Accounting for businesses that keep their own books
Many small Swiss businesses keep their own numbers. Bilanzi is Swiss accounting software built for exactly that, and the Free plan costs nothing.
Where it usually gets stuck
Rarely at the bookkeeping itself. Usually the numbers sit in four places. The receipts are in a box or in your phone’s photos. The invoices live in a spreadsheet. The statement is at the bank, and the real accounts are with the fiduciary you see three times a year.
What gets lost is the overview. In October you want to know how the year is going, and the answer you get is from June. Good accounting software for small businesses fixes that: everything is in one place, and you can see where you stand at any time.
What Bilanzi does for your business
You take a photo of a receipt with your phone, and it stays linked to its entry. Your bank transactions arrive as a file or, with Autopilot, straight from the bank every morning, and Bilanzi matches them against open items. Your invoices carry the Swiss QR payment part and become an open receivable in the ledger as soon as you issue them.
Everything ends up in the same ledger. The balance sheet and income statement are ready at any time, and behind every line you see the accounts it comes from. All of this is part of the bookkeeping core. The Free plan includes all of it, the VAT return too:
- Chart of accounts based on the Swiss SME chart, with templates by industry
- Journal, entries, reversals and period locks
- Receipts photographed, filed and linked to their entry
- Customer invoices with QR payment part, credit notes and reminders
- Supplier invoices with approval and payment orders
- Bank statement import and reconciliation
- VAT by the effective method or at a net tax rate
- Balance sheet and income statement under CO 959a and 959b
- Year-end closing with a checklist and the opening of the next year
- Fixed assets with depreciation, expenses, cost centres and retention
A month with Bilanzi, step by step
First you set up your company. The setup assistant asks one thing at a time: financial year, chart of accounts, invoice address, bank account, VAT and opening capital. Each question has its own screen, and you can change everything later.
During the month you photograph receipts and bills as they come in. Bilanzi checks whether the payment is already in your bank account. If it is, Bilanzi suggests attaching the receipt there. That way an expense never lands in the books twice.
With Autopilot, Bilanzi fetches your transactions from the bank every morning. Otherwise you import the statement at the end of the month. You match customer payments to open invoices. You approve supplier invoices and send them straight to your bank or as a file for your e-banking. Whatever is still open shows up in a list.
After each quarter, Bilanzi works out the VAT from the posted lines. You get the return as a file for the ESTV ePortal. At year end the closing takes you through a checklist, freezes the annual accounts and opens the new year.
What it costs
The Free plan costs nothing, and it stays that way. It covers one company, room for many years of receipts and the bookkeeping core listed above, with VAT returns and payroll. We count neither people nor entries nor invoices. You sign up with Google, with Apple or with your email address, and you need no payment method.
Free costs nothing. You’ll find the price of Autopilot on the pricing page. With Autopilot, the AI reads every receipt on its own and prepares the entry, with no price per receipt and no balance. You take out Autopilot under Settings › Subscription and costs and pay by card, TWINT, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Free does not expire. You pick Autopilot only when you want it, and everything you’ve booked stays. What the AI suggests is booked only once you confirm it. The AI runs in Switzerland, at Infomaniak in Geneva.
What is not up for negotiation
A posted line is never overwritten. You correct it with a reversal that stays visibly linked to the original. Entries, receipts, the chart of accounts and permissions are recorded in the audit trail, with person and time. Each record is chained to the one before, and with one click Bilanzi checks that every record still fits its predecessor.
Your data is yours. You can export your books at any time, per financial year, as CSV files with journal, accounts and subledgers. Every file carries a checksum, and you can check completeness without Bilanzi.
Anything else on your mind?
Is the Free plan really free?
Yes, for good. You enter no payment method. You are on the Free plan from day one, and it doesn’t run out. It covers one company and everything you do yourself, VAT returns and payroll included. If you want the AI to read your receipts, Autopilot may fit. Nothing changes on its own.
Do I still need a fiduciary?
Not for your day-to-day bookkeeping. With Bilanzi you keep your own books, reconcile the bank, prepare the VAT return and run payroll. At year-end, a checklist walks you through the close. If your company must have its annual accounts audited, an auditor does that.
Can I run several companies?
Yes. Each company has its own books, kept apart, and you switch between them in the app. The Free plan covers one company, Autopilot several. The pricing page says how many.
Does Bilanzi work on a phone?
Yes. Bilanzi runs in the browser, on your phone as well as on your computer. You can add it to your home screen, and it then opens like an app. You photograph receipts straight from the camera.
Which languages does Bilanzi speak?
English, German, French, Italian and Albanian. Each person picks their own language. You write invoices in your customer’s language: English, German, French or Italian.
What it costs
This is part of the Free plan, so it costs nothing, and of every other plan too.
Related topics
Invoices with a QR payment part
You create the QR-bill straight from your books. It becomes an open receivable the moment you issue it, and bank reconciliation later ties the payment back to it.
Bank connection and reconciliation
Your bank delivers your transactions over EBICS every morning, or you import the statement as a file. Bilanzi suggests a match for every transaction and tells you why. The decision is yours.
Your business needs you. Start with Bilanzi.
Your own numbers will tell you fastest whether Bilanzi suits your business. Create an account and start with the Free plan. It costs nothing, now or later.
Free forever. No credit card.