Post bank statements automatically: camt.053

Key points at a glance

Swiss banks provide account data in the ISO 20022 format, as an XML file. For bookkeeping, you mainly need the camt.053 bank statement; the camt.054 shows the details of batch bookings and individual credits or debits.
The reference on your QR-bill comes back with the payment: the QR reference (with a QR-IBAN) or the Creditor Reference (with a regular IBAN). This lets you match every payment to exactly one invoice. Without a reference, all you have is the message.
You download the statement in e-banking. Sometimes you need to activate the format first. Automatic retrieval works via EBICS or bLink; you set up either one separately for each bank.
Reconciliation keeps your open items up to date: customers who have paid don't get a reminder, and your books and VAT (MWST) are correct.
You need to look at partial payments, duplicate payments, payments without a reference, bank charges and foreign currencies yourself. Set aside 15 minutes once a month for this.

What are ISO 20022 and camt?

ISO 20022 is an international standard for payment messages. In Switzerland, the Swiss Payment Standards define how banks apply it. They consist of business rules and technical implementation guidelines and are published by SIX. The messages your bank uses to report on your account start with "camt" - short for Cash Management. They are XML files: hard for people to read, but unambiguous for software.

Message	Name	What it's for
camt.052	Account report (Bank-to-Customer Account Report)	Transactions during the day, e.g. hourly, including pending entries. Useful for tracking liquidity, but not for posting.
camt.053	Bank statement (Bank-to-Customer Statement)	The account statement with all booked transactions for a period, with opening and closing balance. This is the file for bookkeeping.
camt.054	Debit/credit notification (Bank-to-Customer Debit/Credit Notification)	Reports individual credits or debits and provides the details of a batch booking.

Not every bank offers all three messages. According to the implementation guidelines, camt.052 and camt.054 are not available everywhere. As an older alternative to camt.053, the guidelines mention the Swift MT940 format, which some programs still use.

How the reference on your QR-bill comes back

On the QR-bill, you choose one of three options. This determines what appears in the bank statement for the credit:

Your account	Reference on the invoice	What appears in the statement	Matching
QR-IBAN	QR reference (QRR): 27 digits, check digit at the end	The QR reference is always delivered, as a structured reference.	unambiguous
IBAN	Creditor Reference (SCOR): starts with "RF", per ISO 11649	The Creditor Reference, also structured.	unambiguous
IBAN	none (NON), message only	The unstructured message from the QR code as free text.	via the invoice number in the text, the amount or the name

According to the implementation guidelines for the QR-bill, the QR reference and the Creditor Reference exist precisely for automatic matching of your invoices with incoming payments. When your customer pays by scanning the QR code, her banking app copies the reference unchanged, so typos are ruled out. The message, on the other hand, is free text: people who enter a payment by hand often leave it out or type something else. So if you work without a reference, put the invoice number at the start of the message. Note that the "Billing information" part of the QR code is not passed on with the payment - whatever you put there won't show up in your bank statement.

Batch booking or individual booking?

Many banks book a day's QR payments as one batch credit: the statement then shows something like "Credit QR, 3 payments, CHF 4'350". For matching, though, you need each payment separately. The Swiss Payment Standards provide two ways:

Internal breakdown: The camt.053 lists every individual payment under the batch booking, with amount, reference and payer. One file is enough.
External breakdown: The camt.053 contains only the total. The individual payments are in a separate camt.054. In that case you need both files - and your software must not count the payments twice.

How your bank books payments - individually or as a batch, broken down internally or externally - depends on what it offers and on your settings. If in doubt, ask. For a small business, individual booking is the simplest: each payment is its own line in the statement, and camt.053 is all you need.

Where do you get the file?

Practically every Swiss e-banking service offers the account statement as a file. The menu item is named differently at each bank: "Account statement as XML", "ISO 20022", "camt.053" or "Export for accounting software". You'll usually find it under statements, documents or exports. At some banks, you have to activate or order the format once before it appears. If you can't find it, ask your bank for your account statement in camt.053 format. Important: the PDF statement is meant for people. Software can only read the XML file.

