Invoicing for firms and agencies in Switzerland, offline and without a subscription

The real challenges of invoicing in a firm or agency

For an architecture practice, fiduciary firm, law firm or communications agency, an invoice is more than an administrative detail: it is a document by which the client also judges the care put into the work. Yet this is where the most common frustrations arise, and they are almost always the same.

An invoice for every project and every client

Project-based work involves documents with different line items, advances, progress billing and sometimes several VAT rates on the same invoice. A spreadsheet works while there are only a few clients; then it becomes a source of errors and time lost redoing totals and layouts. You need a tool that treats an invoice as a repeatable, organised document, not a copy-and-paste exercise.

The QR invoice must always be accepted

Since 2022, QR invoices have replaced the old payment slips. The payment section with the QR code must follow SIX specifications (Swiss Payment Standards): if it does not comply, the client's bank or software rejects it. For a firm, that means an awkward phone call and a delayed payment. When you manage dozens of clients, compliance cannot be left to luck.

Accounting cannot live somewhere else

Fiduciary firms know this well: issuing the invoice is only the start. They need a journal, balance sheet and income statement compliant with the Code of Obligations, and those working with public entities also need MCA2 accounting. Keeping invoicing and accounting in separate programs means exporting, re-importing and reconciling by hand—work that adds no value and creates errors.

Per-workstation fees multiply

Most cloud software is paid monthly and often per user. In a firm with four or five team members, the bill grows quickly and never ends. For many businesses, that model is more than they need for what they actually use.

Client data is confidential

A firm holds sensitive data: clients, assignments, fees and margins. Entrusting it to third-party servers, often outside Switzerland, is a choice worth weighing carefully. The right question is not just “does it work?” but “who can see this data?”

How Vidima handles invoicing for firms and agencies

Vidima is a complete Swiss suite: it covers the whole cycle, from project invoicing to accounting, in one desktop app for Windows 10/11 and macOS. It is designed for people who regularly invoice different clients and want professional documents without relying on a connection.

• Professional PDFs and QR invoices (QR-Bill v2.3) compliant with the SIX SPC 0200 standard and validated before every export: the client receives a polished document and a payment section the bank accepts. You can try it now with the QR invoice generator.
• Double-entry bookkeeping with a journal, balance sheet under art. 959a CO and income statement—particularly useful for fiduciary firms and practices that keep clients' accounts. MCA2 public-sector mode is also available.
• AFC VAT at current rates (8.1%, 2.6%, 3.8%), using the effective or flat-rate method, with multiple rates correctly calculated on the same document.
• Import from Bexio (API) and Banana (JCSV) and camt.053 import (ISO 20022) to reconcile payments from the bank statement, so migration and balancing the books do not mean starting from scratch.
• Verifiable cryptographic seal (ECDSA P-256): each invoice carries a signature that the client—or an auditor—can check at verify.vidima.ch.
• Invoices in 5 languages (IT/DE/FR/ES/EN), useful for firms with clients across cantons and beyond the border.

All of this works offline by default: no mandatory account and no tracking. Client, assignment and fee data stays on the firm's computers. If you need to keep several workstations in sync, multi-device synchronisation is optional and end-to-end encrypted (Pro/Studio): even we cannot read the data. Work is exactly the same in the office, on the move or without a connection.

A polished document for the client, the accounts that go with it and data that only you can read—even we cannot read it.

One licence for the whole firm, paid once

The licence is what makes the difference for a firm or agency. Vidima is not paid monthly or per user like a cloud service: it is bought once and covers several devices.

Version v1.x updates are included forever, with no recurring fees. For a fiduciary firm that would pay separately for every workstation on a cloud platform, the Studio edition fundamentally changes the costs over time. To compare it with tools you probably already use, read our guides: Bexio alternative and Banana alternative.

Pricing and trial

Vidima is bought once, starting at CHF 149 (Personal), with Pro at CHF 299 and Studio at CHF 990. No subscription and no hidden per-workstation costs.

You can try Vidima for 30 days free, with no credit card, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee: install the app, issue real invoices to your clients and take your time to decide. Available at vidima.ch and on the Microsoft Store.

Frequently asked questions