Who can do your business accounting in Switzerland?

In Switzerland, you can do your business accounting yourself, employ someone to do it, use an accounting firm or share the work between them. There is no general requirement to hire an accounting firm: what matters is having the time and skills needed to meet the applicable rules.

Your choice depends on the work involved, your skills and the information you need during the year. Here is how to compare the options and organise a division of tasks that works in practice.

Doing your own accounting

This can suit a straightforward business if you understand the rules and set aside time regularly. You need to classify transactions, keep supporting documents, check balances and prepare the required returns. With double-entry bookkeeping, this includes understanding debits and credits.

Simplicity is not just about turnover. Overseas sales, payroll, stock or transactions between business partners may require specialist knowledge.

Start by checking whether you need simplified or double-entry bookkeeping. Arrange periodic checks on areas you know less well, rather than waiting for a query from the authorities.

Start with what actually causes you difficulty

Identify recurring accounting mistakes: they often reveal which tasks need better explanations, review or specialist help.

The right choice often depends less on business size than on the nature of the work. Ten monthly invoices, all in Swiss francs and with no employees, raise different questions from ten invoices involving deposits, foreign currencies, overseas transactions and services delivered over several months.

List what takes time and what concerns you. If you can organise the documents but are unsure how to account for them, you mainly need checks and advice. If documents go missing before they are entered, start with collection. Outsourcing disorganised accounting without fixing this step leaves much of the problem in place.

Your availability matters too. A system that works in January must also work during holidays, busy trading periods or an absence. Decide who handles payments and deadlines when the usual person is away.

Using software with proper checks

Invoicing, bank imports and document recognition save time. Software can also track outstanding invoices and produce reports.

It cannot always tell whether an expense is private, whether the VAT treatment is correct or whether a purchase should be recorded as a fixed asset. Settings and automated suggestions need checking.

When choosing business and accounting tools, check data and document exports, access management and collaboration with your accountant. Easy data entry should not lock you into a system from which you cannot retrieve your records.

Working with an accounting firm

Ask who will actually handle your account, what qualifications and experience they have in your industry, and whether the firm carries professional indemnity insurance.

An accounting firm can handle bookkeeping, payroll, VAT, year-end accounts and tax returns, depending on the engagement. It can also help you interpret the figures and prepare for deadlines.

Not everything is automatically included. Ask who collects documents, follows up customers, makes payments and how often accounts will be available. Preparing annual accounts is not the same as monitoring cash flow each month.

If you would like support, see our business accounting service. The scope should reflect your activities and the work you want to keep in-house.

Hiring someone in-house

An in-house accountant makes daily follow-up, communication with colleagues and detailed analysis easier. This may make sense when the volume and complexity justify a regular workload.

To decide, assess transaction volumes, payroll, reporting deadlines and the responsibilities you expect the person to take on. Employee numbers reflect only part of that workload.

Add employer social security contributions to gross salary, then include software, training, cover during absences and supervision. An in-house accountant can still work with an external firm on tax, year-end accounts or unusual transactions.

Sharing tasks between your team and an accounting firm

A common approach is to keep issuing invoices, collecting documents and tracking customer payments in-house, while outsourcing checks and technical work.

Put this division in writing and make sure everyone understands it. If two people each think the other is filing the VAT return, it may be missed even though both do their own work correctly.

Which approach fits your situation?

The best approach can change. Measure how quickly figures are produced, how much rework is needed and which errors recur before deciding to recruit or switch providers.

Asking the right questions when comparing quotes

Ask what is included, which transaction volumes the quote assumes, what costs extra and how quickly you can expect a response. Check experience with your legal structure and industry.

Agree reporting frequency, access to documents, handover of records if you leave and continuity of service. The lowest price does not always cover the same work.

Finally, distinguish bookkeeping from an audit. An accounting engagement does not replace a legally required audit. For a limited audit, Article 729 of the Code of Obligations allows the auditor to help with bookkeeping, but appropriate organisational and staffing measures are required where there is a risk of reviewing their own work. Have independence assessed before combining the two engagements.

