The guide
Guide: project billing for Swiss SMEs
Project billing is the step where work turns into cash. For a Swiss services SME, it touches the client, VAT, the QR-bill and accounting all at once. These benchmarks help you invoice faster, without errors and without leaving hours aside.
How does time-and-materials project billing work?
On time and materials, you invoice the time actually spent at the agreed hourly rate, plus rebillable expenses. Time-and-materials project billing therefore depends entirely on reliable, approved time tracking: every hour not logged is lost, every disputed hour delays payment.
Good practice is to invoice at a regular rhythm, often monthly, with an appendix detailing the hours by person and activity. The client understands what they are paying for and cash follows the work. If a cap has been agreed, it must be watched before sending the invoice, and any overrun needs the client’s agreement. Numezis prepares the preview directly from approved entries, flags the cap and attaches the hours detail.
Fixed price, milestones or down payments: how do you bill a fixed-price project?
A fixed-price project is rarely invoiced in one go. The price is split into instalments tied to milestones, for example design sign-off, go-live and final acceptance, or to SIA phases for engineering and architecture offices. A down payment on order protects your cash and commits the client.
Watch out for VAT: a down payment is subject to VAT when it is invoiced or collected, depending on your company’s accounting method. The final invoice must deduct the down payments already invoiced and their VAT, so the client does not pay the tax twice. Numezis handles these deductions automatically and keeps the history of every instalment, milestone and down payment attached to the project.
What must a Swiss project invoice contain?
An invoice compliant with VAT Act art. 26 shows the supplier’s name, address and UID VAT number, the client’s name and address, the date or period of the service, the nature and extent of the service, and the amount and applicable VAT rate. For low-value invoices, some details can be simplified.
For a project, stating the service period is particularly important: it determines which VAT return the service falls into. The QR-bill, the SIX Swiss Payment Standards format, is added at the bottom of the invoice with a QR reference that allows the payment to be matched automatically. Numezis checks these details before issuing, resolves the VAT rate deterministically and keeps the invoice for ten years under CO art. 958f.
What is project revenue recognition?
Revenue recognition determines in which period a project’s revenue is booked, independently of the invoice date. It matters most for projects that straddle a year-end: invoicing in January work done in December distorts the result of both financial years.
Numezis offers five methods: point in time, where all revenue is recognised on delivery; time and materials, at the pace of approved hours; percentage of completion, based on cost incurred against total forecast cost; milestones, at each stage reached; and straight line, spread over the term of the contract. The Code of Obligations requires a coherent method applied consistently. Choose it with your fiduciary or auditor, then let Numezis post the revenue and work-in-progress entries.
How do you automate monthly project billing?
Automatic monthly billing means preparing, on a fixed date, the invoices of every active project: time and materials with the month’s approved hours, subscriptions and recurring engagements, fixed-price instalments that have fallen due. For a fiduciary, this covers bookkeeping, payroll or VAT engagements billed every month or quarter.
Automation must not remove control. In Numezis, the run produces drafts, the agent flags unusual cases such as an amount very different from the previous month or a cap reached, and invoices are issued after review and approval. The gain is measured in month-end days saved and in invoices sent earlier, and therefore paid earlier.