A Swiss GmbH has to keep full books, however small it is. Here is what the Code of Obligations requires and how you do it with Bilanzi. The core bookkeeping is included in the Free plan.
The Code of Obligations requires every legal entity to keep books and prepare accounts. A GmbH is one of them, whatever its turnover.
Simplified bookkeeping, covering only income, expenditure and assets, is enough only for sole proprietorships and partnerships with less than CHF 500’000 in revenue in the last financial year. The same goes for associations and foundations that do not have to register in the commercial register. Your GmbH therefore keeps double-entry books, with a balance sheet and an income statement.
Double entry means every entry moves at least two accounts, once as a debit and once as a credit, for the same amount. In Bilanzi, an entry can only be saved when both sides match.
The law sets out the principles of proper bookkeeping. Transactions are recorded completely, truthfully and systematically. Every entry is backed by a voucher. The books are clear, fit for the business and verifiable by an expert.
This is how Bilanzi puts it into practice:
During setup you choose GmbH as the legal form, your financial year and your industry. Bilanzi creates a chart of accounts based on the Swiss SME chart, with accounts for your industry. For a GmbH, the capital account is called nominal capital from the start.
The first entry of a new GmbH is usually the payment of its nominal capital. Bilanzi prepares a draft entry for it. It is only posted once you have checked it in the journal.
Then come your invoice address, bank account and VAT. You can change everything later, and rename or add accounts as you need.
During the year you capture receipts, send invoices with a QR payment part and approve supplier invoices. You import the bank statement as a file and match the payments. You can see the balance sheet and income statement at any time.
Your GmbH is exempt from VAT only while its turnover from taxable supplies stays below CHF 100’000 a year, in Switzerland and abroad combined. Bilanzi works out the VAT return from your entries, on the Free plan too, by the effective method or at a net tax rate. You get it as a file for the ESTV ePortal and file it there.
If the GmbH pays you a salary as managing director, it is a salary like any other, with AHV contributions. In Bilanzi, payroll is part of the Free plan.
Sources: Federal Act on Value Added Tax, Art. 10 (fedlex.admin.ch), Federal Act on Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance, Art. 5 (fedlex.admin.ch)
At the end of the financial year your GmbH prepares annual accounts made up of the balance sheet, the income statement and the notes. Bilanzi produces the balance sheet and income statement under CO 959a and 959b and guides you through the close with a checklist. You add the notes yourself. The details are on the page about year-end closing.
Books, accounting vouchers and the annual report must be kept for ten years. Books and vouchers may be stored electronically if they can be made readable again at any time. The annual report is kept in writing and signed.
Bilanzi tracks the retention period per financial year and refuses to remove a receipt from the books within it. As with VAT rates, an owner approves the period once against the official source. You can take your books out at any time as CSV files, with a checksum for each file. You file them with your other business records.
Sources: Code of Obligations, Art. 958 and 958f (fedlex.admin.ch), Ordinance on Commercial Accounting, GeBüV (fedlex.admin.ch)
An auditor checks the annual accounts, not the software. Small and medium-sized GmbHs are subject to a limited audit. An ordinary audit applies mainly when two of three thresholds are exceeded in two consecutive years. They are total assets of CHF 20 million, revenue of CHF 40 million and 250 full-time positions on annual average.
With the consent of all shareholders, a GmbH with no more than ten full-time positions on annual average can opt out of the limited audit.
You invite your auditor into your business with the “Audit” role. They see your books but change nothing.
Sources: Code of Obligations, Art. 727, 727a and 818 (fedlex.admin.ch)
No. Simplified bookkeeping with income and expenditure is reserved for small sole proprietorships and partnerships, plus some associations and foundations. A GmbH always keeps double-entry books and prepares annual accounts.
Ten years from the end of the financial year. That applies to the books, the accounting vouchers and the annual report.
Without an opt-out, yes, usually a limited audit. A GmbH with no more than ten full-time positions can waive it if all shareholders agree. The audit is done by an auditor, not by Bilanzi.
Yes. Each company has its own books, kept separate, and you switch between them in the app. The Free plan covers one company, Autopilot several. The pricing page says how many.
Not for the bookkeeping. In Bilanzi you keep your books with VAT returns and payroll, and Bilanzi builds the balance sheet and income statement from them. You write the notes yourself and take the figures for the tax return from the annual accounts. An auditor does the audit, unless your GmbH has opted out.
The core bookkeeping is included in the Free plan and costs nothing, balance sheet, income statement and year-end closing included. Payroll and the VAT return are part of it too. With Autopilot, the AI also reads your receipts on its own.
This is part of the Free plan, so it costs nothing, and of every other plan too.
Every Swiss GmbH ends its financial year with annual accounts. Bilanzi builds the balance sheet and income statement from your entries and walks you through the close in four steps. The notes you write yourself.
Bilanzi calculates your employees’ wages, produces the payslips and prepares the entry for your books. Payroll is part of the Free plan. This page shows how you set it up and what a payroll run does.
The best way is to set up your GmbH once on the Free plan and post one month. You will see whether Bilanzi fits your routine before you switch.
Free forever. No credit card.
