January 20, 2025 by Sarah
Pay bills with GiroCode
In order to simplify the payment of invoices for the invoice recipient, many companies and online retailers print so-called GiroCodes on their invoices. The same applies to charitable organizations that use GiroCodes for donations. How exactly this works is explained in the following article.
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What is a GiroCode?
The GiroCode is a standardized QR code that was specially developed for the SEPA direct debit scheme. The 2D barcode contains all relevant payment data, such as:
- Recipient name
- IBAN und BIC of recipient
- Payment reference
- Payment amount
By scanning the QR code with a banking app, payment can be made without manually entering data. The prerequisite for paying by GiroCode is that the banking app has a QR reader.
How does GiroCode work?
In just three simple steps, you can pay your bill quickly using GiroCode:
- Scan the qr code: Open your banking app and select the function for scanning a GiroCode to scan the QR code on the invoice.
- Check payment data: After scanning the GiroCode, the payment details are automatically transferred to the transfer form.
- Confirm payment: Check the transferred data and confirm the payment. This will debit the amount from your account and transfer it to the recipient.
The history of GiroCode
The GiroCode is based on the so-called EPC QR Code (European Payments Council QR Code), which was introduced in 2013.
The aim was to create a uniform format for QR codes in the SEPA area in order to simplify cross-border payments and minimize errors. The EPC QR Code serves as the basis for the GiroCode, which was specially tailored to the requirements in Germany. This standardization makes it possible for the GiroCode to be recognized and processed by most banking apps.
Advantages of GiroCode
The use of GiroCode offers advantages for invoice recipients and companies:
- Time saving: There is no need to enter payment details manually, which makes the transfer faster.
- Error reduction: Typing errors in IBAN or purpose are avoided as the data is transferred directly.
- Convenience: The GiroCode can be used with most banking apps, provided they have an integrated GiroCode scanner.
Conclusion on paying with GiroCode
The GiroCode is an efficient solution for paying bills with a QR code. It saves time, reduces errors and simplifies the payment process. GiroCode is an important tool for convenient and cashless payment transactions.
In this context, the function of the Photo Payment is worth mentioning. Photo Payment is integrated into some banking apps and also aims to simplify bill payments. A paper invoice is scanned and, thanks to text recognition, the relevant invoice data is recognized and transferred to a payment form.
While the relevant payment data such as the payee, IBAN, purpose and amount are encoded with the GiroCode, all data contained on the invoice can be read out with the photo payment. If this is done by providers who use a server-based solution to read out the data, sensitive invoice data such as addresses or invoice items are read out, allowing conclusions to be drawn about private life. However, this data is not relevant for the payment of the invoice itself.
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Photo Payment with the Docutain Photo Payment SDK
With the Docutain Photo Payment SDK invoice data is recognized 100% locally on the user's device. Unlike other solutions, invoice data is not transferred to external servers. Customers can be sure that their invoice data is not stored externally or used to train models.
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