Honest Software Comparisons for Swiss Freelancers

For your first few months? Excel works. Once you hit 5-10 invoices monthly or register for VAT, dedicated software pays for itself. Why? Swiss VAT reporting requires specific formats. QR-bill generation must follow exact specifications. One mistake in a spreadsheet formula costs more than a year of software subscriptions. Plus: Good software provides business insights—which clients are most profitable, where you overspend, how cash flow trends.

You must register for VAT with the Federal Tax Administration. This triggers new requirements: quarterly VAT returns, proper invoice formatting with VAT details, decision between effective billing and balance tax rate method, and potential previous-year adjustments. Your software needs robust VAT support before you hit this threshold, not after.

Most platforms export to standard formats (CSV, Excel, PDF). The challenge isn't data loss—it's data mapping. Your old 'Consulting' category might need splitting into three categories in the new system. Historical invoices need proper import. Opening balances must match perfectly. Budget 8-12 hours for a proper migration. Some accountants offer migration services.

Realistic budgets: Basic freelancer (no VAT) CHF 200-400/year. VAT-registered freelancer CHF 400-800/year. Small business (2-5 people) CHF 800-1,500/year. Add 20-30% buffer for occasional add-ons, extra users during busy periods, or integration costs.

Basic freelancer tools (Small Invoice, basic bexio): No accounting knowledge needed. They guide you through invoice creation and expense tracking. Full accounting software (Banana, advanced features): Understanding debits/credits helps but isn't mandatory. Most offer chart of accounts templates for Swiss freelancers. Pro tip: A 2-hour consultation with an accountant during setup saves dozens of hours of confusion.

Standard IBAN is your regular bank account number. QR-IBAN is a special reference account number for automated payment reconciliation. QR-IBAN allows automatic matching of incoming payments to specific invoices. Some banks charge for QR-IBAN accounts; others include them free. Your accounting software should support both—but QR-IBAN provides much better automation.

They prepare the data, but don't file for you. Good software: categories expenses aligned with Swiss tax forms, generates reports showing income by category, tracks deductible business expenses, exports in formats accountants recognize. You still need to complete the actual tax declaration or work with a tax professional. But you'll have organized data instead of shoebox chaos.

Most Swiss accounting software handles multi-currency invoicing. Look for: manual or automatic exchange rate updates, currency-specific bank accounts, proper handling of foreign VAT (vs Swiss domestic VAT), export declarations if you exceed thresholds. bexio and CashCtrl handle international work particularly well.

We review quarterly and update immediately for: major compliance changes (like 2025 QR-bill updates), significant pricing changes, new features that shift our recommendations, software discontinuations or acquisitions. Last major update: January 2025 (2025 QR-bill compliance verification).