Automatic instead of manual download: EBICS and bLink

If you don't want to download a file every month, you can have your software and bank exchange the data automatically:

EBICS is, according to SIX, a "standardized, freely available internet-based communication protocol for the transmission of files", widely used for payment orders and account statements. For banks in Switzerland, EBICS is optional. You sign up with each bank separately; PostFinance, for example, has its own registration terms. Your software must support EBICS. PostFinance intends EBICS for business customers with many payment orders or daily reconciliation of accounts receivable and payable - or for smaller volumes if you want to automate your processes.
bLink is the open banking platform from SIX. Participating accounting programs use it to retrieve account and transaction data from participating banks. You authorize the data exchange in your bank's e-banking and can revoke the authorization at any time. Banks and software providers each sign a contract with SIX for this. So it only works if both your bank and your software participate.

For a small business with one account and a few dozen payments a month, downloading the file is usually all you need.

Easly doesn't offer a direct bank connection via EBICS or bLink, and none is planned for the near future. You upload the downloaded statement - or email it to your Easly mailbox, just like your receipts. Easly then imports it automatically and matches the payments, provided the sender is verified by DMARC.

Why reconciliation pays off

Open items: You can see at any time which invoices are still unpaid and how much money is still to come in. More on this in the article Cash flow under control: open items at a glance.
Reminders: Sending a payment reminder (Mahnung) to a customer who paid long ago is embarrassing. Only with up-to-date reconciliation do reminders go to the right people. More in the article From quote to paid invoice.
Bookkeeping: Every transaction on the account has to be posted - incoming payments, supplier invoices, salaries, social insurance, bank charges. The camt.053 always includes the opening and closing balance. If the bank account in your books matches the closing balance at the end of the month, nothing has been missed.
VAT: If you report VAT on the basis of received consideration (cash basis), the tax only arises when the payment comes in, under the Value Added Tax Act (Art. 40 VATA) - so the incoming payment directly determines your VAT return. If you report on the basis of agreed consideration (invoiced basis), the invoice is what counts. But even then, you must account for cash discounts and other deductions as reductions in consideration. More in the article VAT return step by step.

Common pitfalls

Partial payments: The customer pays CHF 1'000 toward an invoice of CHF 1'500. Match the payment; the invoice stays open for CHF 500. If the remainder is a cash discount, a goodwill reduction or an amount you're no longer going to collect, write it off as a sales deduction.
Duplicate payments and overpayments: The invoice has already been paid, and the money arrives a second time. Don't mark the invoice as "paid" again. Post the amount as a liability to the customer until you refund it or offset it against the next invoice.
Customer pays without a reference: For example by standing order, from a private account or with their own message. Then all you can do is compare the amount, name and date. If the amount fits two open invoices, it's better to ask.
Bank charges: Your bank may charge fees for cash deposits at a post office counter or for manual processing. It either deducts them directly from the credit or debits them separately later, for example at the end of the month. Account maintenance and e-banking fees are separate debits. Post them as bank charges, not as a sales deduction on the customer's invoice.
Foreign currency: On a EUR account, all amounts are in euros. If you keep your books in Swiss francs, you need the CHF equivalent at the exchange rate on the booking date. If a customer pays a CHF invoice in euros, the amount that arrives after conversion rarely matches the invoice exactly.
Returned payments: If a payment you initiated comes back - for example because the supplier's account no longer exists - the bank marks the credit as a return. It isn't a customer payment; it reverses your debit.

Example: a painting business with a batch credit

Lukas runs a painting business as a limited liability company (GmbH) and works with a QR-IBAN and QR reference. His camt.053 for March shows a batch credit of CHF 4'350 on March 14; the individual payments are in the corresponding camt.054:

CHF 1'200 with the QR reference of invoice 2026-041 for CHF 1'200 - an exact match, the invoice is paid.
CHF 2'500 with the QR reference of invoice 2026-043 for CHF 2'540 - the customer deducted a CHF 40 "cash discount" on her own, even though the discount period had passed. Lukas lets the CHF 40 go and writes it off as a sales deduction.
CHF 650 with the QR reference of invoice 2026-038 - which was already paid in February. A duplicate payment. Lukas posts the amount as a liability to the customer and transfers it back.

On top of that, the bank debits CHF 12 in account maintenance fees at the end of the month. He posts them to bank charges. After that, the bank account in his books matches the statement's closing balance.

