If your company supplies goods or services to the Swiss federal administration, 2026 is the year that paper and PDF invoices stop being acceptable. The revised Federal Finance Ordinance (Bundesfinanzverordnung, BFV) requires all suppliers to federal bodies to submit invoices electronically — and the deadline is not a soft target.
This post covers who is affected, what exactly the requirement means in practice, which channels are accepted, and what you need to do to be ready.
What the ordinance actually says
The revised BFV mandates that suppliers to the Swiss federal administration submit invoices in structured electronic format through one of two approved channels: eBill or PEPPOL. The requirement applies to all federal administrative units — the seven federal departments, the Federal Chancellery, and the units under them. It does not automatically extend to cantons, municipalities, or publicly owned enterprises, though many are implementing similar requirements on their own timelines.
The mandate covers the full range of invoices: goods deliveries, service contracts, consultancy mandates, construction works, and any other supply relationship where the Swiss federal administration is the buyer. There is no minimum invoice amount or contract value threshold — all invoices to covered federal bodies must be submitted electronically.
The requirement is for suppliers to send structured invoices. It does not place requirements on how you internally process invoices you receive.
Which suppliers are affected
The straightforward answer is: any company that has an active supply relationship with the Swiss federal administration.
This is a broad group. It includes large infrastructure and technology companies with major federal contracts, consulting firms working on government projects, maintenance and facility management suppliers to federal buildings, IT equipment suppliers, training providers, legal and professional services firms, translators, and many others.
It also includes smaller suppliers who may only invoice the federal government occasionally — a niche equipment manufacturer that supplies a specific research instrument to a federal laboratory, a small training firm that runs a one-off course for federal employees, a local caterer with a standing order from a federal canteen.
If you are not sure whether your company supplies a federal body, check your customer list for entities in the following categories: SECO, BAFU, ASTRA, armasuisse, fedpol, SBB (where it acts as a procurement body for federal purposes), fedlex and related legal publishers, the federal courts, and any agency with "Bundes-" in its name. The federal procurement portal simap.ch lists all covered entities.
The two accepted channels
eBill is the Swiss national invoice network operated by SIX. To send via eBill, you register with a certified eBill service provider and connect your billing system to their platform. The federal administration receives invoices via eBill through their registered accounts. eBill is the simpler path for companies that primarily send lower volumes or whose billing software already integrates with an eBill service provider.
PEPPOL is the international invoice network. To send via PEPPOL, you connect to a PEPPOL access point provider and generate invoices in the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 format with the SwissDIGIN Swiss extension. The federal administration has PEPPOL endpoints registered in the PEPPOL directory, so any company registered as a PEPPOL participant in Switzerland can route invoices to them. PEPPOL is the better choice for companies that also invoice EU public sector buyers or large Swiss corporations through the network.
You do not need to use both. Choose the channel that fits your existing infrastructure and customer mix. The eBill vs PEPPOL comparison covers the decision in more detail.
What "structured" means in practice
A PDF sent by email does not satisfy the requirement, even if it is a clean, professionally formatted document with all the right fields. The requirement is for a machine-readable structured format — one that the federal administration's finance system can process automatically without someone re-keying the data.
Via eBill, the structured data is handled by the service provider as part of the transmission protocol — you do not necessarily generate XML directly, but the service provider transmits the invoice as structured data to the federal recipient.
Via PEPPOL, you generate a PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 XML invoice. The invoice must be valid against both the PEPPOL standard and the SwissDIGIN Schematron rules. The required fields include:
- Your UID (CHE format) as the seller identifier
- The federal body's procurement or purchase order reference (if one was issued)
- Correct Swiss VAT category codes and calculated amounts
- Your IBAN for payment
- Itemised line items with descriptions, quantities, and unit prices where applicable
If your invoice is rejected by the federal body's system, you will receive a rejection notification through the channel you used to send. You are responsible for correcting and resubmitting.
The timeline
The mandate takes effect for all federal suppliers at the start of 2026. There is no phased-in period by supplier size — the requirement applies from day one of the fiscal year. Federal bodies are required to reject non-compliant invoices (PDFs, paper) and may return them to the supplier without processing.
In practice, the federal administration has been communicating with major suppliers and procurement contacts throughout 2025, and most large suppliers have been given informal guidance to be ready before the deadline. Smaller suppliers who have not yet received communication from their federal buyer contact should not assume they will be exempted — the mandate is universal.
If you invoice a federal body through a procurement framework agreement (Rahmenvertrag), your framework agreement may include specific implementation guidance. Check the terms of the agreement and the contact at the purchasing office.
Steps to take now
Step 1: Confirm you are affected. Review your customer list. If any entry is a Swiss federal body, you are in scope.
Step 2: Choose a channel. Decide between eBill and PEPPOL based on your volume, existing infrastructure, and whether you also want to use the channel for non-federal customers.
Step 3: Assess your billing system. Can your current ERP or accounting software connect to an eBill service provider or a PEPPOL access point? Check your vendor's documentation and, if in doubt, ask them directly whether they support Swiss federal e-invoicing requirements. The questions to ask are covered in our ERP vendor checklist.
Step 4: Register and test. Allow enough time — at least four to six weeks — for service provider setup, configuration, and testing before the go-live date. Testing with the federal body's test environment before sending live invoices avoids rejected invoices at a critical time.
Step 5: Update your invoicing process. Ensure the people who generate invoices for federal customers know which channel to use and what reference information (purchase order number, contract reference) the federal body requires on the invoice. A technically valid invoice that is missing the PO reference the buyer expects will be rejected even if the format is correct.
What happens if you are not ready
Federal bodies are required to return non-compliant invoices rather than processing them as exceptions. A returned invoice means delayed payment — you will need to correct and resubmit, which adds days or weeks to your payment cycle depending on how quickly the issue is caught and resolved.
Persistent non-compliance may also affect your standing in future federal procurement rounds. The federal administration uses supplier performance data as part of procurement evaluation, and a pattern of administrative non-compliance is noted.
Getting ready before the deadline is both straightforward and important. The technical implementation for most suppliers is a four-to-eight-week project, not a multi-month programme. The step-by-step guide for invoicing federal agencies covers the submission process from the supplier's perspective once you have the technical side in place.