Include the value of your time

Here is an illustrative comparison on an equivalent scope, including annual year-end costs spread over the year. The shared-service package includes software and the selected services; these figures are not Entreprendre.ch prices. Costs exclude VAT, assumed fully recoverable in this example. CHF 100 per hour is an opportunity cost for the owner’s time, not an additional cash payment.

Invoiced costs excluding VAT rise by CHF 300 here, while the economic cost falls by CHF 300. The benefit comes from the six hours freed up, provided they really have the assumed value. Check included services, volume limits, year-end accounts, VAT, payroll and exceptional charges before making a comparison.

Seven answers to get in the quote

1. How many invoices, bank accounts and employees are included?
2. How often will accounts and outstanding invoice lists be available?
3. Are annual accounts and tax returns included?
4. Who prepares VAT returns and payroll, who approves them and who submits them?
5. Which transactions cost extra, and how will you be told?
6. Can you retrieve entries, documents and balances in a usable format?
7. Who covers absences, and who receives urgent alerts?

Then compare quotes on the same scope. A lower monthly price may exclude year-end work that another quote already includes.

Agree how the work will run before signing

“The accounting firm handles everything” is too vague for day-to-day work. Write down the tasks and their frequency instead. Who issues invoices? Who approves expenses? Who follows up customers? When are documents sent, and when will accounts be available?

For a small company, one possible arrangement is to send supporting documents weekly, approve supplier invoices in-house and review balances with the provider each month. Adapt this example to your volumes and agreed scope.

Also specify what triggers additional work: a new employee, a new overseas activity, a software change or late delivery of documents. Ask how that work will be announced and billed. This lets you compare offers on a common basis instead of looking only at two headline packages.

Access to your data deserves the same attention: administrator accounts, archived documents, general ledger exports and return of records at the end of the engagement should be agreed from the outset. Documents covered by Article 958f CO must be kept for ten years from the end of the financial year. Changing providers does not shorten that period: arrange a readable, usable archive.

Changing accountants without losing continuity

A change of provider needs a clear handover date. If the former accountant handles transactions through 30 June and the new one starts on 1 July, specify who completes second-quarter work and submits the related returns. The filing deadline may fall after the engagement changes.

The handover file must let the new accountant continue the work, not simply read a balance sheet: include the general ledger, trial balance, outstanding invoices, supporting documents, fixed assets, payroll and returns as applicable. Add unresolved questions and upcoming deadlines.

Check three links together: opening balances in the new records, invoices still to collect or pay, and returns already submitted. In double-entry bookkeeping, a June invoice already recorded and paid in July must clear a transferred receivable or payable; its payment must not create a second sale or expense.

Finally, appoint someone to organise access and the return of data. Changing accounting firms can improve follow-up, but it still requires continuity in the records.

What management cannot delegate

Outsourcing data entry, returns or preparation of accounts does not transfer all management responsibilities. Articles 716a and 810 CO reserve the organisation of accounting, financial control and, where required for management, financial planning to the board of a limited company (SA/AG) and the managing directors of an LLC (Sàrl/GmbH). The service provider remains responsible for properly carrying out its engagement under Article 398 CO.

Set a timetable, identify the documents to provide, the approvals needed and the person who receives alerts. The accounting firm prepares and advises within its agreed scope; management must continue to read the accounts and make the decisions assigned to it.

Choose an approach you can maintain

A good division of work lets you understand the accounts without having to process every transaction yourself. It also makes responsibilities, deadlines and decisions needing your input visible.

To assess what you can keep in-house and what is better outsourced, share your document volumes and requirements with our accounting team. This provides a practical starting point for discussing support.

Sources and references

• SECO: doing accounting in-house, outsourcing it or combining both approaches
• Code of Obligations: financial reporting and approval, Article 958
• Code of Obligations: board duties, Article 716a
• Code of Obligations: duties of LLC managing directors, Article 810
• Code of Obligations: the agent’s liability, Article 398
• Code of Obligations: independence in a limited audit, Article 729
• Code of Obligations: retention of accounting records, Article 958f

References checked on 9 November 2026. Code of Obligations consulted in the version in force on 1 October 2026.