A Banana alternative for invoicing in Switzerland

Why people look for a Banana alternative

Banana Accounting is a serious, widely used program, especially here in Ticino. But over the past few years people who work alone have come to look for an alternative for three concrete reasons:

• It has moved to a subscription. Banana Accounting Plus runs on annual plans; older versions with a perpetual licence no longer receive the new updates. For many, paying every year for software they use for a handful of invoices a month has become hard to justify.
• It's full accounting. Banana is double-entry accounting software: powerful, but more than someone who simply needs to issue compliant invoices requires. Features you'll never use, and a learning curve that assumes some accounting background.
• You need something more direct. For a sole proprietorship or a freelancer, the real need is one thing: create an invoice with the Swiss QR code, keep a customer list, know who has paid. That's it.

If you need advanced, complex accounting, Banana remains an excellent choice. If invoicing plus essential accounting — offline and with a one-time payment — is enough for you, read on.

What Vidima does — and what it doesn't

Let's be honest, because it's the best way not to waste your time. Vidima today is a suite: it makes QR-Bills and keeps double-entry accounting. A Swiss SME chart of accounts, a journal, a balance sheet and an income statement exportable to PDF, bank reconciliation. What Vidima doesn't do is Banana's advanced, complex accounting — consolidations, multi-company scenarios, heavy accounting automation. For those cases, Banana or your fiduciary do a deeper job.

What Vidima does, it does simply and thoroughly Swiss:

• v2.2 QR-Bill compliant with the official SIX SPC 0200 standard, validated before every PDF export.
• AFC VAT with all current rates (8.1% / 2.6% / 3.8% / exempt), effective or balance (saldo) method.
• Unlimited customers and invoices, with Swiss validation (postcode, UID, VAT number).
• Payment reminders, credit notes and instalment payments.
• Import of the camt.053 bank statement to reconcile incoming payments.
• Double-entry accounting: a preloaded Swiss SME chart of accounts, journal, balance sheet and income statement exportable to PDF.
• Guided migration from Banana and Bexio: import customers, invoices and chart of accounts without starting over.
• Cryptographic digital seal on every invoice, verifiable by your customers on verify.vidima.ch.
• Offline by default: your data stays on your computer, with no account and no tracking — exactly what you'd expect from a desktop app. If you work across machines, Pro & Studio add an optional, end-to-end encrypted sync — the key stays on your devices, so not even we can read it.

Vidima and Banana side by side

An honest comparison: the two programs solve different problems. This table helps you work out which one is right for you.

Many professionals use both without any problem: Vidima to issue invoices day to day, and their fiduciary (or Banana) for the accounting at the end of the quarter. You don't have to choose one over the other.

One-time payment versus subscription

This is the difference that weighs most over time. A subscription, even a modest one, comes back every year: you pay it for as long as you use the software, and if you stop paying you often lose the updates — sometimes access itself.

Vidima costs CHF 149, just once — launch price. It's not a subscription: you pay for it and the v1.x line of updates is included forever. Over five years, the difference between a cost that keeps coming back and an expense you make once and forget is real, especially for someone working alone.

How to switch to Vidima

No complicated migration. Vidima includes a guided migration from Banana: you import customers, invoices and your chart of accounts, and you keep working without starting from scratch.

• You download Vidima and take the 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
• You enter your customer records and your business details once.
• You start issuing invoices with the Swiss QR code and, if you want, keep your accounting in the same place.

In practice: you try Vidima alongside your current setup for a few invoices, and if it works for you, you switch over completely. No rush and no risk.