The monthly routine in seven steps

Download the statement: The camt.053 for the past month - and, for batch bookings with external breakdown, the camt.054 as well. It's better to download a bit too much than too little, for example the last 60 days - as long as your software detects duplicates.
Import: Load the file into your accounting or invoicing software.
Check automatic matches: Take a quick look at which invoices were marked as paid.
Sort out unmatched credits: Match partial payments, cash discounts, duplicate payments and payments without a reference, or post them to a suitable account.
Match debits: Every debit needs a supporting document - supplier invoice, payslip, premium invoice. Request missing documents now, not at year-end closing.
Reconcile the balance: The bank account in your books must show the statement's closing balance. If there's a difference, a transaction is usually missing or has been posted twice.
Follow up on open items: Send a reminder for anything that is still open and due. Before your VAT return, also check the quarter's sales deductions.

How it works in Easly

Under "Bank & accounting > Bank import", you upload the bank statement, and Easly matches the payments to your invoices:

Upload the file: camt.053 and camt.054 as XML, or as a ZIP if your bank provides zipped files. Easly doesn't connect to your bank and can't initiate payments.
Or by email: Send the file to the same mailbox as your receipts. Easly recognizes the bank statement and imports it - but only from senders on your whitelist. Because a bank statement marks invoices as "paid", Easly only matches payments automatically if the sender is verifiably genuine (DMARC passed); otherwise you confirm them in the bank import.
No duplicates: Transactions that have already been imported are detected and skipped - so you can upload overlapping periods. If you upload the camt.054 for a batch credit, Easly doesn't count the payments twice.
Automatic only when it's unambiguous: The payment carries the QR reference or Creditor Reference of an invoice that was sent by post or email - or, for invoices without a reference, the invoice number in the message - and the amount exactly matches the open amount, including the reminder fee of a reminder that was sent. Then the invoice is marked as paid, with the bank's booking date, and any reminders for it are dropped.
Suggestions for everything else: You confirm partial payments as a suggestion, and the invoice stays open for the rest. You close out the remainder from a cash discount or deducted fees with "Write off remainder" as a sales deduction. For debits, Easly suggests matching expenses and salary payments.
Already paid: If you've already marked an invoice as paid by hand, Easly just links the payment and leaves the invoice unchanged. Easly doesn't match duplicate payments or overpayments - you post those to an offset account.
Foreign currency: Easly converts transactions on a EUR or USD account into Swiss francs at the daily VAT exchange rate of the Federal Tax Administration FTA (ESTV) and posts them at that equivalent. Your accountant (Treuhand) posts exchange differences at year-end.
Offset accounts: With double-entry bookkeeping, you post other transactions directly to an account, such as bank charges, AHV compensation office, VAT or private withdrawals. Easly remembers the account for each counterparty and suggests it the next time. Without double-entry bookkeeping, you mark such transactions as done.

Good to know: you can also see partial payments on the invoice itself. Reminders only ask for the remaining amount, and the customer's account statement shows the invoice as "Partially paid".

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between camt.053 and camt.054?

The camt.053 is the bank statement: all booked transactions for a period, with opening and closing balance. The camt.054 is a debit or credit notification. It reports individual transactions and provides the details of a batch booking if the bank statement only contains the total. For bookkeeping, you need the camt.053 - and for batch bookings with external breakdown, the camt.054 as well.

Do I need a QR-IBAN for automatic matching?

No. The Creditor Reference, which you use with your regular IBAN, is also a structured reference designed for automatic matching. Only if there's no reference at all do you have to rely on the message - and the payer can change that.

Can I import the PDF bank statement instead?

No. The PDF is meant for people and for your records. Software needs the XML file in ISO 20022 format, i.e. the camt.053. If your e-banking doesn't offer it, ask your bank whether you can activate or order it.

How often should I reconcile my bank statement?

Once a month is enough for most small businesses. It's worth doing an extra reconciliation before you send out reminders, so that no customer who has already paid gets one.

Does Easly fetch bank statements directly from the bank?

No. Easly has no connection to your bank - neither via EBICS nor via bLink - and can't initiate payments. You download the camt.053 in e-banking and upload it to Easly. The data stays in your Easly instance.

Information as of: see above. Sources: Swiss Payment Standards from SIX, with the ISO 20022 overview and the Implementation Guidelines Cash Management (customer-bank messages, version 2.2, valid since November 2025; version 2.3 applies from November 14, 2026), Implementation Guidelines QR-bill (version 2.3; version 2.4 applies from November 14, 2026), EBICS at SIX, PostFinance technical business channels, bLink and the SIX press release on bLink, Value Added Tax Act (Art. 39 and 40 VATA). Which messages, booking types and channels your bank offers varies - your bank's information is authoritative. This article is not a substitute for advice from your bank or accountant.