A pain.001 payment file lets you pay supplier invoices together instead of typing each into e-banking. Your bank imports the run’s payments for confirmation, saving time and avoiding transcription errors. However, wrong IBANs, duplicate payments and missing approvals are harder to spot in batches. This guide explains the format, bank checks, approval and dual control.
What pain.001 means
“pain” means “payments initiation”, part of ISO 20022, alongside the camt statements covered in Bank reconciliation with camt files. SIX Implementation Guidelines section 2.1 defines pain.001, “Customer Credit Transfer Initiation”, for electronically submitting credit-transfer orders to banks. Software generates XML; you upload it in e-banking. The bank replies with pain.002, a status report.
The Swiss Payment Standards (SPS) are updated annually: published in February, effective November. SPS 2025 version 2.2 currently applies, since 22 November 2025; SPS 2026 version 2.3 applies from 14 November 2026. Both use pain.001.001.09. SIX says Swiss banks support the current and previous versions. Older pain.001.001.03 remains supported until November 2026 but is unsuitable for new implementations. With an unstructured address, its execution date must precede 14 November 2026. Ask your software provider which version it produces.
File structure and bank checks
A pain.001 file has three levels (sections 2.1, 4):
- Header (A): exactly once; message identifier, creation time, payment count, control sum and sender.
- Payment group (B): debit account and requested execution date. Each currency has its own group. The standard recommends batch booking: one bank debit per group.
- Transaction (C): amount, recipient/address, IBAN, reference and end-to-end identifier.
Swiss banks check strictly:
- Schema: malformed messages are rejected (section 3.6). Software should validate before submission.
- Count/control sum: discrepancies reject the entire message (section 4.1). Maximum 99’999 payments, possibly fewer by bank.
- Characters: UTF-8 without byte-order mark; only a subset is allowed, otherwise rejection (section 3.1). References have stricter limits (section 3.2).
- Duplicate file: checked at least at message level. Most banks check the unique message identifier for at least 90 days (section 3.8). This catches the same file, not an invoice in two different files.
- Execution date: banks may move it to the next banking day, reporting this as information, not rejection. Dates too far ahead or past are rejected (pain.002, section 3.2.4).
Account and destination determine four payment types (section 3.15):
| Type | Purpose | Currency |
|---|---|---|
| D | Domestic: Swiss or Liechtenstein account | CHF; EUR only until November 2027 |
| S | SEPA payment | EUR |
| X | Domestic foreign-currency and international payments | Depending on case |
| C | Bank cheque or Postcash | All |
Accounts, references and addresses
Your debit account must use an ordinary IBAN, not a QR-IBAN (section 4.2). QR-IBANs belong on QR-bill recipients’ side.
Copy the supplier reference unchanged (section 3.14.2):
- QR-reference: 26 digits plus check digit; must accompany a QR-IBAN, exclusively.
- Creditor Reference (ISO 11649): starts “RF”, check digits in positions three/four, maximum 25 characters. Do not alter it.
- No structured reference: message up to 140 characters, such as invoice number.
QR-bill data suffices to initiate payment: annex B maps Swiss QR Code data to pain.001 (section 3.16). See Create a QR-bill.
Assign your own end-to-end identifier. Usually passed unchanged to the recipient (section 3.14.2), it links payments to bank statements.
Recipient addresses can be structured or hybrid since November 2025: street, number, postcode, town and country; town/country are mandatory (section 3.11). SEPA/international payments may be rejected if addresses breach destination-country rules.
After uploading
A pain.002 acknowledges receipt immediately; it explicitly does not confirm execution (status-report guidelines, section 3.1.1). ACCP means whole-file syntax and semantics accepted; PART means some payments accepted; RJCT means message or group rejected (section 3.1.2). A single-payment error stops only that payment (section 3.2). Execution appears in your statement.
Payment runs therefore depend on bank reconciliation: debits and end-to-end identifiers connect payments to invoices. Banks provide varying batch-booking detail; see Bank reconciliation with camt files.
Approval, dual control and duplicate payments
SPS governs file formats, not internal procedures. These practical rules are not statutory requirements:
- Separate duties: the person posting should not alone approve and initiate payment.
- Approve first: include checked invoices only; block disputed ones with reasons.
- Dual control above a threshold: two different people confirm above your chosen limit.
- One invoice, one payment: an invoice belongs to at most one open run. Message identifiers catch duplicate files, not invoices in different files.
- Keep evidence: retain files and approvals to show who initiated what. The invoice remains a supporting record; see Digitise incoming invoices.
