The QR-bill is replacing the existing multiplicity of payment slips in Switzerland and so is helping to increase efficiency and simplify payment traffic, at the same time offering a way of dealing with the challenges presented by digitalization and regulation. The new bills contain all the payment information in a QR code and can simply be scanned digitally.

The QR-bill replaces the current orange and red Swiss ISR (Inpayment Slip with Reference Number) starting on June 30, 2020.

This blog post helps you understand the individual functionalities and solutions regarding the QR-bill. To help you understand the QR-bill solution, this blog is divided into two parts:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable

Enabling QR-Bill Functionality

QR-Bill Reference

QR-bill can be in three different versions:

• QR-IBAN with QR reference

The QR-IBAN is comparable to the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) that identifies the supplier’s international bank account number that is used during a payment transaction. The QR-IBAN contains the QR-IID (bank identification) in positions 5-9, using a number range from 30000 through 31999. QR-IBAN must be used for payments with a structured reference. The formal structure of this IBAN corresponds to the rules defined in ISO 13616.

The QR reference type is a 27-digit reference. This reference type follows the same rules as the former ISR reference. Position 27 contains a check digit according to modulo 10 recursive. It can be used with a QR-IBAN (IID 30000-31999) only.

• Standard IBAN without a reference

If you choose this reference type, no reference will be created. You can use this reference type with a standard IBAN, not with a QR-IBAN.

• Standard IBAN with ISO creditor reference

The ISO creditor reference type is a maximum 25-digit reference generated according to ISO 11649. The reference starts with ‘RF’, then followed by 2 check digits, and then maximum 21 characters – altogether maximum 25 characters. You can use this reference type with a standard IBAN, not with a QR-IBAN. ISO 11649 reference can be used internationally.

Configuration of Parameter Types

To enable the QR-bill functionality, follow the guideline below.

In Customizing for Financial Accounting under Financial Accounting Global Settings > Global Parameters for Company Code > Maintain Additional Parameters:

There are two new parameter types available: CHQR. For these parameter types, enter parameter values as follows:

Configuration of Payment Method

Create a payment method for the ISR outgoing payment procedure with QR-IBAN in transaction Maintain Payment Program – Payment methods in country (transaction code FBZP).

Ensure that the followings are set:

• You have selected the ISR Payment Procedurecheckbox in the Payment Method Classification group box.
• You have selected the Bank Detailsand the IBAN Required checkboxes in the Required Master Record Specifications group box.
• You have maintained vendor master data with this newly created payment method.

Activating the Fast Entry Functionality

For the ISR Subscriber Number Solution:

Fast entry functionality helps the user to quickly find vendor with specific ISR number during document posting. The ISR number is assigned to the vendor master data.

Activate the fast entry in transaction Accounting Editing Options (transaction code FB00) by selecting the following checkboxes:

• Fast Entry with ISR Number/QR-IBAN
• ISR Entry with Control Display

After the activation, when you enter an ISR number in the document, the system searches for the vendors having the same ISR number in their master data and display the list so that you can select the relevant one in transaction FB60.

For the QR-Bill Solution:

The QR-IBAN is entered as a regular bank connection in the vendor master data. More than one QR-IBAN can be entered for one vendor.

Activate the fast entry in transaction Accounting Editing Options (transaction code FB00) by selecting the following checkboxes:

• Fast Entry with ISR Number/QR-IBAN
• ISR Entry with Control Display

After the activation, when you enter a QR-IBAN in the vendor invoice, the system searches for the vendors as follows:

1. The system searches for all entries with the QR-IBAN in the IBANdatabase table (technical name: TIBAN).
2. The system takes BANKS, BANKL, and BANKN values from each TIBAN entry and searches for the vendor bank connections (LFBK).

Note: If the system does not find any vendor with the QR-IBAN you entered, a warning message is displayed, and the user must enter the vendor number manually.

Accounts Payable

Posting documents with QR-IBAN

Vendor invoices can be created and posted in transaction Enter Vendor Invoice (transaction code FB60).

If you use only the ISR number solution, enter the ISR number and the ISR/QR reference number in the relevant fields.

If you have chosen to use only the QR-bill or both the QR-bill and the ISR procedure solutions, enter the QR-IBAN and the ISR/QR reference number in the relevant fields.

ISR subscriber number visible

Transition period: both ISR subscriber number and QR-IBAN visible

Only QR-IBAN visible

Validations during document posting

When you enter a QR-IBAN, you must also enter the QR reference and when you enter the QR reference, you must also enter the QR-IBAN. The provided QR reference must be valid. The provided QR-IBAN must be of countries CH or LI and must be of proper IID. It is not possible to enter both ISR Number and QR-IBAN.

Additional Information in QR-Bill

In the payment part, two elements «Unstructured message» (Ustrd) and «Billing information» (StrdBkginf) are available as additional information. The number of characters in the two fields together must not exceed 140 characters:

Unstructured messages can be used to give the payment purpose or for additional textual information about payments with a structured reference. Unstructured references are printed on the payment part under the heading «Additional information».

Billing information contains coded information of the biller for the bill recipient. The data is not forwarded with the payment, but it is printed on the payment part. The coding of the element always begins with delimiter «//».

Field Addl Info is available in the financial transactions. By double-clicking this field, the content is split into Structured and Unstructured Info fields. When you save the entries, the content of these two fields are concatenated.

Alternative payee data

When the FI document is posted with QR-IBAN or Additional Info, Vendor address and bank data are always automatically copied into the Alternative payee data (BSEC).

