Structured addresses:the November 2026 deadline.

Which dates really apply

Several changes run in parallel in Swiss payments, and the banks communicate different cut-off dates. The SIX business rules are the reference: payment orders with an unstructured address can only be processed up to the SIC release of 20 November 2026.^[1] bexio and Abacus put it the same way and speak of an execution date after 20 November 2026.^{[4, 12]} Some banks draw the line earlier for payment files: UBS and Zurich Cantonal Bank name 14 November 2026.^{[7, 8]}

Status of the sources cited: 18.09.2026.

What makes an address structured

In an unstructured address several details share one line, usually street and house number or postcode and town.^[4] In a structured address every detail has its own field. For Switzerland and Liechtenstein SIX recommends five elements: street name, building number, post code, town name and country.^[1] The minimum requirement covers name, town and country; the complete variant with street, house number and postcode is the recommended one.^{[2, 7]}

An example: the line «Bahnhofstrasse 12a, 8001 Zurich» becomes five separate details, namely Bahnhofstrasse, 12a, 8001, Zurich and CH. The same principle applies to a PO box, which belongs in the street field rather than in a free additional line.

Where the address falls apart in the online shop

Shops are built for international addresses, not for Swiss payment traffic. Shopify stores the address in the fields address1 and address2, where address1 usually holds street and house number together and address2 is meant for additions such as apartment or floor.^[13] WooCommerce uses the same split into two address lines. In both cases the house number is not a field of its own and often not even required.

The gap therefore appears at the checkout, not in accounting. Anyone transferring the order into accounting afterwards carries the untidy address along. There are three ways to solve it:

• An extra field at the checkout: the house number is asked for separately. Clean, but every additional required field costs conversions.
• Splitting during transfer: the automation breaks the address line apart when handing it to accounting and puts doubtful cases on a review list.
• Cleaning up afterwards: a one-off exercise for the existing data, which does nothing for new orders.

In practice, splitting during transfer plus a list for exceptions is the calmest route, because the checkout stays as it is.

What to do in bexio

Since July 2025 bexio stores contacts, employees and bank accounts in structured form, and since October 2025 the company profile as well.^{[4, 5, 6]} New addresses are therefore created correctly. The work sits in the existing data.

1. Check the bank account: if the address of your own account is unstructured, payments from your customers to you can get stuck in the stricter checks.^[5]
2. Check the company profile: the same logic applies to the address your own invoices are issued with.^[4]
3. Clean up contacts: bexio finds unstructured addresses in existing contacts and proposes how to split them. For large volumes bexio offers two paid migration services, for up to 1000 and for up to 5000 addresses.^[4]
4. Check employees: in payroll, unstructured addresses put salary payments at risk.^[4]

What an automation takes over

The bexio API covers contacts, additional addresses, documents and payments, so the whole path from shop to entry can be mapped.^[14] For the address topic an automation takes on three jobs:

• Splitting: the address line from the shop is broken into street, house number, postcode, town and country before the contact is created in bexio.
• Checking: if the house number is missing or the pattern does not fit, the record does not pass blindly, it goes onto an exception list.
• Catching up: existing contacts are checked in the background and corrected where the split is unambiguous.

The side effect is bigger than the deadline: clean address fields also improve shipping labels, mail merges and reports by region.

Checklist until the end of October 2026

1. Measure the data: how many contacts have no separate house number or no country code?
2. Your own details first: structure the bank account and the company profile, then the contacts.
3. Close the source: either introduce a separate field for the house number in the shop or build the split into the transfer.
4. Define exceptions: decide what happens with PO boxes, company addresses with an extra line and foreign addresses.
5. Test run: create a handful of invoices and trigger one payment before the date gets close.
6. Set a date: finish the clean-up by the end of October 2026, so that differing bank deadlines do not matter.

Frequently asked questions