EPC QR Codes

For: business owners who invoice in EUR and want faster payments.

What it is

EPC stands for European Payments Council. An EPC QR code is a standardized square barcode that encodes a SEPA payment instruction: who to pay, how much, and what reference to use.

When your customer scans the QR code with their banking app, the payment form fills in with your IBAN, the invoice amount, and the invoice number. The customer confirms and the money moves. No typing, no copy-paste errors.

How it works in InvoiceScript

InvoiceScript adds an EPC QR code to invoice PDFs when two conditions are met:

1. The invoice currency is EUR.
2. The invoice has a bank account with an IBAN on file.

No configuration beyond setting up your EUR bank account is needed. The QR code appears on the PDF near the payment instructions.

The QR code encodes:

• Your IBAN
• Your account holder name
• The invoice amount
• The invoice number as the payment reference

Which banks support it

EPC QR codes work with banking apps in the SEPA zone. This covers the EU, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Vatican City.

Major banks with confirmed support include ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, KBC, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Sparkasse, Commerzbank, and Credit Suisse. Most European banking apps released or updated after 2020 support EPC QR scanning.

What it does not do

The EPC QR code prefills a payment form. It does not initiate a payment, charge a card, or transfer money. The customer still needs to confirm the transaction in their banking app.

InvoiceScript does not track whether the QR code was scanned. It does not know whether the customer paid via QR or by typing the details manually. You record the payment when you see it arrive in your bank account.

The QR code only works for EUR payments via SEPA. For invoices in other currencies (USD, GBP, AUD), no QR code is added.

Worked example

Mira Holst at Northwind Studio sends invoice NW-2026-0006 to Globex GmbH in Berlin. The invoice total is €4,830.00 incl. VAT. The PDF includes an EPC QR code in the payment section.

Klaus Schneider at Globex opens the PDF on his phone, scans the QR code with his Deutsche Bank app, sees the prefilled transfer form (IBAN, €4,830.00, reference NW-2026-0006), taps confirm, and the payment goes out. Mira sees it in her bank account the next business day and records it in InvoiceScript.

Related pages

• Set Up Bank Accounts
• Create and Send an Invoice