Pay the salaries with a payment file

Once the payroll is finalised, To Bill creates a payment file in the Swiss format (pain.001): one transfer per employee, to the IBAN in their record. You upload it to your e-banking and sign it: all the salaries go out at once.

Before you start

• The month’s payroll is Finalised. See Run the month’s payroll.
• Each employee to be paid has an IBAN for the salary (not a QR-IBAN) and an address with at least the Town and the Country. See Add and manage your employees.
• Your bank accepts pain.001 files in its e-banking. Swiss banks do.

Create the file

1. Open Payroll, then the month’s finalised payroll.

2. Click Payment file, at the top right.

3. Account to debit (1): choose the company account that pays the salaries. The list shows your bank accounts and the IBAN of your QR-bill. For another account, choose Another IBAN… and enter it: a Swiss IBAN, not a QR-IBAN.

4. Execution date (2): the day the bank should pay. Today at the earliest.

   

5. Check the number of salaries and the total, then click Download the file.

6. In your e-banking, open the payment file import, upload the file, check the payments and sign them.

The files created are listed in the payroll, under Payment files, with their execution date, their total and the time they were created. Each creation is recorded in the access log.

Only one file per month

If a file has already been created for this payroll, the window says so in red: “A payment file was already made on … (… payments): upload only one of them, or the salaries are paid twice.” Only upload a second file if the first one was never sent to the bank.

Records to complete

Before creating the file, To Bill checks each employee to be paid. If something is missing, the window shows Complete this employee's record before creating the file, with what is missing: town, country or IBAN.

1. Click Complete next to the employee. Their record opens in a new tab.
2. Complete the address or the IBAN, then click Save.
3. Go back to the payroll’s tab: the list updates. The Download the file button becomes active when nothing is missing any more.

If it is Your company’s address that is incomplete, To Bill tells you but still creates the file: your bank uses the address it knows. Complete it in Settings › Company.

Pay back expenses advanced by an employee

An expense that an employee paid out of their own pocket for the company is owed to them. Enter it in Expenses with Paid by › An employee, then choose who advanced it in Advanced by: see Record an expense. It then appears in Payroll › To pay back, until it is paid back.

1. Open Payroll › To pay back. The expenses are grouped by employee (1), with the total owed.
2. Tick the expenses to pay back.
3. Choose how (2):
   • With the next payroll: the employee’s next payroll adds an Advanced expenses paid back line to the amount paid, outside the salary (no OASI, not on the salary certificate);
   • By transfer: choose the Account to debit and the Execution date, then click Create the file. To Bill creates a pain.001 payment file to the employee’s IBAN, to upload to your e-banking.

Planned reimbursements appear under Planned with a payroll (Cancel removes them as long as the payroll is not finalised); completed ones under Paid back, with their payroll or their file. An expense with no employee named waits under Employee to specify: choose who advanced it with Advanced by…. The transfer needs an IBAN in the employee’s record.

In the accounts

The expense was booked when you entered it, to the credit of the employees’ account. The reimbursement settles that account, with the payroll or through the transfer’s entry: the expense is never counted twice.

Confidential salaries

The file carries the purpose code SALA (salaries) and asks the bank for a single debit. With your bank’s collective advice, your statement shows a single amount for all the salaries, without the detail per employee. Ask your bank whether collective advice is turned on for your account.

After the payment

• Accounts kept in To Bill: the payroll’s salary entry has already credited the net salaries to your bank account, on the payment date. When the salary debit appears in your statement, in Accounting › Bank, choose Skip with the reason Already booked another way. Do not book it with the Payroll template: the expense would be counted twice.
• Accounts kept elsewhere: pass the payslips and the statement on to your fiduciary.

Legal basis

• The employer reimburses the employee for all expenses incurred in performing the work, together with the salary, unless a shorter period is agreed or customary: Art. 327a para. 1 and 327c para. 1 CO. These expenses are not salary subject to OASI: Art. 9 para. 1 AHVV, the Ordinance on Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance (German version: fedlex has no English one).
• The file follows SIX’s Swiss Payment Standards, in the pain.001.001.09 format, with the SALA purpose code at payment level: SIX, Swiss Payment Standards.
• From 14 November 2026, Swiss banks refuse a transfer without the town and the country of each party: SIX, structured addresses. To Bill blocks the file as long as an employee’s address is incomplete. The same rules apply to your suppliers: see Payment files.