For fiduciary firms
With Bilanzi you work through a mandate directly in your clients’ books. There is no copy to import back later.
A mandate is not a file exchange
The usual routine goes like this: the business collects its receipts and sends a folder once a quarter. The fiduciary books everything in its own software, and the business ends up with a PDF from last month. There are two versions to reconcile, and every question takes days.
In Bilanzi there is only one version. A mandate is the business’s permission for its fiduciary to work in its books. What you post, the business sees at once. What the business enters is there for you, without anyone sending anything.
How a mandate comes about
There are two ways. In the first, the business already keeps its books in Bilanzi. It creates a mandate offer and gets a code. It gives you the code in person or by phone. You enter it in your client portfolio, and the mandate is in place.
In the second, you create the client yourself. This suits clients who have never kept their own books. The new company starts without an owner, and your firm manages it. You invite someone from the business. As soon as they accept the owner role, the business carries on with its own books, and your mandate stays in place.
Either way, the business decides whether payroll is part of the mandate. It can suspend, resume or end the mandate at any time.
The role says who may do what
In your firm, only the people you explicitly assign to a mandate get access. For each assignment you pick a role: accounting to post, review to read without changing anything, payroll for payroll. The payroll role only takes effect if the business has included payroll in the mandate.
Every action is in the audit trail, with person and time, including every change to a mandate. Anyone can set up a second factor for their sign-in with an authenticator app. It is optional, and for a fiduciary firm it is worth having.
- Mandates per company, by mandate code or created by you
- Roles per mandate: accounting, review and payroll
- Payroll only if the business includes it in the mandate
- Audit trail with chained entries for every action
- Four languages, chosen by each person in the same mandate
The year-end closing
The closing runs in five steps: prepare, post the closing entries, freeze the annual accounts, record the approval and open the next year. The checklist has blocking items that cannot simply be clicked away. What is closed cannot be quietly patched afterwards.
The balance sheet and income statement follow CO 959a and 959b and show the prior year alongside. Behind every line are the accounts it comes from. Bilanzi works out the VAT return from the same entries, by the effective method or at a net tax rate. You file it in the ePortal as before and then record the filing in the app.
The data stays with the business
The books belong to the business, not to the fiduciary firm. When a mandate ends, your access goes, and the data stays where it belongs.
For a handover or your own records, the books can be exported per financial year as CSV files. Every file carries a checksum, and completeness can be checked without Bilanzi.
What it costs
For the business itself, the Free plan is often enough. It costs nothing and lets the business grant its fiduciary a mandate. You don’t count as a person there. If the business is registered for VAT, it needs the Starter plan for the return.
Mandate management for your firm is part of the Fiduciary plan. It costs CHF 199 a month and covers up to 25 mandates and 100 people. You take it out under Settings › Subscription and pay by card, TWINT, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Payroll, the AI and the API come with every paid plan.
What to know before you put a mandate on it
Bilanzi does not file the VAT return with the ESTV. You get the calculated return and an export for your records, and you file in the ePortal. Payroll has no Swissdec certification. There is no direct bank connection.
There is no import from other accounting software. You enter the chart of accounts and the opening entry in the setup assistant.
Frequently asked questions
How many mandates can I manage?
The Fiduciary plan covers up to 25 mandates and 100 people in your firm. A mandate applies to one company. A client with two companies means two mandates.
What happens when a client moves to another fiduciary?
The books belong to the business. It ends the mandate, your access goes, and the data stays with the business. The new fiduciary gets its own mandate with a new code.
Can I take over existing accounts?
Not automatically. You set up the chart of accounts, from an SME chart template if you like, and post the opening entry. There is no import of entries from other software.
Do I need a second factor?
It is optional. If you set it up, Bilanzi asks for the code from your authenticator app each time you sign in. After that, no single action asks for it again. What a person may do is set by their role and the mandate.
Does the business see what I post?
Yes, right away. There is only one version of the books. Every entry shows in the audit trail who made it, and a correction is a visible reversal.
What it costs
Mandate management is part of the Fiduciary plan. In a business that invites you, you work without a plan of your own.
Related topics
Accounting for businesses that keep their own books
Most small Swiss businesses keep their own numbers and hand them to their fiduciary once a year. Bilanzi is Swiss accounting software built for exactly that, and the Free plan costs nothing.
The VAT return
Bilanzi works out the VAT return from the lines you post anyway. You check it position by position and file it with the ESTV yourself.
Get started today. For free.
Create an account and choose the fiduciary type during setup. Start with a mandate of manageable size, and you will see quickest whether Bilanzi fits the way you work.
Free forever. No credit card.