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Separate invoicing software, or use the accounting package?

Almost every accounting solution also writes invoices. The question is therefore not whether you need separate invoicing, but when.

Published
Data as of
August 2026
Reading time
3 minutes

The essentials

  1. If your accounting solution invoices, you generally do not need a second program. Every seam between two programs is a place where figures drift apart.
  2. A separate solution pays off on four points: with many recurring invoices, when several people should invoice without access to the accounts, when invoicing on the move, and when an upstream system such as a till or an online shop produces the invoices.
  3. The comparison covers 21 standalone invoicing solutions. 10 state a price, in the middle CHF 25.– a month; 6 have a permanently free tier. As of July 2026.
  4. Whoever separates needs a connection: 16 of the 21 solutions offer an open interface. Without one, somebody retypes the invoices into the accounts.
Rather filter for yourself? All 21 solutions with 14 criteria in one table Filter by profile and features, set a budget, read the columns side by side. This article gives the bearings — the table is the tool. To the comparison table

Why separating is usually extra work

An invoice is the beginning of a journal entry. Where invoicing and accounting sit in the same program, the entry arises with the invoice; where they are separate, it has to be transferred — automatically through an interface or by hand.

Then there is the open item. Which invoice is paid is known to the accounting side, because it reads the bank statement. With separate systems one knows and the other chases, and the reconciliation between them is the work nobody plans for.

Hence the order: first check what your accounting solution invoices. If it is enough, the question is answered.

Four cases where a separate solution pays off

Any single one is enough. If none applies, you save yourself a program.

  1. Many recurring invoices

    Subscriptions, maintenance contracts, rents. Whoever issues the same thirty invoices every month saves more time with a solution that holds them as a series than with anything else — and accounting solutions are rarely strong at it.

  2. Several people invoice

    If sales should issue invoices without seeing the accounts, separation is not a detour but the reason. A second login to the accounts would be the worse solution.

  3. Invoicing on the move

    An invoice on the building site or at the customer, right after the work. 12 of the 21 solutions have a mobile app; among accounting solutions that is the exception.

  4. An upstream system produces the invoices

    Till, online shop, time tracking or project software. The invoice then arises outside the accounts anyway, and the only remaining question is which system writes it. 16 of the 21 solutions offer an open interface.

Which invoicing solutions for which case

Grouped by the characteristics that decide the four cases above.

Fit for a sole proprietorship 14

Recorded fit of at least 2 out of 3.

Atlanto, Banana Buchhaltung Plus, bexio, CashCtrl, Comatic, Crésus, KLARA, Magic Heidi, Milkee, Pfeffersack, shakehands Kontor, smallinvoice, Swiss21, WinBIZ

With a permanently free tier 6

For a few invoices a month, often enough.

Banana Buchhaltung Plus, CashCtrl, Magic Heidi, Odoo, smallinvoice, Swiss21

With an open interface 16

The precondition where an upstream system produces the invoices or the accounts have to take them over.

Abacus, Atlanto, bexio, blue office, CashCtrl, Comatic, Crésus, Infoniqa ONE 50, KLARA, myfactory, Odoo, PROFFIX Px5, SelectLine, smallinvoice, Swiss21, WinBIZ

Browser only 10

Atlanto, bexio, CashCtrl, KLARA, Magic Heidi, Milkee, myfactory, Pfeffersack, smallinvoice, Swiss21

Frequently asked questions

What does separate invoicing software cost?

10 of the 21 solutions compared publish a price, in the middle CHF 25.– a month, the highest published at CHF 64.–, excluding VAT, as of July 2026. 6 have a permanently free tier.

Can I run both in parallel?

Technically yes, sensibly rarely. Two systems that both write invoices produce two number series and two open-item lists. If you separate, separate cleanly: one writes, the other books.

Is invoicing enough without accounting?

For issuing invoices yes, for the duty to keep books no. Whoever only invoices has to keep the records elsewhere — and the ten-year retention duty applies to the invoice as an accounting document.

Where the figures come from

Figures on the survey
Own survey, as of July 2026. Every figure in the text is calculated when the page is built.
Legal information
Code of Obligations, Article 958f on retention. This post is orientation, not legal advice.

The 21 standalone invoicing solutions appear with all 14 criteria in the comparison table.

All 21 providers in the comparison table: Invoicing

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