he ever hits CHF 500'000, he'll switch. Until then, he's saved roughly CHF 700 a year in subscription-analytics costs, plus hours of fiduciary time, because his books are clean and simple.

Summary: what your App Store bookkeeping in Switzerland should look like

Three things to remember. Under CHF 500'000 annual turnover, it's enough to record the net amount per region and currency as income once per Apple payout, plus the yearly Apple Developer Program fee as a separate expense. You save yourself CHF 400 to 900 a year on auto-sync or subscription-analytics software — because as a solo developer you don't need it — plus hours of setup and clean-up. If you ever reach CHF 500'000, start a GmbH, or have to work with the effective VAT method, you switch to more detailed bookkeeping. Until then: keep it simple.

Magic Heidi was built by two Swiss freelancers who had these problems themselves. We use our own software for our own bookkeeping, and it was designed exactly for cases like this: for sole proprietorships earning revenue through Shopify, Stripe, App Store, or Play Store who want to keep their books clean, fast, and compliant. If you also invoice outside the App Store — for contract development or enterprise licences, say — our invoicing tool helps you produce QR-bills in under a minute.