Billing Foreign Clients from Switzerland: Multi-Currency Invoicing in 2026

More Swiss freelancers than ever work with international clients. Whether you're a designer billing a German startup in EUR or a developer invoicing a US company in USD, multi-currency billing creates bookkeeping challenges. Here's how to handle them cleanly.

Should You Invoice in CHF or Foreign Currency?

You have two options when billing foreign clients:

• Invoice in CHF — Simplest for your books. The client pays at their bank's exchange rate. You receive CHF directly.
• Invoice in foreign currency (EUR/USD) — Often preferred by clients (they know exactly what they're paying). Your bank converts at their rate when the payment arrives.

If your client is in the EU and pays in EUR, invoicing in EUR is often smoother for the relationship. The Swiss QR-bill format supports both CHF and EUR natively.

How Exchange Rates Affect Your Books

When you invoice in EUR but your books are in CHF, there's always an exchange rate difference between:

• The rate on the invoice date (what you expected to receive)
• The rate on the payment date (what you actually received)

This creates Kursdifferenzen (exchange rate differences) that need to be booked. If the CHF weakened between invoice and payment, you gained; if it strengthened, you lost.

For your accounting, you'll typically book the invoice at the day's rate, then book an adjustment when the payment arrives at the actual received amount.

Bank Fees on Foreign Payments

Swiss banks charge for currency conversion. UBS, for example, adds card costs that show up in your statement as "Costs: Online shopping -3.44 CHF". These fees are part of your actual cost and need to be included when matching bank transactions to expenses.

SwissQRBills handles this automatically during bank CSV import — it reads the UBS description field, extracts the exchange rate and any card costs, and calculates the actual CHF amount: (foreign amount × exchange rate) + bank fees = bank booking.

MwSt on Foreign Invoices

Services to foreign clients (outside Switzerland) are generally exempt from Swiss MwSt. This applies regardless of what currency you invoice in. The key rule is where the client is located, not what currency they pay in.

Important distinctions:

• Client in EU/USA/etc. — No Swiss MwSt (but report as exempt services in your quarterly declaration)
• Client in Switzerland paying in EUR — Normal Swiss MwSt applies (8.1%)
• Swiss branch of foreign company — MwSt applies if the service is consumed in Switzerland

Keeping Clean Books

Here's the workflow that keeps multi-currency billing manageable:

1. Invoice — Create the invoice in the client's preferred currency (EUR/USD). SwissQRBills generates the QR-bill with the correct currency.
2. Record — The invoice is recorded in your system at the current exchange rate for reporting purposes.
3. Receive payment — Your bank converts and credits CHF to your account.
4. Import bank CSV — SwissQRBills reads the actual CHF amount, matches it to the invoice, and records any exchange rate difference.
5. Report — Your MwSt report correctly shows the CHF amounts for all foreign invoices.

Practical Tips

• Set payment terms carefully. Longer payment terms = more exchange rate risk. Net 10 is safer than net 30 for foreign invoices.
• Consider a EUR account. If you regularly receive EUR, a multi-currency bank account avoids conversion fees on each payment. You can convert in bulk when rates are favorable.
• Track original amounts. Always keep the original foreign currency amount alongside the CHF equivalent. Your Treuhänder will need both for the annual accounts.
• Don't forget Bezugsteuer. If you buy services from abroad (cloud hosting, SaaS tools) exceeding CHF 10,000/year, you owe reverse-charge tax.

SwissQRBills supports multi-currency invoicing on the Business plan. Create invoices in CHF, EUR, or USD, and the bank import handles all the conversion matching automatically.