Practical example: Lindenhof Metallbau AG
Fictional Lindenhof Metallbau AG has 15 employees and a CHF 5’000.00 dual-control threshold. On Tuesday, 3 November 2026, the managing director creates a run for invoices due by Friday, 6 November, with execution that banking day. Five invoices are available:
| Supplier | Invoice | Amount | Due | Reference | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stahlhandel Roth AG | 5512 | CHF 12’640.50 | Fri, 6.11. | QR-IBAN, QR-reference | Included; two approvals |
| Elektro Brandt AG | 8841 | CHF 2’318.20 | Fri, 6.11. | IBAN, Creditor Reference | Included |
| Hauswartung Dubach | 33 | CHF 480.00 | Thu, 5.11. | IBAN, no reference | Included |
| Druckerei Weber AG | 771 | CHF 960.00 | Wed, 4.11. | – | Blocked: wrong quantity; excluded |
| Werkzeug Nord GmbH | EUR invoice | EUR 1’900.00 | Fri, 6.11. | – | Foreign currency; paid directly in e-banking |
Roth exceeds the threshold: bookkeeper approves first, director second. Brandt and Dubach need one approval. Three payments total CHF 12’640.50 + CHF 2’318.20 + CHF 480.00 = CHF 15’438.70. As the total exceeds CHF 5’000.00, the bookkeeper creates the file, rather than its creator, the director.
Two groups contain one QR payment of CHF 12’640.50 and two domestic payments totalling CHF 2’798.20 (CHF 2’318.20 + CHF 480.00). Header count: 3; control sum: CHF 15’438.70. The bookkeeper uploads/confirms in e-banking. Debits appear on 6 November. Importing the statement marks the three invoices paid if the bank supplies individual batch details.
Checklist
- Debit account has ordinary IBAN, not QR-IBAN
- Software produces pain.001.001.09 under current SPS; schema validated before submission
- Only checked, approved invoices included; blocked ones excluded
- Dual-control limit defined; creator and approver differ
- Complete recipient IBAN, address, reference; QR-reference only with QR-IBAN, Creditor Reference only with ordinary IBAN
- Count and control sum match selection
- Execution on banking day, not too far past/future
- No invoice in two open runs
- pain.002 checked: accepted, partial or rejected?
- Statement imported after execution; invoices reconciled as paid
- File and approvals documented and retained
How KMU | base helps
KMU | base is also available in French, Italian and English.
Open Finance › Purchasing and expenses › Purchasing and bank, tab Approve and pay.
1. Bank account. Before creating a run, enter a valid ordinary company IBAN. A missing account prompts a link to bank-account maintenance; QR-IBANs are excluded.
2. Approve or block. Open supplier invoices shows supplier, document, due date, balance and approval. Expand document numbers for invoice date, amount, reference, coding, approval comment and original within the list. Approve or block with a reason. Settings defines whether approval is required and the second-person threshold.
3. Create run. In Payment run, choose Due by and execution date. Proposal lists eligible items for selection. Finance explains exclusions: unapproved, blocked, no IBAN, non-positive amount, not yet due or foreign currency. Runs currently take CHF invoices; pay other currencies directly in e-banking. Each invoice stays in at most one open run, including after file creation. Discard run releases a draft’s items.
4. Create file. Approve and create payment file generates pain.001. Above the threshold, someone other than the creator executes. Finance rechecks current approvals, blocks, amounts, addresses, IBANs and QR-references, naming suppliers with errors. CHF QR/domestic payments have separate blocks. Files are never generated twice, are archived and remain available via Download file. Items become “Payment prepared”. Upload the file yourself.
5. Rejection. Under Rejected by the bank or file never uploaded?, take back the run with a reason. Unpaid invoices reopen and need fresh approval; paid ones remain paid; everything is logged. If any item is already paid or changed, the entire reversal is refused to prevent partial resetting.
6. Paid status. Import camt.053/054: Finance recognises run payments by end-to-end identifier, posts against payables and marks items paid. The run shows “x of n paid”. This needs individual batch details in camt.054 or detailed camt.053; otherwise assign manually.
7. External files. Under Settings › Data exchange › Bank, upload pain.001. Finance checks format/originator account and shows count, total and date. A second person with approval rights must approve before download/transmission; discarding is possible.
Try the Demo or open a test account. Further steps are in the Finance | base guide. Questions? See the Contact page.
Sources
- SIX: Swiss Payment Standards, Swiss Implementation Guidelines for customer-to-bank credit transfers, Customer Credit Transfer Initiation (pain.001), SPS 2026 version 2.3, 20 February 2026, effective 14 November 2026, sections 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.6, 3.8, 3.11, 3.14–3.16, 4.1–4.3: PDF (in German), accessed 26.10.2026. Until 13 November 2026, SPS 2025 version 2.2 of 24 February 2025 applies, effective since 22 November 2025: PDF (in German), accessed 26.10.2026.
- SIX: Swiss Payment Standards, Swiss Implementation Guidelines for customer-to-bank status reports, Customer Payment Status Report (pain.002), SPS 2026 version 2.2, 20 February 2026, effective 14 November 2026, sections 3.1 and 3.2.4: PDF (in German), accessed 26.10.2026.
- SIX: ISO 20022 payment standards (in German), overview, current versions and pain.001.001.03 transition, accessed 26.10.2026.
This guide does not replace legal or tax advice. Information as at 26 October 2026.