You can change or display the alternative payee data in transactions Change Document (transaction code FB02) or Display Document (transaction code FB03), by choosing Extras > Alternative Payee.

• When Additional Info and Partner Bank Type (BVTYP) fields are filled, the system clears BVTYP and creates Alternative payee data (BSEC).
• When CH/LI IBAN that matches Vendor Master Data (LFBK) is entered and Additional info is empty, field Partner Bank Type (BVTYP) will be filled.
• When Partner Bank Type (BVTYP) is entered and Additional Info OR QR IBAN is empty, the value stays in BVTYP.

Please note BVTYP cannot be used along with BSEC and will always be empty. Bank data, in that case, are always maintained in BSEC.

Entering ISO Creditor Reference into FI Document

ISO Creditor Reference has to be entered in the field Payment Reference.

If the field Payment Reference is not available in the FI transaction on Vendor line item, it is necessary to change the Field status group on Reconciliation Account and set the filed as Optional. This is done following way:

1. In transaction FS00 display Reconciliation Account and find to which Field Status group it is assigned to.

2. In IMG activity: Financial Accounting (New) – Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable – Business Transactions – Outgoing Invoices/Credit Memos – Define Field Status Variants (transaction OBC4), set the field Payment Reference for the previous Field status group as Optional entry.

3. In transaction FB60, the field Payment Reference is available in the Payment folder.

Accounts Receivable

QR-bill slip is generated during the outgoing invoice processing and sent to the corresponding business partner to pay it. The electronically readable Swiss QR-code contains all payment-relevant data.

After the business partner has paid the QR-bill, the bank sends a camt.053 or a camt.054 file to the business partner who created the QR-bill. The paid item in the camt.054 file contains a unique reference that is used to search for and clear the corresponding line item in the system.

Configuration of Control Data

You can define rules for generating the reference number of QR-bills and make additional settings for the creation of outgoing invoices. When you read an electronic bank statement file, the rules defined for the reference number are used to de-compose the reference number into document number and customer number to enable the search algorithm to find the open items that were created during the posting of the SD invoice.

You can define control data for the following settings regarding the QR-bill:

• You can map data for the generation of the reference number of QR-bills.
• You can set whether you want the payment amount or the billing information to be printed on the QR-bill, or if you want to print the QR-bill.
• You can define how you want the payment data to be added to the invoice.

You can make all these settings in Customizing for Cross-Application Components, under General Application Functions > QR-bill > Switzerland/Liechtenstein > Define Control Data for QR-Bill.

This view contains keys and common data:

• QR-IBAN/IBAN
• Document and Customer number length and offset in QRR and SCOR Reference
• Parameters relevant to QR-bill form layout

In the last four columns of this view, it is possible to control data for Sales and Distribution and data for Finance. In the SOrg. column, sales organization can be assigned. In the Acct Mod. column, you can control the account determination if you want to post the amount to a bank subaccount. You can also choose an application indicator (Application Ind.) as a selection characteristic for importing bank statements. You can also decide if you want a dunning notice to be printed for a QR-bill (Print Dunning Notice).

Printing Customizations

Generic parameters for printing:

Configuration of Search Priorities

After the data in the bank statement has been imported, the system searches for the open items in the system and matches them to the imported payment data for further processing, which is posting and clearing activities. Optimize the search for these open items by defining search strategies and setting the priority order of the search strategies in the Define Search Priorities configuration step. You can use the predefined search strategies, or you can create your own search strategy.

Process Bank Statement

You can import the data from the CAMT.053 (version 4) and the CAMT.054 (version 4) bank statements that contain all the incoming payment data, including the ones according to the QR procedure, following the standard process as described in Electronic Bank Statement: Application.

During the import process, the system calls the FIEB_800_ALGORITHM function module that contains a predefined interpretation algorithm. This algorithm applies the search strategies in the priority order for matching open items. The search strategy defines the rule of how the system searches for open items. For information about the function module, see SAP Notes 2283622 and 2532498.

The system clears the open items based on the QRR/SCOR references that contain the customer and the document numbers when the CAMT.054 file is uploaded.

For mapping of bank statement in XML format into internal structures, the following transformations are used:

• FIEB_CAMT053_V4_ISR_TO_FEB for CAMT.053 processing
• FIEB_CAMT054_V4_ISR_TO_FEB for CAMT.054 processing

Dunning Notice

The dunning notice is available in a standard PDF dunning form with QR code (F150_DUNN_PDF_CH_QR).

The form must be assigned to dunning level in the Customizing activity Assign Dunning Forms:

To generate payment advice from dunning, select the Indicator: Generate Payment Advice (Adv) checkbox.

To generate QR-bill data to the form, assign the “O” value in the Form ID field.

Print Control

In order to print dunning notice, the following parameters for company code IBAN/QR-IBAN must be set in transaction QRBILL_CH_REF:

• No Print – must not be selected

• Print Dunning Notice – field Print Dunning Notice must be selected

Note: If Company code has more than one IBAN/QR-IBAN, these parameters must be set only for one IBAN/QR-IBAN

Form layout control

The layout of the form can be controlled in QR-bill Control Data

• Format Par – defines form layout

SAP supports following formats:

• No Amount – Amount is not printed
• NoBill. Inf – Billing information (SWICO tags) is not printed

See Transactions Prepared for the QR-bill on the SAP Help Portal.

See more information regarding QR-bill on SAP Help Portal or in collective note 2673953.

Do you have any further comments regarding this topic? Do not hesitate to share them in the comment section below. You are also welcome to ask any questions about SAP S4/HANA Finance in the Community Q&A section.